The 3rd Annual Criterion Porno Thread

[toiletduck!]

Hell, who wouldn't bite their pillow for God?

Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

I stand corrected. Those three might be a bit awkward even for the big man himself.

-Toilet Dcuk

[Andre Jurieu]

Living in Alberta, the most conservative province in canada, it's very easy spot the prejudice in the minds of the people here.

Yeah, doesn't the sign on the way in read "You are now entering Alberta. Welcome to Texas-North, eh?"

[ianungstad]

Alberta isn't that bad. I live in downtown Edmonton, and I've never really had a problem with homophobia. The rural towns, different matter. Though that probably goes the same in most places.

[Ashirg]

Debbie Does Dallas reviewed

[Cinesimilitude]

Yeah, doesn't the sign on the way in read "You are now entering Alberta. Welcome to Texas-North, eh?"

It very well could. Ianungstad is right, it's more of a rural thing, and Red Deer is kind of inbetween. I remember this one time at work when an employee told Flamboyant Jay, "I think all fags should be round up and shot." That was kind of normal coming from the man who said it. but while outside, I overheard someone high-up in our callcenter (who escorted the perp out of the building only hours earlier) tell someone else that they agreed with what he said but, "we have corporate values to uphold!".

[hammock]

Just watched "Tribute To A Goddess" and to my surprise it was about sex in movies up til the 60's. I wonder if this is to be included as an extra with Pandoras Box. Very entertaining! I only watched Grifit's "Birth Of A Nation" and was not aware he displayed nudity in a clever way in his first movies.

[HarryLong]

The Hard core edition of Radley Metzger's bi Score? (The Image disc is cut to ribbons.)

Cult Epics recently released a newly remastered DVD of SCORE with 9 more minutes (I said MINUTES!). I haven't had a chance to look at my review copy (and I'll be personally reviewing this since my friend Jerry Douglas wrote it), so I don't know if it's the previously missing hard-core footage or not. But I thought you might like to know, David.

[Cinephrenic]

That's disturbing. 9 more minutes of foreplay gone to waste.

[jbeall]

Can we bring this thread back to discussion of Nina Hartley's ass?

[ianthemovie]

Has anyone been following the ongoing efforts of Distribpix to release Metzger's Opening of Misty Beethoven on DVD and Blu? I just read through the last several months' worth of posts on their blog (http://distribpixblog.wordpress.com/) and it's fascinating... it sounds like they spared no expense to painstakingly restore and remaster the film, commission new cover art, track down all kinds of special features, etc. Then they apparently tried to raise funds for the Blu-Ray release on Kickstarter and got kicked off the site for promoting adult-oriented material. Distribpix then raised almost $12,000 from fans--in 10 days--on their own. That was back in June; no news on the blog since then, which is strange because they were updating pretty regularly until then.

I'm hoping the project hasn't been aborted due to some other snafu. This really looks like a stunning release--possibly the closest we'll come to seeing an adult film getting a Criterion-caliber DVD release.

From the blog:

In no particular order, the package will contain the following material:

•The Opening of Misty Beethoven – Original Uncut “Hot” Version: HD transfer, with frame by frame restoration and color correction, 1.85:1 presentation. Includes a 5.1 AUDIO MIX sourced from the original MAG TRACKS and the Original MONO sound.

•The Opening of Misty Beethoven – Original Uncut “Soft” (less explicit) Version, including additional scenes not included in the “Hard” version. HD transfer, automated correction. 1:85.1 presentation, Original MONO sound.

•Full Length Director Commentary on Hard Version with Radley Metzger, moderated by adult film guru Benson Hurst. Excellent, the best one yet!

• Full Length Commentary on Soft Version with co-star Gloria Leonard,recorded last week.

•SUBTITLE TRACKS in 6 languages on both HARD AND SOFT VERSIONS-(12 total subtitle tracks)- ENGLISH, SPANISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, PORTUGUESE, ITALIAN

•All 5 Original Henry Paris trailers, transferred in HD- 25 min

•HD VIDEO FEATURES :

Remembering Jamie Gillis- a touching 10 minute tribute to the legend narrated by Jamie’s best friend, Benson Hurst.

Desperately Seeking Susan: Constance Found – a brief introduction to this elusive and legendary icon, and hints as to what she may be up to today.

The Restoration of Misty – a half-hour long journey into the restoration of Misty. Includes film lab footage, interviews with the experts, examples of the process, before/after comparison, and more!

The Outtakes – an amazing selection of never-before-seen silent outtakes from the set of Misty Beethoven. WOW!!

Behind The Scenes of Misty Beethoven - by far our most impressive video feature to date, this one combines a very large sampling of just about everything about the making of Misty. What makes this such a wonderful feature is that is is presented as a documentary, combining archival footage and photos with several brand new HD interviews conducted specifically for this release. I am talking about contributions by famed cinematographer, Paul Glickman, as well as actress Gloria Leonard and legendary music director, George Craig. It really is an impressive feature and will run 45 minutes or longer.

[duck duck]

Wasn't this ended when the supplement came out where Oshima call his own film pornographic?

[Niale]

Anybody here keen on the movie Body Love? I think its one of the best. GREAT soundtrack by Klause Schulze AND the only orgy scene that I ever thought of as suspenseful. A ton of oddball shit to puzzle over, In a good way, as well as decent laughs if you'r high enough.

[R0lf]

ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA AND HER SISTERS.

[tarpilot]

Think I caught that on a double-bill with The Act of Seeing with One's Own Thighs

[matrixschmatrix]

I much prefered The Turin Whores

[The Narrator Returns]

Gotta say, I really loved Beast of the Southern Region.

[MichaelB]

Has anyone been following the ongoing efforts of Distribpix to release Metzger's Opening of Misty Beethoven on DVD and Blu? I just read through the last several months' worth of posts on their blog (http://distribpixblog.wordpress.com/) and it's fascinating... it sounds like they spared no expense to painstakingly restore and remaster the film, commission new cover art, track down all kinds of special features, etc. Then they apparently tried to raise funds for the Blu-Ray release on Kickstarter and got kicked off the site for promoting adult-oriented material. Distribpix then raised almost $12,000 from fans--in 10 days--on their own. That was back in June; no news on the blog since then, which is strange because they were updating pretty regularly until then.

I'm hoping the project hasn't been aborted due to some other snafu. This really looks like a stunning release--possibly the closest we'll come to seeing an adult film getting a Criterion-caliber DVD release.

I'm very happy to confirm that it is a stunning release - an obvious labour of love from beginning to end, the mere fact that the restoration featurette alone runs 25 minutes shows how proud they are of what they've achieved. Had I received it a month earlier, it would have been a dead cert for my Sight & Sound 2012 top five, and BFI DVD Publishing head Sam Dunn did include it on his own list. (Sadly, I can't envision a UK release any time soon - it would have no problem getting an uncut R18, but I suspect the BBFC would baulk at an 18, and it's impossible to make money on the R18 circuit unless you actually own licensed sex shops yourself).

The transfer is unbelievably good: obviously, you have to make some allowances for the fact that it was mostly shot on 16mm (albeit Super 16) on a limited budget, but I genuinely can't see how they could have got it to look any better. I'm guessing that the 2K scan must have picked up pretty much everything on the original camera negative, as it certainly looks that way. There's been some digital cleanup of spots and scratches, but the image overall is mercifully DNR-free.

I've only just started delving into the extras, but they look gratifyingly encyclopaedic - the 60-page MoC-style booklet is so thick that it had to be packaged outside the Blu-ray box!. Alternative softcore versions are usually worthless, but I suspect the one included here will be unusually interesting - Misty Beethoven is one of the few hardcore features with a half-decent plot and genuinely witty dialogue, and apparently there's more of the latter to compensate for the toned-down sex scenes.

I don't know how many copies a crowdfunded project like this would have stretched to pressing, so if you're even the slightest bit interested I recommend snapping it up sooner rather than later. Annoyingly, it's a pretty expensive import - I got stung for Customs charges, though at least that's an improvement on the gauntlet that my original VCX DVD had to run a dozen or so years ago, when there was a distinct possibility of it getting seized en route!

[med]

Re: the booklet, a friend of mine got the DVD and says the booklet fits perfectly inside the case. So it's less a matter of thickness than it is Distribpix just not wanting to or not having the funds to print up two different-sized booklets.

Haven't sat down and watched the feature yet, but, backing up MichaelB, I can tell you from sampling it that the film looks pretty wonderful. A minor quibble: the menus—at least on the Blu version—are not the easiest to navigate. And, as far as I can tell, there's no simple way of switching between the hardcore and softcore versions (should, uh, you want to do that). Again, that's a minor quibble, and one I can forgive since this is their first Blu and, from what I gather, the decision to release it on Blu was a last-minute thing.

[MichaelB]

Re: the booklet, a friend of mine got the DVD and says the booklet fits perfectly inside the case. So it's less a matter of thickness than it is Distribpix just not wanting to or not having the funds to print up two different-sized booklets.

Yes of course, that makes perfect sense - especially since the creation of the Blu-ray was indeed a last-minute bonus. From a budgeting perspective, it would make much more sense just to whack up the print run of the DVD booklet. (This is a major reason why distributors hate producing separate DVD and BD editions, at least when booklets are involved).

Haven't sat down and watched the feature yet, but, backing up MichaelB, I can tell you from sampling it that the film looks pretty wonderful. A minor quibble: the menus—at least on the Blu version—are not the easiest to navigate. And, as far as I can tell, there's no simple way of switching between the hardcore and softcore versions (should, uh, you want to do that).

That's because they're two completely different cuts and therefore two completely separate encodes. In fact, now that you've tangentially brought up disc space issues, I was struck by the way in the restoration demo they appeared to have deliberately encoded their own self-produced video footage (i.e. of the film being scanned, interviews, etc.) at an ultra-low bitrate, presumably to minimise the size of the video file while still allowing the actual film clips to be presented in genuine HD.

[med]

I haven't yet watched any of the extras other than the trailers, but I'm not surprised to learn the self-produced supplements are at a low bitrate. Considering just how much material is on the one disc, it goes a way to explain why the feature attraction looks as good as it does.

A word about the trailers. I'd never seen any classic porn trailers prior to this, so I was surprised to see just how much they show you in them. I guess it was needed in order to lure in the curious; you'll get to see everything—everything—and presumably more, so come to the show!

[Cinephrenic]

Porn got me here :-"

[MichaelB]

A word about the trailers. I'd never seen any classic porn trailers prior to this, so I was surprised to see just how much they show you in them. I guess it was needed in order to lure in the curious; you'll get to see everything—everything—and presumably more, so come to the show!

Yes, I don't imagine plot spoilers are much of an issue here!

I watched the trailers last night, and I see what you mean - I daresay there's not much point being all coy about it if your film does actually deliver what the punters are after.

The one for Barbara Broadcast reminded me of how good the first half of that film was - Buñuel would have loved the restaurant scene. Sadly, I remember it going downhill from then on, but it's certainly one of the great porn set-pieces.

[ianthemovie]

Thanks, Michael, for your response. Since I wrote that post I found my way to Distribpix's new site, which I monitored closely leading up to the release of the DVD last fall. I ended up getting the SD version and while I haven't watched the film itself yet I agree that it's a beautifully designed set. (I chose to reverse the cover sleeve, though; I prefer the original poster art to the newly commissioned cover, which is fabulously retro but reminds me a bit of a Grateful Dead poster.) I watched (and loved) Metzger's Score a year or so ago, so I look forward to watching the film itself, which I've never seen before, sometime soon. The extras look great too.

[jbeall]

Vinegar Syndrome is the Criterion Collection for vintage porn.

[Matt]

Vinegar Syndrome thread here.