Vinegar Syndrome and Their Partner Labels

[DeprongMori]

Thanks Michael for that clarification from Szulkin’s interview. Glad to know it was a deliberate effect, though still not sure I register the thematic/aesthetic reason for its use in only that scene. (At some point, I need to get back to finishing Meyrinck’s novel — I got interrupted nearly a year ago and haven’t finished the last quarter of it. Maybe I’ll start fresh and complete it before picking up Second Run’s release of the adaptation.)

[MichaelB]

The novel won't offer much help, I'm afraid - Szulkin couldn't get into it and only read a few pages! He wrote the script based on discussions with his friend Tadeusz Sobolewski, who picked out and précised bits from the novel that he thought might fire Szulkin's cinematic imagination, and Szulkin was generous enough to give him a co-writing credit even though Sobolewski didn't directly write any of the script (it's his only screenwriting credit; he's a film critic by profession).

Although because I had the text of the novel in word-searchable form I was able to use keywords to track down passages that vaguely chimed with the film (presumably those passages that Sobolewski précised) - and the anecdote about the unscrupulous Dr Wassory is genuinely useful, as it sheds light both on the film's murder investigation and the references to cataracts, which are otherwise unexplained.

[MichaelB]

On the other side of things, I'm one of those people that can't play Mr. Goodbar

I can't either, but that's because despite me ordering it on 29 November it still hasn't arrived. I suspect feelthy foreigners like me are right at the bottom of the priority list after VS subscribers and fine upstanding Americans.

It finally arrived, and I can't play it at all!

Or rather, I get the VS ident and disclaimer at the start, then it jumps to what I assume is the menu background (the film's title against a shifting, abstract, monochrome background), but there are no menu options and therefore no method of actually playing the film - and, believe me, I've tried everything I could think of, including cleaning the disc.

But since a replacement copy will be sent to me automatically, I might as well wait till then rather than fall back on the Blu-ray.

The Keep in the same batch played absolutely fine.

[What A Disgrace]

Terror Vision, who is no longer associated with Vinny but continues to operate, is releasing a 4K Blu-ray of Young Nam Ko's Suddenly In the Dark, previously released by Mondo Macabro.

[What A Disgrace]

Tremendous month of announcements, here, assuming you don't want to spend any money. I am pleased to have a Blu-ray of Jude's Scarred Hearts, however.

[dwk]

The Possession of Joel Delaney UHD
The Carpenter Blu-ray
White Cannibal Queen Blu-ray
The Mansion of Madness (Vinegar Syndrome Labs)
Female Perversions (Cinematographe)
Joy of Sex (Cinematographe)

Melusine titles are getting announce on Valentine's Day.

Partner Labels
4:44 Last Day on Earth (IFC)
Amateur on Plastic (Factory 25)
Autoerotic (IFC)
Deadly Obsession: The Films of BIll Reeves (VHSHitfest)
In Flames (Yellow Veil Pictures)
Her Body (Film Movement)
Here Comes a New Challenger: Championship Edition (ETR Media)
Hookers on Davie UHD (Canadian International Pictures)
Mapantsula (Film Movement Classics)
Not and Artist (Utopia)
Nova Seed (Cartuna)
Rot (Saturn's Core)
Scarred Hearts + Uppercase Print (Big World Pictures)
The Strings (Shudder)
Thunder (Dekanalog)
Two Faces of Tai Kato (I, The Executioner & By a man's Face You Shall Know Him)(Film Movement Classics)
Vive L'Amour (Film Movement Classics)

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Hookers on Davie is major news! UHD and a stacked release. This has been on my list since Willow Maclay championed it.

[beamish14]

Hookers on Davie is major news! UHD and a stacked release. This has been on my list since Willow Maclay championed it.

Yep. Canadian International has really spotlighted a lot of Lower Mainland films

[swo17]

I am pleased to have a Blu-ray of Jude's Scarred Hearts, however.

If you want the slipcover it has a small print run which is already more than half sold out

[jazzo]

Hookers on Davie is major news! UHD and a stacked release. This has been on my list since Willow Maclay championed it.

Agreed. This is the one part label that continues to impress, although I can’t imagine I’d want to revisit this incredible doc more than once more in my lifetime.

[dwk]

New pre-orders at Melusine:
Blonde Goddess (Quality X)
Vixens of Kung Fu + Night Bird + Sunny Triple feature (Peekarama)

Stephen Chow's Love on Delivery is 50% off and down to 1100 copies, so you might want to keep an eye on that if you want it.

[MichaelB]

I gather people who've ordered something from VS this year have already received their replacement discs for Looking for Mr Goodbar included in the package, but for those who haven't, like me...

...well, I've finally had a shipping confirmation that it's being sent separately. So if you haven't yet, it's presumably imminent.

[therewillbeblus]

I'm hoping all the standard editions have the corrected disc

[Aunt Peg]

I gather people who've ordered something from VS this year have already received their replacement discs for Looking for Mr Goodbar included in the package, but for those who haven't, like me...

...well, I've finally had a shipping confirmation that it's being sent separately. So if you haven't yet, it's presumably imminent.

I received my shipping notice this morning. Bit of a shame as I will be ordering from them once the March release titles are announced.

[dwk]

Brimstone & Treacle UHD
Devil Fetus/Her Vengeance
Fogotten Gialli Volume 8 (Rings of Fear / Reflections in Black / A.A.A. Maseuse, Good-Looking, Offers Her Services)
The Belly of an Architect (VSL)
Last of the Red Hot Lovers (Cinematographe)
38 Especial (Degausser Video

Partner labels:
Tha AGFA Mystery Mixtape Vault (AGFA)
American Expendables: The Films of North American Pictures (ETR Media)
Birth/Rebirth (Shudder)
Cannibal Girls (Canadian International Pictures)
Cannibal Orgy and the Films of J.T.IV (Bleeding Skull)
Cora Bora (Brainstorm Media)
The Dish & the Spoon (Music Box Selects)
Kisapmata (Kani)
Lydia Lunch: The Gun is Loaded /Road Rant (Saturn's Core)
Mother, Couch (Film Movement)
The Oldest Profession (Film Movement Classics)
Saint-Narcisse (Film Movement)
Sapiosexual & Taboo: Family Secrets (Dark Star)
Spoonful of Sugar (Shudder)
Seeet Dreams (Dekanalog)
Tarpon (Film Movement Classics)

Melusine:
Career bed + Sex By Advertisement (Distribpix)
All Night Long + Tapesty of Passion (Peekarama)
The Visitor (Circle Collective)

[domino harvey]

Last of the Red Hot Lovers (Cinematographe)

Another $5.98 Paramount title getting a fifty dollar deluxe edition— the exec who conned this label into these movies must have had the merriest of all Christmases! Here’s my write up from the Theatrical Adaptations list project:

Last of the Red Hot Lovers (Gene Saks 1972) One of the worst-regarded Neil Simon film adaptations (a distinction with no known bottom, I imagine), Alan Arkin and his highly contrived male pattern baldness star as the schlubby owner of a seafood restaurant who somehow finds himself presented with a trio of available women for an affair, all of which the inexperienced cheater takes to his mother’s unoccupied apartment. For about thirty minutes or so, this seemed like yet another slow torturous revenge directed solely at me by Neil Simon decades in advance. Playing with the awkwardness Simon did (does?) infinitely better in the Heartbreak Kid, Arkin excruciatingly fumbles a sure thing with Sally Kellerman, who is not so much playing a character as she is inhabiting the most unlikely collection of contrived social commentary talking points possible— she’s a free spirit, man, who just wants a lay with anyone, like, say, this square fish guy. Okay, suuuure. After Arkin botches things in the least-funny and most-protracted way possible, it becomes clear this one’s taking a page from A Guide for the Married Man and won’t actually let its protagonist cheat. And so we get two more variations on this idea, and I prepared for the worst and… ended up kinda liking this one! Part two is the clear highlight and add Paula Prentiss in the movie to the list of great scene-stealing performances in movies that don’t deserve them. Now, granted, she’s just doing the usual Paula Prentisss routine dialed up to fifty on a 1-10 dial, but it manages to make Simon’s tired notions (here that the sexual revolution has resulted in a woman who has had literally everything happen to her) actually function beyond their limited fair use. Part three, which ties a bow on the message of how the sexual revolution of the late 60s/early 70s passed as many people by as it folded in, is more moderately successful, and hinges on an extended attempted rape that I’m not sure is ever fully reconciled with the narrative consummation. I can’t recommend the film, but any Neil Simon movie that doesn’t make me want to travel back in time and prevent being born so as to never sit through it is doing something right.

[luxta]

Cnnibal Girls

[luxta]

Last of the Red Hot Lovers (Cinematographe)

Another $5.98 Paramount title getting a fifty dollar deluxe edition— the exec who conned this label into these movies must have had the merriest of all Christmases!

[TechnicolorAcid]

Certainly intrigued by some of the titles but while scrolling through the images on the AGFA mixtape, I was shocked to find an image from that horrifying I Feel Fantastic video which for my money is probably the most unnerving video to ever go viral, in part because it’s so mysterious and unexplained.

[domino harvey]

Last of the Red Hot Lovers (Cinematographe)

Another $5.98 Paramount title getting a fifty dollar deluxe edition— the exec who conned this label into these movies must have had the merriest of all Christmases!

All good, I sold them the rights to share my post on a forum of sycophants for a “reasonable” licensing fee

[tenia]

I mean, Vinegar Syndrome's whole business model is lavish editions of movies that have a 5.0 Imdb score max. It's now spread over 6 (7, my bad) different sub-collections, sure, but otherwise, this is business as usual for them. That's their stuff, of course they've actively pursued these titles.

What's interesting though is that Cinematographe's releases went from 8000 copies runs to 6000 to now 3 or 4000 copies, and only one sold out so far (Red Rock West).

[beamish14]

As much as I love The Belly of an Architect, I probably don’t need to upgrade the BFI release

[senseabove]

I know there've been some Greenaway restorations, but I haven't heard anything about Architect... I wonder if this "new 2k scan" is typical VinSyn handwaving of "new [to the US market]" and it'll be the same source as the BFI disc.

[beamish14]

I really hope they’re building up to Lam Nai-Choi’s The Cat

[dwk]

Murderrock UHD
The Nesting UHD
Devil Doll (plus Curse of the Voodoo)
Igor and the Lunatics (VSA)
Drop Zone UHD (Cinematographe)

Melusine:
Last Tango in Paris UHD (Distribpix)
Baby Rosemary + Hot Lunch (Peekarama)
José Bénazéraf: The Forbidden Films (Pulse Video

Parner Labels:
Artje Shaw: Time is All You've Got (Film Movement Classics)
Bone Sickness (Saturn's Core)
Good Madam (Shudder)
Heavier Trip (Music Box selects)
The Human Pyramid + The Punishment (Icarus Films)
Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young and Pavement (Factory 25)
Love Crime (IFC)
The Marquise of O (Film Movement Classics)
Physician, Heal Thyself (Memory)
Playground (Film Movement)
Project Omicron (VHSHitfest)
Rats! (Yellow Veil Pictures)
Severance (Magnolia Pictures)
The Sword and the Claw (AGFA)
UnderDeceloped (ETR Media)
What We Left Unfinished (Dekanalog)
When You Get to the Forest (Cartuna)