Altered Innocence

[L.A.]

Équation à un inconnu / Equation to an Unknown (1980) reviewed at Mondo Digital.

[L.A.]

Love Express: The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk coming November 10th.

[lzx]

Love Express: The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk coming November 10th.

Trailer

[senseabove]

This label's quietly doing some great stuff as a kind of queer Vinegar Syndrome with more of an arthouse focus. Their release of Yann Gonzalez's Knife + Heart is great, and alongside several other recent films, they've announced an interesting array of restorations they'll eventually be releasing on blu-ray: a Fred Halsted collection that includes LA Plays Itself, Sextool, and Sex Garage; Dressed in Blue, a 1980s Spanish documentary by Antonio Giménez Rico about six trans women in Spain in the 80s; and Ivan Zulueta's Rapture (Arrebato).

[JamesF]

Very pleased to see this label will soon be releasing a 4K restoration of one of my wishlist titles, director Garth Maxwell's stylish Kiwi horror oddity Jack Be Nimble, starring Bruno Lawrence and a pre-transition Alexis Arquette (doing a very serviceable NZ accent, I might add): https://www.alteredinnocence.net/jackbenimble
I've held onto my widescreen Tartan VHS for years because the only other alternatives were a pan-and-scan laserdisc (the film was shot in anamorphic 1.85:1) and a NZ DVD that cropped the pan-and-scan master to 1.85 so that most of the image was missing!

[ianthemovie]

Coming from Altered Innocence: "Dressed in Blue (Vestida de Azul)', a portrait of 6 trans women from 1983 post-Franco Spain opens in U.S. cinemas starting on November 16th."

[Matt]

I posted this in the Vinegar Syndrome thread not realizing there was a thread for Altered Innocence. Seems like this thread could use a bump:

Plus Altered Innocence is putting out an early film by Patrice Chéreau (who would go on to La Reine Margot, Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train and Intimacy) The Wounded Man which features a very early Jean-Hugues Anglade starring role, pre-Subway and Betty Blue.

Got my copy yesterday and gave it a spin tonight. I haven’t seen it in a good 30 years, but my reaction to it was almost the same. It’s a very odd film, similar to a middle-period Fassbinder film with its focus on searching for human connection on the margins of and in the underbelly of society. It’s also a resolutely unerotic film, despite its reputation and its prevalent nudity. It’s less an erotic thriller than it is a depiction of wild animals on the hunt. Anglade darts around, wild-eyed, like a spooked rabbit; Vittorio Mezzogiorno (so handsome he’s ugly or vice-versa) is a wolf on the prowl, appearing and disappearing behind darkened corners; and Roland Bertin is a great bear drunk on rotten fruit and stumbling through the woods. The sex in the movie—and there really isn’t any in a conventional sense—is more like a small animal trying to rip meat off a larger carcass. If you were uncharitable you would think that these actors had never seen anyone kiss or make love, but the hungry brutality of it feels entirely intentional.

(And I knew that Denis Lavant showed up somewhere, but he only appears as a guy cruising a men’s room giving someone that fatal Denis Lavant stare. No dialogue, but unmistakably him.)

The extras consist of two scholarly-style video essays (generally not my cup of tea) and a couple of trailers. Nice transfer with some slight and almost unnoticeable technical glitches in a couple of scenes. Worth splurging on if it’s the kind of thing you think you might be interested in.

I also watched the Altered Innocence release of Wild Reeds, and I’d say about the same regarding the transfer and extras. Though the three primary actors (Gaël Morel, Stéphane Rideau, and Élodie Bouchez) all went on to continued success in film, it feels like Téchiné caught lightning in a bottle with them here, capturing their and their characters’ confused, emotional youth at a crucial turning point. Lovely film, and more sweetly chaste than I remembered it.

[Calvin]

Per the programme for the New York Film Festival, Altered Innocence will be releasing Paul Vecchiali's The Strangler. Hopefully they've picked up some other Vecchiali films as well

[criterionsnob]

Altered Innocence have announced their first two non-partner label Blu-ray releases.

She Is Conann - May 7
Ozon’s Transgressive Triple (Sitcom, Criminal Lovers, and Water Drops on Burning Rocks) - June 25

[Peacock]

Altered Innocence have announced their first two non-partner label Blu-ray releases.

She Is Conann - May 7
Ozon’s Transgressive Triple (Sitcom, Criminal Lovers, and Water Drops on Burning Rocks) - June 25

She is Conann was inevitable but I’m so glad it’s coming this soon. Cannot wait!

And three key Ozons at last on English friendly Blus. Amazing announcements.

[Stefan Andersson]

Altered Innocence have announced their first two non-partner label Blu-ray releases.

She Is Conann - May 7
Ozon’s Transgressive Triple (Sitcom, Criminal Lovers, and Water Drops on Burning Rocks) - June 25

She is Conann was inevitable but I’m so glad it’s coming this soon. Cannot wait!

And three key Ozons at last on English friendly Blus. Amazing announcements.

Which version of Criminal Lovers will this be?

From the ImdB Alternate versions page for Criminal Lovers:

"The 2001 DVD release in France from Paramount contains an alternate cut of the film, running 80 mins., which places most of the events into chronological order."

[domino harvey]

It appears that Altered Innocence's releases are no longer on Vinegar Syndrome's website-- was there any indication that they'd be taken down so soon? Is there somewhere else to buy them?

[Peacock]

It appears that Altered Innocence's releases are no longer on Vinegar Syndrome's website-- was there any indication that they'd be taken down so soon? Is there somewhere else to buy them?

Hi Dom, the last day to buy them on the VS website was last Saturday I believe.

Someone asked Altered Innocence on Twitter what would happen to their titles and they replied - “We’ll still have all the same titles on @diabolikdvd, Amazon, DeepDiscount, TLA, and many others!”

They said elsewhere that all the slipcases will be going into the recycling.

And finally in another reply they mentioned moving from OCN to MVD (although that doesn’t appear to have happened yet)

[domino harvey]

Bummer, thanks for the info! I kept putting off picking up Les Roseaux sauvages til I could bundle it with something else. I don't always prioritize this kind of thing, but I really liked the slipcover on that one

[colinr0380]

I don't always prioritize this kind of thing, but I really liked the slipcover on that one

Straight in the shredder!

[Adam X]

I don’t know how accurate the info is, but The Movie DB lists two films: Reflection in a Dead Diamond (in post) & animated film Darling (in production).
Which is great news, if true.

Variety seems (?) to suggest Darling was first shown in 2022; and this page lists their other film with a September 2024 release date.

[domino harvey]

I was able to successfully grab the Techine from OrbitDVD with the slip. They're out of stock now, but they do have a used copy with the slip going for all of $20 and if you can see the slipcover "damage" that whoever bought this returned it for, you have better eyes than me

[What A Disgrace]

Altered Innocence has a double feature of Arthur Bressan Jr's Juice and Daddy Dearest, coming soon.

• Commentary Tracks by Elizabeth Purchell & KJ Shepherd of ‘Cruising the Movies’
• Video Essay on Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. by I. Que Grande
• Ephemera and Script Gallery
• Restored Original XXX Trailers
• New Compilation Trailer
• Other Trailers
• Booklet with an Essay by Mackenzie Lukenbill and Press Notes by Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.
• English Language 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
• English SDH & Spanish Subtitles
• Region-Free

[Aunt Peg]

I do hope Arthur Bressan Jr. best film Abuse (1983) is released sometime in the near future.

Recently received Altered Innocence's most recent Blu Ray release Endless Summer Syndrome (2023) and found it utterly compelling.

[senseabove]

I do hope Arthur Bressan Jr. best film Abuse (1983) is released sometime in the near future.

FWIW, at a screening of Daddy Dearest in San Francisco the other week, Jenni Olson (co-director of The Bressan Project) sadly said that Abuse is not in the works right now because... well... *gestures at the current US political landscape*

[spectre]

Graham Foy’s The Maiden is out on Blu-Ray on 12 August:

https://www.alteredinnocence.net/themaiden

This is a great little film about teenage identity, grief and neurodivergence – I saw it at Melbourne International Film Festival a couple of years back and was very impressed.

[spectre]

Newest release announced is So Unreal by Amanda Kramer, for mid September – I don't know much about this one, but she's a pretty interesting director (I saw her TV special-inspired weird black comedy Give Me Pity! a couple of years back and thought it was quite striking).

https://www.alteredinnocence.net/sounreal

[Lowry_Sam]

They're also touring a new 4k restoration of Taxi zum Kloh. Hopefully a disc (1st UHD?) isn't far behind.

[criterionsnob]

Taxi zum Klo, new 4K restoration on Blu-ray from Altered Innocence December 16.

[vertigo]

Stielke, Heinz, Fifteen is good, but I don't see it "gay" enough for being in this collection, but the story is very very very tough indeed. I've seen it twice. It is a sort of passive Picaresque novel.

I don't know how this film was produced, the kid had really 15 years old and the subject of abuse is really terrible, made by a straight woman and his SS sadist lover. It is very violent, I mean the SS man in the Napola.