Facets

[jesus the mexican boi]

Thanks for the review, tryavna. I'm holding out for Susana and hope it's better.

[domino harvey]

I don't think I've ever seen smaller subtitles than on A Woman Without Love, they're even smaller than those found on the Luc Moullet set. The print is really bad during the first ~10 mins but it actually does improve as the film progresses. The disc automatically stops the DVD after the film finishes rather than taking you to the menu, I felt like it was 1997 all over again. As for the movie itself, it's fairly a mundane melodrama with visible thumb-twiddling from Bunuel. I'm glad a deep cut from his catalog is available, but if you're interested, rent it first.

[tryavna]

I don't think I've ever seen smaller subtitles than on A Woman Without Love, they're even smaller than those found on the Luc Moullet set. The print is really bad during the first ~10 mins but it actually does improve as the film progresses. The disc automatically stops the DVD after the film finishes rather than taking you to the menu, I felt like it was 1997 all over again. As for the movie itself, it's fairly a mundane melodrama with visible thumb-twiddling from Bunuel. I'm glad a deep cut from his catalog is available, but if you're interested, rent it first.

I finally watched it all the way through a couple of days ago, too, but forgot to post follow-up thoughts. Actually, that's pretty unnecessary now, since I'd agree with everything you've said about the A/V quality above. I still noticed a few instances of that weird digital noise I mentioned before, but they were confined to the first 10 minutes. All in all, it would be a fairly decent release if it didn't reek of cheapness (the small subs, the two incorrect timings on the back, etc.).

By the way, while I agree that it's minor Bunuel, I don't think it's as bad as its reputation would lead one to believe (i.e., Bunuel calling it his "worst" film). It becomes a bit more interesting if one views it as a trial-run for El and Wuthering Heights. Even without the typical Bunuel touches, it still strikes me as a more competent movie than Gran Casino, which seemed very slap-dash to me. But the real treats will surely be Susana and El Bruto.

[domino harvey]

Have you seen Susana before? It's mildly over-the-top, almost a parody of Bad Women melodramas... but it's not nearly camp enough to be taken lightly and not serious enough to be taken at face value. I was left cold by it, though it certainly has its share of fans. I'd rent it first unless you're fairly sure of what you're getting.

[tryavna]

Have you seen Susana before? It's mildly over-the-top, almost a parody of Bad Women melodramas... but it's not nearly camp enough to be taken lightly and not serious enough to be taken at face value. I was left cold by it, though it certainly has its share of fans. I'd rent it first unless you're fairly sure of what you're getting.

I've only seen bits and pieces of it, but they look pretty good. I guess the iconic moment of the film (at least the scene most frequently excerpted) is the one where "God" grants Susana her prayer to escape. That ought to be worth the price of admission -- especially if I can find it for around $11, like I did A Woman Without Love. (At the very least, I'm curious if it really does make for a good companion-piece to Renoir's Boudu, which I've always heard.)

Then again, I'm finding that being a Bunuel completist has only had one drawback: Gran Casino. I've found something worthwhile (and worth revisiting) in all the other Bunuels I've seen. Plus, after Susana, there'll only be about five more of his films left for me to see.

[kekid]

Did anyone receive Syberberg's "our Hitler" and can comment on the quality of the Facet's version?

[Scharphedin2]

Knights of the Teutonic Order was released recently by Facets. Does anyone own this, or know how their release looks (is it in the correct aspect ratio?)

[GringoTex]

Well, I guess I can answer my own question about A Woman Without Love, since I got it today.

Can you compare it to the El/Archibaldo dvds released by Films San Frontieras?

[tryavna]

Well, I guess I can answer my own question about A Woman Without Love, since I got it today.

Can you compare it to the El/Archibaldo dvds released by Films San Frontieras?

I'd say not quite as good in terms of the prints used, but I don't think it's a big step down in quality overall, especially once you get past the first reel, as Domino pointed out above. (Were the FsF releases NTSC->PAL ports? It's been a while since I viewed them.) The big difference, of course, is between A Woman Without Love and Lionsgate's Gran Casino. Don't expect Woman to look anywhere nearly as good as Gran Casino does.

By the way, DVD Savant just posted a review of A Woman Without Love.

Also, El Bruto was released on Tuesday. Any word on that one yet?

[thethirdman]

Did anyone receive Syberberg's "our Hitler" and can comment on the quality of the Facet's version?

Several sites, including Facets, are indicating that Our Hitler's new release date is 11/27/07.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

The quality of Our Hitler better be good considering the price. I like the quote from Sontag on the front - that one will surely get the copies moving!

[MichaelB]

I've just ordered the three VláÄ

[miless]

is Sátántangó ever coming out?

[jsteffe]

is Sátántangó ever coming out?

Who knows? Facets' website says "release date to be announced." But in the meantime, there's that perfectly good UK PAL Region 2 edition from Artificial Eye, and it's not very expensive. Xploited Cinema sells it for $49.95.

[the dancing kid]

I rented the Facets disc of Zulawski's Diabel recently. The transfer is a bit murky but the level of detail was better than I was expecting based on what I read about their edition of The Silver Globe. The subtitles were unfortunately rather poor. Some of the translations were a little questionable and there were a lot of typos. It was communicated what was going on, but I would have preferred something more accurate (and better proofread). The film itself is weird as hell. I recommend the movie, but I wish it was available in a better edition. The Facets is good enough for a rental but I don't know if I would want to drop the cash on it.

[Steven H]

Jerzy Kawalerowicz's Death of the President (1978) coming from FACETS in January 08. In an interview with Kinoeye, Jerzy had this to say about Death of the President:

Śmierć Prezydenta is a very typical political film. It is based on very precise and accurate documentation of political events [the election and assassination of the first president of Poland, the atheist and non-political Gabriel Narutowicz, in 1922]. In the dialogue, we even copied what people said in real life. So the history is shown day by day, exactly as it was.

The film is about the mechanisms of government. What can political fanaticism do? It can lead to crime. Niewiadomski, who kills the President, even says that he doesn't really care about the President. He wanted to kill the idea of the President. And that is sick.

Kennedy and Allende were both killed around that time [in which the film was made], and with this film we explored a similar political crime in Polish history. This was the first time that a leader was killed in Polish history. In Poland, these sorts of crimes never happen, as they do so frequently in, say, England. No one ever murdered a king in Poland. This was the first time. And the film was very against political fanaticism. In some ways I think it's very relevant today.

It sounds very much up my alley.

[MichaelB]

I've just watched The White Dove, which I'll grudgingly award a yellow - it's pretty poor, but not as abysmal as, say, Black Peter or Pearls of the Deep.

The source print is actually in pretty decent condition, and the burned-in subtitles are only slightly late - and in any case the dialogue is so sparse that this is less of an issue than it otherwise might be. The biggest problem is that it looks as though it was taped off the TV onto VHS via an unamplified indoor aerial - either that or an ill-advised attempt at edge enhancement has produced the effect of pronounced ghosting. If you've seen Second Run's Romeo, Juliet and Darkness, it's a notch below that, but only just.

Sadly, the film's probably too obscure to merit a high-quality transfer anywhere other than the Czech Republic - but it badly needs one: on the evidence of this and Marketa Lazarová, FrantiÅ¡ek VláÄ

[bunuelian]

(Were the FsF releases NTSC->PAL ports? It's been a while since I viewed them.)

Unless I'm very mistaken, I don't believe the El/Archie disc is a port. The image quality is pretty good, especially when compared to, i.e. the Mexican Nazarin disc.

I could be wrong, though, since I've not watched either film in quite a long time, and my last viewing was on a very, very cheap tv.

[MichaelB]

I'll report back in more detail once I've watched the whole thing, but my interim verdict on Valley of the Bees is that it's... OK.

I suppose by Facets standards it just edges into the "green" category, and it's certainly significantly better than The White Dove, offering an anamorphic transfer from a well-preserved print, but the demerits include:

1. Interlaced transfer;
2. Very soft image (the credits are noticeably blurred);
3. Horrible yellow non-removable subtitles in the usual ugly typeface.

It's certainly noticeably inferior to Second Run's Marketa Lazarová - which is a shame, as the source print appears to be in very similar condition.

UPDATE: I've now watched the whole thing, and my comments still stand - with the additional caveat that the subtitles are typically a beat behind the actual line being translated. This isn't as big a deal as it is on some Facets titles, though, as conversation is pretty sparse.

[planetjake]

IS this the closest we've been to Hitler: A Film From Germany without it being delayed? Anyone out there have a copy yet?

[jsteffe]

IS this the closest we've been to Hitler: A Film From Germany without it being delayed? Anyone out there have a copy yet?

I received a review copy from Facets. I'm not sure if they'll be repackaging it in any way, but it's the exact same NTSC English subtitled edition that Syberberg offers on his website (www.syberberg.de). He also offers an English subtitled edition of "Winifred Wagner," though that appears to be in PAL.

With out going into too much detail (I still owe Turner Classic Movies a review), I'll just say that it has more detail than the BFI/Academy Video PAL videotape, but the colors are not as vivid and the NTSC encoding is not ideal. You have to keep in mind that this is produced by Syberberg himself, so don't expect the Criterion Collection.

Interestingly, the DVD set offers an all-German version as an option, or the version with a mix of English narration and electronic subtitles. So the English-friendly version is essentially configured like the print distributed earlier by the BFI.

[MichaelB]

Just watched Adelheid, which is an unambiguous yellow.

There's actually a paper slip in the box that reads:

Adelheid was transferred to video from the print in the Czech National Film Archive. Unfortunately, during a few scenes the color alters slightly and white spots or flecks are visible. This reflects the deterioration and damage in the original film print. We have tried to minimize and correct these imperfections to the extent possible (sic), but although this version of Adelheid represents the highest quality currently possible, a perfect digital version would require striking a new print from the film's negative, which was not available to us.

Actually, it's not too bad visually - it's clearly from an analogue tape source, but it's a distinct cut above The White Dove in terms of definition, and it's all perfectly watchable. The biggest problem, not acknowledged by the warning above, is that the subtitles are out of sync - again.

They're not quite as bad as Pearls of the Deep, but they're a good two or three seconds too late, which inevitably means that in conversational scenes each successive spoken line gets accompanied by the previous subtitle. You get used to it after a time (many scenes have little or no spoken content, which helps), but they really do need to fire the guy responsible for quality control, assuming there is one.

The fact that the subtitles are the same ugly, overlarge, yellow and non-removable monstrosities is another issue, though I'll happily put up with those indefinitely if Facets could only sort out the damn sync problems. And I did get an unexpected belly laugh from the scene where a burly army officer asks, at least according to the subtitles, if he can remove his blouse (actually his jacket).

[kekid]

IS this the closest we've been to Hitler: A Film From Germany without it being delayed? Anyone out there have a copy yet?

Release date changed to 11 December by Amazon.com.
Facets live in the Yogi Berra world: "It aint done till its done."

[What A Disgrace]

Beaver says its gold. Well, maybe not gold, but progressive and such.

[url=ttp://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews34/our_hitler.htm]Beaver Review[/url]

[Caligula]

Beaver says its gold. Well, maybe not gold, but progressive and such.

Beaver Review

The Beaver review, it must be said, is not of the Facets release, but of the German Filmgalerie 451 issue (with English subs).