Facets

[MichaelB]

I'm very happy to endorse Daisies' green status - my only complaint is that the white burned-in subtitles are occasionally hard to read against pale backgrounds, but they're aesthetically much more pleasing than the usual yellow horrors.

The print is in surprisingly good condition, the colours ring true, and all in all it was a very pleasant surprise. Even the extras aren't too bad - they're text-only, but include a biog of VÄ›ra Chytilová and documentation relating to her frequent battles with the Czech authorities.

[solent]

I agree with the views on DAISIES. It may be a basic transfer but the colours do show up well. I'd rather have the unenhanced white subs used here than the enhanced out-of-sync subs used currently. Comparing this DVD to the VHS of CAPRICIOUS SUMMER shows both films (including subs) to be of similar quality. I'm not sure if the DVD release of SUMMER is a transfer of this VHS version.

[jsteffe]

I'm very happy to endorse Daisies' green status - my only complaint is that the white burned-in subtitles are occasionally hard to read against pale backgrounds, but they're aesthetically much more pleasing than the usual yellow horrors.

The print is in surprisingly good condition, the colours ring true, and all in all it was a very pleasant surprise. Even the extras aren't too bad - they're text-only, but include a biog of VÄ›ra Chytilová and documentation relating to her frequent battles with the Czech authorities.

I second that endorsement--DAISIES is one of Facet's stronger releases. Nothing fancy, just a decent transfer of a clean theatrical print.

What has me mystified about Facets' other Czech DVDs is that the Czechs are obviously capable of putting out very good transfers, as their domestic releases show. Compare Facets' atrocious BLACK PETER with the Czech release. So how on earth does Facets obtain their transfers? From a former FAMU student's VHS collection? Do they bribe the night watchman at the National Film Archive?

The moment of epiphany for me was when I saw the Facets DVD of THE JOKE. It became immediately apparent that they had mastered it from a VHS with... tracking problems. Please--you can buy better-looking bootlegs from Video Search of Miami.

[MichaelB]

What has me mystified about Facets' other Czech DVDs is that the Czechs are obviously capable of putting out very good transfers, as their domestic releases show. Compare Facets' atrocious BLACK PETER with the Czech release. So how on earth does Facets obtain their transfers? From a former FAMU student's VHS collection? Do they bribe the night watchman at the National Film Archive?

In my experience, Czech releases vary somewhat, with Filmexport Home Video offering the most consistently good transfers. Not coincidentally, I believe they're heavily subsidised and have strong links to the National Film Archive. The other labels are much more variable - Bonton/Centrum ÄŒeského Videa range from pretty good to shockingly poor, and they handle more 1960s/70s/80s titles than Filmexport.

That said, I've yet to see a disc even from that source that's as bad as a typical Facets effort. Even My Sweet Little Village, which has a pretty ropey picture, is generally watchable - and although the subtitles inadvertently switched to Czech for two lines at one point, they were at least properly in sync, which is my single biggest bugbear with Facets.

I strongly suspect from circumstantial evidence (the subtitlers are credited to a woman with a Czech name) that Facets' subtitles are applied at the Czech end, and they either don't check or don't mind the appalling synchronisation. Certainly, I'd have rejected them out of hand (and at the time of negotiation would have insisted on a clause in the rights licensing contract that would permit me to do this in the event of sub-par materials), but then again I once insisted on adjusting a subtitle in the BFI's Å vankmajer set by just five frames!

The moment of epiphany for me was when I saw the Facets DVD of THE JOKE. It became immediately apparent that they had mastered it from a VHS with... tracking problems. Please--you can buy better-looking bootlegs from Video Search of Miami.

Yes, I completely agree - this is a shockingly poor transfer (the title is all too appropriate), and I strongly suspect the long-play VHS recording of the 1991 Channel 4 broadcast that's somewhere in my parents' attic may be at least as good, if not superior. For starters, the subtitles were presumably in sync!

I do have a lot of sympathy for people handling Eastern European films - my own experience has taught me what a nightmare it is getting hold of decent materials. Even if the contract has the escape clause I mentioned above, in practice this is rarely invoked because money (and in some cases a lot of money) has already been spent and might have to be written off if there's no superior alternative.

On the BFI's Å vankmajer project, I did end up rejecting one master outright - but fortunately it was of a film that the BFI had already handled theatrically, and one of the 35mm prints in the vaults turned out to be virtually pristine, so I got that telecined instead (even more fortunately, it had no spoken content, so burned-in subtitles weren't an issue). But if I hadn't had that as a fall-back option, I'm not sure what I'd have done!

[jsteffe]

I strongly suspect from circumstantial evidence (the subtitlers are credited to a woman with a Czech name) that Facets' subtitles are applied at the Czech end, and they either don't check or don't mind the appalling synchronisation. Certainly, I'd have rejected them out of hand (and at the time of negotiation would have insisted on a clause in the rights licensing contract that would permit me to do this in the event of sub-par materials), but then again I once insisted on adjusting a subtitle in the BFI's Å vankmajer set by just five frames!

I have a completely unsubstantiated theory about this: they may have purchased the transfers well before they ever planned to put them on DVD, or they simply failed to understand the possibilities opened up by using a switchable subtitle stream. You get the sense that the folks authoring Facets' home-grown DVDs don't know much about the technical aspects of the DVD format.

If I were in their shoes, I would hire someone in the Czech Republic to write a very basic subtitle script with the in and out point frame counts and the translated lines. Once you have that as a text file, you can easily import it into a professional (but not necessarily expensive!) DVD authoring program and tweak the entry/exit point timings, optimize the line breaks, experiment with fonts, etc. It actually doesn't require very much technical knowledge at all, just a bit of patience and care.

The most time-consuming and expensive part of it--the translation and the first draft of entry/exit point notations--could still be handled overseas.

I do have a lot of sympathy for people handling Eastern European films - my own experience has taught me what a nightmare it is getting hold of decent materials. Even if the contract has the escape clause I mentioned above, in practice this is rarely invoked because money (and in some cases a lot of money) has already been spent and might have to be written off if there's no superior alternative.

On the BFI's Å vankmajer project, I did end up rejecting one master outright - but fortunately it was of a film that the BFI had already handled theatrically, and one of the 35mm prints in the vaults turned out to be virtually pristine, so I got that telecined instead (even more fortunately, it had no spoken content, so burned-in subtitles weren't an issue). But if I hadn't had that as a fall-back option, I'm not sure what I'd have done!

Well, you're unquestionably right. Eastern European films present an entirely different set of challenges, as we well know from the Second Run DVDs of THE PASSENGER and KNIGHTS OF THE TEUTONIC ORDER. And the economics of DVD distribution are such that few companies doing niche Eastern European titles can afford to be overly picky if they want to release the titles they care about and turn even a bare profit.

But there's a big difference between releasing a mediocre transfer of a rare but important film and releasing something that by any normal standard would be considered "defective." They still have to maintain the trust of their clientele. After getting burned too many times in the past, now I only buy a Facets DVD for my library after I read at least one review by a knowledgeable reviewer. If it doesn't get reviewed, I don't buy it unless a professor asks me to order it for a class.

[jbeall]

So Facets releases Vojtech Jasny's All My Good Countrymen this week... it being Facets and all, I can probably guess the answer to my own question, but does anybody have advance word on this release? Or will I have to take one for the team and get it from Netflix?

[MichaelB]

I might gamble, as it's such a key title - and it might be better than my old VHS LP recording from its one and only TV broadcast. Though that's not necessarily a given, as their The Joke lived up (or down) to its title.

On the other hand, Facets' disc of Jancso's Elektra turned up today, and it doesn't look too bad by their standards. It's clearly sourced from analogue tape, and the subtitles are fixed - but they are at least white (with a translucent grey backdrop) and appear to be properly synced. But I've only dipped into it thus far.

[jbeall]

I've added Countrymen to my Netflix queue. Who knows, perhaps Facets will finally get their act together.

EDIT: Now Netflix has it listed as a "very long wait," while amazon.com lists a 4/28 release date. Looks like there was probably some miscommunication...

[MichaelB]

I've just spotted this hilarious addendum to Jonathan Rosenbaum's latest DVD column:

Hi Jonathan,

I read your unkind, and I think inaccurate explanation of the delays in the release of Satantango which made it sound like Facets was trying to do Satantango on the cheap, and the results were not meeting Béla Tarr’s exacting standards.

In fact, as I think I told you in passing, the first master of Satantango supplied to us by Mokep, the sales agent, was a master that had been rejected by Béla Tarr. There was no way for us to know this beforehand. It required our scrapping the entire-already digitized project and starting all over with a new master. This master required new re-subtitling. It was also, as it turned out, not perfect and needed digital cleanup of scratches and small electronic glitches. In between each “pass” in this process, we sought Béla Tarr’s input, which always took considerable time—understanding his own production schedule with The Man from London. I don’t think that the $40,000 we have spent on this so far qualifies Facets as “scrimp(ing) on expenses when it comes to transfers.”

What makes this doubly painful is that our approach has been to make certain, at every turn, that the end result of Satantango most closely reflects the intent and wishes of Béla Tarr, the filmmaker. Your comments, intentional or not, only serve to undermine these efforts and the possibility that individuals who might not have seen Satantango will chance it when it the Facets edition is complete.

Best,
Milos Stehlik
Facets Multi-Media

And what was the comment that caused such outrage?

Some readers of this column have been asking me periodically if I know what’s been holding up Facets Video’s long-awaited DVD release of Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó (1994). Having asked Tarr himself about this at the Toronto film festival, I got an answer that isn’t at all surprising, given how exacting and uncompromising he is about every particular of his art: he’s been rejecting every transfer submitted to him for his inspection for not being good enough. Regular customers of Facets releases know that they tend to scrimp on expenses when it comes to transfers—the best ones on their label tend to be ones produced by others that they distribute—so let’s hope that this wait doesn’t prove to be indefinite.

Sorry, but I really don't see how the phrase "regular customers of Facets releases know that they tend to scrimp on expenses when it comes to transfers" can be in any way controversial. You know, what with it being supported by several tons of hard evidence and all.

Mind you, maybe they're spending so much time and money on Sátántangó that they can't help but cut corners elsewhere?

[jsteffe]

Sorry, but I really don't see how the phrase "regular customers of Facets releases know that they tend to scrimp on expenses when it comes to transfers" can be in any way controversial. You know, what with it being supported by several tons of hard evidence and all.

Mind you, maybe they're spending so much time and money on Sátántangó that they can't help but cut corners elsewhere?

I thought Rosenbaum's characterization of Facets was entirely fair. Also, his comment suggests to me that part of the difficulty may lie with Bela Tarr himself. I'm happy with my Artificial Eye set and have no plans to get another edition, but I hope that Facets gets to release it eventually and that they make all their money back. It would be nice for the film to rich the sizable US market.

That being said, any company that releases DVDs like the Facets THREE BROTHERS and CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLA ("It's bloody awful!") and still keeps them on the market after all these years deserves the occasional snide remark from film critics. If masses turn out to be afraid to buy a Facets DVD sight unseen, the Facets folks only have themselves to blame.

[MichaelB]

On the other hand, Facets' disc of Jancso's Elektra turned up today, and it doesn't look too bad by their standards. It's clearly sourced from analogue tape, and the subtitles are fixed - but they are at least white (with a translucent grey backdrop) and appear to be properly synced. But I've only dipped into it thus far.

...and now that I've watched it in full on a 43" CRT, shortly after Clavis' excellent transfer of Red Psalm, I have to say that it's actually pretty awful. I'm guessing it was originally mastered for a VHS release and simply slapped onto a DVD - and some pronounced image texturing plays havoc with a close-up of a woman in a veil.

Plus points are that the aspect ratio seems to be correct and the subtitles are in sync - though the mere fact that you have to mention this shows how poor Facets usually are! - but it's clear that there's plenty of scope for improvement. I'd love to see a decent 35mm version - or even a 35mm-sourced DVD transfer.

[Adam]

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).

That link was missing an "h" and wouldn't work - I just modified it, i hope.

I'm working with Filmgalerie 451 for a Heinz Emigholz film series that will be coming up in April. 451 has DVD versions of several of Emigholz's films now (Schindler's Houses, Goff in the Desert, Sullivan's Banks, etc) and Facets is the distributor in the USA, but they are still just the 451 editions. In other words, I bet there is no separate Facets edition; they are just distributing the DVD that is reviewed - maybe with a different cover

[pauling]

Adam, I recently saw the Emigholz film on Schindler's Houses at the Walker Art Center and it was fantastic. I've pre-ordered the dvd and actually bought Goff because of the strength of Schindler. Goff looks great and I was curious if 451 will be releasing any of the other films in this 25-part series.

[Adam]

Adam, I recently saw the Emigholz film on Schindler's Houses at the Walker Art Center and it was fantastic. I've pre-ordered the dvd and actually bought Goff because of the strength of Schindler. Goff looks great and I was curious if 451 will be releasing any of the other films in this 25-part series.

Yes, Sullivan's Banks, Maillart's Bridges, Basis of Make-Up I-III, Goff in the Desert, and D'Annunzio's Cave are out (I have them all from 451). I bet Miscellanea I-III will come out, but don't knwo when. Same with Loos Ornamental.

Almost all of these will be screening in Los Angeles the week of April 6-13 at various venues: Filmforum, REDCAT, UCLA Film & TV Archive, LACMA.

[gelich]

Add this to the evidence for Facets' scrimping on preparation of its releases. I've just received the three-disc set of 'Mexico, the Frozen Revolution: the Films of Raymundo Gleyzer'. The contet is most interesting, but unfortunately, the videos are unwatchable. Take the fuzziest, worst-quality VHS tape you've ever seen, and then imagine something several degrees lower in quality. That will give you some idea of the quality of this set. This is astonishingly bad quality control, especially at the not-cheap price.

[tavernier]

From Facets rep:

Satantango is coming in July.

This DVD will have tons of extras (including the Hungarian television version of Macbeth by Bela Tarr). Satantango has been restored extensively and this version was put together with the close cooperation of the director.

It is going to be a fantastic version of the film.

[domino harvey]

Watch Facets put the entire film plus extra on one disc. "It looks great in a 320X240 Windows Media Player!"

[kaujot]

Everytime I think about it, I get a little sick inside that Facets has the rights to Tarr's films.

[whaleallright]

...

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Satantango is coming in July.

This DVD will have tons of extras (including the Hungarian television version of Macbeth by Bela Tarr). Satantango has been restored extensively and this version was put together with the close cooperation of the director.

It is going to be a fantastic version of the film.

I read the inclusion of Macbeth as an admission that there is no reason anyone who already has the R2 would "upgrade" to the Facets release...unless it was to get a teunously-related feature by the same director that's otherwise unavailable on DVD. Well played.

[miless]

I read the inclusion of Macbeth as an admission that there is no reason anyone who already has the R2 would "upgrade" to the Facets release...unless it was to get a teunously-related feature by the same director that's otherwise unavailable on DVD. Well played.

maybe, too, they will include his short film Journey on the Plain.

does anyone here know the quality of Facet's DVD of Lisandro Alonso's Los Muertos? I'm intrigued by this title, but I was wondering if the DVD is of any worth.

[Cabiria21]

Don't know if this has been brought up, but facets will supposedly be releasing Germany Pale Mother in April.

[denti alligator]

Don't know if this has been brought up, but facets will supposedly be releasing Germany Pale Mother in April.

I don't know whether to weep for joy or despair.

[Jeff LeVine]

Has there been any word yet on whether Facet's Satantango DVD will be anamorphic?

[Barmy]

I heard Facets was colorizing Satantango? I'm cautiously hopeful that they will do it right.