Theo Angelopoulos

[Ovader]

Angelopoulos nor any other Greek filmmakers were mentioned during the HTF podcast (54:53 mark) but there is an affirmative to some Greek Cinema in the future.

[jaffe1234]

It's truly a travesty that such an acclaimed film like The Travelling Players has never been released on Blu-ray. And all that while Criterion keeps releasing Netflix films and films with pre-existing good releases, very frustrating. At least some other Angelopoulos films have had japanese (?) blu-rays so they are out there as pirated copies at least. Butt all his films should be widely released, The Travelling Players' lack of blu-ray is just more surprising given how highly it usually ranks on lists like Sight & Sound 250 etc.

[Michael Kerpan]

Did Traveling Players even get a decent US DVD release?

[Big Ben]

Did Traveling Players even get a decent US DVD release?

No. As far as I'm aware the only really English friendly DVD release is from Artificial Eye.

On the topic of Blu-Ray I can't imagine many people are willing to rush out to restore or watch a nearly four hour film about Greek History. But I imagine this is true of all of his stuff including incredibly relevant films like The Suspended Step of the Stork. And I say all of this as a big Angelopoulos fan.

[FrauBlucher]

Someone as internationally renown as Angelopoulos is hard to imagine that his films are ignored in the US, especially by Criterion, for restorations and bluray release. I have to think that rights issues have to be a big reason.

[Big Ben]

I believe New Yorker Films released a VHS tape of The Travelling Players in 1999 (Under the New Yorker Video banner) but I'm unsure of the rights status of the film after it all went under in 2018.

[John Cope]

Did Traveling Players even get a decent US DVD release?

No. As far as I'm aware the only really English friendly DVD release is from Artificial Eye.

And of course the New Star edition though the menus are in Greek.

[feihong]

I have the Japanese blu ray of Landscape in the Mist, which looks awesome. I'm sure rights issues are at play here, but also, because the films are quite old now for the most part, I wouldn't be surprised to find many of them needed considerable restoration––especially something like The Travelling Players. It seems that whether or not there is money for a restoration is a big factor in whether a blu ray release gets done. It's maybe a hint that the elements might need to be restored that in Japan they didn't release The Travelling Players on blu ray, since they did release Landscape in the Mist, Voyage to Cythera, Eternity and a Day, The Dust of Time, and I think The Weeping Meadow. There are Japanese DVD boxsets, and one has The Traveling Players, Days of 36, and The Hunters. I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't the elements available to put the older films on blu-ray.

On the other hand, maybe Criterion is worried there isn't the interest in its major markets. Angelopoulos has been little seen in the U.S. I have some fantastic blu-rays of later Raoul Ruiz films; Time Regained, Three Lives and Only One Death, and Geneologies of a Crime––all of which were put on blu ray in France. I think of Ruiz as a filmmaker with comparable international recognition to Angelopoulos, and kind of a peer of his, since they worked in similar ways in the same eras. The blu rays look lovely. But only one of them got released in the U.S.––Time Regained, which did have a fairly high-profile art-house run in the U.S. when if first came out. So did Three Lives, but if I had to pick one to get a blu ray, I supposed Time Regained was the higher profile, more recognizable and more promotable one. I recall Ulysses' Gaze and Eternity and a Day getting U.S. arthouse theatrical runs, but I think they'd still be hard to promote in the U.S. nowadays. My vague feeling is that these artistic international filmmakers who were hot stuff in the 1990s haven't been quite so unappreciated since their debuts as they are now. But maybe it is a question of rights and available elements? The exceptional Edward Yang pictures from that period––Mahjong and A Confucian Confusion––are impossible to see, as well.

[Glowingwabbit]

On the other hand, maybe Criterion is worried there isn't the interest in its major markets. Angelopoulos has been little seen in the U.S.

See this bothers me (regarding Ruiz too). Criterion has created plenty of interest in filmmakers that weren't well known in the U.S. prior to giving them a push. It seems like more recently they've done less of that outside of the WCF films. But I mean they are planning to put out Nikos Papatakis' work and I'd say he is far more obscure than Angelopoulos. Which is leads me to believe it is more an issue of right or materials.

[Fsolano80]

From what I can tell, not at all. It’s really sad that we’ve had to wait so long just to see Criterion continue to ignore these amazing films.

I mean, how did a movies like Blue Velvet and The Princess Bride, which are entirely available on multiple platforms, get prioritized over something that never even got a decent dvd release in the States?

[Luke M]

Isn't there a rights issue with the estate?

[jaffe1234]

On the topic of Blu-Ray I can't imagine many people are willing to rush out to restore or watch a nearly four hour film about Greek History.

I don't think that that should really be an issue because after film gets certain amount of acclaim there should be build-in audience of hardcore cinephiles who will be interested that should be enough to justify restoration and release. Like you might as well say that "I can't imagine many people are willing to rush out to restore or watch a three hour Soviet film about 15th century Russian icon painter". But yet Andrei Rublev is quite popular film by Criterion's standards. Angelopoulos might not be quite as famous as Tarkovsky but film like The Travelling Players is so frequently featured with high ranking on lists like Sight & Sound 250 or TSPDT 1000 that most cinephiles should have at least have heard about him.

[FrauBlucher]

I can't believe that Angelopoulos is any less marketable than the Czech directors or other Eastern European directors that Criterion have released. I'm sure Kino would also be another label that would be happy to land his films. Maybe someone can ask the KL Insider on that other forum

[Fsolano80]

Isn't there a rights issue with the estate?

Possibly, though there is nothing to help confirm. Currently, I know that StudioCanal has rights to at the very least, both Eternity and a Day and Landscape in the Mist (I posted some clips and got copyright claimed by them) though who knows if they’ll ever put out restorations. If they do, it’ll probably be region 2 only until either Criterion or Kino, maybe even Cohen Media, picks up the rights.

To be honest, I don’t think we’ll see his films get properly distributed until there’s a retrospective at Cannes or something, kind of like with Wong Kar-Wai. The difference is that most of WKW’s films are readily available in the U.S. already and there’s allegedly a box set yet to be announced by Criterion, so he’s in demand.

[Stefan Andersson]

THE SUSPENDED STEP OF THE STORK is pretty much uncut, missing only a few seconds at the end of three shots. Curiously, the French prints have a slightly different order of scenes (Alexandre's first encounter with Eleni appears a little earlier), while the Greek prints have an additional voiceover at one point. But what a superb film! I'm haunted by this closing image, which, like so much else in Angelopoulos' oeuvre, moves me deeply in ways that I'm unable to account for intellectually.

Continuing the investigation of cut Angelopoulos films--
the Variety Cannes review for SUSPENDED STEP lists a 151 min. running time: https://cinefiles.bampfa.berkeley.edu/catalog/9908
Cannes site says 140 mins: https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/film ... la-cigogne
French distributors materials list a 145 min. running time: https://cinefiles.bampfa.berkeley.edu/catalog/9916

Cinefiles is a wonderful resource. Lots of available press clippings.

[RobertB]

When did Trigon film release Eternity and a Day on blu ray? It has English subs. I'm very tempted to order it, but would like some sort of confirmation it's a descent effort. https://www.trigon-film.org/en/shop/Blu ... i_mia_mera

[zedz]

When did Trigon film release Eternity and a Day on blu ray? It has English subs. I'm very tempted to order it, but would like some sort of confirmation it's a descent effort. https://www.trigon-film.org/en/shop/Blu ... i_mia_mera

I don't know the answer to your question, but Trigon have a great catalogue and (at least with their DVD releases) no form for technical quality. Their motto seems to be "it's better to have it out there than not," which is a sentiment I can agree with, but I can't think of any of their releases I could recommend on technical grounds. Would love to be wrong in this instance, however!

[jegharfangetmigenmyg]

I blind bought this one, and it is indeed a brand new restoration. The blu-ray was released sometime in 2021. A title card before the film states that the restoration has been carried out by trigon-film foundation itself. No year is mentioned, although it appears to have been very recently. The film is presented correctly in its 1.66:1 aspect ratio, and the sound is available in both DD 5.1 and DD 2.0.

Anyways, the image is very refined, much clearer and shows much more detail when compared to the old transfer that was released on blu-ray in Japan.

However, and this is a major however, it is quite clear that automatic noise reduction has been applied as the image looks very very smooth with no visible grain. This is espcially bad in some of the darkly lit dream sequences when the grain is reduced to a digital mush. What's worse: Edge enhancement is clear in many scenes.

The color grading is also very different. The old Angelopoulos masters had a pink'ish tint which I'm not sure was correct, but all of his late era films had it, and I had gotten used to it, so the blue'ish tinge in this new restoration is a bit jarring, and overall the look is modern/digital and somewhat ugly (to my eyes). I'm not sure which grading is correct, though.

So, all in all I'm not sure I can wholeheartedly recommend it, but I must say that the level of detail in the image is quite striking. Just not so sure if I would trade this for film grain. Such a shame.

Here are some comparisons:

[famous]

That's pretty bad actually. When I watched the restoration commisioned by the estate of the Beekeeper, it looked more like the Japanese screenshots above. I couldn't help but noticing that the image was a bit softer than I would expect from a restoration, however might have been somewhat better than above, it's been years now and I can't find those pictures I took with my phone, which might have been misleading anyway.

[kuzine]

Complete retrospective at the Ghent film festival this autumn: link.
DCPs are listed for all but 4 films (35mm), English subtitles for almost all (some of the 35mm have French). I'm guessing new restorations for the DCPs (?), one would hope someone puts some of these out on disk...
The brochure at the bottom of the web page is in Dutch but lists running times for all films if you wish to compare (given discussions earlier in this thread)..

[beamish14]

This is great. I really hope that we get a traveling retrospective of his works in North America soon. The Hunters is 168 minutes in length; I'd love to see a Blu-Ray with its alternate, shorter cut as well.

[jegharfangetmigenmyg]

ICA currently has an Angelopoulos retrospective, commemorating what would have been his 90 years birthday: https://www.ica.art/films/angelopoulos

Has anybody gone to any of the screenings? Many of the films are mentioned as being either 2K or 4K restorations. If they are, hopefully this means that upcoming physical releases are not completely ruled out. Still baffles me that Criterion still hasn't released even one of his titles.

[amberry]

Yes have been to all the 4 screenings so far (we had a small discussion in the Second Run thread a few days ago). All the restorations have looked amazing to my untrained eye, a massive upgrade over the previous ways to see them. Sadly, The Hunters this afternoon was not the fullest cut (was 149~ min or so all told). If it helps, the restorations have been attributed at the end to a "Power Media", which looks like a Greek company.

It seems (completely guessing here) that Angelopoulos' daughters are making an effort to make sure his films are seen at last, where there wasn't a will from the family/rightsholders before (apparently they were quite hard to work with in the past...). One of the daughters is introducing the Stork screening, so hopefully bodes well for their accessibility!

[Murdoch]

Trigon films has apparently released a Blu-ray of Eternity and a Day, They also have DVD versions of many of his other films (couldnt find other Blu-rays). I ordered the Eternity blu ray, but a user on HomeTheaterForum has a link to screen caps that appear to be DNR'ed.

Edit: just saw this was mentioned in the Angelopoulos DVD thread but still available nonetheless!

[Lowry_Sam]

Ulysses' Gaze is his only film that I remember seeing getting any kind of theatrical release in the US and that was probably because of Harvey Keitel and that was limited to the largest cities. It is a bit surprising that there hasn't been any attempt to release his films in the US particularly when Eleni Karaindrou's soundtracks to his films sold very well in the US as far as ECM releases go.

Edit: I would buy any releases of his films sight unseen if they included a 24 bit isolated score of her music.