Polish Cinema on Disc

[MichaelB]

Don't take this as gospel, but...

This publication is non-profit, and free of charge.

Although designed for educational and cultural institutions, in exceptional cases we can also make them available to private individuals.

In this case, we are happy to do this, provided you arrange for a courier to collect the discs from us. Please let us know the collection details in advance.

'Płyty' can indeed mean 'plates', but I suspect they mean 'discs' in this context!

[Calvin]

Thank you! I'm going to have to check out Parcel2Go, have you got any idea on the dimensions of the set?

[MichaelB]

Thank you! I'm going to have to check out Parcel2Go, have you got any idea on the dimensions of the set?

<gets out tape measure>

Size: 34cm x 16cm x 4cm (rounded up to the nearest cm in all cases)

Weight: just under 1.3 kilos (1,269g if you trust my kitchen scales)

(The package itself more than merits the tag 'luxury', and the enclosed book is pretty hefty).

[Calvin]

It's actually not as easy arranging a courier as I thought it would be. Finding one to collect from the UK and deliver to Poland is straightforward, the reverse less so for some reason. Right now, it looks like it'll cost between £25-£35.

[L.A.]

Got a reply from Filmoteka Narodowa as well (in English) and it seems that I can get a copy.

[Calvin]

Did they ask you to arrange a courier as well?

[L.A.]

Did they ask you to arrange a courier as well?

No mention of shipping yet but they promised to reply back tomorrow of the necessary details.

[Calvin]

Did they ask you to arrange a courier as well?

No mention of shipping yet but they promised to reply back tomorrow of the necessary details.

I've e-mailed them to ask if it would be possible for them to just send it to me and I'll pay the postage. Possibly, because they're a non-profit organisation, they have no way of accepting payments and that's why they're wanting me to organise a courier but I thought that I might as well ask anyway - there's no point in paying £35 for a courier if I can get it cheaper.

[L.A.]

Chopin: Film Motifs

Impressive set.

My copy arrived today!

[MichaelB]

Congratulations!

I suspect this is a copyright thing, but these luxury boxes made exclusively for embassies and cultural institutions have always had me baffled: surely the chances of them being watched by anyone who actually cares about the work must be pretty minimal?

Put it like this, when the BFI's copy arrived it was dispatched to my desk within seconds, almost certainly on the grounds that I was the only person in the building who'd be the slightest bit interested.

[TMDaines]

Congratulations!

I suspect this is a copyright thing, but these luxury boxes made exclusively for embassies and cultural institutions have always had me baffled: surely the chances of them being watched by anyone who actually cares about the work must be pretty minimal?

Put it like this, when the BFI's copy arrived it was dispatched to my desk within seconds, almost certainly on the grounds that I was the only person in the building who'd be the slightest bit interested.

Check out the Ukrainian Films on DVD thread and look at the set of English-subbed boxes that I got sent for nothing. In Ukraine at least, this is literally the only way that these sets could be produced. There's no such thing as Ukrainian films in their shops. It's a a twin cultural invasion from Hollywood and Russia, resulting in there barely being any sense of Ukrainian film culture - certainly in the mainstream. I've seen about ten legit Ukrainian films on DVD there in total, which are all barebones and Ukrainian-friendly only, and a nice special edition of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, which is subbed in five languages.

[Calvin]

My Chopin set arrived today and wow - it's stunning (and I haven't even put the discs in yet!). It's amazing they've put so much work into a set that will probably be seen by a few dozen people.

[arsonfilms]

The set looks absolutely stunning, but it seems like I'd be holding out false hope to get a copy in the US. I can't imagine that if they're asking for courier's to come pick something up that they'd be willing to just charge for shipping. Has anyone in the US tried to discuss this with them?

[Calvin]

I did manage to get them to send it normally in the end but I had to pay for it via bank transfer (they actually sent it before I paid though!)

[L.A.]

I was going to order the Aleksander Ford - box (3DVD) but all Telewizja Kinopolska sets at Merlin.pl are "7 dni roboczych". Also Empik.com lists them "product unavailable".

Sure hope these are not OOP yet.

[MichaelB]

I was going to order the Aleksander Ford - box (3DVD) but all Telewizja Kinopolska sets at Merlin.pl are "7 dni roboczych". Also Empik.com lists them "product unavailable".

Sure hope these are not OOP yet.

They do tend to drift in and out of availability (it took me ages to get hold of the Horrory one), but I don't for a second imagine that the Ford box is OOP - it's the most recent of the Telewizja Kinopolska boxes, and has only been out for a few months.

[Anthony]

My Chopin set arrived today and wow - it's stunning (and I haven't even put the discs in yet!). It's amazing they've put so much work into a set that will probably be seen by a few dozen people.

Can you post some pics of the set?

[InWroclaw]

• Flying Pigs (Skrzydlate świnie, d. Anna Kazejak, 2010)

I can confirm the above does have English subtitles on DVD barcode 5900058127238 ITI Grupa Home Video.

Not sure how accurate the subtitles are, might have seen a few small errors, also with the football chant scenes the word "invincible" is used in English but I had always thought the word chanted sounded like the Polish word for "darling/beloved". I could of course be wrong as I'm a Brit and my Polish knowledge is slim and some words might sound the same to my ears.

[MichaelB]

Does it have Polish HOH subtitles? That might settle things.

[InWroclaw]

Does it have Polish HOH subtitles? That might settle things.

No hard-of-hearing subtitles that my player can detec. A Polish native speaker will be checking the scene soon, so will ask them if the word has been correctly translated. There are definitely a few minor errors, eg "Pan" in the English subtitles instead of the word "Mr/Mister/Sir".

[InWroclaw]

Polish native has checked the subtitling for that scene - verdict was it is a fair representation of what was said or, in this case, sung. The Polish words for "Invincible/unbeatable" and "beloved" rhyme and sound similar to my ears - hence the confusion. The subtitle uses the word "dear" instead of the word "beloved" but in essence it is the same meaning. Strangely enough, the Polish words for dear as in beloved or cherished and dear as in expensive are the same, just like in English.

To go off on a tangent - when for example The Office sitcom is subtitled into Polish, they do change some of the sentences so that a Polish audience can get the joke or symbolism. A crude example of that is when Rory Bremner's name was suggested as an inspiration of David Brent in Series II, the subtitlers decided to instead use the name Jasiem Fasola. That's Mr Bean to you and me. Rowan Atkinson is very popular in Poland. The downside to that is any Polish person trying to learn English using The Office DVD could be very confused and wonder what a rorybremner is.

[MichaelB]

I've just posted my impressions of sixteen recent Polish films that I saw last week in Gdynia. Some are already out on English-subtitled DVDs in Poland, namely:

• 80 Million (80 milionów, d. Waldemar Krzystek);
• In Darkness (W ciemności, d. Agnieszka Holland) - also on Blu-ray;
• Man, Chicks are Just Different (Baby są jakieś inne, d. Marek Koterski);

...though you might be better off with a British/US edition of In Darkness as I understand the Polish DVD and Blu-ray both have burned-in Polish subtitles where necessary - and given the rich linguistic stew that it serves up, that's a fair chunk of the film. (I saw a Polish print on the big screen, so this isn't just idle speculation).

[McCrutchy]

Hmm, that Chopin site says the films are available on DVD and Blu-ray. Would that mean, presumably, that the set is also available with Blu-ray Discs instead of DVDs? Because that would be extremely worth the investment (not that a DVD edition would not)...

EDIT: I e-mailed them to find out. Getting very excited now.

[MichaelB]

Hmm, that Chopin site says the films are available on DVD and Blu-ray. Would that mean, presumably, that the set is also available with Blu-ray Discs instead of DVDs? Because that would be extremely worth the investment (not that a DVD edition would not)...

To the best of my knowledge, there never was an all-DVD edition.

The package that I received a couple of years ago contained:

Disc 1 (Blu-ray)

• The Youth of Chopin (Młodość Chopina, d. Aleksander Ford, 1951, 122 mins)
• The Chopin Recital in Duszniki (Recital Chopinowski w Dusznikach, d. Tadeusz Makarczyński, 1947, 13 mins)

Disc 2 (Blu-ray)

• Chopin, Desire for Love (Chopin, pragnienie miłości, d. Jerzy Antczak, 2002, 116 mins)
• Chopin in Paris (Chopin w Paryżu, d. Stanisław Grabowski, 1969, 10 mins)
• Chopin According to Antczak (Chopin według Antczaka, interview, 2010, 12 mins)

All the above but the last item are in 1080i, with the Antczak interview in SD PAL.
Optional subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish

Disc 3 (DVD)

• Colour Studies of Chopin (Utwory Chopina w kolorze, d. Eugeniusz Cękalski, 1944, 11 mins)
• Chopin's Mazurkas (Mazurki Chopina, d. Tadeusz Makarczyński, 1949, 12 mins)
• Rodem Warszawianin (A Varsovian by Birth, d. Maria Kwiatkowska, 1996, 56 mins)

Everything on Disc 3 is in SD PAL.
Optional subtitles in Polish, English, French, German, Spanish

The Blu-rays are marked as region B, the DVD as region-free.

The booklet looks deceptively huge, but is presented in the five languages cited above, so textual content isn't quite as substantial as it seems when you pick it up. But there's more than enough detailed background.

[McCrutchy]

^Ah, so it's a combo pack!

I thought it was available in separate Blu-ray and DVD editions.