Polish Cinema on Disc

[L.A.]

Apparently those KinoRP Blu-rays won't be released today like previously announced but in November. I can wait but I sure hope it's going to happen next month or soon at least.

[djvaso]

The prices for KinoRP Blu-rays are PLN 69,99 at mobile verson of Bluedvd.pl store?! But, this is some kind of test. I hope that the real prices will be similar to Empik ones.

[MichaelB]

That's pretty much in line with Polish BD prices across the board, so I wouldn't get your hopes up. Which is why I still generally buy DVDs unless I really like the film, as the price difference is often huge.

(Although obviously the "I really like the film" factor applies in all five cases here!)

[Calvin]

In Japan, Kinokuniya have been releasing some Polish films on Blu-Ray. No English subtitles.

Man on the Tracks (Andrzej Munk)
Eroica (Andrzej Munk)
Bad Luck (Andrzej Munk)
Nobody's Calling (Kazimierz Kutz)
People on a Train (Kazimierz Kutz)
Goodbye, See You Tomorrow (Janusz Morgenstern)

[MichaelB]

They'll almost certainly be from the same KinoRP masters - in fact, at least two of those (the Kutz titles) are announced as upcoming Polish releases.

[Calvin]

I just hope KinoRP/DMMS don't mess up the Blu-Ray transfers with DNR or any digital tweaking!

Also, to add to your earlier list Michael, this seems to say that KinoRP are restoring Wajda's Ashes (Popioly)

[GaryC]

Looking at Warsaw cinema listings, I can see that some of the showings of Ida will have English subtitles. I'm sure that will get a UK release - it's just played the LFF - but doubt I'll get much of a chance to see it without a trip to London, given that it's not only Polish-language but black and white as well. There is a Polish community in and around Aldershot, with two Polish shops in the town, but so far the local Cineworld, one year old today, hasn't shown any Polish films yet - Bollywood and occasional Malay films yes, Polish no.

[MichaelB]

I daresay it will be impossible to tell in advance, but you really need to see 'Ida' on the biggest screen you can find. Which is probably more likely to be in Warsaw, given that it'll automatically be put into an arthouse ghetto here.

It's picking up festival awards galore (Gdynia, London, Warsaw), and I can easily see why - I saw it in Gdynia, and its sheer creative confidence was way ahead of the pack.

[GaryC]

Armed with a printout of your list, I went into the Nowy Świat branch of Empik and came out again with the following DVDs:

Baby Blues (Bejbi blues, 2012, d. Kasia Rosłaniec)
Courage (Wymyk, d. Greg Zgliński)
80 Million (80 milionów, d. Waldemar Krzystek)
Imagine (d. Andrzej Jakimowski)
Ki (d. Leszek Dawid)
My Father's Bike (Mój rower, d. Piotr Trzaskalski)
Rose (Róża, d. Wojciech Smarzowski)
Women's Day (Dzień kobiet, d. Maria Sadowska)
You Are God (Jesteś Bogiem, d. Leszek Dawid)
Yuma (d. Piotr Mularuk)

- all of which were 29.99zł, except Wymyk which was 19.99zł. Depending on what I make of them, I may even review some of these for The Digital Fix. That may be a while though - I currently have review copies taking me into early December, and I'm going to be taking a break after that until the end of 2013.

I did see Ida this evening, in an English-subtitled DCP in the Kinoteka in the Palace of Culture - ticket price was a mere 25zł. (I hadn't known it was in Academy Ratio though.) It was very good, and I can see where all those festival awards are coming from, but I won't be reviewing it until it reaches DVD or Blu-ray as there's a cinema review already (by Nick Chen, from the LFF showing).

[L.A.]

Arcydzieła Polskiego Kina: Andrzej Wajda

Includes restored versions of the following films:

Człowiek z marmuru / Man of Marble
Bez znieczulenia / Without Anesthesia aka Rough Treatment
Człowiek z żelaza / Man of Iron

Also included is a documentary Andrzej Wajda: róbmy zdjęcie!.

[MichaelB]

Arcydzieła Polskiego Kina: Andrzej Wajda

Includes restored versions of the following films:

Człowiek z marmuru / Man of Marble
Bez znieczulenia / Without Anesthesia aka Rough Treatment
Człowiek z żelaza / Man of Iron

Also included is a documentary Andrzej Wajda: róbmy zdjęcie!.

That's very cunning - I certainly don't need Man of Marble or Man of Iron, not least because they're coming out on Blu-ray, but I've yet to see Rough Treatment in any form: for some reason, despite its considerable stature, it's been very hard to get hold of with English subtitles.

The documentary runs 54 minutes, and seems to be mostly about the making of Katyn - it was filmed in 2006/7 by four of his students at the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing.

[djvaso]

The RRP for these Blu-rays is PLN 39,99. Pre-order page at bluedvd.pl is alive now and I ordered two titles for PLN 106.98 all included.

[vertovfan]

Apparently the Chopin set does exist in a DVD-only version. I found and bought a copy at a Polish auction site, and just received it today. All the discs are marked DVD, and the package looks like the part with the black stripe in the picture here. I'm guessing the gold-stripe part contains the blu-rays. Still looking forward to checking out the contents!

[L.A.]

Apparently the Chopin set does exist in a DVD-only version. I found and bought a copy at a Polish auction site, and just received it today. All the discs are marked DVD, and the package looks like the part with the black stripe in the picture here. I'm guessing the gold-stripe part contains the blu-rays. Still looking forward to checking out the contents!

My copy is gold-striped; two Blu-rays and a DVD.

[TMDaines]

I just checked Bluedvd.pl and they've reduced the price of the new Blus to 40 zloty, but best of all they now have placeholders for about another dozen big films! I sense some major anticipation!

--

Did anyone find out what happened with the Telewizja Aleksander Ford box set? It still seems to be unavailable online and I've never seen it in any stores.

I know Empik has had a load of plugs from MichaelB and I in the past, but if you're in Poland I would probably recommend Saturn too. The one in Krakow's big shopping centre had a load of these box sets last time I was there in September - including about ten Morgensterns. I even managed to get a Blu-Ray of Austeria for about 40 or so Zloty too. I paid a load more in Empik for Pociag if I remember. I'll definitely try these stores for the new Blu-rays between Christmas and New Year.

[L.A.]

Punkt44.pl now lists the KinoRP Blu-rays including a new addition in the same series Poszukiwany - Poszukiwana (Stanisław Bareja, 1973) (though a DVD).

Also noticed these titles (again DVDs only) directed by Stanisław Bareja:

Nie ma róży bez ognia (1974)
Miś (1981)

[twicebilled]

Has anyone received these KinoRP discs yet? Would love to know if the english subtitles is true or not.

[shaky]

My friend just got them and tells me that all three Wajdas at least have English subs, and well done ones at that. He also says that the PQ looks surprisingly good.

PS. I'm trying to order these right now. Is the 'kod' section of the address section the Polish equivalent of a zip code?

[MichaelB]

My friend just got them and tells me that all three Wajdas at least have English subs, and well done ones at that. He also says that the PQ looks surprisingly good.

The subtitles on the restoration of Man of Marble that I saw at the Gdynia Film Festival were excellent - markedly superior to the ones on the old Polish DVD. I daresay they're the same ones.

[MichaelB]

The niggling question of why the restoration of The Hourglass Sanatorium is presented in 1.85:1 on the Mr Bongo and Telewizja Kinopolska DVDs and the new KinoRP Blu-ray despite the 35mm version being framed at 2.35:1 (and despite the restoration having been supervised by cinematographer Witold Sobociński) seems to have been answered.

In a nutshell, Sobociński effectively went down the VistaVision/Super 35 route by shooting natively in 1.85:1 and then cropping to 2.35:1 for cinema screenings (because few if any Polish cinemas couldn't handle 1.85:1 at the time). So while I'd still need authentic grabs from a 2.35:1 version to be certain of this, it looks as though the HD-sourced DVDs and BDs reveal more of the image at the top and bottom, rather than less at the sides. Which explains why the film looks absolutely fine in 1.85:1 - normally it's all too obvious if a Scope film has been cropped.

[GaryC]

Michael certainly knows this, but for anyone else interested Floating Skyscrapers (Plynace wiezowce) has a UK cinema release from Friday. It's however rather a limited one. Its main and only London venue appears to be the Curzon Soho, and it's on once per day. So, while I will be up in London on Saturday most likely, it's not on at a time I can see it.

[TMDaines]

On my way through Poland to Ukraine a week ago, I picked up all five of these Blu-rays and a few of the DVDs. Empik in the Krakow shopping gallery had loads and I believe they are exclusive to that chain. The digipaks look very impressive and, whilst I've been unable to watch any of the discs myself, they've been getting very positive comments on the Blu-ray.com forums.

[L.A.]

Pan Tadeusz (Ryszard Ordyński, 1928) available on DVD. No info of English subtitles yet.

[GaryC]

Ida now has a UK release date, but it's a long way away - 26 September. Curzon Film World are distributing it. So that may well be time to see it again, given that that will be only eleven months after I saw it on its cinema release in Warsaw!

[L.A.]

Pan Tadeusz (Ryszard Ordyński, 1928) available on DVD. No info of English subtitles yet.

Filmoteka Narodowa emailed about the DVD. No English subs this time.