Satantango (Artificial Eye & Facets)

[zedz]

I've had the discs since last week, but am still trying to find a clear seven-hour slot to watch the film in one go - and will probably end up relying on my wife's impending absence (she's away for a week to attend her best friend's wedding), as there's no chance whatsoever that I can do it when she's around!

All I can say is, don't let your viewing of Satantango distract you from keeping an eye on that pesky Dermot Mulroney.

Now that would make for a great screwball comedy. Poor put-upon Mike keeps getting all this crazy stuff dumped on him: his cat's sick, his wife's old boyfriend is back in town just when the mother-in-law's come to stay, and, whoa, some stoned teen just drove his car into the front bedroom - and all he wants to do is settle down and watch a seven-hour glacially-paced Hungarian epic!

[MichaelB]

Do you remember that wonderful scene in Uzak where the protagonist insists on watching Tarkovsky's Stalker with his clearly extremely reluctant guest - and then, when said guest has given up on any prospect of entertainment and gone to bed, his host switches over to something altogether more downmarket?

[zedz]

Damn, trumped by Ceylan.

Again.

[tavernier]

The Facets edition has been delayed until '07, with no explanation.

[miless]

The Facets edition has been delayed until '07, with no explanation.

maybe Tarr came in and looked at the transfer and subtitles and said "oh hell nah" and made them start over... here's to hope!

[tavernier]

Supposedly he had already approved the transfer and titles, like the earlier Facets discs.

[Der Müde Tod]

The Facets edition has been delayed until '07, with no explanation.

I heard rumors that Facets decided to put the entire film on disc 1 and they are still discussing what to put on the other 2 discs.

[miless]

The Facets edition has been delayed until '07, with no explanation.

I heard rumors that Facets decided to put the entire film on disc 1 and
they are still discussing what to put on the other 2 discs.

HA! that's hillarious!

[tavernier]

HA! that's hillarious!

Knowing Facets, it might also be true!

[Michael]

Why worry or wait when you can get the exquisite (and cheaper) Artificial-Eye discs of Satantango now.

[tavernier]

My contact at Facets explains the delay (and takes a shot at AE's Tarr discs in the process):

Originally, it was discovered there were 2 minutes of missing footage. This time there was some issue with the transfer (Bela Tarr looked at the final print), which is being corrected.

I haven't seen the British Satantango..but I have seen some of the other UK Tarr releases. I will refrain from comment beyond THAT.

I would rather blow off every single deadline than release something less than the best it can be.

No further comment necessary.

[tryavna]

I would rather blow off every single deadline than release something less than the best it can be.

It's a wonder that Facets ever meets any deadlines then.

[MichaelB]

Is this a new policy? If so, when did it start? Five minutes ago?

[tavernier]

I guess further comments are necessary....

[MichaelB]

Of course, Facets' track record with regard to Tarr releases is second to none.

Discs that take no advantage whatsoever of the benefits of the DVD format. They might as well be VHS tapes, in fact, VHS might be preferable if this is how Facets is going to produce DVD's—at least with VHS you would not get the awful digital pixilation that is rampant on these transfers. The subtitles are forced, the extras nil, and there is combing evident everywhere (indicating non-progressively transferred). Given the importance of Tarr's work and the fact that these films are unlikely to be available anywhere else, it's hard for any cinephile not to cave-in and accept the low standards of these Facets DVD's. I can't recommend these DVD's, but everyone should see the films. The only compromise I can come up with is to suggest shelling out $5 and renting these discs, as that's about all they are worth.

[skuhn8]

My contact at Facets explains the delay (and takes a shot at AE's Tarr discs in the process):

Originally, it was discovered there were 2 minutes of missing footage. This time there was some issue with the transfer (Bela Tarr looked at the final print), which is being corrected.

I haven't seen the British Satantango..but I have seen some of the other UK Tarr releases. I will refrain from comment beyond THAT.

I would rather blow off every single deadline than release something less than the best it can be.

No further comment necessary.

I don't really know how to read this, unless we are to understand that the 'digital demolition' perpetrated by these people is in fact viewed as some form of enhancement to the film experience. I mean, these Tarr discs are available elsewhere and without exception surpass the Facets releases. I've seen the Hungarian releases and they are excellent; I own the AE double love pack, and besides that characteristic AEye shifting they're nearly stellar. So where do they come off with the facetious comments?

Facets really is a "direct from overplayed VHS tape" operation. Of course we can sit here all day quipping on the clowns (and I for one enjoy reading these posts) but is there no way to get into a dialogue with these people a la Warners chat? I'd like to see how far they can stretch the "at least we're getting it out there" argument when put against the wall.

Kino takes some heat from time to time, but lets face it, a little combing here and there, lame menus, and an occasional PAL to NTSC oops! is nothing--I mean NOTHING--compared to the top to bottom vomit these ass-clowns put onto dvd.

FACETS, gauntlet thrown, step up and speak up!

[miless]

DVDAficionado has the Facets date set for March 27, 2007.
I'm hoping for a proper release here, not some hog-shit release (let's just hope that Tarr has set them straight on a transfer here)

[JanPB]

DVDAficionado has the Facets date set for March 27, 2007.
I'm hoping for a proper release here, not some hog-shit release (let's just hope that Tarr has set them straight on a transfer here)

And DVD Empire sez:
We have just been informed by the studio that the release date for 'Satantango' has been changed to TBA.

I think although the news is that it is coming, this release is in fact coming unstitched.

--
Jan

[marty]

I have the Artificial Eye DVD and its great so don't bother waiting for Facets. The price is also very good from Amazon UK.

[JanPB]

FYI Satantango screening at the PFA

--
Jan

[HerrSchreck]

Fuck Facets-- I'm going for the AEye simply on the insult of the second quote below. I too find

I would rather blow off every single deadline than release something less than the best it can be.

only slightly more astonishing than

I haven't seen the British Satantango..but I have seen some of the other UK Tarr releases. I will refrain from comment beyond THAT.

as though these guys have any track record whatsoever to even open their mouths. The day Facets has a baseline of quality of AEye, glitches like the AEye MY NAME IS IVAN notwithstanding, is the day the sun turns into a black cinder. Skuhn8 is right, these guys just consistently push out slop-- and charge a fuckin fortune too.

[jt]

I know this has been stated time and time again but you really need to go multi region. For the price of 2 or 3 facets sets, you can pick up a cheap player that will let you watch the avalanche of quality releases coming out these days from AE, bfi, MoC, Second Run etc etc...

There really is no reason why anyone, anywhere should own a single Facets release. Shit, at least places like superhappyfun admit when they're giving you a worn-out vhs transfer that they found in a bin somewhere...

[sevenarts]

There really is no reason why anyone, anywhere should own a single Facets release.

Not to get into this again, but although Facets is generally of *completely* unacceptable quality for films available in other regions, they do have certain titles that are simply unavailable elsewhere. I have their release of Godard's Keep Your Right Up, which is watchable except that the burned-in pure white subs sometimes disappear into light backgrounds. But otherwise I would never have the film at all.

But for anything available in R2 or elsewhere, I can't imagine anyone ever going with Facets -- just the laziest, sloppiest crap imaginable at prices so high that even with ridiculous dollar-to-pound conversions the AE stuff still winds up cheaper.

[MichaelB]

There really is no reason why anyone, anywhere should own a single Facets release.

Sadly, I didn't have much choice - I had to research Jan Němec's career recently (in connection with the booklet essay for Second Run's upcoming The Party and the Guests), and the sad fact is that the vast majority of easily accessible materials are only available on Facets - I didn't have the time or the budget to visit any film archives other than Britain's National Film and Television Archive, and that was only able to supply television material such as his two-hour Neville Chamberlain documentary Peace in Our Time? (1988).

Mind you, Facets' Němec releases aren't too bad. Pearls of the Deep is practically unwatchable due to the out-of-sync subtitles (Němec's story suffers particularly from this as it's somewhat dialogue-heavy), but Late Night Talks With Mother is a pretty good DVD transfer - its visual glitches are more likely to derive from being shot on DV in the first place. And the VHSes of Oratorio for Prague (especially) and Code Name Ruby were perfectly acceptable.

And at least I could take full advantage of the current dollar-pound exchange rate in the opposite direction, so even the prices weren't too painful.

[jt]

Fair enough, I'll reword:

There really is no reason why anyone, anywhere should own a single Facets release that is available in an alternative version somewhere else in the world.

Correct me if I'm wrong but has Facets ever come out on top when directly compared, DVDBeaver-style to another release? I think not.

I pity those that have no alternative but to buy Facets because of study/work commitments but I am in no such position.

And there are so many thousands of films by reputable companies that I'm yet to see, I hope I never need to buy a Facets.