Satantango (Artificial Eye & Facets)

[Steven H]

The anticipation of the Facets Satantango release is like watching a train-wreck in slow motion. You know what's going to happen, it's barely believable, and then there's blood all over the tracks.

[indiannamednobody]

On Saturday, October 21 at the University of Wisconsin Cinematheque, 6038 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave, Madison, Wisconsin.

Hot damn, I haven't been this excited since they showed The Conformist.

[Barmy]

Wouldn't it be funny if these theatrical screenings were video projections.

[MichaelB]

Béla Tarr will actually be present at the Sarajevo screenings, so I suspect they'll probably be as good as is realistically feasible.

(In general, the films I saw at Sarajevo were English-subtitled 35mm prints with electronic Bosnian subtitles projected below the frame - I suspect the same will be true of the Tarr screenings)

[Barmy]

Thanks. I'm referring to the Facets-sponsored screenings.

[indiannamednobody]

Almost all of the movies i've seen at the UW Cinematheque have been very poor prints with terrible subtitles, everything from Hard Boiled to The Conformist. If there is only one print left tho, i'd assume it would be DVD projected since it is a very small theater and would not be worth renting or loaning since all of their films are free to the public.

[Barmy]

I believe there is only one extant English-subtitled print, although I may be wrong. I'm not sure I want Facets to get their paws on it.

[Matt]

Almost all of the movies i've seen at the UW Cinematheque have been very poor prints with terrible subtitles, everything from Hard Boiled to The Conformist. If there is only one print left tho, i'd assume it would be DVD projected since it is a very small theater and would not be worth renting or loaning since all of their films are free to the public.

Unless you've attended very few screenings and have spectacularly bad luck, I'd say this is patently untrue. I lived in Madison from 1998 to 2004 and was a regular attendee at Cinematheque. If you ever saw poor prints, they were likely rare 35mm prints from someone's private collection (David Bordwell's tattered prints of Halloween and Legendary Weapons of China come to mind) or part of the summer programming which usually shows 16mm prints from the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. More often than not, they are among the first to show new prints of films in the major touring retrospectives (Bresson, Naruse, Pialat, Ozu, Shaw Brothers, Boetticher, etc.) Furthermore, the program is committed to showing films on 35mm. If it the decision came down to showing something projected from DVD or not at all, they'd choose the latter.

And I'm sure, if Satantango is touring the world, the distributor has made at least one new print of the damn film. It's not like they're just going to tour the last remaining print of the film until it falls apart on the reels.

[indiannamednobody]

I have only seen a select few films there, most likely all were 35mm since the prints weren't in good condition. I saw Majo no takkyûbin (Kiki's Delivery Service) and it was def. not a 35mm print, otherwise it had to be in mint condisch.

I've only seen Werkmeister and am a huge fan, so good print or bad, i'll be there enjoying it to the fullest. You should come back for the weekend, kick back a spotted cow or two, eat some curd's, all that good wisco shit.

[Matt]

I saw Majo no takkyûbin (Kiki's Delivery Service) and it was def. not a 35mm print, otherwise it had to be in mint condisch.

Yeah, that was shown as a program for the Center for Humanities. They could probably only get whatever print was in circulation through the educational distributors like Swank. It was 35mm, but the print was probably beat to hell. Nearly all of the real Cinematheque series are recent restorations or reissues in new prints.

I can't imagine why the print of The Conformist you saw would have been in bad condition. It was the same new print touring early last year and they got it even before it played the big summer film festivals.

[John Cope]

I believe there is only one extant English-subtitled print, although I may be wrong. I'm not sure I want Facets to get their paws on it.

For whatever it's worth, I caught this film for the first time at Facets about five years ago when it was screening back to back with the Chicago premiere of Werckmeister. It seemed like a good print to me.

[spencerw]

But you get almost two more minutes!

Amazon.co.uk gives the running time of the Artificial Eye release as 435 minutes. This is the same as that of the Factets set. So, it seems we shall be able to get the 2 minutes from the Region 2 release too.

[Barmy]

According to wikipedia (the error-free encyclopedia) and many other sources, Satantango is 450 minutes.

[spencerw]

4% PAL speed-up would knock 18 minutes off that.

[JanPB]

Please be advised of the following change in release date for SATANTANGO, the long-awaited masterpiece from internationaly acclaimed filmmaker BELA TARR.

Original Release Date: September 26, 2006
NEW RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 28, 2006

Ah, so I'm cancelling the Facets order and might as well get the PAL edition (better quality although the PAL speedup rubs me totally the wrong way).

[Wittsdream]

An interesting price comparison for the two upcoming Sátántangó releases:

Facets: SRP $79.95 [DVD Empire price $46.49]

Artificial Eye: £29.99 = $56.76 [Play.com price £23.99 = $45.40]

I have the AE Satantango on pre-order from Amazon.co.uk, and the price gets discounted to around £19.14 = $36.50, which I think is a great price.

[Barmy]

But the AE doesn't have that extra almost two minutes.

[justeleblanc]

For anyone who has seen this film before... what is the best screening practice for it, in terms of breaking it up. I assume it should be broken up.

[rumz]

Acquarello at cinemarati:

[quote]Although MoMA will feature a two-part screening option, I highly recommend seeing the film in one seating if at all possible because Tarr's style is so immersing, sensorial, and measured that I think it's easier to fall into the film's tango-styled narrative rhythm, lose track of time, and be carried in its intoxicated, “waking dreamâ€

[John Cope]

Well, acquarello is probably right--a marathon viewing in one sitting may very well be the best way to maintain the valuable sense of continuity which Tarr obviously aspires to. Still, there are some second best options for consideration should this prove to be untenable. And, in truth, as my own viewings of the film have never been in one sitting I can't necessarily say that it's vital. When I first saw it at Facets, there were two intermissions. I can't remember specifically where each of these took place, though I'm pretty sure the first one was immediately after the episode devoted to the doctor's drunken wanderings around the village. Whatever the case, I certainly did not find being given a half hour break to disrupt the fragile flow of events--it's not so fragile after all if you've been paying attention. Also, I think there's something to be said for coming back refreshed and taking the time to reflect on what you've seen so far. The film is very much novelistic in that way. Breaking the film up into movements can be an individual thing too. I have found that certain groupings of episodes benefit the overall thrust of the picture; such a practice provides it with an internal rhythm separate from the whole six steps forward, six steps back design. But this is up to the individual to decide. Experiment with it and see what you think.

[peerpee]

All eyes on the bbfc site to see if they required trimming the "cat torture" scene in the AE release... I hope they left it alone.

[MichaelB]

Having dealt with the BBFC on animal cruelty matters myself, my guess is that they'll bend over backwards to avoid cutting it - unless it really is unavoidable (given that they're legally required to remove anything that infringes the Animals Act before they can pass something for video release).

But the omens look promising - Jonathan Romney's Film Comment on Tarr says that "the scene was faked under veterinary supervision, with agonizing howls dubbed in afterward". If Tarr can prove this - and if a professional vet was involved, there should definitely be some kind of written record - then hopefully it should sail through. Or rather trudge, but that's somehow appropriate.

[justeleblanc]

Thanks for the screening advice. Though before checking this one out, being that this is my first Bela Tarr, are there others I need to see first?

[John Cope]

Well, I really don't think you need to see any of the other stuff first. I can't remember but Satantango might very well have been my first exposure to Tarr and it allows for a great perspective on the development of his art as you turn to the earlier (and later) work. Tarr's evolution is very impressive, having moved from the obvious social realism stuff (which I don't like much) to far more interesting terrain and yet never having abandoned his foundation in corporeal reality. Personally I hold to the belief that Almanac of Fall is one of his greatest accomplishments, perhaps even in league with the much more heralded later work. I admire it because it provides a perfect bridge from blatant social realism to more expressionistic, less naturalistic concerns. The grand metaphysical revisions at the heart of his developmental process (i.e. the fusion of the earlier bottom up and the later top down thinking) are explicitly suggested here. Also, it's brilliantly written, performed, shot and scored. What more could you ask for?

[Oedipax]

But the omens look promising - Jonathan Romney's Film Comment on Tarr says that "the scene was faked under veterinary supervision, with agonizing howls dubbed in afterward". If Tarr can prove this - and if a professional vet was involved, there should definitely be some kind of written record - then hopefully it should sail through. Or rather trudge, but that's somehow appropriate.

I seem to recall reading somewhere (I think it was Jonathan Rosenbaum) that Tarr kept the cat afterwards as a pet.