Theo Angelopoulos

[foggy eyes]

Can anyone speak to how the New Star DVD compares to the OOP New Yorker of Landscape?

It's loads better!

Some caps:

[zedz]

Just throwing this into the mix:

Somebody here (Barmy, was it you?) mentioned a New Star box set of all the existing (and maybe some forthcoming?) discs. If you're serious about getting your hands on everything, it might pay to wait for this, if it isn't apocryphal. The New Star editions are definitely the way to go. The best international editions are ports of these, and they're the only source for his best films.

EDIT: Here's one (not cheap)!

[swo17]

Re: those caps--Be still my heart!

Are the New Star discs definitely PAL though? It doesn't look like that ebay seller says either way, and despite domino's claim, I've found some talk online that my Panny Blu-ray player is unable to play PAL.

EDIT: Here's one (not cheap)!

For each of those seven films though, it looks like it comes to about half the price of what they go for individually!

EDIT: An answer to my own question, from that ebay seller. I thought I would share it, for anyone interested:

hello ,
thank you
No this will not play in your player .
This dvd will play :
1. Any multy region player
2. Any new generation very cheap players .
3. Many old ones , but not anY SONY , PANASONIC , TOSHIBA

Best regards
stelios

[Stefan Andersson]

Caligula: sorry about LANDSCAPE and Madman, I was thinking about ETERNITY AND A DAY.

[Rich Malloy]

[LANDSCAPE]Re: those caps--Be still my heart!

I don't want to throw cold water here - and it is the best DVD of the film I've seen - but IMO this transfer doesn't measure up to my two other New Star Angelopouloses, namely "Eternity" and "Weeping". "Rife with artifacts" might be going too far, but there's no small amount of digital funkiness here. Color timing and contrast levels look good though. Just don't expect a rock-solid, artifact-free transfer.

[Felix]

Somebody here mentioned a New Star box set of all the existing (and maybe some forthcoming?) discs. If you're serious about getting your hands on everything, it might pay to wait for this, if it isn't apocryphal. The New Star editions are definitely the way to go. The best international editions are ports of these, and they're the only source for his best films.

EDIT: Here's one (not cheap)!

Thanks for the heads up Zedz. Just received this today, good seller, week to arrive. They are listed on the ad as 4:3 full frame but only the first two are, the others are 16:9, most 1.78:1. They come as separate discs rather than a box (I wonder what he does with the non-subtitled ones and how I would love to see them with subtitles...) There is a seller doing a port of The Beekeeper on E-Bay as well.

The thread prompted me to watch the video of Eternity And A Day which had been sitting on my shelves for an embarrassing amount of time and I was very impressed indeed. Stunning composition, everything beautifully balanced and so pleasing to my eye (and Karaindreou's beautiful music as well). And I found it captivating, not slow at all as I had feared. I had previously seen Ulysses Gaze years ago and been less impressed but images from it kept coming to mind, the statue of Lenin sailing down the river (not laboured, like the tail fin of the plane in Apocalypse Now after they had left Vietnam), the crowds coming out onto the streets of Sarajevo when the mist came down, so I thought it was about time I tried more.

I remember a few years ago when I first started followoing film threads online there was word of a major Angelopoulos series coming from Canada I think (I believe it was referenced on the old pre-Eureka MoC website) which would offer the films plus extensive extras. Anybody know or able to offer anything on that score. AE have been on the verge of releasing a lot of his stuff for years now but that never comes either.

[swo17]

As I recently went region-free and decided to pick up the New Star DVD of Landscape in the Mist, and I haven't found a good side-by-side comparison with the New Yorker DVD anywhere on the internet, I've made some comparisons of my own, and posted them in the Screen Captures thread here. I wasn't surprised to find that the New Star looks better, but I thought that showing how much better might help instill confidence in anyone considering plopping down for the New Star, which isn't exactly cheap.

[denti alligator]

Any word on whether New Star has abandoned their plans to release the rest of A's work?

[jsteffe]

As mentioned on the Artificial Eye thread, they're releasing The Beekeeper this June. Great news!

Perhaps this means Artificial Eye will make good on their old promise to release more Angelopoulos? Would it be too much to hope for The Hunters, Voyage to Cythera and O Megalexandros?

[bigP]

Absolutely. I'd buy any of those releases in a heartbeat.

Do you recall how many Angelopoulos films AE claim to hold - I've got a vague memory from a couple of years ago that they said they had seven (on top of the already released The Weeping Meadow) that they were planning to release. Does this sound right?

I'd also hope that The Beekeeper will be completed with Voyage to Cythera and Landscape in the Mist to fill out the Trilogy of Silence though a UK release of any more Angelopoulos is long overdue and very welcome in my eyes.

[jsteffe]

OK, I did some digging around... Back in 2006 this list was on the "New Forthcoming Foreign/Art/Independent Films" thread:

Angelopoulos, Theo: Reconstruction / Anaparastassi (1970) Artificial Eye / UK
Angelopoulos, Theo: Days of 36 / Meres Tou 36 (1972) Artificial Eye / UK
Angelopoulos, Theo: The Travelling Players / O Thiassos (1975) Artificial Eye / UK
Angelopoulos, Theo: The Hunters / Oi Kynighoii (1977) Artificial Eye / UK
Angelopoulos, Theo: Alexander the Great / Megaleksandros (1980) Artificial Eye / UK
Angelopoulos, Theo: Voyage to Cythera / Taxidi sta Kithira (1984) Artificial Eye / UK
Angelopoulos, Theo: The Beekeeper / O Melissokomos (1986) Artificial Eye / UK
Angelopoulos, Theo: Landscape in the Mist / Topio stin omichli (1988) Artificial Eye / UK
Angelopoulos, Theo: The Suspended Step of the Stork / To Meteoro vima tou pelargou (1991) Artificial Eye / UK
Angelopoulos, Theo: Ulysses' Gaze / To Vlemma tou Odyssea (1995) Artificial Eye / UK
Angelopoulos, Theo: Eternity and a Day / Mia aioniotita kai mia mera (1998) Artificial Eye / UK

That was four years ago--who knows what Artificial Eye's actual plans are now. Besides the forthcoming The Beekeeper (yay!) the only Angelopoulos title they ever released was Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow.

[bigP]

Wow, thanks for the info jsteffe, I didn't realise they held as many as this. It certainly gives hope that we may be seeing his two big trilogies (...of History & ...of Silence) pick up a UK release. I'm wondering if, by this stage, we may see a release of Dust of Time appear in the near future too.

Just as a quick (slightly irrelevant) note, AE did release Eternity and a Day on VHS a decade ago but it never materialised - for whatever reason - on dvd, so The Weeping Meadow has been his only real torch-bearer in the UK for far too long. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that their plans have not changed and we will see that list appear over the next year or two.

[Awesome Welles]

OK, I did some digging around... Back in 2006 this list was on the "New Forthcoming Foreign/Art/Independent Films" thread ...

That was four years ago--who knows what Artificial Eye's actual plans are now. Besides the forthcoming The Beekeeper (yay!) the only Angelopoulos title they ever released was Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow.

I expect this might have been Robert Beeson's work, lets hope he carries that intention over to New Wave, though no hope for Blu-ray.

[J Adams]

Chinese DVD of "Dust of Time" is available [url-http://i.ebayimg.com/10/!BoOFYbg!Wk~$(KGrHqUOKkUEu!b9RyZMBLmpY!Z,nQ~~_12.JPG]on eBay[/url].

[otis]

I've just had this reply from Stelios, the guy selling the New Star Angelopoulos DVDs on eBay, to my question of whether the remaining films were ever going to be released:

thank you for your message .
New Star owner is a friend of mine . Te last 3 years he tried to produce the rest of the movies but Angelopoulos was asking too much . Also New star was facing economic problems and could not release any DVD at all. A few months ago the lisance for the 7 new star titles which were in the market was expired ...they are only avilable now from my own stock.
Untill now there is no any news regarding the release of any Angelopoulos DVD from New Star or any other Biger producing co..
If any news I will let you know immediately
best regards
stelios

[perkizitore]

I think he is exaggerating a bit, i know New Star is facing problems, but the DVDs are still available in Greece:
Landscape in the mist
Eternity and a day
Days of 36
Ulysses Gaze
They have all the titles but the rest cost more than 20 euros each. The good news is that they ship worldwide, if you need any help ordering PM me.

[jsteffe]

I just received the Artificial Eye DVD of The Beekeeper, and it looks nice. It's licensed from MK2, and the transfer looks at least as good as the Greek New Star DVDs. An initial glance suggests that the encoding is better--fewer artifacts than what I've observed on the New Star titles. The disc is dual-layered. The only special feature is the theatrical trailer.

[alfons416]

Check my review of The Beekeeper on DVDBeaver

[knives]

I just introduced myself to this master today with The Beekeeper and I'm a little dumbfounded. I eventually found my footing with this and managed to really enjoy it, though I'm at a loss for ideas. I really do wish the AE disc had come at least with an eclipse like page to contextualize things(it's to my understanding that this is the second in a loose trilogy, right). Even with my ignorance overshadowing the experience though I have found myself falling in love. The film is unlike anything from the '80s I've seen. It is more akin to my experience with '70s films really. Of course I mean that as a compliment and I;m glad to find such a strong character piece. The moment that really made me a convert was about thirty minutes in when they walk by the smokestacks. I don't know why, but that image spoke to me in just the right way. I may not understand what the purpose of the film is, but even on the surface it seems to have a lot of depth.

[John Cope]

The Beekeeper is the second part of Angelopoulos' self-described Trilogy of Silence (starting with Cythera and ending with Landscape). I've always liked it and appreciated it primarily for its atypical qualities. Formally and aesthetically it's very similar to the rest of his mature work but otherwise its not that representative (just as I'm Going Home is not all that representative of Oliveira but is formally of a piece with the rest). Its empahasis on character and psychology sets it apart, though obviously Angelopoulos does excellent, incisive work here and does situate all this into the specifics of a certain socio-cultural historical frame.

[knives]

Sadly I haven't chanced upon de Oliveira yet(though when the Cinema Guild DVDs are cheap I'll snatch things right up). I do agree heartily with you on the one thing I'm presently aware of though. It helped so much that he builds the world of the characters. Without those sort of landmarks as a guide I think I would be even more lost and not able to realize how wonderful the film could be. Too bad the Greek DVDs are OOP and ridiculously expensive. At least there's a little pool that's easy to pick from.

[lubitsch]

Has anyone had a problem with the Beekeper DVD where the film jumps back to the chapter menu while entering the 7th chapter? I tried it on different players, always the same problem.

[Titus]

Has anybody ordered the New Star DVDs from the stelios guy on ebay? Are they legit? He lists them as Region 0, but I bought three of them from xploitedcinema before they went under that are definitely Region 2. And several people have left him negative feedback, accusing him of selling bootlegs. But there don't seem to be many alternatives at the moment.

[domino harvey]

I've ordered something from him before-- if you're an American, he sends you a DVD-r copy of it and only sends the real disc if you complain. So, he's fine but specify in the comments that you want the real thing

[bios]

Ladies and Gentlemen, please, be patient. I've heard from a _very_ reliable source that those Artificial Eye dvd's are on the way in 2011/2012. What this means is that we can _finally_ see nice prints of his great films, no washed out muddy garbage that ruins the delicacy of his images.

I'd love to see Alexander The Great and Voyage To Cythera restored properly.