Mondo Vision

[David M.]

I asked Mondo Vision what happened to their distributor - apparently there is legal wrangling over the name, so they have to think of a new one! ](*,)

They assured me that any orders placed will be fulfilled; hopefully the site should be up again soon with a new name!

[dad1153]

Got my DARSOO package this morning (all four MV LE releases), looks like I dodged a bullet. Good packaging, prompt delivery and, naturally, I'm too busy at work and on evenings to sample the discs until the weekend. Copa Santander Libertadores tourney in South America + UEFA Championship League + DVR = no time for anything but soccer and the last two days of the Zulawski BAM retrospective (you know what that's like, right David?). The packing looks solid though, and if I encounter a problem I'm sure they'll take good care of me. Me so happy! :)

[dad1153]

Three more Zulawski movies from BAM's retrospective, and it was a rollercoaster. [EDIT: I just realized, three days later, that the movie is called 'On the SILVER Globe,' not 'Blue.' I'm leaving my mistake unchanged because I think it helps sell how the movie actually made me feel].

Saturday I caught the 4 p.m. showing of ON THE BLUE GLOBE (1988), which BAM advertised as being 105 min. in its printed program but it turns out it's 166. Gorgeous 35mm print and boy, did I hate the first 35-40 minutes of this movie more than life itself. Even giving it the benefit of censorship by Polish authorities, the low budget, the production troubles, the ten-year gap and Zulawski's mise-en-scène at its loudest/fullest (forget "The Devil" being over the top, in "Blue Globe" the over-acting faces the camera and is dialed up to 12!) I was hating everything and everybody: the premise, the execution, the 'rules' of this sci-fi universe (Earth astronauts aging much slower than their brood, transmission of video recorded on their 'neck' cams, the threat from the 'Shern' race of flying beings, etc.), the transition/narration, the blue filter on everything... I felt like Zulawski was literally grabbing me by the neck and force-feeding me the obvious metaphors of men repeating the same mistakes as their creators and their need for prophecy/Gods/mythology/war/violence/etc. Then, when the 2nd set of "astronauts" shows up before a third "wraps-up" the mess made by the first two (how convenient that most of the missing/lost/never shot footage is the SFX set-pieces/money shots) "Blue Globe" literally becomes "Dune" on a shoestring. It was like watching Lang's "Metropolis" (the version before the 2010 final reconstruction) with an epileptic cameraman videotaping rehearsals for a movie before shooting actually began.

After the first act my brain literally fried (I heard it frying... or was it one of the movie's odd electronic noises in the soundtrack?) and I embraced Zulawski's crazy by mentally saying 'sure,' 'why not?,' 'of course,' 'right on' and 'absolutely' to every other scene/sentence. The previously-unbearable transition scenes became welcomed relief (the long electric staircase was the best), the dated 'car from the future' the coolest thing I've ever seen in a movie (because I'd forgotten the hundreds of movies I'd seen when this flick rebooted my brain!) and the final shot of

Spoiler

Zulawski on-camera's reflection on the window glass (his most honest and direct way of saying 'hey folks, this is as good as I can make this given the s*** I had to put up with from censors/investors/you-name-the-hardship-I-had-to-overcome-to-put-this-together... please!')

a cleansing moment in which artist and his imperfect body of work become united. Most batshit thing I've ever seen in cinema, and the first and only Zulawski movie I seriously thought about walking out from or quit the retrospective cold.

I slept on it (and no, the next morning "On the Blue Globe" still sucked in an admirable gotta-see-it-to-believe-it way) and the following night I reluctantly went to the 8 p.m. showing of FIDELITY (2000) (which I thought was going to be a 105 min. movie but it turns out to also be 166... back-to-back 2 1/2 hr. Zulawski's I wasn't mentally prepared for!). I don't know if Adam Sandler's "Jack and Jill" following "On the Blue Globe" would have made the former seem like "Battleship Potemkin" but damn if "Fidelity" just plain blew me away. I don't make it a secret that the reason I've been attending the BAM retrospective is because I'm chasing the dragon that seeing "Possession" gave me when I first saw it late last year at Film Forum. There have been bad-to-really good Zulawski movies (IMO) but no "Possession" (although "Szamanka" came the closest to replicating the "Possession" mind-fuck). "Fidelity" starts slow and confusing (not to mention it feels like its exploring themes already covered in "That Most Important Thing: Love" but with tabloid media employees/subjects instead of actors and media/journalism substituting for the profession) but it gets a ton of mileage out of Zulawski learning (on his last movie to date) that he doesn't have to keep his actors at a fever-pitch of hysterical excess at all times. Sophie Marceau's Clélia starts an aloof and selfish 'classy' photographer (her pictures suck BTW but that's besides the point) and pretty much stays that way through a marriage (Pascal Greggory), a family tragedy (Magali Noël) and pretenders Clélia both likes (Guillaume Canet's lower-class photographer) and despises (Michel Subor as her Rupert Murdoch-like media titan boss) with a truckload of quirky/oddball supporting characters floating around the principals. For the first time in a Zulawski movie (to me anyway, still haven't seen three of them) "Fidelity" feels like its characters live/act in our (the real) world instead of an all-cinematic environment tailored by Zulawski toward his creations. Whether it's the old director learning new tricks by adopting normalcy in a lead or slowing down with age to smell the narrative roses and one last chance to work with his lover/favorite actress, "Fidelity" caps the Zulawski 12 on such a high note it left me stunned.

Unlike most heroines in a Zulawski movie Clélia doesn't become hysteric (except for a couple of scenes where the moment actually calls for it) and she keeps it together as the most normal person I've seen in one of his movies. The weight of Clélia's decisions and how the men in her life interpret/dismiss/manipulate her adds-up to something powerful. There's plenty of Zulawski-patented fireworks/highlights (mafia black-market gangsters straight out of "Szamanka," pointed jabs at Rupert Murdoch's tabloid/sensationalist media, shoot-outs, races and even

Spoiler

an English remake of the movie's opening/final scene with Nemo...

WOW!) as cinematic spikes on what is at its core a simple story of love gotten/lost/desired/repressed that builds and builds and builds. By the end when

Spoiler

Clélia sees Clève's ghost pick up their wedding bands and she apologizes to him the same way Clélia's mother apologized to the ghost of her late husband right before she had a stroke

I was in tears and moved to the core of my being. Zulawski's movies always seem to take place in foreign/alien worlds even when they're set in modern times because of the pitch-high state of mind of its characters. For "Fidelity" though Zulawki (a) leaves almost all the hysterics to the supporting cast (b), it feels like it's happening in a recognizable normal world (a dated one of print publishing transitioning to TV/internet before the contemporary tablet/iPhone/IM social media revolution) and (b) gives his muse/girlfriend actress a meaty role that feels like it's coming from somewhere deep inside and personal (older director dating younger famous movie star, both tabloid fodder at one time). Maybe a rewatch long after "On the Blue Globe" fades into a (repressed-but-never-forgotten) memory will reveal this to not be what I wanted to see or saw Sunday night at BAM, but on first impression "Fidelity" is the best Zulawski movie I've seen since "Possession."

And last night, Monday, me and a half-filled theater at BAM (not as sparsely-attended as the 9:30 p.m. showing the week before of "The Blue Note") saw BORIS GODOUNOV (1989) with French burn-in subtitles and English subs right above them (got a little confusing when the live subtitling started lagging behind) but it was a gorgeous 35mm print. The silent opening/closing slow-motion credits set the stage by making you appreciate the symphony of music/sounds/images coming right before/after we experience the calm of silence. I don't know if Zulawski's mise-en-scène with this particular project matches other opera-on-film productions (which I assume don't feature as much male/female nudity as this one), but for performers that HAVE to be hysteric because it's the nature of their performance work Zulawski's never-static camera captures their passion/music/scope beautifully on very little coin. For an amateur opera movie watcher like me it was rather impressive the way Zulawski weaves filmed-in-a-theater stage scenes with mostly on-location and big-movie set pieces with well-timed pans/tilts that reveal the lighting rigs/camera/crew right next to the sets/performers. If these behind-the-scenes peeks (seconds long at most) were any more frequent they'd stand out as show-off, but if they were less infrequent they'd stand out as intrusive. Since operas are a very stagey and artificial form of confined-to-a-formula entertainment to begin with Zulawski's "Boris Godounov" acknowledges it's a filmed version of an opera because (a) it breaks the monotony of the stage shots and (b) like the opening curtain/newsreel in "Superman: The Movie" it acknowledges the rich history of opera by showcasing the modern tools at Zulawski's disposal in order to capture it.

Not as successful is the fact the on-camera performers are clearly dubbed by actual opera singers (there's no way humans as thin as the one's featured here have pipes strong-enough to belt those songs), which again (like the behind-the-scenes peeks) only highlights that operas are by their very nature very artificial forms of entertainment. There's a borderline-deathly middle section in "Boris Godounov" focused on Ruggero Raimondi's Boris Tzar (who looks like a cross between "Zardoz" Sean Connery and a hairy Ming the Merciless from "Flash Gordon") that's set indoors and seems to go on and on and on. But, if you stay awake through this portion of the opera (I did... barely), you're rewarded with the movie's best scenes when Delphine Forest (Marina) and Pavel Slabý (Dimitri/The Fool, who looks like Jason Mewes from "Clerks") perform a mostly-naked happy dance/song about their plans to conquer Russia when Boris is no longer Tzar. I'm happy I saw the way Zulawski uses all his skills as a movie auteur to bring a good opera to life (it's a beautiful movie to watch/listen and enjoy if you like opera), but it still comes across as a technical exercise in which the director's mise-en-scène meets its perfect match with acting/performing that is already pitche really high to begin with.

[MichaelB]

Not as successful is the fact the on-camera performers are clearly dubbed by actual opera singers (there's no way humans as thin as the one's featured here have pipes strong-enough to belt those songs), which again (like the behind-the-scenes peeks) only highlights that operas are by their very nature very artificial forms of entertainment.

Actually, from what I can make out the vast majority of the lead roles were performed onscreen by actual opera singers - Ruggero Raimondi is most definitely the real deal (evidence), and was presumably cast because not only had he sung Boris Godunov many times on stage but he also had extensive film experience (the title role in Losey's Don Giovanni, Escamillo in Rosi's Carmen). And a quick glance at the cast list suggests that most of the other leads were actual singers too - the most glaring exception being Delphine Forest (Marina), who was dubbed by Galina Vishnevskaya. That said, I have no doubt at all that everyone was probably miming to a playback - that's standard practice in opera film.

But on a more general note, I'm hugely grateful to you for these detailed write-ups - I have a substantial Żuławski kevyip (nine or ten titles, though sadly not Boris Godunov) that I really must start get round to watching properly one of these days.

[dad1153]

Thanks Michael. I know that sung tracks in filmed operas have to be done in post (otherwise the performers would lose their voice by the third or fourth take) but, based on the credits and how slightly-disconnected the sound seemed from the picture (not a lip-synch issue as much as the clarity of the sound giving away it wasn't being performed live), I thought it was worth mentioning. It was your writings that made me curious-enough the check out Naruse movies when Film Forum here in NY showed a bunch of his films. If my poorly-written recaps of what I've been watching at BAM this past week help you 'get over the hump' and embrace Zulawski (minus 'Boris G.' which isn't availabe on home video anywhere) then I will have paid it forward.

As for the singers, I've seen a couple filmed versions of "Don Giovanni" and other operas in my 39 years alive (don't remember any of them enough to call myself an authority on filmed operas though). Based on what I wrote, is Zulawski doing a different kind of filmed opera (switching between actual movie scenes and on-stage sets, showing cameras/equipment on the sets, nudity from the performers) or have these techniques been embraced/done on other well-known motion picture adaptations of operas? I honestly don't recall a filmed opera having as much goofy stuff (kept in check by the seriousness with which the scenes from/about Ruggero Raimondi's Boris are handled, almost too a fault) as what Zulawski puts here, which I think its part of the brilliance of his adaptation of "B.G." The lighter stuff doesn't cancel out the inherent life-or-death drama at the core of the story/performance (Ruggerio certainly looks the part of a male opera diva) and the constant roving/moving/curious Zulawski camera movements (whenever he shows behind-the-sceness stuff it's actually a beautiful-looking moment, not a show-off stunt) do make something most people think as boring, dull and stuffy feel watchable-enough (except for the middle) to stick with for 115 min.

[MichaelB]

I'd love to see it - but, as with Ken Russell's Lisztomania, I suspect I'm rather unusual in that I have extensive prior familiarity with the music (I'm a major Mussorgsky nut, and have seen several productions), and I'm also extremely well disposed towards wildly experimental interpretations. Which was just as well in the case of the Mariinsky production that I caught in London a few years ago...

As for not catching up with most of my Żuławski kevyip, it's not so much getting over a hump as finding the time! I was commissioned to review The Third Part of the Night and Possession, but everything else has to be watched in my own time, of which I have precious little at present.

[dad1153]

Those two ("Possession" in December and "Third Part of the Night" when it opened the BAM retrospective two weeks ago) were my first Zulawski's as well. Man, you are in for a self-inflicted mind fuck of epic proportions my friend. You've been warned! :)

Chris Bozzone's thoughts on The Devil and On the Silver Globe screenings at BAM.

[Calvin]

I just checked out Mondo's releases and they are mindblowing. They are terrific films and the releases are probably the best that you can get out of DVD, well done! I can't wait for future releases (I'm hoping for Blu-Ray - I noticed that the Possession screencap on the other page was 1920x1080! A boxset?), the only other Zulawski film that I've seen is Third Part of the Night which I totally loved.

[David M.]

I just checked out Mondo's releases and they are mindblowing. They are terrific films and the releases are probably the best that you can get out of DVD, well done!

Thank you. I would say some of them are nearly maxxing out the potential of NTSC DVD, but it depends on the master we work from.

For "Silver Globe", I actually wrote a new compression tool to preserve the picture quality (it's a compression challenge thanks to the length, the capacity of the DVD9, and since I insist on no detail filtering): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bDGueu3fgw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; I've used it on every DVD I've encoded since.

So there you go - Andrzej Zulawski indirectly helped improve DVD picture quality in the last years of the format

[Peacock]

Your accent's going American!

[dad1153]

And, just as quickly as it started, BAM's Zulawski Retrospective ended last Tuesday night with a well-attended screening of MY NIGHTS ARE MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN YOUR DAYS (1989). Thirteen days (no Zulawski retrospective last Thursday) really isn't that long when you consider (a) there are only 12 movies and two made-for-TV shorts to get through and (b) "Possession" ran three times a day for two days (everything else got two showings per day max; some rare Zulawski's only got one screening). Heck, I almost clapped at the end of the last showing of the Zulawski Retrospective Trailer (DO NOT CLICK if you don't want "Possession" heavily spoiled!) that BAM put together and showed before every movie. After seeing this teaser ten times in a row (12 if you went to every movie) it felt so familiar and comforting to see previously-random scenes/sights and mentally checking out which scenes belonged to which Zulawski you didn't even know existed up until a few days before. It's a perfect summation of Zulawski's career: individually disjointed pieces that, put together and from a distance, make sweet harmony and put the man's body of work into proper perspective.

I'm glad BAM ended the retrospective with "My Nights..." because anywhere else in the schedule it would have been followed by a better Zulawski movie (except for "On the Silver Globe") but, at the tail end of two week's worth of eye-opening discoveries about a previously unknown auteur (to me anyway), you're on a more forgiving mood. The premise is thin (a man with a brain-destroying sickness falls for a woman that may or may not have psychic powers, and their tragic childhoods and present-day anxieties bonds them) and the execution weird at first, then weirder

Spoiler

(there's a moment involving Jacques Dutronc's blue bunny coming to life as a giant thing that seems lifted straight out of "The Shining")

and by the end of the movie all bets are off. It doesn't have the Earth-shattering urgency that the usual protagonists of a Zulawski movie feel, mostly because everyone else outside the lead couple (Zulawski's usual parade of buffoons, weirdos and eccentrics) exists in this heightened 'movie world' that revolves around Blanche and Lucas. Even though we know Lucas' days are numbered that doesn't make his constant uttering of words so he can have a thread of thought running consistent (otherwise he forgets) any less annoying or unbelievable a hook on which to hang a narrative. After watching Sophie Marceau give the best work I've ever seen her do in "Fidelity" it's tough to see her and the other actors here basically do an approximation of a farcical Dusan Makavejev (who gets name-dropped by Lucas) take on a French romantic/tragic comedy about doomed lovers. Makavejev is an opinionated clown though (Zulawski takes the hysterical reactions of his characters very seriously) but "My Nights..." gets into weirdness (the little bellhop, the patrons Blanche reads minds from, her husband's entourage, etc.) for apparent weirdness sake. Are we supposed to assume at the end that

Spoiler

Lucas kills Blanche by slamming her against the wall, freeing her to finally die in peace with her true love by walking into the Ocean?

It's the only reasonable explanation given that we also see

Spoiler

the little bellhop dude, who is also dead, running around in Lucas' bike.

Not a terrible movie but not as good as the Zulawskis I saw before it (Jacques Dutronc isn't my personal idea of a leading man), "My Nights..." is an amusing trife that gets by on Zulanski's mise-en-scene, more great music by Andrzej Korzynski (the electronic beat that plays during the opening credit's brain scan visual is fantastic) and Marceau giving her all. I'm just glad the retrospective is over and I can go back to living/working in Manhattan 24/7 and never having to come over the bridge over to Brooklyn ever again, or until they let Lena Dunham program a week of movies in April at BAM.... speak of the devil! :(

Off to unwrap my LE "La femme publique" and "L’amour braque" DVD's. See you around.

[dad1153]

Chris Bozzone's thoughts on Fidelity, Boris Godounov and My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days.

[David M.]

Preliminary announcement of the Mondo Vision release of POSSESSION.

What I'm allowed to share with you is:

Two versions, as usual, Standard and Limited.

Limited Edition is going to include the soundtrack on a second disc (CD).

As for the contents of the first disc... a smorgasbord of goodies

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Wonderful! Just having the movie and the CD will be great, but the usual care you take with the extras will be just as exciting.

[dad1153]

As for the contents of the first disc... a smorgasbord of goodies ;)

You tease! :D

[Iode]

And apparently DARSOO is now TOUFAAN.

Where do they get these names?

[Calvin]

Will there be a Blu-Ray?

[dad1153]

Back in July of '09 David mentioned in this thread the costs were still too prohibitive for MV to do a Blu-ray run for a Zulawski film. It's almost three years later though, and "Possession" is a guaranteed seller. So... maybe? [-o<

[Calvin]

Possession strikes me as one of those titles that could sell a couple thousand units on Blu-Ray to cinephiles and cult horror fans (especially if it's region free). It's also one of the few Zulawski's that has had (relatively) widespread distribution on DVD. The screencap back on page 9 looks like it would be great on Blu (and it looks to be a 1920x1080 image anyway).

[warren oates]

I'd be psyched for a Blu-ray of Possession too. I hope MV will seriously consider HD.

[John Edmond]

Even at $50-60 a pop you can put me down for blu-ray as well.

[McCrutchy]

Even at $50-60 a pop you can put me down for blu-ray as well.

+1. I would definitely pay a premium if that meant I could have Possession and/or any of the releases in Blu-ray.

[Telstar]

Ditto.

[Calvin]

I'd easily pay a premium price for Blu-Ray. I can only see Possession selling well enough on its own to justify a standalone release though. I'd love to see a collector's (perhaps limited edition) boxset, I'd snap that up right away.

[Chris Bozzone]

I agree with everyone in that I would pay a high price for Possession to be released by Mondo Vision on Blu-Ray. However, I ultimately think that the most important thing is for Mondo Vision to do well with each title released and be in a position where the label can definitely carry out the original plans of all scheduled 2012/2013 Andrzej Zulawski films. If Blu-Ray is too large of a financial risk, DVD will be fine considering how David's invaluable work pushes the limits of DVD capabilities. Ideally, all future releases will do so well with further attention now on Zulawski's films that Mondo Vision will be able to not only release 2 editions of each planned release as usual but will also be able to expand as a label and release other films as well. I can't think of any other DVD label that does such fine work on each and every release.

As for the extras, it would be wonderful if any of them include participation from Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill. Zulawski has already given a phenomenal commentary track which he recorded with Daniel Bird for the Anchor Bay release.

In terms of the Limited Edition version with the CD soundtrack of Possession, that is of course excellent news. I hope that the CD includes the recently unearthed unused Andrzej Korzynski music for the film that Finders Keepers has released. There are some beautiful and atmospheric tracks within.