rumz wrote:Not new news, per se, but evidence that the ball is still rolling:
Controversial Chilean-born cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky will attend the 44th New York Film Festival to present two of his most famous films, El Topo and The Holy Mountain in the Special Events section of the festival. The films, originally made in the 1970's in Mexico, have been fully restored and remastered under close supervision by Jodorowsky, and are being premiered at the Festival in advance of their release on DVD early next year.
\:D/
Is anybody from new york, or anybody attending this years fest going to check this out?
interested to find out what Jodorowsky has to say this time around. (also if any of the minor glitches noticed in the remasterd print shown at cannes have been fixed)
The new issue of Film Comment is running a brief review / reconsideration of El Topo by Alex Cox, and he makes the brief and very non-detailed observation, "Now El Topo is being re-released on DVD. How does it stand the test of time?"
I saw El Topo at NYFF tonight with Jodorowsky present.
It was digitally projected and accordingly looked very video-y and television-y. To me, hideous, but that's just me. I'm sure it will look fine as a DVD, but it is disappointing that they can't tour a film print. Some of the brighter colors looked way too garish, shiny and neon-y, but that may just have been a function of the projection. Sound and image were crisp.
Jodorowsky was coherent and fun, especially for an 80-year old. He said little worth reporting, although I was not previously aware that "Tusk" was inspired by the region between his genitals and a**hole. The DVDs of Topo, Mountain and Fando will be out next year, but possibly not until fall 2007. El Topo will run at IFC Center in NYC in December, presumably in digital projection.
Last edited by Barmy on Sun Oct 08, 2006 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Barmy wrote:I saw this tonight with Jodorowsky present.
It was digitally projected and accordingly looked very video-y and television-y. To me, hideous, but that's just me. I'm sure it will look fine as a DVD, but it is disappointing that they can't tour a film print. Some of the brighter colors looked way too garish, shiny and neon-y, but that may just have been a function of the projection. Sound and image were crisp.
...
El Topo will run at IFC Center in NYC in December, presumably in digital projection.
Barmy have you seen any other features in IFC that were NOT projected by this hideous, hideous, hideous means? I ask because the only other film I saw at this particular house (not inlcuding, of course, it's prior incarnation as Waverly Th.) was projected by the same way. (Made even worse by the fact that this was my single viewing of Pennebakers DAYBREAK EXPRESS.) HORRIBLE. Who's fucking bright idea was it to start beaming flicks this way? It destroys every hint of celluloid in the image to me, it destroys the quality of the digital telecine to make the damned disc inna first place... and is a flat out cheap shit no account dung heap of entertainment logistics for which I refuse to pay full ticket price for ever again. Glad I didn't get suckered into that showing.
What is this, some ripoff midroad way of making ticket money on direct-to-home-video releases before they go to home video? They look better on your fucking tube television. How cheap can you be?
I was sortve assuming it'd be coming from these ABKO guys. If it was sitting in the Janus library you can bet your lymphs they would have delivered reels to project... especially if the showing was one the frickin director was only merely coincidentally there in person for Q&A on this long awaited resto/rerelease!
Really hope these dudes don't screw the discs up like they are by putting the film on the road.
It's not going to be Criterion, it's going to be Klein. It sounded like there would be extras--AJ mentioned an early short involving pantomime, as well as boxes of footage that he turned over.
I forgot to mention that El Topo had ugly yellow subtitles in the shittiest typography imaginable.
Otherwise the remastering looks very good, although as I mentioned I had some concern about overly bright colors.
Regarding digital projection, it is an abomination. I would rather see a scratchy old film print. IFC sometimes does this, but rarely.
Barmy wrote:It's not going to be Criterion, it's going to be Klein. It sounded like there would be extras--AJ mentioned an early short involving pantomime, as well as boxes of footage that he turned over.
From what I have heard, ABKO wanted to release these films through another company because they are not set up to release DVD's (or something to that effect)
O got a bit confused, I thought you saw Topo in IFC via digital projection, not NYFF. The time I was talking about where I saw DAYBREAK & another feature via that method was at IFC.
So HOLY M was projected from restored reels at NYFF last nite?
To clarify, El Topo showed at NYFF in digital projection. They mentioned it would run at IFC in December. I am assuming that at IFC it will be the same digital projection, but I'm not sure.
Holy Mountain showed at NYFF in 35mm. The print looked pretty new.
We just got those EuroCult Dvds of El Topo and Holy Mountain in at work (Amoeba Music). We're selling them for only $10. I was thinking of picking up Holy Mountain with my discount, anybody know the quality of those discs?
For the first time ever, a special DVD collector's box set is to be released in stores in April. The collectors set will include newly remastered versions of El Topo, The Holy Mountain and Fando Y Lis. Extras include director's commentary tracks, a special CD of the soundtrack from the films, previously unseen footage, and much, much more.
Lino wrote:Euro Cult is a notorious bootleg company. Wait for an official release.
(sigh) Everytime I see a new post in this thread, my heart sinks...
It didn't sound right. After all the work it sounds like has been put into the new transfers of these, there's no way a good copy could be had for $13. I'll gladly pay Criterion prices for these when they appear.
