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Anyone know when Bigger than Life is coming out?

Any word on the release date for the Borzage silents? The last I heard was "end of summer."

The latest BFI catalogue came today (with the Silent Britain still on the cover) and I thought I would post up some of the films that are mentioned as coming soon:

Silents

True Heart Susie (D.W. Griffith)
Before The Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter
Dickens Before Sound (2 disc)

Animation

The Brothers Quay - Collected Works
Jan Svankmajer - Collected Works

Britain

The Innocents (Jack Clayton)
The Angelic Conversation (Derek Jarman)
Carravagio (Derek Jarman)
Wittgenstein (Derek Jarman)

France

Army Of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville)
Science Is Fiction (Jean Painleve)

Avant-Garde

Unseen Cinema (Various)

British Artist's Films

Ian Breakwell

colinr0380 wrote:The latest BFI catalogue came today (with the Silent Britain still on the cover) and I thought I would post up some of the films that are mentioned as coming soon:

Some very enticing releases listed there, but are the long-anticipated Frank Borzage films (7th Heaven, Street Angel, Lucky Star) not listed?

And speaking of Borzage, New Yorkers will soon be treated to a huge (24-film) retrospective of his films at the Museum of the Moving Image, July 15th to August 20th.

Brief blurb in today's Voice

colinr0380 wrote:The latest BFI catalogue came today (with the Silent Britain still on the cover) and I thought I would post up some of the films that are mentioned as coming soon:

Animation

The Brothers Quay - Collected Works
Jan Svankmajer - Collected Works

YES! =D>

Yes, I saw that, and it looks great, if it truly is the Collected works, and not just selected works.

Wow, that's a great line-up, Colin! So, Jean Painleve is a science film pionner or something? Has anyone seen his films?

Scharphedin2 wrote:Yes, I saw that, and it looks great, if it truly is the Collected works, and not just selected works.

I understand that for the Quay set it will indeed be everything outside of the feature films.

Let's hope the same applies to Svankmajer.

And then there's Jarman's Wittgenstein! Awesome! This is a magnificent film.

Isn't Jarman's film the one with the green dwarf? Isn't ther also a sensible Austrain philosopher who wants to commit suicide and then have a cup of tea within the same half hour?

solent wrote:Isn't Jarman's film the one with the green dwarf? Isn't ther also a sensible Austrain philosopher who wants to commit suicide and then have a cup of tea within the same half hour?

Ludwig was a complex fellow.

Gordon McMurphy wrote:Wow, that's a great line-up, Colin! So, Jean Painleve is a science film pionner or something? Has anyone seen his films?

I've seen Le Vampire, which is on the Kino Avant-Garde set. It's pretty interesting, and definitely a weird hybrid of science documentary and poetic avant-garde piece. It's about the vampire bat and features a memorable and disturbing sequence of the bat feeding on a guinea pig. I wouldn't mind seeing more of his films, even though I find the animal cruelty somewhat offputting.

Has anyone seen Jarman's The Angelic Conversation? I must admit his films have never seemed like they'd appeal to me, but I do have the beautiful and haunting soundtrack that Coil did for this film, which includes Judi Dench reading Shakespeare's sonnets over some gorgeous ambient electronics. So what's the actual film like?

Absolutely fantastic news about the Jarman's. They're all terrific but Wittgenstein is a personal favorite. The range of reactions that one elicits is interesting and fitting, I think. It suggests the range of Wittgenstein's own philosophy--its vast richness and significance. It can and is appropriated thoroughly by completely opposing ideologies. A friend who is also a student of W hates the film and considers it a scourge on his name. But I disagree. It is an interpretation, first and foremost, and if one is sympathetic to Jarman's approach and his vision it helps, of course. His film is not strictured by logical reasoning and bio movie conventions; rather, it proceeds according to the kind of associative reasoning which is an implicit element of his lyrical aesthetic. Personally, I believe it does the great man justice. Jarman does understand W's philosophy quite well, especially as it comes across in the more personal volumes like Culture and Value. It should not come as some great surprise that meditations of this kind are of more interest to Jarman than the more technically precise major works. So, it is a perfectly appropriate way in and provides a sensitive and nuanced grasp of the character of the man and the difficulty of living one's own philosophy. Jarman's vision is of a person blessed and cursed by their own insights. Wittgenstein is unable to embrace the academic community that fostered him because he understands the limitations of knowledge all too well and is repelled by the kind of false wisdom so prevalent in academia; the kind that inspires very real indifference or, just as distressingly, an absolutist fundamentalism. He is, therefore, presented as ultimately a tragic and isolated figure--the emphasis on his homosexuality that seemed to irritate so many is really just another way for Jarman to build his case. The profoundly mournful ending is similar to the one in Carravagio--another elegy to a lost and confused lonely soul.

Gordon McMurphy wrote:So, Jean Painleve is a science film pionner or something? Has anyone seen his films?

He kind of straddles the line between avant-garde filmmaker and scientist. He did a lot of pionerring work with time-lapse and microcinematography. There are a couple of French DVDs (with English subs) of his works; I wouldn't be surprised if the BFI disc is a port of one (or both) of these discs.

sevenarts wrote:Has anyone seen Jarman's The Angelic Conversation? I must admit his films have never seemed like they'd appeal to me, but I do have the beautiful and haunting soundtrack that Coil did for this film, which includes Judi Dench reading Shakespeare's sonnets over some gorgeous ambient electronics. So what's the actual film like?

I must admit that it was the Coil soundtrack which originally made me interested in the film, too. The music alone would make the purchase worthwhile. "Angelic Conversation" is perhaps Jarman's most 'poetic' film, his most unashamedly romantic. There is - if I remember correctly, it's ten years ago I saw it - no conventional narrative, but an associative flow of images, mixing his typical themes: homosexuality and occultism, but with little politics this time. Perhaps of Jarman's output "The Last of England" comes closest stylewise, but the mood here is totally different.
In any case, I'm really glad they bring it out finally, and the two others (which I already have as ridiculously expensive Japan imports with no extras whatsoever). Now we're only waiting for "War Requiem".

John Cope wrote: Wittgenstein is unable to embrace the academic community that fostered him because he understands the limitations of knowledge all too well and is repelled by the kind of false wisdom so prevalent in academia; the kind that inspires very real indifference or, just as distressingly, an absolutist fundamentalism.

. . . plus Tilda gets to wear some great hats.

Wittgenstein is among Jarman's 'straighter', more narrative-focussed films, like Edward II, and I like it a lot. The Angelic Conversation belongs to the other, more free-form and abstract strand of his feature work, like The Garden, The Last of England and War Requiem. Nice feel, and some nice bursts of imagery (and you can always just listen to Judi, of course), but I generally find these films less rewarding.

The River, Woman of the Dunes and Dreams that Money Can Buy are up.

Looks like double-dip anguish for fans of The River.

Re. THE RIVER, the main difference in package is that the bfi seem to be going with a contextualisation of the film as a picture about India (an Indian movie?) thus comparing and contrasting with the 7 Indian shorts, and Indian filmmaker intro...

I don't know where that cover design for "The River" comes from, but well... it looks like a sort of "Gone with the wind" (B-style) thing. Totally misleading, in any case.
I'm looking really forward to the Richter dvd, not least because they also included "Vormittagsspuk" and "Rhythmus 21". I hope we will finally be able to see these films without the horrible cropping of the Kino disc.

ellipsis7 wrote:Did it mention the 2 Rivettes - CELINE & PARIS?

FilmFanSea wrote:Some very enticing releases listed there, but are the long-anticipated Frank Borzage films (7th Heaven, Street Angel, Lucky Star) not listed??

Sorry those were the only extra titles mentioned at the end of each section, just the titles after a coming soon heading.

denti alligator wrote:

Scharphedin2 wrote:Yes, I saw that, and it looks great, if it truly is the Collected works, and not just selected works.

I understand that for the Quay set it will indeed be everything outside of the feature films.

Let's hope the same applies to Svankmajer.

Yes, both are called the collected, not selected, works in the catalogue. Looking through the bfi website vhs volumes of both Svankmajer's and The Brothers Quay's work were previously released.

GordonMcMurphy wrote:So, Jean Painleve is a science film pionner or something? Has anyone seen his films?

sevenarts wrote: I wouldn't mind seeing more of his films, even though I find the animal cruelty somewhat offputting.

I'm not familiar with him but imdb says that he wrote the commentary over Franju's Blood of the Beasts.

Moviemail now have the 2 Rivettes from the bfi up for 25 September...

Two further announcements now at the bfi site:

"Dickens Before Sound

Inspired by the popular success of the bfi's Silent Shakespeare films, Dickens Before Sound is a unique collection of early adaptations of perhaps Britain's favourite and (after Shakespeare), most adapted author.

Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema of Edwin S Porter

An award-winning and intricately detailed documentary on the genesis of early cinema, focusing on one of the craft's most ingenious pioneers: Edwin S Porter. The film is based on the research of the leading scholar of early American film, Charles Musser, who also co-wrote and directed it."

No sign of the Jarmans yet, nor of Rivette...

If I'm reading right, that PORTER disc has merely excerpted material that can be seen in full from Musser's own Congress (plus MoMa's) preservation vaults, in the sublime EDISON 4-disc box... plus much other Porter as well, in the same box, which includes extensive interviews w Musser.

The check disc I've seen is a 57 minute programme credited to Charles Musser in 1982. It does feature some amazing footage, not least the re-enactment of the execution of President McKinley's assassin by electric chair - with the current tested first by using Edison's patented lightbulbs, but it is short and its sole extra is one page of text biography of Charles Musser.

This is also included as an "easter egg" (along with other semi-snuff or "blue" movies) on volume 2 of Kino's The Movies Begin.

From the BFI's "Dates for your Diary" page:

R.W. Paul - The Complete (Surviving) Films 1895-1908 - 30 October
The Quay Brothers: The short films, 1979-2003 - 30 October

...and doing a quikc search on the BBFC's website it appears that we can also expect - besides those already mentioned in this thread - discs of Lang's 'Scarlet Street' and Huston's 'A Walk With Love and Death' from the BFI soon enough.