RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

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jsteffe
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:00 am
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#151 Post by jsteffe » Thu Jun 10, 2010 1:02 pm

MichaelB, thanks for the review! This is really helpful. PAL is not an issue for me.

You're right, most of their NTSC conversions are inferior, but actually the Parajanov titles (SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS, THE LEGEND OF SURAM FORTRESS and ASHIK KERIB) look fine in their NTSC incarnations.

By the way, did anyone ever acquire a *subtitled* Ruscico edition of the Yutkevich cut of THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES? I'm curious to hear whether the problems with the source materials were addressed, or if they used the same incomplete print and out-of-sync soundtrack. (I got the disc as part of an *unsubtitled* box set of Armenian films from Ruscico.)

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jsteffe
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#152 Post by jsteffe » Fri Jun 11, 2010 3:55 pm

Now Ruscico will be releasing Blu-ray discs, including an English-subtitled Blu-ray of BURNT BY THE SUN. Here is the announcement. I especially hope this portends Parajanov on Blu-ray, though there are plenty of other titles by them I'd like to see in hi-def if they have decent masters, such as Bondarchuk's WAR AND PEACE.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#153 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:51 am

All Mosfilm titles on Blu so far have been released by another company (Digital Element), so if War and Peace comes to BD, I suspect it won't be through Ruscico.

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Kirkinson
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#154 Post by Kirkinson » Tue Jun 15, 2010 10:48 pm

RussianDVD.com now lists English-subbed editions of a few of those Tallinnfilm titles. Not a single one of them lists Estonian audio, though, so I fear lots of Russian voice-over tracks, though I'd love to find out if some of them are dubs.

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jsteffe
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#155 Post by jsteffe » Wed Jun 16, 2010 12:56 am

Kirkinson wrote:RussianDVD.com now lists English-subbed editions of a few of those Tallinnfilm titles. Not a single one of them lists Estonian audio, though, so I fear lots of Russian voice-over tracks, though I'd love to find out if some of them are dubs.
Sometimes Ruscico specifies "zakadrovyi perevod," though I don't know whether they're consistent in this. RussianDVD.com also says that the DVDs are NTSC, and now they're selling an NTSC version of THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES with subtitles. Not that I'd be all that interested in NTSC conversions myself. It's encouraging at least to see that they're stepping up their release schedule again.

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jsteffe
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#156 Post by jsteffe » Tue Jun 29, 2010 4:09 pm

Good news--it looks as if RUSCICO is resuming their releases of subtitled DVDs of Georgian films. Forthcoming releases include I, Grandmother, Iliko and Illarion (dir. Tengiz Abuladze), The Mameluke (dir. David Rondeli), and The White Rose of Immortality (dir. Nana Mchelidze). The listings indicate Russian language tracks only. If that's accurate, it may be due to the lack of original Georgian soundtrack elements (i.e., the recent Georgian film archive fire).

The Abuladze film is a delightful adaptation of Nodar Dumbadze's comic novel of the same title, which is a classic of modern Georgian literature. The Mameluke was one of the most popular Georgian films throughout the Soviet Union.

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Ashirg
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#157 Post by Ashirg » Tue Jun 29, 2010 11:31 pm

I'm pretty sure they don't even work with Georgian archives with these releases and I doubt Russian archive own Georgian-language copies of these films since most of them were released dubbed in all USSR except Georgia itself.

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L.A.
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#158 Post by L.A. » Thu Jul 01, 2010 6:46 am


mert1149
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:25 pm

Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#159 Post by mert1149 » Tue Jul 13, 2010 11:19 am

I was just wondering whether anyone has yet seen the new subtitled Paradjanov Sayat Nova disc? Is the soundtrack out of sync with the picture, as apparently occurred on an earlier release?

Also, has anyone seen the new RUSCICO hyperkino / academia discs? I'm particularly interested in the Eisenstein discs, and wondered, for example, whether the "October" disc has the original Meisel soundtrack, and if so, whether it has been recorded by a new orchestra?

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere!

rollotomassi
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:23 pm
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#160 Post by rollotomassi » Fri Jul 30, 2010 10:52 am

The first time I order from Ruscico and they screw it up. I order THE GREAT CONSOLER and they send 5 DVDs no-one would want. Problem is you can't ring them because with work commitments and them being in Moscow you can never be at home at a time they're open.

Two days later and still no response from them to two emails. Seems I have going to have to take a financial hit on this item and write Ruscico down as a "do not do business again" Some films I guess you're just not meant to see.
Last edited by rollotomassi on Tue Aug 03, 2010 4:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

atcolomb
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#161 Post by atcolomb » Sat Jul 31, 2010 10:20 pm

jsteffe wrote:MichaelB, thanks for the review! This is really helpful. PAL is not an issue for me.

You're right, most of their NTSC conversions are inferior, but actually the Parajanov titles (SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS, THE LEGEND OF SURAM FORTRESS and ASHIK KERIB) look fine in their NTSC incarnations.

By the way, did anyone ever acquire a *subtitled* Ruscico edition of the Yutkevich cut of THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES? I'm curious to hear whether the problems with the source materials were addressed, or if they used the same incomplete print and out-of-sync soundtrack. (I got the disc as part of an *unsubtitled* box set of Armenian films from Ruscico.)
To see Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors on blu-ray..that would be great news and to me the dvd version released by Kino looked good to me. Now i wish Ruscico would restore Kurosawa's Dersu Uzala in it's 70mm glory....

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jsteffe
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#162 Post by jsteffe » Sun Aug 01, 2010 1:40 am

mert1149 wrote:Also, has anyone seen the new RUSCICO hyperkino / academia discs? I'm particularly interested in the Eisenstein discs, and wondered, for example, whether the "October" disc has the original Meisel soundtrack, and if so, whether it has been recorded by a new orchestra?
That disc has a score compiled from classical music cues. The print looks better than the one released by Image Entertainment--a closer generation to the original--but it's still based on a sound print made from a full aperture negative and thus is slightly cropped on the left side. The running time is 115 minutes, which seems a little on the slow side. My totally uninformed gut instict tells me that the 103-minute running time for the Image disc, which is presumably 24fps, is closer to the mark. I may be wrong about that, though.

Perkins Cobb
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#163 Post by Perkins Cobb » Sat Aug 28, 2010 8:16 am

Jonathan Rosenbaum has a very detailed and favorable essay on the Academia releases and their extras at the Moving Image Source.

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L.A.
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#164 Post by L.A. » Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:26 am

jsteffe wrote:The Mameluke (dir. David Rondeli)
Received my copy this week and did a little quick check. It has original Georgian language soundtrack (mono) with optional English and Russian subtitles.

The disc also offers some extras, an interview with actor Otar Koberidze (lasting nearly nine minutes), filmographies and a photo album.

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jsteffe
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#165 Post by jsteffe » Thu Sep 23, 2010 3:51 pm

Thanks, L.A.! I'm going to order The Mameluke!

Looks like the Georgian films are starting to pour in:

Aleksandre Rekhviashvili's The Step and 19th-Century Georgian Chronicle (yay!) BTW, I met Rekhviashvili in Tbilisi, and he's currently working in an art gallery. Too bad, because was a very talented director.

Semyon Dolidze's Cucaracha

Nana Dzhordzhadze's Robinsonade, or My English Grandfather.

I hope they start releasing subtitled editions of some of their Armenian titles, too.

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jsteffe
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#166 Post by jsteffe » Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:09 pm

jsteffe wrote:By the way, did anyone ever acquire a *subtitled* Ruscico edition of the Yutkevich cut of THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES? I'm curious to hear whether the problems with the source materials were addressed, or if they used the same incomplete print and out-of-sync soundtrack. (I got the disc as part of an *unsubtitled* box set of Armenian films from Ruscico.)
UPDATE: I picked up the subtitled Ruscico DVDand took a look at it last night. I've published comments on it in my blog. On the positive side, it reinstates the missing footage and thus fixes the audio sync problem of the unsubtitled version.

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Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#167 Post by Matt » Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:44 pm

Is the RUSCICO site as messed up for everyone else as it is for me? Can anyone suggest an alternate source for ordering the Academia titles online?

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lubitsch
Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:20 pm

Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#168 Post by lubitsch » Tue Mar 08, 2011 5:50 pm

Matt wrote:Is the RUSCICO site as messed up for everyone else as it is for me? Can anyone suggest an alternate source for ordering the Academia titles online?
Unfortunately this problem goes on for weeks now. I know from a source that Ruscico apparently hasn't stored many of the films they had listed as available on their page, but why the brand new Academia titles should be affected with all the rest eludes me.

I ordered mine from a German Marketplace seller for a reasonable price.

jorgenlundmark
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2011 9:36 am

Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#169 Post by jorgenlundmark » Sun Jun 19, 2011 10:11 am

Hello,

I'm new to this forum, so forgive me if I touch upon a subject already covered. I could not find it whilst using the search function though.

I have two different question, the first concerning Ruscico: has anyone received any information what has happened to their website? It's still -- after six or more months -- not working. Their back catalogue is for example not available. I did get information -- via a Russian friend -- from a Ruscico employee a couple of months ago that "the problems" would be sorted out shortly. Not so apparently.

My second question deals with Russian films: do any of you know if any of the early Mosfilm Chekhov adaptation is avaliable on DVD? I found a list (perhaps not complete) of some very interesting titles. Of the films listed I only know of DVDs of Nikita Mikhalkov's, Emil Lotyanu's and Aleksandr Gornovsky's films.

I have especially been looking for the 1961 "Duel" (based on the same novella as the recent film by Dover Koshashvili) and Bodarchuk's "Step".

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jsteffe
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#170 Post by jsteffe » Tue Jun 28, 2011 5:47 pm

Good news, RUSCICO is in fact working to get their site back up and running. They've already started to repopulate the online catalog. So it seems that your friend was correct.

zonk
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:12 am

Does anyone own Konchlavsky's Siberiade from RUSCICO?

#171 Post by zonk » Sat Oct 01, 2011 12:59 am

Does anyone own Konchlavsky's Siberiade from RUSCICO?

I'd like to buy this title, but I'm not sure what the transfer looks like. I've owned the KINO release for sometime and the transfer is so sad and decrepid.

Can anyone recommend buying this now?

Thanks Tim

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MichaelB
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Re: Does anyone own Konchlavsky's Siberiade from RUSCICO?

#172 Post by MichaelB » Sat Oct 01, 2011 4:59 am

Based on precedent, the Kino version is probably the NTSC-converted version of Ruscico's PAL original.

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SpiderBaby
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#173 Post by SpiderBaby » Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:25 pm

Can anyone recommend the dvd (I believe it's region free NTSC) of I am Twenty/Mne dvadtsat' let?

Perkins Cobb
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#174 Post by Perkins Cobb » Sun Nov 13, 2011 3:18 pm

*CG* wrote:Can anyone recommend the dvd (I believe it's region free NTSC) of I am Twenty/Mne dvadtsat' let?
Well, the film is wonderful, but it sounds like maybe you already know that and are asking about the image quality. Can't help you there, sadly.

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SpiderBaby
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Re: RUSCICO (Russian Cinema Council)

#175 Post by SpiderBaby » Sun Nov 13, 2011 4:24 pm

Perkins Cobb wrote:
*CG* wrote:Can anyone recommend the dvd (I believe it's region free NTSC) of I am Twenty/Mne dvadtsat' let?
Well, the film is wonderful, but it sounds like maybe you already know that and are asking about the image quality. Can't help you there, sadly.
Yeah, I was just asking about the image quality. Great film, and would be great to see Criterion release this, along with July Rain.

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