Mondo Vision

[David M.]

Good news everyone! I just received word from Mondo Vision that there is still stock of all titles released thus far. My mistake, they are NOT out of print. The unavailability is temporary and is related to the fact that they are entering into a distribution deal. They inform me that the titles should be available, via the new distributor, on Amazon by this weekend.

It will also be possible to buy them from the distributor when their web site launches at the end of the month (and pay via PayPal).

[dadaistnun]

Hoberman on the BAM retro.

[Chris Bozzone]

Mondo Vision has finally updated the Future Releases page on the label site. The Silver Globe, The Blue Note and Possession are all slated for release in 2012. The Devil, The Third Part of the Night and Boris Godunov are titles scheduled for release in 2013. Also, Finders Keepers has just released the Possession soundtrack as a limited cassette. The label is saying that the tape is a mere taste of the Andrzej Korzynski soundtrack music for Zulawski films that are planned for the future!

Assorted thoughts and links to these topics and beyond, here.

[David M.]

Glad to see they updated the page!

If anyone is coming to BAM in Brooklyn for the screenings, I think MV is going to have a small presence there. I'm flying out tomorrow and will make it in time for Third Part of the Night!

[JakeB]

The label is saying that the tape is a mere taste of the Andrzej Korzynski soundtrack music for Zulawski films that are planned for the future!

This is great news! I really hope the Korzynski's music for The Devil gets released. Such an amazing soundtrack.

[dad1153]

Just got back from the nearly sold out opening of Andrzej Zulawski retrospective at BAM (which would have probably sold out if he had been there in person) with a fine-looking/sounding print of "Trzecia czesc nocy." BAM was packed for other reasons (anti-Israel protesters outside, some opera stuff inside, etc.) but the big theater (#3, which is where I also saw "Salo" on July 4th a couple of years ago) was 90% filled and, from crowd reaction, I'd say about half the crowd had never seen a Zulawsky movie. BTW, the little montage of highlights that will open each screening actually made people laugh/clap (some nervously), especially the 'money shot' of "Possession" at the end (a pregnant woman next to me and her friend were totally weirded out). It's a little too spoilery a compilation for my tastes but it worked because it makes me want to see every got damn of the screenings BAM will be having. It's going to be a glorious couple of weeks.

"The Third Part of the Night" is a masterpiece of mood and pace that shows Andrzej had his Mise-en-scène pretty much set from his first feature on and he just kept pushing cinema boundaries as his comfort behind the camera increased. If you showed a "Possession" fan this movie without telling him/her Zulawky directed it he/she would have probably guessed correctly that it was his, that's how similar the pitched-high performances and ever-escalating-loss-of-control/self as the story unfolds are. Andrzej Korzynski's music is scary, disorienting and weirdly catchy; I want the soundtrack to this movie released, stat. I couldn't help but think at first of Melville's "Army of Shadows" with the whole Polish resistance under Nazi control (except with individuals concerned about themselves and their small circle of loved one's rather than nationality or pride), but gradually this is proven to be window-dressing for the constantly stressed and fever-pitch anxiety that grips the characters. Leszek Teleszynski's performance has a Jim Caviezel/Rufus Sewell cipher quality in the way Mike keeps drifting past/present/memories into one another, but in the end it all comes together. Even if you figure out early (like me) that

Spoiler

Mike was dead all along (although I'm still not sure if he died with his wife/child/mother or if he was, indeed, gunned down at the apartment complex and that is where his ghostly self 'split' and watched himself be taken prisoner)

"The Third Part of the Night" has profound things to say/show about our inability as humans to move on from grief and sorrow as we project the personalities/looks of those we love onto people we meet after a tragedy takes our loved one's away from us. The scene where

Spoiler

the ghost of Mike's little son sees his parents conceive him as a means for his mother to forget about the taken-away man she liked (and also when the spirit of Mike's wife makes peace with him in bed after he sleeps with the baby's mother)

absolutely floored me. Zulawski's complete command of the rules/mood in his own movie universe is evident.

Malgorzata Braunek, Michal Grudzinski and especially Anna Milewska as Mike's nun sister (her last scene tipped me off about the movie's end game) give great supporting work as females that are not only objects of beauty (the camera loves them) but also clue us in on Mike's drive to survive at all costs and keep going to

Spoiler

keep their memories alive since, when he disappears in the end, so will they as anything other than a myth/legend recited by a 'contemporary' version of Marta living in the same physical space they once occupied

. Last but not least, the whole farming of lice medical backdrop so that Mike can keep moving around and fetching supplies/medicine for Marian and her baby is freaking brilliant not only cinematically (those micro-shots of the lice being fed/farmed/studied) but as a metaphor for both our own fake dominion over species and as the rape of innocence/identity/worth that the Nazis inflicted on Poland during WWII. It's just Zulawski's backdrop to the story/characters he wants to play with, but being background stuff doesn't mean the WWII backdrop isn't well-thought out and weaves seamlessly into the story.

And BTW, fuck

Spoiler

M. Night Shyamalan and his "Sixth Sense" rip-off.

In "The Third Part of the Night" (whose name makes sense after you see it) the ending is arrived to at the peak of the crazy wave and feels totally earned and fair within Zulawski's movie rules.

[dad1153]

Caught "La note Blue" last night at BAM (9:30 show) and loved it. It reminded me of a whacked-out version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" (minus the time travel) in showing the vitality, insanity and joy/pain that true artists endure in their quest to both create art and live by the myth they create around their own persona. At first I couldn't get past how much Janusz Olejniczak looks like Dana Carvey pretending to be Frédéric Chopin during an "SNL" sketch. Knowing now (which I didn't know while watching) that Olejniczak didn't have any acting experience explains why we see so little of Chopin for most of the movie's first third, as Zulawski is busy establishing all the supporting players/co-stars and probably giving his star time to pick some acting pointers. By the time we get to the minute-long scene where Janusz has to show a couple of dozen different expressions in close-up during one take before playing another piano piece I'd totally forgotten about Carvey and saw the fragile (physically and emotionally) center of mercurial and difficult-to-deal-with talent around which all the assorted houseguests/family members revolved with the glee of children hanging around their favorite uncle. Zulawski's decision to keep piano music playing in the backgroundg in scenes when Chopin isn't playing but wants to (and to stop that background piano tune cold the second Olejniczak starts playing for real) reminds us that music was first and foremost on Frédéric's mind even when dealing with other mundane issues like entertaining guests or fend of the romantic advances of his mistress' daughter. We don't need to see Chopin

Spoiler

dying, so we don't (it happens three years after the events of the movie, per the hilarious epilogue of the character's fates as told to us through their puppets) but we do know the man is already dead inside the moment he both rejected Solange and couldn't compose any more,

elevating "La note Blue" into the realm of quasi-comedic tragic biopic.

This is the first non-English movie I've seen Sophie Marceau in and damn, she's on fire; such a waste of her talents in every Hollywood film she's done since. Marie-France Pisier is too pretty and young to qualify as the third wheel of the relationship between Chopin and Solange, but she gives it her all and you buy both her tenderness and disgust toward Chopin. The entire cast is phenomenal (they give Zulawski exactly the right amount of over-the-top emotion without crossing the director's already-overextended idea of what OTT is) except for the two 'Gods,' the black dude and the fat one, which were kind-of lame and obvious. What a quirky but ultimately moving cinematic valentine to both the arts, the artists and the biopic genre this is, Zulawski style. Would make a great double-bill with fellow European director Milos Forman's composer biopic "Amadeus."

[David M.]

Great insights into these films. I have a strange relationship with them being the tech guy on the DVDs so it's nice to hear what someone seeing them for the first time thinks.

Who's all coming to L'important c'est d'aimer/The Most Important Thing: Love tonight? I'll be at the 7pm.

[beamish13]

I'm seeing THE THIRD PART OF THE NIGHT at the Cinefamily in L.A. tonight. I saw POSSESSION last week, and I'll be catching ON THE SILVER GLOBE on Sunday. I'm trying to see as many of them as possible!

[Jared A.]

Has anyone heard anything about other cities getting this retrospective? Why should NYC and LA get all the fun?

[dad1153]

^^^ Because we're special and the 1% lives here? Suck it 99%'ers! :-P

Just got back from BAM, which totally sold out the big theater #3 for "That Most Important Thing: Love" and the two TV shorts. Loved the first one, the second one almost put me to sleep. For reference, I was the idiot who laughed like a nut during the movie when one of the picture collectors says 'KI-TTY CAR-LIS-LE' very slow/weirdly (made the guy sitting next to me leave... sorry dude!). This is the first Zulawski movie I've seen (four so far) that didn't completely blow me away and I don't unequivocally like even though I can see why it's held in high regard. It feels/sounds a lot like Godard's "Contempt" but on an intimate level (the acting/performance is backdrop, just like the Polish resistance stuff in "The Last Third of the Night") and punctuated by movie-stealing scenes of Klaus Kinski turning on the crazy/funny. It's basically a love triangle between the three leads and two of these people love each other (it's obvious from their second meeting) but, in maybe a first for a Zulawski movie, can't bring themselves to express their true emotions/feelings for each other until the very end (which seems to have inspired P.T. Anderson for "Magnolia"). The whole movie is a descent into both the photographer (Fabio Testi) and the actress (Roby Schneider) reaching a low/vulnerable point in which they can bypass the obstacle that is hubby Jacques (Jacques Dutronc) and Servais' debt to his gangster pal (Claude Dauphin). While we get peeks into the worlds of theater and pornography (granny with the strap-on = YIKES!!!) they're backdrop to the parade of colorful nuts that live/work/function (in various degrees of loony) solely for the leads to be inspired/threatened/depressed into actions with consequences.

All of this is presented with Zulawski's usual flare for the ridiculous and the sublime co-existing in an over-stylized cinematic world, but it all feels rather shallow and small potatoes compared with "Possession's" repressed id monster, "The Blue Note's" need to express its characters' artistic drive and "The Last Third of the Night" giving us a man that will keep the memories of his loved one's alive beyond most folks' commitment. Yes,

Spoiler

two people kept apart by society/career/self-doubt saying 'I love you' at the very end is moving

but "That Most Important Thing: Love" just doesn't achieve the heights of the other Zulawski's I've seen (except when Kinski is doing his schtick, which is not unique to this director's work). Got to watch this again to re-assess though, and it doesn't turn me off from wanting to see more Zulawski (quite the opposite, the more movies from the man I watch the more I want to go broke and buy Mondo Vision's releases).

[Chris Bozzone]

The first 3 nights of the Zulawski retrospective at BAM have been amazing.

Here is some information about the actual reason why Zulawski decided not to travel to the US and attend his retrospective along with my thoughts on his mind-boggling debut feature, The Third Part of the Night. I have also written about Zulawski's La note bleue.

It has been great to see the films so well attended thus far. I hope that the strong turnout continues until the end of the series.

[dad1153]

Gotta give props to Zulawski for his honesty with Film Comment, but then why lie to the NY Times about his doctor not clearing him to travel? The Times reaches a lot more people than Film Comment, why not use that bully pulpit to defend his stance that his work isn't easily categorized in the 'hysterical' term he dislikes so much? Also, it would have been more powerful to have him in person telling the BAM people to their face what morons they were for calling the festival what they did and to defend his points to a room full of fans. Many (not all) folks seeing this would have carried Zulawski's torch defending his POV he presented through discussions, internet forums, web sites, etc. Then again, he's over 70 and at peace with his work. It's nice to see an old master director pass a certain chance for acclaim, standing ovations from adoring crowds and the whole Q&A fawning over a point he feels strongly-enough to not attend.

Zulawski also comes across as a big baby. An honest and direct 'F' you baby, but a baby nevertheless. The marketing tool he is so upset about is getting paying customers into seats at BAM to watch his career work put together by fans who took the trouble and financial risk to mount a career retrospective. I'm capable of separating the filmmaker from the person (wouldn't be able to enjoy Polanski, Friedkin, Spielberg, etc. movies otherwise) so this won't affect my enjoyment of Zulawski's new-to-me features (which is all of them except for "Possession"). Still, a pity such a nuisance as the use of the word 'hysterical' to describe his work (which I actually think is dead-on) piss him off enough to not come to America to get in person the acclaim his work reflects.

[David M.]

Heads-up everyone: I checked out the site of Mondo Vision's new distributor (DARSOO) and it looks like it's up and running. Looks like they're offering free shipping within the US and they're accepting PayPal.

[dad1153]

^^^ Figures, they're out of stock for the Digipak version of L’important C’est D’aimer. Oh well, ordered the rest!

How did the 6:50 screening of "Possession" at BAM go David M.? :wink:

[Adam X]

Rather jealous of those getting to see Zulawski's films at the cinema... Reminds me I need to get around to watching Szamanka real soon.

Never used them myself, but noticed Darsoo's Amazon web address is identical to the well spoken of (on this forum) Marketplace seller rare_collector_dvds, suggesting they're one and the same, which bodes well when buying those future Mondo Vision titles. They've got all four Ltd edition releases listed as out of print, with limited stock, so now would seem a good time to put an end to any procrastination, before the griping about ridiculous after market prices begins anew.

And with some recent seller's trying to flog copies at up to $300!, that's hardly hyperbole.

[dad1153]

Just came back from the packed 6:50PM showing of "Szamanka" at BAM. Gorgeous 35mm print from Poland with real-time English subtitling (the one's translated by Zulawski and Bird for the Mondo Vision release) and, to my surprise, clapping at the end. I thought the movie wouldn't get applause after

Spoiler

Wloszka spoon-feeding off her dead lover's brain

made half the theater (myself included) gasp in shock. Essentially Zulawski's take on obsession and erotic-infatuation-run-amok ("In the Realm of the Senses," "Last Tango in Paris," etc.) this is a no-holds barred tour de force (exquisite camera movements, catchy-as-hell music that mirrors machinery at work, etc.) that can be erotic as hell one moment (every scene between Boguslaw Linda and Iwona Petry) and slapsticky the next (the 'Egyptian' dance around the Shaman's corpse, the whole business with the mob and the

Spoiler

stolen radioactive stuff... talk about an out-of-nowhere bonkers left turn)

but its never less than a 'WTF?' throat grabber. I love that the eroticism of Michal (with her fiancee Anna) and Wloszka (with her boyfriend and lusty admirer) goes down when they're not together despite we still seeing nude actors (especially Iwona, whose facial expressions express her drive and insanity better than her nude body or ever-changing outfits). That

Spoiler

everybody else that has sex with Iwona/Michal kill themselves

shows how the runaway passion that overcomes Michal and Wloszka hurts more than just the sanity of the couple. A tenuos hold on sanity even if the cinematic world Zulawski crafts for "Szamanka" (an industrial/urban wasteland where academia, hospitals, meat-packing plants and steel fabrics are different shades of the same insane asylum) is pretty insane and OTT to begin with. And that's the difference between Zulawski and someone like Nagisa Ôshima in "Realm of the Senses" who isolates the lead couple's erotic fixation on one another away from a society they both shun and doesn't/wouldn't understand them. In "Szamanka" the world the psycho-sexual realm these two inhabit is every bit as screwed-up and demented as the outside world, but they co-exist in (screwed-up) harmony because these people have to earn money to live and fulfill their still-valid professional desires (Michal discovering joy in work unrelated to the Shaman's hold over him). It's telling that, as in "Realm...," one partner needs to own/have a piece of the other to continue on at the end of "Szamanka."

I need to see this again to digest the subtext. On first impression this is every bit as subversive and no-holds-barred as "Possession" (still Andrzej's signature film) but with Zulawski way more comfortable in his skills. The look/sound/fever-pitch of this urban-nightmare-to-most-but-all-consuming-dream-for-our-lead-couple cinematic world is the best-realized of his five movies I've seen so far.

[Chris Bozzone]

The Andrzej Zulawski retrospective at BAM continues to excite and provide thrills each and every day. I can't wait for La femme publique tonight!

Here are my thoughts on Zulawaski's short films for Polish television as well as That Most Important Thing: Love. Also, here is a post about the incredible 35mm screening of Szamanka that took place last night.

[dad1153]

FUUUUCKK!!! The boss has asked me to stay working late for a last-minute job for a client that expects it tomorrow morning first-thing. No "La femme publique" for me at BAM tonight. Oh well, seven more Zulawski films to go but this hurts because I really wanted to see "La femme publique" on the big screen.

So, to recap: FUUUUCKK!!! (but the overtime will help pay for my just-bought Zulawski LE collection, so... not-as-fucked?)

[Chris Bozzone]

I just got the Possession soundtrack release in the mail and it contains some wonderful additional Andrzej Korzynski music that was never used in the film or heard until now. I've written an overview of the content here. It was great to hear the other night that the turn out for the Zulawski retrospective at BAM seems to have exceeded all expectations.

I've put down some thoughts on the Wednesday night screening of L'amour braque. Going backwards, I also wrote about the Tuesday night showing of La femme publique.

Off to see The Devil! It should be outstanding to see this film properly in a theater and not the dreadful DVD copies I've watched over the years.

[dad1153]

^^^ Thanks for the summaries. I had to miss "L'amour braque" on Wednesday after I had a really lousy day at work that put me off from being in the proper mindset to watch a Zulawski (or any kind of) movie. It's not fair if you're not willing to be in its wavelength to force yourself to watch a movie when you don't want to, and last Wednesday I wasn't. Sucks, but at least I'll watch "L'amour braque" and "La femme publique" when I get my Limited Editions package from Darsoo next week for all four Zulawsky movies Mondo Vision has released so far. Can't miss anymore BAM screenings though, everything else from now 'till the end of the retrospective is not on R1 DVD (yet).

Just came from the decently-attended (considering it's a Friday night and March Madness is in full swing) 6:50 screening of "The Devil" at BAM, and there was a long line for the 9:30 showing as we were leaving. Other than the hairdos of some of the supporting characters (particularly the dancing nobles at the mansion where the pregnant gal lives) giving away this was made in the 1970's (along with the screened 35mm print's very rough edges during reel changes) this might be the wildest and most unrestrained full-on Zulawski I've seen. It's one giant 'this Earthly world is f***ed' angry-but-colorful movie in which the descent into madness by escaped political prisoner Jacob (Leszek Teleszynski, who is surprisingly sympathetic even as he does some weird/awful things at the behest of someone else) echoes Poland's conflicted identity/traumatic past back in the 1700's (when the movie's story takes place) and the 70's (when it was made). Wojciech Pszoniak's man-in-black is the most fun and amusing character I've yet seen in a Zulawski movie, an impish personification of the devil (not a spoiler since the movie's title literally appears over a close-up of Wojciech's face) that gives the movie a lot of the fun and personality that it lacks when we're stuck tagging along with brooding Jacob. The line 'I really wanted to be a dancer' brought the house down.

There's no story in "The Devil," just a series of tableau encounters/meetings with assorted weirdos (a traveling circus, a midget, Jacob family members, former associates, etc.) that add-up to an odd, bloody and surreal climax as things spiral out of control for Jacob. Not surprised the Catholic Church sought to ban this movie, which is stupid because

Spoiler

by castrating the devil while she was being raped by him the otherwise-inconsequential nun that's tagging along with Jacob proves to be the one that stops the evil spree... for now.

Not Zulawski's most polished movie (his "The Third Part of the Night" felt more steady and professional even though it was made before this one), "The Devil" literally runs on the fumes of its ever-increasing attempts to get a rise out of its audience and the authority figures (fathers, political associates, society, religion, etc.) by making the most amoral of the movie's character the one you can't wait to see come back on-screen to cause more mayhem. It's as politically-incorrect a riot as they could make them back in '72, and 100% Zulawski.

[David M.]

Barring the reel changes, how was the print on Devil? I had to fly back to the UK on Monday so missed it. It's one of my favourite Zulawskis.

[dad1153]

The reel changes were super-rough looking, more than usual. Shaky/dirt specs/soundtrack cut-off/color shifts... let's just say we could tell there was going to be a reel change about 30 secs. before it happened based on how badly the last seconds of each reel looked. Since this was stored in some Poland communist government locker for 16 years we should be glad a decent print of this even exists. The screened 35mm print itself looks pretty decent between the rough edges of the last/first transition seconds (a little washed-out and faded but nothing a little love and tender care from a compressionist that cares and works hard wouldn't cure... wink, wink!). Get your tools ready David, this one is going to be a toughie. Then again, unlike the battered 35mm print we saw, you'll be working from a negative/interpositive print.

[Iode]

So... David, can we expect the first of the three MV titles being released this year anytime soon?

[dad1153]

Heads-up everyone: I checked out the site of Mondo Vision's new distributor (DARSOO) and it looks like it's up and running. Looks like they're offering free shipping within the US and they're accepting PayPal.

What happened to DARSOO site? It went from having all four of Mondo Vision's Zulawski titles (SE and LE) available to 'Coming Soon.' Their Amazon seller store is still open though, but it was nice to order directly from them.