Trigon Film

[Lemmy Caution]

Trigon Film

I was wondering if anyone had any insight on Trigon Film(s). A dozen or so of their releases have begun turning up here, unfortunately with German and French subtitles, but not English.

They seem to have a nice output of recent films from developing countries -- Chile, Argentina, Tunisia, Russia, India, etc. -- and elsewhere. But I don't see any way to find out which titles, if any, have English subtitles.

Their website has an English and French language option (under the search bar)

[Landjorden]

I found english listed under subtitles on all except uncle boonmee. For example "the milk of sorrow"

trigon-film dvd-edition 163: Film in OV spanish, subitltes: english · french · german, 94 min., chapters, 1:1.85 - 16/9 PAL, DD, color, no zone code

Bonus:
· Making of (OV/ang/a/f)
· Audio commentary by the director Claudia Llosa nd the camerawoman Natasha Braier (OV/ang/a/f)
· Impressions of the opening nights in Peru

[Wu.Qinghua]

Trigon Film specializes in "Third World cinema".

In contrast to landjorden, I doubt that most of their DVDs feature English subtitles. It's a Swiss company, so they have to provide both French and German subtitles, but I can't figure out no general rules they're following in case of adding English subtitles.

[Landjorden]

I actually have no idea if they have subtitles in english, just saying that the homepage Lemmy linked to had english written in most cases under subtitles. I didn´t check them all but of the fifteen or so I looked up all but one had it listed.

Edit: After actually looking at the homepage a bit closer I have noticed that all titles up for preorder is missing english subtitles wich makes it even more confusing, guess you just have to check with Trigon themselves via mail.

[Lemmy Caution]

You're right, many/some of their films do have English subtitles listed.
All of the titles I jotted down and searched for on their site -- Rusalka, Historias Minimas, Extraño, The Other Bank (Gagma napiri), etc. -- don't though.
All films appear to have German and French; some have Spanish and Dutch as well.

Thanks for that. Apparently. I should have checked further.
Hopefully I'll be able to find some with English subs and delve in.
Any recs, especially among the lesser-known films/cinemas, would be appreciated.
Is anyone familiar with quality of their output?

[TheDoman]

I recently discovered this distributor and they have a great selection of films. I'm unsure of their process or limitations on English subtitles, so I have emailed them for more details and to see what makes them release titles with or without English subtitles.

They are releasing Bal and Birdwatchers on Blu-ray, but both appear to have no English subtitles which is a shame. Those are two films I doubt will be released by another label on Blu-ray.

Anyway, although their selection of films is very impressive, is anyone able to comment on the quality of releases and transfers? The prices are quite high, but providing they have quality releases I wouldn't mind paying it, considering their nice output.

PS, they have some great high res stills from films too, many of which I haven't seen anywhere else, often in 3000+ pixels so it is worth visiting for that alone!

[martin]

I have a two of Trigon Film's dvd releases: Shamt al kushur - Les silences du palais (1994), and L'enfant endormi (2005). Quality is fine (OAR, anamorphic transfers) and both releases have English subs. Les silences du palais is a wonderful film, btw! Trigon seems to have much higher standards than a lot of other world cinema labels like Facets, Fox Lorber, Strand, or New Yorker (although a collection of two DVDs probably shouldn't have any statistical signaficance)! The only reasons why I don't own more of Trigon's releases is their relatively high prices, and the fact that Switzerland is non-EU, which for me means a risk of high taxes, duties and handling fees when ordering from Denmark.

[TheDoman]

Thanks Martin. That is nice to hear.

I got a nice email from Trigon, and I thought it would be the case that they wouldn't have the rights to the English subtitles:

"It's not down to ours whim it's a matter or rights. Usually we get the rights for german and french subtitles (languages spoken in Switzerland). For all further languages we have to 'struggle' for. And often just not available at a reasonable price."

[Wu.Qinghua]

Well, I affirm martin's remarks on Trigon. I haven't seen many of their DVDs, but I can't remember having been disappointed by them.

[TheDoman]

Has anyone picked any of their Blu-ray releases? Very expensive, but I doubt we will ever see The Milk of Sorrow or Bal (not English subtitled) release by another distro on Blu-ray. I was curious to know what the quality of their BDs were like.

Cheers

[Lemmy Caution]

I finally watched a Trigon film, Rusalka (aka Mermaid, 2007). A very enjoyable film. Quirky and funny. I liked the contrast between the girl who has the crappiest of jobs but is totally happy with it and her dreams, while the guy she falls in love with has a dream job and fancy setup and yet is depressed and suicidal. I really liked the tone and pace of the film, and its eschewal of shaky cam and jittery closeups. Steadicam and medium shots actually felt refreshing.

The dvd looked fine. Props to Trigon for translating the signs and billboards which offer a wry commentary on life throughout the film. It's a recurring theme, so fairly obvious to translate them, but I've seen opportunities missed before, and you wouldn't lose much or notice if they weren't subbed. Anyway, good film, good disc. +1 for Trigon.

I also picked up Trigon's Pandora's Box, a 2008 Turkish film. Hopefully will get to that before it gets lost in the kevyip. No idea on their Blu's.

[Finch]

What's slightly infuriating is that Trigon have some real quality titles in there like THE PUPPETMASTER and then it's one of the titles without English subs.

[Michael Kerpan]

What's slightly infuriating is that Trigon have some real quality titles in there like THE PUPPETMASTER and then it's one of the titles without English subs.

Is Trigons's Puppet Master properly formatted (widescreen, not pan and scan, like the US DVD)?

[Finch]

Film in taiwanese, subtitles: german · french, 142 min., 1:1.85 - 4/3 PAL, DD, color, no zone code

[spectre]

The long out-of-print Harvest: 3000 Years is getting a re-release in a two-disc Haile Gerima set in a couple of months, according to a Trigon sales rep I emailed. Can't wait! My favourite African film bar none.

[spectre]

So, that never happened, alas. They emailed me back to say that the quality of the source material was too poor, which is bitterly disappointing. They have at least put the film up in their streaming library. No English subs, but a better transfer than the old VHS bootleg I watched.

http://www.trigon-film.org/en/vod/colle ... 3000_Years" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[spectre]

Finally got to the bottom of why the planned restoration and DVD release of Harvest: 3000 Years was scuppered – chanced upon this interview with Haile Gerima from 2021 where he explains what happened:

https://www.okayafrica.com/haile-gerima ... iew-array/

Gerima is cautious about who's doing the restoration. He recalls pulling out of a deal to restore Harvest: 3000 by Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation because he didn't approve of the changes they made to the framing and subtitles. "I kept sending them the new subtitles, the way it should be subtitled. And they kept sending it to British people who studied Amharic second-hand, and I said, 'Why are you changing my dialogue?' They said, 'Well, there's British people who know the Amharic language.' And I said goodbye. I didn't even discuss it. Our language is the oldest language written language — there's poetry there, there's things that's even difficult for me — and here's British people who kept changing the subtitles."

[beamish14]

Such a shame that multiple features of his continue to be in need of restorations and Blu-Ray releases. Teza is just incredible, and it languishing for reasons I cannot fathom