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MoC will be releasing the longer, original TV version of EDVARD MUNCH (as will Project X via New Yorker at about the same time). 'Fraid we can't justify releasing both versions in the same package. Sorry zedz.

Any chance of a hint whether there'll be more Watkins?? Should I go for the New Yorker Freethinker??

We'd love to release more Watkins, but we have our hands full with EDVARD MUNCH and lots of other releases at the moment, leading us through to the end of 2008, so if we were to release more, it would be in 2009...

Jump at the New Yorker/Project X FREETHINKER!

Nick, any chance as to a hint as to whether there will be a release of more Yamanaka i.e. Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo?:D

I won't blame you if you can't say, I understand that it's very complex with licensing and schedules etc. I don't know whether I should get a dodgy copy with fan subs off ebay or if I'll be wasting my time when I only have to wait six months...

Hopefully.

I'd love to put out the remaining Yamanaka, one of my faves, but I heard that a certain other ace company was doing it, and didn't want to duplicate the effort.

Until then, the fan-sub of TANGE SAZEN is well worth picking up. It's pretty darn good (and the film is amazing). Hope this helps.

peerpee wrote:I'd love to put out the remaining Yamanaka, one of my faves, but I heard that a certain other ace company was doing it, and didn't want to duplicate the effort.

Until then, the fan-sub of TANGE SAZEN is well worth picking up. It's pretty darn good (and the film is amazing). Hope this helps.

Ace Company? So the rumors about Facets getting a hold of Yamanaka (or as they will certainly print it: Yanamanakah) are true? Awesome.

But seriously, you're not going to tell us which company, are you? Understandable. But can you let us know if these efforts are of a UK-based nature or US-based?

I won't ask you WHO might be releasing this -- but will ask if you think ":Kochiyama Soshun" might be included in the mystery project.

Has MOC looked at any of the major Imai films? or Uchida ones?
They have some gorgeous looking films that have gone largely unnoticed to date.

And if you ever need anyone to "curate" a "really really obscure Naruse" set ....

;~}

skuhn8 wrote:Ace Company? So the rumors about Facets getting a hold of Yamanaka (or as they will certainly print it: Yanamanakah) are true? Awesome.

I believe that Nick wouldn't use the term ace company lightly. May I speculate: this might be Eclipse box 7 oder 8, together with the other two (if I remember correctly) surviving Yamanakas. And that would be a true joy....

there are only three surviving films directed by Yamanaka -- but there are also a few others _written_ by him -- such as a Mito Komon trilogy (interesting,-- but not nearly as sophisticated as the films Y actually directed).

Excellent choices, I like the fact that along along with the Naruse box and forthcoming Mizuguchi one, is taking this approach to none Japanese directors where possible.

On the issue of Peter Watkin, any chance of twisting his arm and arranging an interview, aware of his policy but still no reading a statement is bizarre and reminds me of the way politicians deliver speeches.

Though curiously, I thought it offered an unintentional insight into the making of Punishment Park. I'm referring to the scene in which one of the activists on 'trial' either reads a passage or recalls it in memory and appears to imitate the way Peter Watkins reads, tone, emphasis of words, pauses and so on. Or am I reaching on that insight?

Anyway an interview would be good, if possible - but make sure to get him fired up maybe phrase a question in a way that offers us real insight into his thoughts on the monoform, by testing it to its limits.And make it wide reaching, covering the period of his film making, the circumstances his films were made in and the politics both then and now.

Of the top of my head, with regards to the monoform, and his suggestions that mass media organizations can distort events to suit their particular needs as crassly and as extensively as any national government. However do so using the example of the Tet Offensive, imply to him it was distorted by the press, sensationalist imagery, outburst of violence given prominence, but the actual substance was ignored, to such an extent the media's presentation shows the dangers of the media controlling not only the perception, but the implications of events.

The risk of replacing unquestioning trust in the nation, with absolute trust in the media, and today with blogs, soldiers accounts, trust in fellow people without any understanding of their personal views, bias and agendas..

Its a while since anyone posted here.

One for the wishlist: Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth (Huang tudi). There's so much written about the film, Chen and Zhang Yimou's invlovement, and the controversy surrounding it in China on release would make extras easy to come by. Its beautiful. And there is no release of it anywhere on DVD right? The closest I've seen in England was a recording of a TV broadcast in a film rental shop.

But who owns the rights? And why hasn't it been released for so long? Is there no access to good materials?

One film that I would like to see available to the English speaking world is Yamamoto Kaijiro's 'The War at Sea From Hawaii to Malay'. This is a Japanese WW2 propaganda film, and was actually released on the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Habor, which is depicted in the film in an elaborate special effects sequence. The miniature effects were done by Tsuburaya Eiji, who is best known for his work on the early Godzilla films. He is considered the "god of Japanese special effects," and I think focusing on a non-director "master of cinema" could be an interesting change of pace. This film is also considered the best of the wartime "action spectaculars". Still, I also think Yamamoto is name that needs to be better known, even if only through his connection to Kurosawa, who was his assistant director.

There has been a fair amount written about the film and its crew, from Kurosawa's autobiography to Peter High's book on Japanese war cinema. In terms of special features there might be something about Tsuburaya Eiji out there, and some other, shorter propaganda films that are related thematically might work well (such as 'Can You Become a Pilot?'). It seems like a lot of Japanese film scholars are turning to wartime cinema as well, so it might be possible to coax and essay out of Michael Raine, Isolde Standish, Mark Nornes or someone else.

some titles that would easily fit in the MoC collection:

Die Weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü 1929, Fanck/Pabst
this one would easily fit between my The Holy Mountain and Diary of a Lost Girl Moc's.

Unter den Brücken 1945, Käutner
a really impressive movie, recently released in Germany by Transit in co-operation with the Murnau Stiftung. MoC did pick up quite some of their releases, this one would be very welcome on my shelf.

plus i hope that the Naruse vol. II boxset will include Ugikumo (Floating Clouds). Inazuma (Lightning) is very welcome as well, this is a movie that sets Naruse apart from Ozu, without saying one is better than the other.

Joshua Dago wrote:some titles that would easily fit in the MoC collection:

Die Weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü 1929, Fanck/Pabst
this one would easily fit between my The Holy Mountain and Diary of a Lost Girl Moc's.

Much more important would be a release of Fanck's 1927 comedy "Der große Sprung", also starring Riefenstahl and Trenker. It's already been restored by FWS some years ago, and the few bits I was able to see were hilariously funny. Also needed of course is Fanck's first important film, "Berg des Schicksals". And talking of Pabst, "The Joyless Street", PLEEEASE!
But I assume we must be happy with the great silents by Murnau and Lang coming from MoC this autumn for the moment....

true thing, i'm really anticipating the Murnau and Lang releases. yet, since MoC does a great deal of the FWS catalogue it is only a matter of us requesting titles such as the ones you and i do.

p.s. actually i wasn't aware FWS did anything with "Der große Sprung". i've never been able to see it.

Joshua Dago wrote:p.s. actually i wasn't aware FWS did anything with "Der große Sprung". i've never been able to see it.

Yes, it seems to be a true rarity, but the restoration was made already in 2002 I believe. But it may well be that they only restored the film for lending it out for screenings with live piano accompaniment and did not record a finalized music version yet. But who cares: Kino for example have often done releases and put their own music to it (awful in many cases, though). And Riefenstahl (though not Fanck) should be enough to make it salable.

I was reading an old issue of Sight and Sound (1979) and there is a great, but very short article by Barry Salt on German Expressionism and he, in an interview, says that Expressionist cinema is comprised by six films between 1919 and 1924:

Das Kabinett das Dr Caligari (Wiene, 1919)
Genuine (Wiene, 1920)
Von morgens bis mitternachts (K. H. Martin, 1920)
Torgus (H. Kobe, 1921)
Raskolnikov (Wiene, 1923)
Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (Paul Leni, 1924)

"These are the only films in which most features are indebted to Expressionist painting and drama. The arguable addition to this list is Fritz Lang's Metropolis"

Those would be some great additions.

He should at least have added Arthur Robison's "Schatten" (or "Warning Shadows", as Kino likes to call it).

FSimeoni wrote:I was reading an old issue of Sight and Sound (1979) and there is a great, but very short article by Barry Salt on German Expressionism and he, in an interview, says that Expressionist cinema is comprised by six films between 1919 and 1924:

"Expressionism" is a byword. At core there's really no such thing as "Expressionism"; the constituent traits are so arbitrary, and vary so much from one would-be classifier to the next, that to create a list of "the true Expressionism films" is to attempt to impose an absolute on... the invisible. At what point does it still become necessary, let alone interesting, to decree what basically amounts to a spin-off "medium" because one notes the presence of odd angles on the rain-gutters, off-set by flourishes of intense shadow? That 'Der letzte Mann' (as an example) "is," or "is not," Expressionist, has absolutely nothing to do with its greatness.

I would argue that the only -real- manifestation of Expressionism is as a trope that allows particular Anglo critics who can't think intellectually, emotionally, or interestingly about cinema their way "in" to academe, and writing boring books about film that say nothing about anything.

Anyway, one could find the same surface stylistic traits espoused as signifiers of Expressionism within 'Lonedale Operator,' 'Les Vampires,' 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' 'Pilgrimage,' 'Whity,' and 'Miami Vice.'

Well, Barry Salt is using the among film historians generally accepted, strict definition of expressionism. For example Uli Jung and Walter Schatzberg, who have written a Robert Wiene biography and among the first (if not the first) to discuss the various legends surrounding Caligari (many of them proven to be false after the original script was found), also discuss the term 'expressionism' in one of their texts. They mention that Caligari spawned only a small number of films that used that kind of extreme expressionistic set designs; the same films on Salt's list plus Das Haus zum Mond (1920) directed by Karlheinz Martin (Salt may have been unaware of this title at the time).

I do however think that this definition of the term is somewhat narrow, and that filmic expressionism shouldn't necessarily be taken to be the same as expressionism in painting and drama. It could be argued that filmic expressionism rather quickly evolved from the Caligari kind by way of Der Golem into a different kind of expressionism such as is seen in Nosferatu; instead of creating a distorted world through artificial looking set designs, nature and real locations are used and the distorted world is created through use of lighting, shadows and picture compositions - a subtler and, in my opinion, more powerful approach. However, it is perhaps practical to also use the term in the narrow sense such as the film historians mentioned to distinguish the 'hardcore' expressionist films from others.

It is also worth noting that for such a widely used term, only two of the films that are considered really expressionistic have had official home video releases.

"Der Student von Prag" (1913) would not be wrong either, it doesn't have a fair release as far as I know...

Andreas wrote:"Der Student von Prag" (1913) would not be wrong either, it doesn't have a fair release as far as I know...

It's only available in an apparently horrible version from Alpha Video, which I avoided up to now (costs nexts to nothing, though). But since you mention it: much more important would be Henrik Galeen's version from 1926. I don't know whether FWMS have already restored it, the version I have recorded from TV looked very damaged and the music was some snippets from a very old recording of Bruckner's 9th symphony. But the film is truly magnificent, and has one of Conrad Veidt's most breathtaking performances. Best of all of course would be a nice set with both films.

I have heard about the 1926 version, but thought the 1913 version was some kind of pioneerwork for the "golden age" of german silentfilm?

Any shot of MOC releasing Lang's Scarlet Street?

Andreas wrote:I have heard about the 1926 version, but thought the 1913 version was some kind of pioneerwork for the "golden age" of german silentfilm?

Yeah, it is. It is included on Kinemathekverbund's list of the 100 most important German films (page 41) as high as number 12, and with good reason: it was basically the international breakthrough of German cinema. It is also perhaps the first really important horror film. The remake is in some ways a better film because of the general progress German film had undergone since the original was made, but in 1926 it was 'one among many' and wasn't as groundbreaking as the original.