Mr. Bongo Films

[Awesome Welles]

I think it will just be including the other titles they will also release but who knows...

[zone_resident]

DVD Times on Black God White Devil

[Awesome Welles]

Mr. Bongo's site lists Terra em Transe and Strawberry and Chocolate as being in stock, with stills galleries of Terra em Transe, Boccaccio 70, Marriage Italian Style, Strawberry and Chocolate.

[MichaelB]

There's something strange about the Strawberry and Chocolate transfer that I can't quite put my finger on - I think it's an analogue tape source (the picture bends very slightly rightwards at the top) that's been artificially converted to anamorphic widescreen.

That said, it's one of Mr Bongo's better efforts.

[Cash Flagg]

Boccaccio 70, Marriage Italian Style

Both arriving on May 11th.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Boccaccio 70, Marriage Italian Style

Both arriving on May 11th.

Pushed back to 1 June apparently.

[Cash Flagg]

From DVD Outsider:

Frequently regarded as one of the greatest and most important films to ever come out of Poland, the Oscar nominated and Palm d'Or winning Man Of Iron (Czlowiek z Zelaza) is legendary director's Andrezj Wajda's final and most moving and poignant film regarding the Solidarity Movement and its struggles to gain recognition in his native country.

Following on from his seminal Man Of Marble, Man Of Iron continues the story of Maciej Tomczyk, a young worker involved in the anti-Communist labour movement. In Warsaw in 1980, the Regime sends Winkel, a weak, alcoholic TV hack to Gdansk to dig up dirt on the shipyard strikes, particularly on Maciek, who has become an inspirational figure in the Union movement following the killing of his father in the December 1970 protests. Posing as a sympathiser to the cause, Winkel interviews people who know Tomczyk, including his detained wife, in an effort to undermine and destroy the growing support behind the movement.

The film uses actual news footage of the 1968 and 1970 protests and of the later birth of free unions and Solidarity which it interweaves throughout the stories of a son coming to terms with his father, a couple falling in love, a reporter searching for courage and a nation undergoing historic, if all too fleeting, change.

Following on from Artificial Eye's release earlier this year of Katyn, Wajda's epic Man Of Iron will be released on DVD courtesy of Mr Bongo Films on 1 June 2009 at the RRP of £12.99. As seems to be the trend this week, no extras have been listed.

I can't seem to find an Amazon listing for it however.

[MichaelB]

I'm happy to confirm that Boccaccio '70 is the full version - i.e. including the Mario Monicelli story.

The anamorphic transfer is OK rather than spectacular, and I had a few niggles with the subtitles, which occasionally arrive a tad late (though they're nowhere near as bad as one of Facets' lack of efforts), but it's generally very watchable.

No extras whatsoever, though with a 204-minute main feature that's not surprising.

[foggy eyes]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this yet, but the ghosting on the Black God, White Devil DVD is appalling. The image quality is good, but pretty much any motion (so, every movement of the camera) is quite severely blurred... Does the Brazilian DVD have the same problem, or is this some kind of standards conversion thing?

[tartarlamb]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this yet, but the ghosting on the Black God, White Devil DVD is appalling. The image quality is good, but pretty much any motion (so, every movement of the camera) is quite severely blurred... Does the Brazilian DVD have the same problem, or is this some kind of standards conversion thing?

Ditto this for their Entranced Earth, which is slightly better (probably because the camera movement is more restrained). The ghosting on Black God made me motion sick. What a shame!

[foggy eyes]

Ditto this for their Entranced Earth, which is slightly better (probably because the camera movement is more restrained). The ghosting on Black God made me motion sick. What a shame!

That's disappointing. I can't remember the last time I saw ghosting or motion blur as bad as this - pretty much every shot is a mess. If anybody is still thinking of buying this disc, don't bother!

[zedz]

I'd have to dig out my Brazilian discs (almost literally) to check, but I don't remember that problem. They were NTSC, so a thoughtless PAL conversion may be the culprit.

I can imagine how bad the ghosting would be with a film as hyperkinetic as Black God, White Devil.

Deus e o diabo was the oldest transfer among the Brazilian discs (with Terra em transe second), and probably the weakest, but not bad at all. This is another reason to go for the originals, if you can afford them: the extras are really superb. (But note that the extras on Deus e o diabo are unsubbed).

[foggy eyes]

I'd have to dig out my Brazilian discs (almost literally) to check, but I don't remember that problem. They were NTSC, so a thoughtless PAL conversion may be the culprit.

Yes, seeing as the Brazilian discs are NTSC, that'll be it. I'm sure you'd remember if they had the same problem - it's very intrusive...

I can imagine how bad the ghosting would be with a film as hyperkinetic as Black God, White Devil.

Not the best way to see it for the first time! I thought it was remarkable in many ways, but a very difficult film to get a grip on in terms of both narrative and mise-en-scène. Will have to see it on 35mm to consolidate my initial reaction...

[tartarlamb]

I'd have to dig out my Brazilian discs (almost literally) to check, but I don't remember that problem. They were NTSC, so a thoughtless PAL conversion may be the culprit.

Definitely. I've never seen anything quite so bad. The effect is extremely jarring. At points in Entranced Earth it seemed like the film was jerking into slow-mo every ten seconds. As if the film wasn't disorientating enough as it is!

I can imagine how bad the ghosting would be with a film as hyperkinetic as Black God, White Devil.

Its bad. Very bad. But if this is the easiest way for people to see the film, I wouldn't discourage it. I watched the whole thing (somehow) and still found the experience very rewarding. After a few glasses of scotch, you wouldn't know if its the PAL conversion or your eyes.

I wouldn't watch Entranced Earth this way, if it can be avoided. Its not worth it. Black God, White Devil's manic kitchen-sink cinematic style has an enormous payoff, enough to justify a compromised viewing. I don't think Entranced Earth succeeds where, by some miracle, Black God, White Devil did, and at the end of Bongo's clunky, messy presentation, there's very little satisfaction. Blech.

[Perkins Cobb]

I don't understand how a company can release a product like this.

Yes, I get how it's not always economically feasible for an indie label to do a new transfer from film, etc., etc., but a cheap NTSC->PAL conversion is almost literally unwatchable even to the untrained eye. I know people who aren't bothered as much as I am by poor PAL->NTSC conversions, but the flicker effect here would seem impossible to ignore. What's the percentage of customer satisfaction on this DVD likely to be?

If Mr. Bongo is content just to rook customers with a crappy product & hopes they'll still turn a profit after whatever returns come in and get refunded ... why do it with such esoteric art movies? And if they really do care about these movies and want people to see them, why bother if they can only deliver them as a total mess? Doesn't compute.

Anyway, I have the Brazilian disc of Terra em Transe, and it does look OK. Don't know if it's still findable at a reasonable price, but I suspect I'll list my copy in the trade forum if I can ever get it out of my kevyip.

[zedz]

Anyway, I have the Brazilian disc of Terra em Transe, and it does look OK. Don't know if it's still findable at a reasonable price, but I suspect I'll list my copy in the trade forum if I can ever get it out of my kevyip.

Further to this, I dimly recall seeing a 'box set' of all the Versatil Rochas to date on ebay a while back, which might be the most economic way to go.

Here it is - it's actually the four fully subtitled releases (Barravento, Terra em Transe, Antonio das Mortes & Age of the Earth), excluding Black God, White Devil. Quite pricy, only a slight saving on buying all of them individually from the same source.

[manicsounds]

2 more from Satyajit Ray
Goddess / 2 Daughters

No extra materials.

[Perkins Cobb]

2 more from Satyajit Ray
Goddess / 2 Daughters

No extra materials.

Of course, Two Daughters is the cut version of Ray's three-hour Teen Kanya (Three Daughters). So, even before we get the undoubtedly dire news on image quality: Fail.

[peerpee]

It's such a shame that, if THE ADVERSARY is anything to go by, these will be 'licenced' from Contemporary Films in London and be sourced from cinema prints with ingrained subtitles.

No extras, no care in presentation, a slap in the face to a great filmmaker.

[GaryC]

Does anyone know why almost none of Mr Bongo's DVDs appear on the BBFC website? The only one that does is I Am Cuba. That's from searching by distributor name, though individual title or director searches draw blanks as well.

[Peacock]

I emailed their director last week asking about their upcoming Zemlya release, he replied saying they were struggling to find a good master so i pointed him in the direction of the Arte Edition release, hopefully we'll finally get a decent english friendly release. Very sad news about the Ray dvd.

[MichaelB]

It's such a shame that, if THE ADVERSARY is anything to go by, these will be 'licenced' from Contemporary Films in London and be sourced from cinema prints with ingrained subtitles.

No extras, no care in presentation, a slap in the face to a great filmmaker.

I hate to say it, but Mr Bongo is the UK's closest equivalent to Facets - a mouthwatering lineup, but presentation so variable that you're taking a real gamble every time you shell out. When they get it right, they're fine (though I've yet to see a Mr Bongo title that came anywhere close to, say, Second Run's Daisies), but their worst releases are appalling.

I recently watched Man of Iron, which was fine as a transfer - it was clearly sourced from the same anamorphic master as the Polish DVD, as both transfers had telltale picture wobble at the very start. But it's a totally barebones package, and if a film is crying out for intelligent, context-setting extras, it's this one. It's not as though they don't exist, either - the Polish DVD has plenty, albeit in unsubtitled Polish. Second Run would at least have licensed and subtitled the Wajda interview and produced a decent booklet - and their resources don't seem to be any more extensive than Mr Bongo's.

[Sloper]

I'm probably alone on this, but I quite enjoyed their superlatively awful presentation of The Adversary; somehow it made the film feel that little bit more grimy and transgressive. It was as if I was a poverty-stricken student myself, watching the film in some flea-pit in the 1970s. Never having actually done that, it was sort of a thrill. I imagine this would be much less the case with the majority of Ray's other films, though.

[peerpee]

Spoken like a true promo-receiver!

[zone_resident]

DVD Times on Two Daughters