Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

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Saimo
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#201 Post by Saimo » Mon May 06, 2013 6:29 am

Saimo wrote:Franco Brocani's Necropolis (1970), starring Tina Aumont, Carmelo Bene, Pierre Clementi and Viva, to be released on May 22.
The RHV disc will be English-friendly.
http://www.amazon.it/Necropolis-Tina-Au ... 00BX8PP62/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
New specs announced via facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/RIPLEYS-H ... 8686660055" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Shorts included as bonus features:
“È ormai sicuro il mio ritorno a Knossos” featuring Mario Schifano and Luca Patella
“Lo specchio a forma di gabbia”
“La maschera del Minotauro”, based on a story by Jorge L. Borges

New cover:
Image

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rockysds
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#202 Post by rockysds » Fri Jul 12, 2013 10:05 am

A second Jonas Mekas-box is now available from Re-Voir. Volume 2
Contains the previously released "Guns of the Trees", "The Sixties Quartet" & "Sleepness Night Stories", and adds "Letter From Greenpoint" and "Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days". Also available individually, but if you haven't picked any of them up yet, this is a lot cheaper: 80 € for the set vs. 24 € per individual dvd.

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htshell
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#203 Post by htshell » Fri Jul 12, 2013 10:20 am

I saw that and am very excited about it! But I'm not sure if it's actually a "box" or rather just a package of those releases discounted for sale together.

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#204 Post by zedz » Fri Jul 12, 2013 5:28 pm

Well spotted! Also, most of these aren't available through Amazon.fr yet, and may never be, since their Re:Voir coverage is very spotty. Even if they were, you'd be paying E140 or so for the lot, so this is a steal.

Postage seems to be reasonable too: E11 across the world. I'm pretty sure Amazon would be charging a lot more for 5 discs.

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#205 Post by Saimo » Wed Jul 17, 2013 12:40 pm

Re: Necropolis (available from late September)
zedz wrote:I doubt I can turn down the chance to see Viva play Elizabeth Bathory. In fact, I'm now finding it hard to imagine Bathory as anybody but Viva, shout-drawling about needing "maww VURR-gens, goddammit!"
Screenshot from my review copy:
Image

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#206 Post by zedz » Thu Aug 08, 2013 6:13 pm

zedz wrote:Well spotted! Also, most of these aren't available through Amazon.fr yet, and may never be, since their Re:Voir coverage is very spotty. Even if they were, you'd be paying E140 or so for the lot, so this is a steal.

Postage seems to be reasonable too: E11 across the world. I'm pretty sure Amazon would be charging a lot more for 5 discs.
I forgot to report back on these. No, it's not a box set, but all the releases have cardboard slipcases (woo-hoo!). They seem to be up to the excellent standard of the previous releases, with the customary booklets and good transfers. I've only watched his George Macunias film so far (on the Sixties Quartet disc) - a fine, moving film, coupling various bits of 1970s footage with Mekas reading relevant entries from his journals written while Macunias was dying in 1978.

Since this second batch of titles seem to be pure Re:Voir releases and not co-editions with Potemkine / Agnes B., the chances of them ever being carried by Amazon.fr is slight. Fortunately, Re:Voir's online store is much more user friendly than it used to be. Ordering was straightforward and dispatch was swift.

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htshell
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#207 Post by htshell » Fri Aug 09, 2013 12:23 am

Zefiro Torna (or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas) is one of my favorite films of his. Thanks for reporting back. Have to put off an order until later this fall after a trip but am looking forward to these.

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rockysds
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#208 Post by rockysds » Tue Aug 27, 2013 5:36 am

Re:Voir is preparing a DVD edition of the complete works of Adolpho Arrietta.
Re:Voir wrote: The boxset includes five DVDs with booklets, critical texts and new introductions to the films, with subtitles in English, French and Spanish. All of Arrietta's thirteen completed films from 1965 to 2008 are included in their most recent director's cut, and remastered from the best available sources.

We are offering the boxset now at an advance-sale subscription rate of 49 euros, available only direct from the publisher. After the release date, the box will be available throughout our distribution network for a list price of 64 euros. The individual DVDs are also available now at a subscription rate of 15,90 instead of 19,90.
More info, including a preorder link on their blog.

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#209 Post by zedz » Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:51 pm

Always good to see more coming from Re:Voir, though I wasn't exactly blown away by the Arrietta films they've already released (The Angel Trilogy), or the two that slipped out with Cinema.

EDIT: Ordered. Note that they subtract sales tax for overseas orders, which helps to offset the postage costs. More of these niche labels should use these blind-buy pre-order discounts.

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#210 Post by Saimo » Tue Sep 24, 2013 8:43 am

Saimo wrote:Franco Brocani's Necropolis (1970), starring Tina Aumont, Carmelo Bene, Pierre Clementi and Viva
The RHV disc will be English-friendly.

Time Out Film Guide:
"Brocani conjures together all your favorite European cultural and historical myth figures in order to attack the centuries of 'sublimation' that have produced our cities and their inhabitants. The gang's all here: Frankenstein's monster gropes towards the awareness that his mind is a universe; Attila, naked on a white horse, liberates his people from their ignominy; the ultra-caustic Viva bemoans the frustrations of married life and drifts into the elegiac persona of the Bloody Countess Bathory; Louis Waldon is a hip American tourist searching for the (missing) Mona Lisa. The range is extraordinary, from stand-up Jewish comedy to a kind of flea-market expressionism."
Now available.
http://www.amazon.it/Necropolis-Tina-Au ... 00BX8PP62/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Screenshots

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#211 Post by Saimo » Fri Oct 11, 2013 2:39 am

Viva (who has never seen the completed film) talks about Necropolis:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... 2673302734" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

onedimension
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#212 Post by onedimension » Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:35 am

Anyone know the status of the Norman Mclaren "Master's Edition" DVD put out by Homevision? I ordered a copy a few weeks ago, only to have Amazon cancel it- and now it's out of stock and going for $200+.. Is it completely OOP? Blu ray edition pending?

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#213 Post by MichaelB » Wed Oct 16, 2013 4:00 am

I'd love to think so, but it would be a major remastering job - sadly, the original films were only mastered to SD, and heavily windowboxed SD at that. (I completely understand the aesthetic rationale for this, but it has the unfortunate side effect that the picture resolution is effectively even lower!).

Still, the NFB has all the materials to hand, so it's more of a financial than a logistical challenge. Certainly, it's nowhere near as unfeasible as, say, a Blu-ray edition of the BFI's Švankmajer box. (Although I'd obviously snap it up like a shot, I really wouldn't hold your breath on that particular score!)

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#214 Post by zedz » Wed Oct 16, 2013 5:43 pm

onedimension wrote:Anyone know the status of the Norman Mclaren "Master's Edition" DVD put out by Homevision? I ordered a copy a few weeks ago, only to have Amazon cancel it- and now it's out of stock and going for $200+.. Is it completely OOP? Blu ray edition pending?
This was released in a lot of different territories in the same form, so you might still be able to get it from the UK (one left at Amazon). I couldn't find it on the NFB/ONF's own site, but that thing is a nightmare to navigate.

EDIT: Seems to be OOP in France as well, but Amazon.fr have a copy of the British edition for sale, and it's much cheaper than their domestic version anyway.

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#215 Post by MichaelB » Thu Oct 17, 2013 2:40 am

If I remember rightly, the British edition is absolutely identical - I think it might even be NTSC.

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#216 Post by zedz » Thu Oct 17, 2013 6:31 pm

Reporting back on that second wave of Mekas DVDs:

Guns of the Trees - A landmark film, more in the mode of the 40s and 50s American avant-garde (doomy hanging-around psychodrama) than Mekas later, much more personal, diary films. Great to have it, but most interesting to me for how generic it looks nowadays.

The Sixties Quartet - Great stuff. Mekas compiles home movies (mostly well after the fact). The Maciunas film is beautifully poignant, and the others are, at the very least, fascinatingly voyeuristic. I mean, where else can you see Miles Davis and John Lennon, at a big garden party, casually slink off to shoot hoops together? (Lennon, it seems, is pants at basketball.)

Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit - Another extremely moving, death-obsessed film. The significance of the title is that it begins right after Ginsberg's death, and follows the aftermath through to the funeral. It's shot on video, and Mekas is only just starting to find his way around that medium, so this film is no great shakes formally, but the content is very strong.

A Letter from Greenpoint - Several years later, and Mekas still hasn't really got to grips with video, and with material as thin as this, it becomes a real problem. The premise is decent enough - Mekas relocates to Brooklyn after decades in the Village and wants to chronicle his new life - but what we get is lots and lots of rushes (with video, the sharp economy of his earlier diary films, in which events are sped up and glancingly edited in camera so he can fit everything in without running out of film stock, goes out the window) of Mekas hanging out with his young cool buddies, drinking beer and improvising 'hilarious' new lyrics to the songs they're listening to on the radio. It's a home movie from hell that could have been made by anybody's drunk uncle showing off their new camcorder.

Sleepless Night Stories - By the time of this film, Mekas has finally found his video 'voice', and this is a pretty delightful riff on the Arabian Nights, casting lots of his artist and celebrity friends in little impressionistic and dream-like vignettes. A lulling little free-associative charmer that seems like a great thing to stick on when you're battling insomnia.

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#217 Post by Adam » Sat Oct 19, 2013 3:16 pm

zedz wrote: The Sixties Quartet - Great stuff. Mekas compiles home movies (mostly well after the fact). The Maciunas film is beautifully poignant, and the others are, at the very least, fascinatingly voyeuristic. I mean, where else can you see Miles Davis and John Lennon, at a big garden party, casually slink off to shoot hoops together? (Lennon, it seems, is pants at basketball.)
Also at that party is Andy Warhol and Shirley Clarke, I believe it was at the home of Lennon's lawyer, whom I am blanking on. Albert Grossman?

Really fascinating is that Shirley Clarke also shot the party (and getting on a bus to it) with an early Sony Portapak. In her footage you can see Jonas shooting 16mm. I thought in Jonas's you can see Shirley. So you can have this interesting experience of an amazing garden party through the eyes of two important avant-garde makers. We included some of that in a series in 1998 - Wendy Clarke had the video material.

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#218 Post by zedz » Sun Oct 20, 2013 3:29 pm

Adam wrote:
zedz wrote: The Sixties Quartet - Great stuff. Mekas compiles home movies (mostly well after the fact). The Maciunas film is beautifully poignant, and the others are, at the very least, fascinatingly voyeuristic. I mean, where else can you see Miles Davis and John Lennon, at a big garden party, casually slink off to shoot hoops together? (Lennon, it seems, is pants at basketball.)
Also at that party is Andy Warhol and Shirley Clarke, I believe it was at the home of Lennon's lawyer, whom I am blanking on. Albert Grossman?

Really fascinating is that Shirley Clarke also shot the party (and getting on a bus to it) with an early Sony Portapak. In her footage you can see Jonas shooting 16mm. I thought in Jonas's you can see Shirley. So you can have this interesting experience of an amazing garden party through the eyes of two important avant-garde makers. We included some of that in a series in 1998 - Wendy Clarke had the video material.
Yes, it's a really wonderful moment when you see Shirley, and she's filming everything as well. I'm delighted to hear that that footage survives!

But the 500-pound gorilla of all that is Joyce Wieland and Hollis Frampton's A and B in Ontario, in which the two filmmakers play an intricate game of tag / hide and seek with cameras, each trying to shoot the other while avoiding being shot themselves, with the finished film being all the shots in which one or other filmmaker is 'captured'. It's one of the purest expressions of the sheer joy of filmmaking.

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#219 Post by knives » Sun Oct 20, 2013 4:22 pm

Where can you see that? It does sound joyous and it would be neat to see Frampton in a more relaxed mode of filmmaking.

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#220 Post by zedz » Sun Oct 20, 2013 5:54 pm

It's in the Joyce Wieland box set. Shot back in '68, or something like that, but assembled by Wieland in 1984, after Frampton's death. It does make you want to play tag with Hollis Frampton.

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knives
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#221 Post by knives » Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:42 am

Thanks, though the set seems hard to find.

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#222 Post by zedz » Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:35 pm

I think I ordered my copy through Lux in the UK (who no longer seem to stock it), but if you're in the US I assume it will be easier and cheaper to get it direct from the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. Here's a link, but there seems to be little or no info about ordering it as a private purchase, so I guess you'll need to email them and enquire.

If anybody's in the market for the Joyce Wieland set, they should definitely consider picking up this fantastic collection of films by Su Friedrich.

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knives
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#223 Post by knives » Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:38 pm

Thanks, though it seems like such a damned situation.

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#224 Post by swo17 » Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:45 pm

Ask your local library to purchase it.

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AlexHansen
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#225 Post by AlexHansen » Mon Oct 28, 2013 4:27 pm

Phil Solomon mentions on Vimeo that his REMAINS TO BE SEEN will be included in the upcoming Treasures 6 box.

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