Polish Cinema on Disc

[MichaelB]

I have an order from Empik that hasn't yet shipped, but I made sure not to exceed a total cost of £130 including postage and packing. (I allowed £5 contingency for exchange rate fluctuations.)

[TMDaines]

Yeah, I did that when I ordered football stickers last summer from Germany. Obviously with Amazon or eBay it is a bit more sophisticated and they take care of everything regardless of order value.

I’ll probably just go for it and get the rest of those Wajdas and some other 70s and 80s Blu-rays:

[GaryC]

The 20th Kinoteka Film Festival in London takes place in London from 9 March to 3 April. Programme here. It seems that the films will mostly be shown as in-person showings at the ICA with some at the Riverside, the Prince Charles and the JW3, the latter venue a new one on me. Some will also be at the Edinburgh Filmhouse and the Closing Gala (Lubitsch's Forbidden Paradise) is at the BFI Southbank. The retrospectives will mostly be online via BFI Player but it's not clear how long they'll be available for and if available outside the UK (I suspect not). I don't know yet to what extent I can get to in-person screenings but the online stuff is a definite possibility, as there are a few there I haven't seen before.

[Calvin]

Some of the Polish Cinema Classics line are as low as 19,99 zloty at DVDMax

[MichaelB]

I have an order from Empik that hasn't yet shipped, but I made sure not to exceed a total cost of £130 including postage and packing. (I allowed £5 contingency for exchange rate fluctuations.)

To update this post, I've made two orders from Empik and DVDMax this year, in each case coming in at roughly £130 as per the exchange rate on the day, and both were delivered with no complications or additional charges.

[djvaso]

Some of the Polish Cinema Classics line are as low as 19,99 zloty at DVDMax

Unfortunately, now only TNT express delivery to my country is available and the price is PLN 171.04 for four discs.

[Calvin]

I know the service was mentioned on the previous page, but I've just discovered 35mm.online and I was surprised to find how many restorations are available to view with English subtitles - for free! Many of which are unavailable on disc, such as The Ring with a Crowned Eagle (Wajda), Barrier (Skolimowski), and The Last Stage (Jakubowska)

[DarkImbecile]

200+ Polish films (including features by Kieslowski and Wajda) made available for free with English subtitles on 35mm.online as part of partnership with the Poland Film Institute

[Stefan Andersson]

Restored Polish films on Polish Bluray:
http://rekonstrukcje.eu/blu-ray.html#
Updated Sept. 1, 2022

[TMDaines]

Anyone have an issue with the Blu-ray for Życie Rodzinne? Had two copies of the disc now and both can't be read properly by two different Blu-ray drives and both cannot progress past an early point in the film.

[Aunt Peg]

Anyone have an issue with the Blu-ray for Życie Rodzinne? Had two copies of the disc now and both can't be read properly by two different Blu-ray drives and both cannot progress past an early point in the film.

I purchased the disc a few months ago and whilst I haven't watched the disc yet I did do a chapter to chapter run through the film without any issues.

[swo17]

Anyone have an issue with the Blu-ray for Życie Rodzinne? Had two copies of the disc now and both can't be read properly by two different Blu-ray drives and both cannot progress past an early point in the film.

My copy plays fine all the way through, though on one player the menu screen doesn't include any options that would allow you to start playing the film. Other Polish Blu-rays from this line have had the same issue

[TMDaines]

Anyone have an issue with the Blu-ray for Życie Rodzinne? Had two copies of the disc now and both can't be read properly by two different Blu-ray drives and both cannot progress past an early point in the film.

I purchased the disc a few months ago and whilst I haven't watched the disc yet I did do a chapter to chapter run through the film without any issues.

Chapter skips probably won’t catch it. Both discs I have have issues at different points when the film just dies.

Got a 3rd copy today and this one dies in the first minute. 1st disc was in the opening delayed credits sequence when the title card appears.

[Aunt Peg]

That doesn't sound good at all.

[Kauno]

Are there stores selling DVDs and Blu-rays in Gdańsk? I didn't find any the last time I was there...

[L.A.]

Test Pilota Pirxa (1979) has a Blu-ray from Ostalgica with English subtitles and choice of Polish or Russian soundtracks apparently.

[Stefan Andersson]

Artus Films releasing Les Chevaliers Teutoniques (Aleksander Ford, 1960) in 2K:
https://artusfilms.com/

[Stefan Andersson]

Upcoming: "Wojciech Jerzy Has Antologia, 16 blurays + a 312-p. book:
https://www.facebook.com/DIFactory.post ... cale=it_IT

[MichaelB]

Going from the typeface on the spine, this is from the same people that produced the Wajda, Kieślowski and Polanski anthologies. I bought the Wajda DVD box after establishing that it was 100% English-friendly (I already had a lot of the films, but the box had more recent restorations and extensive extras, although most of the features have since been replaced with Polish Blu-rays), but passed on the Kieślowski box as I had virtually all of its contents already - and in quite a few cases on Blu-ray. (That box was also DVD-only.) And while the Polanski box was Blu-ray, it was also eye-wateringly expensive.

I fear that the Has box will be as well, but at least the contents will be more enticing - thus far, I've only got three of his films in high-def, and most of the others I don't even have with English subtitles.

[Stefan Andersson]

The DI Factory Wojciech Has box has a 245 euro price tag:
https://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/viewto ... &start=675 - see post Nov. 1 by djvaso

English and French subs according to CEO Jedrzej Sablinski of DI Factory, quoted in djvaso´s post Oct. 31 here (at least I think this pertains to the Has box, as djvaso wrote the initial post on the Has box, the post with the box cover image)
https://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/viewto ... &start=675

Initially sold through the di-factory.com site:
https://di-factory.com/en#second

[djvaso]

@Stefan Andersson
Thanks.

The HAS Anthology includes the following film titles:
1) Pętla (The Noose) 1958
2) Pożegnania (Lydia Ate the Apple) 1958
3) Wspólny pokój (One Room Tenants) 1960
4) Rozstanie (Goodbye to the Past) 1961
5) Złoto (Gold Dreams) 1962
6) Jak być kochaną (How to Be Loved) 1963
7) Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie (The Saragossa Manuscript) 1965
8 ) Szyfry (The Codes) 1966
9) Lalka (The Doll) 1968
10) Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą (The Hourglass Sanatorium) 1973
11) Nieciekawa historia (An Uneventful Story) 1983
12) Osobisty pamiętnik grzesznika przez niego samego pisany (Memoirs of a Sinner) 1986
13) Pismak (Write and Fight) 1985
14) Niezwykła podróż Baltazara Kobera (The Tribulations of Balthazar Kober) 1988

The short films:
1) 1 Ulica Brzozowa
2) Harmonia
3) Parowóz PT47
4) Moje miasto
5) Pierwszy plon
6) Scentralizowana kontrola przebiegu produkcji (Cukier)
7) Harcerze na zlocie
8 ) Karmik Jankowy
9) Zielarze z Kamiennej Doliny
10) Przegląd kulturalny 2/53
11) Nasz Zespół

Source

[Stefan Andersson]

@Stefan Andersson
Thanks.

The HAS Anthology includes the following film titles:
1) Pętla (The Noose) 1958
2) Pożegnania (Lydia Ate the Apple) 1958
3) Wspólny pokój (One Room Tenants) 1960
4) Rozstanie (Goodbye to the Past) 1961
5) Złoto (Gold Dreams) 1962
6) Jak być kochaną (How to Be Loved) 1963
7) Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie (The Saragossa Manuscript) 1965
8 ) Szyfry (The Codes) 1966
9) Lalka (The Doll) 1968
10) Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą (The Hourglass Sanatorium) 1973
11) Nieciekawa historia (An Uneventful Story) 1983
12) Osobisty pamiętnik grzesznika przez niego samego pisany (Memoirs of a Sinner) 1986
13) Pismak (Write and Fight) 1985
14) Niezwykła podróż Baltazara Kobera (The Tribulations of Balthazar Kober) 1988

The short films:
1) 1 Ulica Brzozowa
2) Harmonia
3) Parowóz PT47
4) Moje miasto
5) Pierwszy plon
6) Scentralizowana kontrola przebiegu produkcji (Cukier)
7) Harcerze na zlocie
8 ) Karmik Jankowy
9) Zielarze z Kamiennej Doliny
10) Przegląd kulturalny 2/53
11) Nasz Zespół

Source

Hi djvaso!
Thank you very much for this info!

[MichaelB]

Most of the shorts are Socialist Realist propaganda "documentaries" from the first half of the 1950s, which all Polish filmmakers had to make in order to continue working - there's a rather rueful in-joke in Man of Marble in which Andrzej Wajda gives himself an onscreen credit as the assistant director of the fictitious Socialist Realist documentary about steelworks that Krystyna Janda is investigating, because of course he had to work on the real thing, as did Has, Andrzej Munk and their various contemporaries. I've seen quite a few of the Has shorts, and I remember a rather charming one about folk ensembles, but aside from Brzozowa Street and Harmonia they're not exactly films d'auteur.

[Peacock]

I remember a rather charming one about folk ensembles

I’m assuming this is Pierwszy Plon?

[MichaelB]

I have another info-nugget about the Has box; it seems that the book is going to be fully bilingual in Polish and English, with the following writers attached to the following films/topics:

Annette Insdorf - introduction
Tadeusz Lubelski - The Noose (Pętla, 1957)
Marcin Bortkiewicz - Farewells (Pożegnania, 1958)
Miłosz Stelmach - One-Room Tenants (Wspólny pokój, 1959)
Katarzyna Wajda - Goodbye to the Past (Rozstanie, 1960)
Jakub Socha - Gold Dreams (Złoto, 1961)
Katarzyna Taras - How To Be Loved (Jak być kochaną, 1962)
Tomasz Kolankiewicz - The Saragossa Manuscript (Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie, 1964)
Malgorzata Burzynska-Keller - The Codes (Szyfry, 1966)
Klara Cykorz - The Doll (Lalka, 1969)
Adriana Prodeus - The Hourglass Sanatorium (Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą, 1973)
Monika Talarczyk - An Uneventful Story (Nieciekawa historia, 1982)
Jakub Majmurek - Write and Fight (Pismak, 1984)
dr hab. Iwona Kurz - Memoirs of a Sinner (Osobisty pamiętnik grzesznika przez niego samego spisany, 1985)
Renata and Grzegorz Kędzierscy - The Tribulations of Balthazar Kober (Niezwykła podróż Baltazara Kobera, 1988)
Emil Sowiński - the short films
Tadeusz Lubelski - unrealised projects

Oh, and it's a limited edition of 700 copies.