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Artificial Eye is releasing three films of Nuri Bilge Ceylan in two DVDs:

Kasaba & Clouds of May
Climates

Currently scheduled for May 28th.

So AE have just released Alexander Askoldov's The Commissar (presumably a RusCiCo port), made in 1967 but shelved by the authorities until 1988. Has anyone seen this? How does it compare to other Russian war films such as Ivan's Childhood or Come and See? From the synopsis, sounds like it might be a touch sentimental.

Gropius wrote:So AE have just released Alexander Askoldov's The Commissar (presumably a RusCiCo port), made in 1967 but shelved by the authorities until 1988. Has anyone seen this? How does it compare to other Russian war films such as Ivan's Childhood or Come and See? From the synopsis, sounds like it might be a touch sentimental.

I haven't read the synopsis , but I wouldn't call this film sentimental. By no means. If I had to give you a teaser: Typically, anti-war films try to succeed by confronting us with the gruesome aspects of war on flesh and soul. This one succeeds by contrasting the war machinery with life in various incarnations. I was quite overwhelmed when it came out in the nineties, and I was still overwhelmed when I saw it on the RusCiCo DVD. There are some rough edges (it's the first (and last) film Askoldov made), but there are some unforgettable scenes, too.

Has anyone found any specs for the Andrei Tarkovsky Companion yet?
Amazon UK have it listed as 1 disc, at a pre-order price of £11.98. Play.com have just changed the discription to '2 discs', and have upped the price from £14.99 to £17.99.
I'm tempted to take a risk now with Amazon, but I'd like to know more about what I'm buying than:
Documentary profiling one of the leading lights of world cinema; Andrei Tarkovsky, the Russian director of thought-provoking classics such as SOLARIS, STALKER and IVAN'S CHILDHOOD.

I emailed Artificial Eye and just got this reply:

Our DVD will include ‘One day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevitch' by Chris marker, ‘Moscow Elegy' by Alexander Sokurov and ‘Tempo di Viaggio' by Andrei Tarkovsky & Tonino Guerra (with a new English subtitles translation).

Satyajit Ray's The Chess Players is coming on June 25, according to both Play.com and Amazon.co.uk.

ola t wrote:

Our DVD will include ‘One day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevitch' by Chris marker, ‘Moscow Elegy' by Alexander Sokurov and ‘Tempo di Viaggio' by Andrei Tarkovsky & Tonino Guerra (with a new English subtitles translation).

I wasn't taken aback with Moscow Elegy, but I'm glad I saw it. I haven't seen any of the other material, is it substantial?

DVD Times review for Gabrielle. Frankly, I'm staggered that it's been cropped to 1.78. So much for those sumptuous 'scope compositions! Even though I loved Chéreau's hyperstylised melodrama, there's no way I'll be plumping for this disc. A disappointment.

foggy eyes wrote:DVD Times review for Gabrielle. Frankly, I'm staggered that it's been cropped to 1.78.

That's terrible. It certainly puts my quibbles about subtitles or picture quality on other discs into context - this is a much worse issue. Does anyone have information about other releases of the film - on region 1 maybe?

Problem solved! I was holding out for the AE because their recent releases of contemporary films have been superb. Oh well.

foggy eyes wrote:Problem solved! I was holding out for the AE because their recent releases of contemporary films have been superb. Oh well.

Thankfully AE are in the process of correcting the aspect ratio

Subbuteo wrote:

foggy eyes wrote:Problem solved! I was holding out for the AE because their recent releases of contemporary films have been superb. Oh well.

Thankfully AE are in the process of correcting the aspect ratio

I respect them for correcting these sorts of mistakes when they occur (as they also did, for instance, with Werckmeister Harmonies), but is it really so hard to simply verify a film's OAR before releasing it on DVD?

I have preordered the Tarkovsky Companion but it's a bit of a shame they couldn't get anything else to add to it, to see The Steamroller and the Violin and perhaps Tarkovsky's short films The Killers and There Will be no Leave Today would have made a great set and also complete Tarkovsky's entire filmography from one distributor.

DVD Times reviews for the new Ceylans: Kasaba/Clouds of May and Iklimler. Not as pristine as hoped for, but these appear to be solid releases.

I have preordered the Tarkovsky Companion but it's a bit of a shame they couldn't get anything else to add to it, to see The Steamroller and the Violin and perhaps Tarkovsky's short films The Killers and There Will be no Leave Today would have made a great set and also complete Tarkovsky's entire filmography from one distributor.

I couldn't agree more. I watched the Marker on Saturday. Funnily enough I had recently watched this on TV a few months back (Artsworld or BBC4, I think...) but I didn't know it was by Marker! Globally, it struck me as overly reverential and a little dull at the time and rewatching it knowing it was made by Marker didn't change my mind. We all, of course, know 'Tempo di Viaggio' from the AE 'Nostalghia' DVD. This leaves 'Moscow Elegy' which is interesting (only) in places. I wonder if they didn't want to release 'Moscow Elegy' as a stand alone DVD (like in R1 land) because they thought it wouldn't sell and so decided to cobble together the two other works. As it stands, it's a pretty dry DVD package. If you all ready own 'Nostalghia' you have very little need for this set.

That's why I cancelled my preorder of the set. So much has come out recently or been announced that I have just had to cancel this set. AE have just lost a customer and I will now rent the DVD which means much less revenue for them.

I wonder if it might be much more sensible to go ahead and rerelease their whole Tarkovsky output in say two/three limited edition boxsets with all the bells and whistles along with my previously suggested extras, I have no doubts that they would sell phenomenally well to those already familiar with Tarkovsky and those people newly discovering him.

FSimeoni wrote:...with all the bells and whistles

I don't think Artificial Eye do 'bells and whistles', unless they're porting them from MK2.

In other news, I emailed AE to ask if they would be distributing Jia Zhang-Ke's Still Life (which has already been released across Europe), and received a rather surly response which stated, "No, because we thought it wasn't a very good film."

What with the miserably poor state of arthouse distribution in the UK, a no from AE doesn't leave many other likely contenders. Even the Golden Lion isn't enough to raise interest, it seems. Those who can't make it to film festivals are frequently buggered these days, since so many great films end up in the 'no cinema, no DVD' zone.

Artificial Eye wrote:"No, because we thought it wasn't a very good film."

That's quite a shocking response, especially when AE is pushing distinctly average arthouse fare like I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed around the UK. The problem is that interesting yet inoffensive 'it's French, like those Red, White and Blue films' product is plugged to keep Picturehouses and vaguely arty cinemas ticking over nicely (for example last year's Gabrielle, The Page Turner), whilst fresher and more unconventional work languishes (which seems to have been what happened to Garrel's terrific Regular Lovers - even though it's French). It's insufficient to conclude that AE doesn't rate Still Life as highly as Xiao Wu, Unknown Pleasures or Platform (each of which they have released on DVD), as there just clearly just isn't enough support on the arthouse circuit to make Jia worth their financial while. Bah.

foggy eyes wrote:there just clearly just isn't enough support on the arthouse circuit to make Jia worth their financial while.

And yet a party was just held a few days ago for Jia in Cannes to celebrate French ticket sales for Still Life of over 135,000. And I hear it's been a hit of sorts in Italy too. Is Britain really so provincial that it can't stimulate even a fraction of this enthusiasm?

Yes, this is pretty depressing! I was surprised that nobody picked up The World for theatrical distribution here, yet in the same year Denis's considerably more unorthodox and fragmented L'Intrus did the rounds. Over the last few years the arthouse circuit seems to have become considerably more conservative, and an offshoot of that seems to be that booking decisions are just getting odder. Sometimes it's impossible to fathom why one thing makes it through but not another...

Yes, it is very depressing! I think though, to be fair, that Denis is -relatively speaking- quite a 'big brand' in that I imagine she has a small but very dedicated following (granted built over a number of years).

More generally speaking, shouldn't the Jias and the Straubs of this world be screened at somewhere like the ICA (horrible screen, I know) or the BFI?

You're exactly right about Denis - it was a rather tenuous comparison. Her 'brand' ticks all the arthouse boxes, so securing distribution isn't too much of a problem even if L'Intrus is a more problematic and difficult proposition for audiences than The World. Although Jia and Straub should indeed be screened at the ICA or Southbank, the problem of wider distribution to smaller and more local arthouse cinemas remains....

Don Lope de Aguirre wrote: We all, of course, know 'Tempo di Viaggio' from the AE 'Nostalghia' DVD.

I hate to admit it, but I DON'T know it... Basically because I avoided the AE "Nostalghia" after the bad press it got. So, can you perhaps say something about "Tempo"? Would you recommend buying the set for this film alone? I'm not overly interested in "Moscow Elegy" and have the Marker film already from TV (and am not very much blown away by it, too....).