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Got mine today and already watched Holy Mountain. My mind is blown. The disc is perfection incarnated, by the way. I still feel the smell of fried brains in the air so I guess I'd better stop writing now and do something else that doesn't require as much effort.

Glorious movie experience. My mind is blown. Oops, I already said that didn't I? Told you so. Bye for now.

Amazon.com has just shipped mine out. God bless next-day delivery. UPS willing, I should have it by 1 P.M. tomorrow. At last the wait's at an end.

I got mine today. Thank you, DVD Planet!

I agree with everything that has been said about the Anchor Bay El Topo and Holy Mountain discs. They look unbelievably good, especially after years of watching dreadful bootleg tapes and the awful Raro discs. I can't wait to listen to the soundtrack CDs as well - Don Cherry was involved with the Holy Mountain soundtrack. As for La Cravate, I can hardly believe it's included here. I never thought I'd see that one.

However, for those who own the Fantoma DVD of Fando & Lis, do not sell it!. I'm very glad I kept mine. The Anchor Bay looks appalling in comparison. Movement looks terrible and the image breaks up into a pixel ridden mess. I can't work out why it's so much worse than the Fantoma. Incidentally, I think Fando & Lis is probably my favourite Jodorowsky film and I can't understand why so many people consider it to be a lesser work than the other two included here.

Here is a comparison.

Fantoma


Anchor Bay


What the hell happened?

I, of course, sold my Fantoma disc in anticipation of this set, even knowing that the reproduction of the lobby materials likely would not make it over to the Anchor Bay release. Did I anticipate that Anchor Bay would do a poorer job than Fantoma? I considered it, but given that Fantoma's release was non-anamorphic (as is AB's, it turns out) and a number of years old by now, it seemed a decent risk. And, truth be told, I'm not all that crazy about "Fando y Lis".

Still... rather unimpressive. As I await delivery, I console myself with the notion that I'd likely not watch "Fando" again anytime soon, and probably not without the commentary engaged.

I throw nothing away. I didn't spend damn near $80.00 on that Fantoma disc to lose it. I won't even toss the bootleg Holy Trinity disc set, since it's got Santa Sangre on it. Not that I'll be able to judge today; the Amazon people sent it yesterday, but it isn;'t getting here until tomorrow! Next-day shipping, my ass...

Rich Malloy wrote:I, of course, sold my Fantoma disc in anticipation of this set,

I very nearly did exactly the same thing but I learned my lesson from the Optimum Bunuel box audio fiasco. From now on I'm never selling discs until I'm sure the new editions are better. Well actually I sold the Raro Jodorowsky in anticipation of the Anchor Bay, but that's a bit different considering they looked more like youtube videos than DVDs.
(I also broke the rule and sold some of my Svankmajer shorts DVDs but that's because I have complete faith in Michael Brooke to do a better job with the BFI edition)

El Topo and The Holy Mountain really do look so damn good that I can't imagine anyone being disappointed with this box set. Time for me to watch El Topo now (for the first time with colour!).

I had noticed the "greenish hue" that's apparent in the AB capture you posted was also characteristic of all the "FANDO" shots posted in the Beaver's review. I wondered then about that as I didn't recall the Fantoma looking that way.

Is this some sort of "gamma" problem (he queried, using a term he heard once somewhere and probably incorrectly)?

vogler wrote:However, for those who own the Fantoma DVD of Fando & Lis, do not sell it!. I'm very glad I kept mine. The Anchor Bay looks appalling in comparison. Movement looks terrible and the image breaks up into a pixel ridden mess. I can't work out why it's so much worse than the Fantoma. Incidentally, I think Fando & Lis is probably my favourite Jodorowsky film and I can't understand why so many people consider it to be a lesser work than the other two included here.

Well, that answers my question. Thanks for the info and screenshots. I just got my set today and was wondering what to do with the Fantoma disc. I'll be hanging on to it. Better image and cool inserts.

Hopefully, sales of this set will convince Anchor Bay to release that Region 2 disc of Santa Sangre here in the States. My last inquiry to them on that issue was answered with a polite "problem securing rights for N. America, etc."

And, bootlegs aside, has Tusk received a proper release in any region?

Any ideas what this line in the middle of the screen is on El Topo? It comes and goes for a few minutes around this point in the film (unfortunately during the visually stunning desert scenes). It doesn't look like an emulsion scratch to me, but maybe it is. Could it be something digital? I just watched the whole of El Topo and other than this line the transfer is flawless. The colours are incredible - so vivd.



zoomed in

My guess is it's probably digital. After all, can anyone remember seeing that on the older bootleg prints? If they were there back then, it may just be one of those things that cleaning up the image revealed. Do they clean it up digitally or not? I can't answer, but regardless, it's not like they have the Skywalker Ranch people working on it.

I'll look for it when I get mine tomorrow (IF I get it tomorrow, those UPS brigands! ), and see what I can see. But I'll tell you, to me, it's rather like the days when we got Heavy Metal via bootleg. Whenever you could, you traded up in quality every chance you could until you got the best version there was on the grey market.

I didn't start off with a bad version of El Topo - it was a DVD made from the Japanese laserdisc - but this is already looking far better, and if, as you say, it's just peachy everywhere else on the disc, then ya know what? I'll take it! We DO have every right to be picky, it's true, but this is still the best game in town... except for Fando. But I'm not buying this for Fando.

Erik Pflueger wrote:My guess is it's probably digital. After all, can anyone remember seeing that on the older bootleg prints?

I don't remember seeing it on any previous version. It will be interesting to see if it's on the Tartan DVD as well. I'm still very happy with this box set and I look forward to watching The Holy Mountain tomorrow. I'm going to be very interested in seeing how it compares to the Tartan though (and isn't there another company releasing it as well?).

Erik Pflueger wrote:My guess is it's probably digital. After all, can anyone remember seeing that on the older bootleg prints? If they were there back then, it may just be one of those things that cleaning up the image revealed. Do they clean it up digitally or not? I can't answer, but regardless, it's not like they have the Skywalker Ranch people working on it.

That looks chemical to me - I've never seen a digital glitch that would produce that effect (at least not accidentally). My guess (based purely on the framegrabs) is that it's a flaw in the original negative, and that while there may have been some attempt at cleaning it up digitally, it ultimately proved impossible to get rid of entirely.

MichaelB wrote:That looks chemical to me - I've never seen a digital glitch that would produce that effect (at least not accidentally). My guess (based purely on the framegrabs) is that it's a flaw in the original negative, and that while there may have been some attempt at cleaning it up digitally, it ultimately proved impossible to get rid of entirely.

Yes, it does look chemical. I wonder why it wasn't on previous versions though (at least I don't think it was). The line also appears in different places as well. After this scene it disappears for a while but then appears on the left side of the screen followed by the right (if I remember correctly). It's quite strange but I can live with it.

Nice new avatar Michael - one of my favourite moments of all Svankmajer's work.

I take it that notwithstanding this relatively minor glitch everyone still considers this something of the definitive El Topo?

Tribe

Tribe wrote:I take it that notwithstanding this relatively minor glitch everyone still considers this something of the definitive El Topo?

I seriously can't imagine a better El Topo coming out in the near (or far) future

Strangely, I was watching Anchor Bay's release of Fata Morgana tonight and I noticed a very similar line during some shots in the desert about half way through the film.

thethirdman wrote:Strangely, I was watching Anchor Bay's release of Fata Morgana tonight and I noticed a very similar line during some shots in the desert about half way through the film.

That is very strange. What on earth could be causing strange lines in desert scenes. A coincidence perhaps? Any chance of a screenshot?

I doubt that there's any connection, but Lawrence of Arabia has visual glitches in some of the desert shots, as a by-product of the film not being able to stand the heat.

I have just received my set some two hours ago, and while I'm typing this, the "Holy Mountain" soundtrack cd is playing in the background. I'm not a big fan of soundtrack albums, but this one seems to make sense, I'm really surprised how well the music works on its own. Is anyone else reminded of Coil in the opening track? Quite astonishing music, not just because its so 'old'.

I popped the three main discs in very briefly, and although I haven't seen the old disc of "Fando and Lys", I think I would agree to what has been said so far about the new one. I must watch the film in its entirety, of course, but the few scenes I watched seem to have way too much contrast, and I also suspect some edge enhancement is going on, all of which seems to reduce details and looks a little unnatural. The image immediately got better after I turned down the contrast on my set, though, but well, I suspect this might have been done better by Anchor Bay. The "Constellation Jodorowsky" documentary, however, looks far, far better than on the "Santa Sangre" disc, and it's good to be able to get rid of the subs on that one now.

But no complaints, really, for the image on both "El Topo" and "Holy Mountain" seems to be really mindblowing. Absolutely astonishing considering the age of these films. What gorgeous colours, what detail, what great packaging... and, of course, what films.... and the price of the set is so ridiculously cheap that I begin to understand the increasing complaints about Criterion's pricing policy.

Anyway, now I'm looking forward to a really psychedelic weekend

Tommaso wrote:I'm not a big fan of soundtrack albums, but this one seems to make sense, I'm really surprised how well the music works on its own. Is anyone else reminded of Coil in the opening track? Quite astonishing music, not just because its so 'old'.

It is traditional Tibetan Zen Buddhist ritual music. Jodorowsky may have added to it and mixed it with other elements though. Tibetan monks have been making such music as part of their rituals for a very long time. I have quite a lot of recordings from Zen Buddhist temples and they are truly astonishing.

Here is a quote from Jodorowsky:

Yes, I composed the music ... the musical themes. All of them.
And I used Tibetan music and music of Zen Buddhist temples.
Japanese and Tibetan music. Mixed together.

The first piece on the CD sounds purely Tibetan to me but there could be other elements. Coil, and a large number of other 'industrial' artists, were hugely influenced by Tibetan and other ritual musics. You probably already know that though.

What about track 6 on The Holy Mountain soundtrack. That one kind of reminds me of Zos Kia/Transparent era Coil. Scary.

I watched The Holy Mountain last night and the image quality is phenomenal. It's such a visual film that I enjoyed it like I was seeing it for the first time again. A truly mindblowing experience. I'm going to start all over again tonight with the Fantoma Fando & Lis followed by El Topo and The Holy Mountain again tomorrow.

CONVERSATIONS WITH JODOROWSKY

I only just noticed the title of this thread.

Anchor Bay: Alejandro Jodorowksy

#-yellow circle slapping head

vogler wrote:That is very strange. What on earth could be causing strange lines in desert scenes. A coincidence perhaps? Any chance of a screenshot?

The line occurs around the one hour mark.

Those lines really do look the same. I wasn't quite expecting that. So who can explain it? Is it something to do with the heat whilst filming in the desert? Or a strange Anchor Bay artifact that only appears in desert scenes?

I just received this set.

Eclipse artwork designers everywhere may want to note the revolutionary "box" with a "spine", that securely yet simply holds the thinpak dvds in place, and also grants convenient access to the aforementioned dvds.