Forthcoming: Golem

[What A Disgrace]

Radiance's newsletter confirms this as forthcoming from Second Run

[MichaelB]

To clarify, this is the 1980 film Golem by Piotr Szulkin.

[DeprongMori]

I’ve just watched Golem from the Vinegar Syndrome box set Apocalypse Tetralogy, and now I’m curious to see his nine earlier short films that precede Golem. (I’m including the 40-minute Bewitching Eyes from 1977, which would seem to be a good folkloric match, along with The Gal and the Fiend, to Golem.)

As neither the Vinegar Syndrome box nor the Radiance box contain them, do we have any information on whether they will be included in this Second Run release of Golem?

Are there other good sources for these short films?

[swo17]

As I commented in the Radiance thread, there's one in the Anthology of Polish Experimental Animation

[ryannichols7]

As neither the Vinegar Syndrome box nor the Radiance box contain them, do we have any information on whether they will be included in this Second Run release of Golem?

Are there other good sources for these short films?

considering Second Run's usual knack for including short films, I wouldn't be surprised to see this inclusion

[therewillbeblus]

They usually include one or two, but I doubt we're getting nine - hopefully there isn't overlap with the Radiance shorts and they stick to unreleased material

[MichaelB]

Although the Polish rightsholder would no doubt be only too happy to license them twice over, there's absolutely no chance of them overlapping with the Radiance shorts.

Why would Second Run pay good money for something that they already know is getting a UK release?

[therewillbeblus]

I agree that it doesn't make sense, but I feel like this has happened recently where a boutique label will license the already-available shorts on a mirror release vs. new ones. Specific examples are escaping me though. I guess I'm not always assuming every label is up-to-date with their cousins' extras, or considering them when producing a release. Helps to keep expectations in check

[swo17]

Like how Eureka matched Arbelos' special features for Son of the White Mare or how BFI did the same with Funeral Parade of Roses. Though in those cases the different labels were serving different markets

[DeprongMori]

Although the Polish rightsholder would no doubt be only too happy to license them twice over, there's absolutely no chance of them overlapping with the Radiance shorts.

Why would Second Run pay good money for something that they already know is getting a UK release?

Unless I misread it, all of the shorts on the Radiance End of Civilization box set are ‘complementary’ shorts, and *not* by Szulkin. This gives Second Run a lot of latitude on what they include. I will likely double-dip.

Hoping there might be some last minute additions to the Radiance set as it currently looks like there’s little inducement for me to swap out my VS set for it, despite my strongly favoring Radiance as a label.

FWIW, I did manage to find Szulkin’s Bewitching Eyes streaming. Not sure about the legitimacy of the site, but I’ll check it out tonight.

[therewillbeblus]

This was my first Szulkin, and I loved it - a kind of Alphaville sci-fi noir if shot by Gilliam doing his best Fellini impression. There are plenty of narrative and visual motifs obfuscated, likely in order to serve the more reflexive theme of surrogate disorientation. Szulkin is tough to pin down - sometimes lucidly supplying the meaning behind what he's doing, and other times mystifying his audience with cheeky Naked Lunch-esque surrealism, which is probably the best point of comparison. Like that film, even when confused I didn't get the sense that any internal logic was being forsaken, and the dystopian dark comedy was stimulating divorced from the sociopolitical and literal narrative constructs woven in or elided. A 90-minute blast of eccentric novelty, holding its ground in a familiar sandbox.