Masters of Cinema

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Doug Cummings · #101 Post by **Doug Cummings** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 8:22 pm

He's definitely the straight man in the sense that he constantly reacts to the antics of people like Junipro with bemused compassion, holding his head in his hands or suppressing a wry smile.

And of course he's a predecessor to Bergman in "Europa '51" (whose character is also an amalgam of Simone Weil and a psychologist friend of Rossellini's), but Bergman is much more imprisoned by the world around her, tagged as insane, than Francis ever is.

Steven H · #102 Post by **Steven H** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 11:54 pm

flixyflox wrote:Again the key here is the ambiguity in the word "giullare" - is Francis also deluded/fooled in his saintliness?

I completely agree. "The Flowers of St. Francis" doesn't seem to convey any of the ambiguity Rossellini seemingly intended. Either the original italian title or something along the lines of "Francis, God's Fool/Jester" would make me smile every time I saw it on my shelf.

acquarello · #103 Post by **acquarello** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:35 am

harri wrote:
www.mastersofcinema.org wrote:The Flowers of St. Francis
(Rossellini, 1950) Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Holy shit. I don't like to curse online, but seriously... this and Humanity and Paper Balloons in the same month... two of my "most wanted on DVD" films...

Damn. Thank you very much.

Hmm...these releases do look awfully familiar!

Could Calcutta 71 and Lightning be far behind? =D>

Subbuteo · #104 Post by **Subbuteo** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:15 pm

Or perhaps even Sokurov's 'Kamen'

Donald Brown · #105 Post by **Donald Brown** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:54 pm

acquarello wrote:
harri wrote:
www.mastersofcinema.org wrote:The Flowers of St. Francis
(Rossellini, 1950) Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Holy shit. I don't like to curse online, but seriously... this and Humanity and Paper Balloons in the same month... two of my "most wanted on DVD" films...

Damn. Thank you very much.
Hmm...these releases do look awfully familiar! Could Calcutta 71 and Lightning be far behind? =D>

Ha, the imprint should be renamed the Masters of Cinema/Strictly Film School Collection! Bring on Jeanne Dielman and Death by Hanging.

htdm · #106 Post by **htdm** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 4:48 am

I'm coming a bit late to this thread but I am completely thrilled that you would even consider releasing Yamanaka's Humanity and Paper Balloons! Bravo!!

If you are still considering other titles, may I also suggest Mizoguchi's haunting silent Taki no Shiraito (1933) sometimes rendered in English as The Water Magician with a Benshi track and conventional Japanese accompaniment? Sawato Midori of Matsuda Productions regularly performs this with an ensemble both in Japan and abroad (in Japanese and English) and such a disc would have the distinction of being the first dvd anywhere (to my knowledge) to have a benshi track... (I don't count the Urban Connections DVD-ROM as it only contains snippets of films)

If you have connections at the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art's Film Center they supposedly have the only copies of:

Furusato or Home Town (1930, Mizoguchi) a Japanese part- sound film with the fascinating opera star Fujiwara Yoshie

or the non-Japanese silent

Sylvester (1924, Lulu Pick)

At any rate, kudos to you!!! =D>

Lino · #107 Post by **Lino** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 5:38 am

Here are some menus of upcoming MoC DVDs:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=13384
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=13253
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=13252

and a couple of reviews:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=55553
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=13329

criterionsnob · #108 Post by **criterionsnob** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 12:05 am

MOC #10 cover is up:

http://www.eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/index.htm#

peerpee · #109 Post by **peerpee** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 3:33 pm

Lino · #110 Post by **Lino** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 6:14 am

I've been wanting to see this Rossellini film ever since I first heard of it on the Martin Scorsese documentary about italian cinema. Thank you MoC for making it a reality. Oh, and the cover is lovely!

BTW, do you have any plans for a boxset? (yes, I am hinting at THAT Rossellini trilogy...

)

peerpee · #111 Post by **peerpee** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 1:38 pm

Thanks for those MICHAEL observations, Flixy. I shall look out for them next time I watch the film. Very interesting.

Annie, Arrow Films are releasing ROME OPEN CITY in the UK in March.

Lino · #112 Post by **Lino** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 2:01 pm

Oh, bummer!

Still, are you considering releasing any boxsets next year or are they just too unprofitable for you right now?

Steven H · #113 Post by **Steven H** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 11:21 pm

Nick... have you gotten hold of original poster art for Humanity and Paper Balloons?

peerpee · #114 Post by **peerpee** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:23 am

Steven H · #115 Post by **Steven H** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:33 am

peerpee wrote:Yes!

Yes!

What A Disgrace · #116 Post by **What A Disgrace** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:22 am

When will the supplements for the April releases be available?

One more question...on the DVDBeaver site, the MoC Metropolis audio commentary is specified as being "full length". Does this mean the commentary is different from the -very- sparse Kino commentary?

peerpee · #117 Post by **peerpee** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:58 pm

What A Disgrace wrote:When will the supplements for the April releases be available?

4:16pm, January 5, 2005.

One more question...on the DVDBeaver site, the MoC Metropolis audio commentary is specified as being "full length". Does this mean the commentary is different from the -very- sparse Kino commentary?

I wouldn't describe it as "-very- sparse". The Kino version carries an English version of the commentary written by Enno Patalas but spoken by an actor reading Patalas' words. Kino refer to this as "Audio commentary by Enno Patalas".

The MoC version, like the German Transit version, features two separate audio recordings of the commentary. One is Patalas speaking in German (with English subtitles), the other, the English re-recording as featured on the Kino disc.

Kino squashed everything onto one disc, got rid of the German language commentary, and converted from 25fps PAL to NTSC.

The MoC and Transit versions are 25fps film (not 24fps) transferred directly to 25fps PAL.

Lino · #118 Post by **Lino** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 8:38 am

Peerpee, you still haven't answered my question. Or are you keeping any secrets that you don't want to disclose right now?

peerpee · #119 Post by **peerpee** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 1:38 pm

No box sets currently planned for 2005, we're concentrating on single titles - but we may lump all the Lang together in a "gift set" in a year or so... maybe the Murnau too...

NABOB OF NOWHERE · #120 Post by **NABOB OF NOWHERE** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 5:27 pm

A question to Nick....

Having just wrestled the TV remote control from my Xmas Holiday incumbent 70 year old Polish Mother in law, glued her eyelids open and force fed her the Eureka DVD of 'Sunrise', I was wondering whether there was any detailed answer regarding the question as to whether significant changes can be expected for re-issued titles (particularly the Murnaus). If yes there's one Xmas 2005 present settled as Mum in law wept buckets and thought it the most beautiful film she'd ever seen.

peerpee · #121 Post by **peerpee** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 6:46 pm

Nice SUNRISE story Casper!

If we redo FAUST it will be totally different (ie. the recently discovered domestic German release print. instead of the export print).

We have another Murnau lined up (never before released by Eureka).

We'll get to SUNRISE in a month or so when we've got through the current titles, so we'll have more info then.

ellipsis7 · #122 Post by **ellipsis7** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:29 pm

Annie, Arrow Films are releasing ROME OPEN CITY in the UK in March.

Interesting - the BFI told me recently that they hoped to release Rossellini's 'War Trilogy' on DVD, but were still searching for adequate quality source materials... (And they appear to still have the video rights, if not the DVD)

denti alligator · #123 Post by **denti alligator** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:56 pm

Crossing my fingers for that new Faust

We have another Murnau lined up (never before released by Eureka).

Crossing my fingers that this will be Phantom.

Will your Sunrise be spine #1. I can't imagine a better film for that spot.

peerpee · #124 Post by **peerpee** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 10:39 am

We haven't started work on it yet - so we don't know what we're going to be doing. Hence, I can't answer any questions about it.

I haven't seen the Accent version, but if it's just a one-disc and it has all the extras (4 DEVILS docu, etc) -- then it has been badly compressed.

The current Eureka version is 2 x DVD5 - 4GB and 3.5GB.

iangj · #125 Post by **iangj** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 7:18 am

dmkb wrote:I'm coming a bit late to this thread but I am completely thrilled that you would even consider releasing Yamanaka's Humanity and Paper Balloons! Bravo!!

If you are still considering other titles, may I also suggest Mizoguchi's haunting silent Taki no Shiraito (1933) sometimes rendered in English as The Water Magician with a Benshi track and conventional Japanese accompaniment? Sawato Midori of Matsuda Productions regularly performs this with an ensemble both in Japan and abroad (in Japanese and English) and such a disc would have the distinction of being the first dvd anywhere (to my knowledge) to have a benshi track... (I don't count the Urban Connections DVD-ROM as it only contains snippets of films)

If you have connections at the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art's Film Center they supposedly have the only copies of:

Furusato or Home Town (1930, Mizoguchi) a Japanese part- sound film with the fascinating opera star Fujiwara Yoshie

or the non-Japanese silent

Sylvester (1924, Lulu Pick)

At any rate, kudos to you!!! =D>

I'd second that request for the Mizoguchi film, aka White Threads of the Waterfall. I saw this a couple of years ago on a 16mm print from the Japan Film Council (I think that's their name). It had a subtitled benshi soundtrack. A great film, too.