Vinegar Syndrome and Their Partner Labels

[colinr0380]

I wonder if they will get to Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby at some point too, although I'm not expecting a Vincent Gallo interview!

On Freeway itself, I quite like it as well as the way that it is fitting in with that 90s trend of 'serial killers on the road' films (Kalifornia, Natural Born Killers, the Amanda Plummer starring Butterfly Kiss). And that other mid-90s trend of updating the Little Red Riding Hood for adults also resulted in the quite extreme short film Black XXX-mas (very NSFW!) that would make a good double bill with Freeway!

[Finch]

So the teases are all nice but it'd be nicer still if VS suss out how not to make everyone in their releases look like they've had severe sunburn.

[domino harvey]

I wonder if they will get to Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby at some point too, although I'm not expecting a Vincent Gallo interview!

Dark Force put it out on Blu a few years ago. No Gallo participation, but you do get John Landis (!)

[beamish14]

I wonder if they will get to Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby at some point too, although I'm not expecting a Vincent Gallo interview!

Dark Force put it out on Blu a few years ago. No Gallo participation, but you do get John Landis (!)

John Landis’ cameo in Costa-Gavras’ The Ax is very amusing

[domino harvey]

Élisa (Altered Innocence)

While I'm glad to see a non-recent French film get a release, Jesus. Does everything this label and its sub-labels release have to have something prurient about them? Elisa is really two movies, the first (after a brief prologue of child murder and suicide) a slightly out of step youth picture like Subway where Vanessa Paradis acts as audience surrogate for her teenage fanbase, playing an "orphan" in a group home who cons adults and runs around with her friends getting into adventures. Could be fun, but it's not because Paradis is an obnoxious character and I didn't find her flaws captivating or enriching for fleshing out her character, just unpleasant. But then, hoo boy, things go further south as Paradis decides to track down her estranged father, played by Gerard Depardieu in what is clearly supposed to be a surprise appearance since he's not in the credits, but luckily the packaging plasters his name everywhere (and I can't really blame them, that's a big marketable star). The teenage Paradis' plan, however, after she fails to shoot him dead outright, is to get revenge on her father by seducing him. She does this by disrobing repeatedly, inflaming his jealousy, and finally, you know, kissing him and mounting him naked in an attempt to get him to fuck her. Great. Truly a WTF film (and the end thank you credit is hilarious in context with what's being depicted as well)

[colinr0380]

The only things that really stuck with me on seeing Elisa back in the 90s were that the first half teenage delinquent section of the film taught me that trick of bilking money from a shopkeeper with the help of an accomplice and a marked bill, and I remember finding the theme tune catchy (of course it would be a Serge Gainsbourg song ). But I think I had checked out by the time Depardieu's character turned up.

I mean there could have been the potential for an interesting plot from the premise if it had been written by Neil LaBute or with the twists of David Mamet (let alone Rohmer) which could perhaps have dealt with the issues in a complex manner whilst shifting the audience's sympathies, maybe about a damaged and delinquent daughter looking to revenge herself on an obviously uncaring absent father, but that kind of thing does not really work with a just coming off of the already rather dodgy My Father, The Hero-era Depardieu.

[domino harvey]

Yes, Gainsbourg's name popping up at the end is the credit that made me chuckle. And I have to confess, I'm one of the few non-French people who actually likes Mon pere, ce heros (never saw the American remake), which works as an inverse of the Belmondo movie where he tells everyone his young lover Sophie Marceau is actually his daughter. But anyone who thought that film went too far is going to have their monocles properly popped out by Elisa (and not without cause)

[colinr0380]

Just goes to show that Gaspar Noe's infamous finale of Seul contre tous wasn't just coming out of nowhere!

[therewillbeblus]

Did you happen to see that VS released Blood Delirium? Never seen it but it's by the same director as In the Folds of the Flesh.

This was thoroughly entertaining. It's not as formally adjacent to In the Folds of the Flesh' punk-rock guerrilla aesthetic, nor is it implementing that film's genius narrative conceit that's function is to be just as grammatically insane as the characters or ideas present. That's not a problem, just a sign that the director has evolved a bit, however not without taking some significant unique traits with him. Blood Delirium is more technically refined, and whittles down the sweeping conceptual extravaganzas exposed through narrative pivots from In the Folds of the Flesh, compressed into a deranged Bava skeleton. However, there are definitely fingerprints in how some of the offbeat inclusions are devised and executed, with some stylistic full-measures of absurdity that really work despite their curious relationship to anything integral to the film (in that way, it kinda is of a piece with the earlier Bergonzelli!) As the film progresses, the film's fashion only becomes more eclectic and impressive, expanding from its initially composed chamber focus, spread out to wider extremes in poles of phantasmagoric visuals and, conversely, in longer-than-average meditations on naturalistic details like hair whisking in the wind- the kind that would be found in the transcendental margins of a Norman J. Warren pic. I admired In the Folds of the Flesh for many reasons, but mostly because it showed me many familiar horror concepts in entirely new ways, and then went one further by showing me something entirely different through maniacally sewing together these episodes into a Frankenstein's Monster of a movie- that would make the creature himself turn his heels and run in the other direction if he got close enough. This one has quieter ambitions, but Bergonzelli utilizes all available resources to concoct a spectacular design and executes it with creative precision and resolved style. It's miles better than any DTV movie should be. I wonder what Bava would think of Bergonzelli's skills at crafting atmosphere and lavish set pieces. They're definitely very different filmmakers with different interests in this domain, but I feel like they'd have a lot to talk about. At baseline, I'd think there'd be mutual professional respect in realising their respective imaginative reveries.

[yoloswegmaster]

New Partner Label Titles are up:

Bat Pussy
The Black Crystal
Damselvis: Daughter of Helvis
Death Magic
Freakscene
Dressed In Blue (Vestida de Azul)
Sylvio
Uncle Kent 2
Solomon King
Lieutenant Jangles
Pirates
The Rainbow Boys
Satan's Menagerie

[Glowingwabbit]

I feel like this definitely confirms FCE is leaving. I wonder if they'll do their own subscription like Terror Vision or if they'll just be part of Radiance in the US as well.

[swo17]

Curious about The Rainbow Boys--has anyone seen it?

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah bummer about FCE (and sympathy to the mods for the inevitable mining of the forum to re-create its old thread), hopefully they get themselves situated soon and keep the gold coming

Are any of these announcements good?

[Glowingwabbit]

Yeah bummer about FCE (and sympathy to the mods for the inevitable mining of the forum to re-create its old thread), hopefully they get themselves situated soon and keep the gold coming

Are any of these announcements good?

I'm really only looking forward to Dressed In Blue (Vestida de Azul) and part of that is for the roundtable discussion between a number a trans film critics I enjoy reading and interacting with online.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I wanted to get a copy of Bat Pussy a few years ago, but it went out of print very quick. Glad it got reissued with a new transfer too.

[black&huge]

not to devolve into utter crudeness here but I've seen Bat Pussy and it's so boring for what it is that if it was a weird movie about a bat puppet with a human vagina it'd be 1000x more disgusting and interesting

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Yeah bummer about FCE (and sympathy to the mods for the inevitable mining of the forum to re-create its old thread), hopefully they get themselves situated soon and keep the gold coming

Are any of these announcements good?

I'm really only looking forward to Dressed In Blue (Vestida de Azul) and part of that is for the roundtable discussion between a number a trans film critics I enjoy reading and interacting with online.

Seconding this because I was worried it'd be much later than sooner I'd get to see Dressed In Blue so props to Altered Innocence releasing this in December. This film hit my radar because I follow most of those roundtable participants on Twitter so this is a double delight. I've really enjoyed Purchell's contributions to other Altered Innocence titles (let alone the Ask Any Buddy podcast) so I'm confident this will be a great discussion.

[brundlefly]

Are any of these announcements good?

Given how Strawberry Mansion gave you cavities, you'll be inclined to stay away from Sylvio. Especially if you come in wearing those Gondry-wannabe lenses. It's a smaller, superior film, and its simplicity earned it a place in my heart. It's amusing to think about its sweetness doing battle with the rest of the material surrounding it on Vinegar Syndrome's shelves. But I'm satisfied enough with Factory 25's DVD/book combo. Which may be lacking most of the blu's features, but feels like a more cared-for presentation than something with a limited edition slipcover.

I do not take to twee. Still can’t watch a Wes Anderson film without wanting to beat it up and take its lunch money. Which is why I was surprised how hard I fell for Birney & Audley’s 2017 Vine alumnus Sylvio, a gorilla who wants to share his kindly hand-puppet shows with a world that instead encourages its preconceptions and his worst instincts. It’s assuredly minimal, ambitiously gentle, and maintains a tonal purity that prevents it from being an overlong SNL short or a perpetual round with The Nairobi Trio. But oh man it is cuddly. Even as I welcomed its missive to be the art you want to make, my inner cynic chose to see its ending as more delusional than aspirational.

[ianthemovie]

I wonder whether Altered Innocence would consider putting out Tarnation. I think all of the DVD versions are technically out of print, at least in the US. It would be right in AI's wheelhouse, and its 20th anniversary is coming up in another year or so.

[brundlefly]

I wonder whether Altered Innocence would consider putting out Tarnation. I think all of the DVD versions are technically out of print, at least in the US. It would be right in AI's wheelhouse, and its 20th anniversary is coming up in another year or so.

Was just thinking about Tarnation last week after Mimi Parker passed. My memory of it has Low on the soundtrack throughout -- though imdb only lists two tracks, one of those a John Denver cover. And I wonder if music rights might have some effect on its availability. But that would be a great home for it and here's hoping.

[therewillbeblus]

I'm noticing Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 listed as three-disc "blu-ray" on sites like DD with the same UPC number as the 4K. I'm pretty sure VS only released one option of this, meaning the blu-ray listing is incorrect, right? Half the google searches for the UPC list blu-ray and half 4K, so just wanna make sure I'm not buying some blu-only version that's unadvertised anywhere

[jazzo]

I saw it at my local video store in Toronto, though I didn’t pick it up, but I think it’s only just the one set with a single 4K disc, plus two blu-rays mirroring the content .

[swo17]

Mine is UPC 814456026244, 1 UHD and 2 BDs

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah that’s the one, thanks! I figured since it appears they only printed one set, but I hesitate when these retail sites mistakenly advertise an item for sale as an inferior format

[Nw_jahrles]

If I’m not mistaken, they released a blu-only version of Tgriller: A Cruel Picture once the original 4K package sold-out. So I’m not sure if that’s a one-off or how their business model will proceed.