Mr. Bongo Films

[Awesome Welles]

Play.com has preorders for both Black God, White Devil and Memories of Underdevelopment!

Why does anyone care about this Glauber Rocha release? Just buy the Brazilian DVD which will, no doubt, be infinitely superior...

Apart from price, as FSimeoni points out, the Brazilian DVD also doesn't include subs for any of the interesting-looking extras. I believe that all the other, later Brazilian DVDs of Rocha's films have subs for everything, but not for Black God White Devil, sadly.

Exactly it seems such a shame to buy a 2 disc set and have that second disc completely wasted.

[MichaelB]

Exactly it seems such a shame to buy a 2 disc set and have that second disc completely wasted.

Story of my life, unless I get round to learning Polish, Czech or Hungarian properly...

[foggy eyes]

Any word on Black God, White Devil? Saragossa Manuscript and the last two Antonioni discs aside, I don't quite trust Mr. Bongo enough to blind buy yet.

[stephan73]

Any word on Black God, White Devil? Saragossa Manuscript and the last two Antonioni discs aside, I don't quite trust Mr. Bongo enough to blind buy yet.

The Saragossa Manuscript is great quality! I haven't seen Identification of a Woman yet and I hope to receive Black God soon!

[Awesome Welles]

I must say I;m not overly fussy on picture quality as some but I thought Black God, White Devil was generally ok in quality, at one point there is line which ripples down the picture of total picture loss, otherwise not that sharp but not that bad either, worth £6.99 in my opinion. A good film if a little slow at first. As it builds it gradually reveals itself and intensifies. Rocha effectively juxtaposes his sequences using an intense sound mix of shouting dialogue, the sounds of the earth and then to a sequence of near silence and whispered dialogue. It seems to me that he is building a set of dichotomies about what is enacted and what is reported, what is seen and how it is interpreted on a narrative level as well as on a profilmic level. The acting is theatrical at times whilst the (metaphoric) narrative is anything but. So there is a lot going on which I haven't fully processed but a very interesting film nonetheless. I think with the only other option on this film being finding a copy of the Brazilian release this option with it's dodgy coverart and no sniff of special features is warranted by it's cheap price tag.

What I want to know is should I plump for the Has films or buy the Polish (?) discs? I rented Saragossa but would like to buy it now along with Sanitorium.

[MichaelB]

What I want to know is should I plump for the Has films or buy the Polish (?) discs? I rented Saragossa but would like to buy it now along with Sanitorium.

There are no Polish discs as yet. They've been announced, but my guess is that they'll have exactly the same transfers as the Mr Bongo titles - no particular reason to assume otherwise, given the timing.

I now have a review copy of The Hourglass Sanatorium (final release version, not a checkdisc), and while I don't have time to watch it properly until the weekend, a quick spin suggests that it's about as good as one can realistically expect a 35-year-old Polish film to be - in fact, it's one of the better such transfers in my collection.

It's anamorphic, framed at what I assume is the correct 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and the print looks very clean - rather cleaner than The Saragossa Manuscript, in fact. Subtitles are optional. No extras.

More info when I've watched it in full, but I'm pretty impressed so far.

UPDATE: I've watched it full now, and the transfer is absolutely fine. The source print is far from pristine - there are plenty of white dust spots throughout, but it's only around reel changes that damage gets more severe (I'm guessing the source was a theatrical print). If you're familiar with Second Run's eastern European releases, it's towards the upper end of their quality scale - i.e. Marketa Lazarová/The Party and the Guests rather than The Ear/Mother Joan of the Angels. And given that most places are charging less than a tenner, it's a bit of a bargain.

[Awesome Welles]

Sound impressive, Saragossa was fine for me, I'll always be a bit disappointed by Mr Bongo's complete lack of special features but hey ho at least they're cheap. I've ordered Sanatorium.

[MichaelB]

I'll always be a bit disappointed by Mr Bongo's complete lack of special features but hey ho at least they're cheap.

If the first two Polish Has releases are anything to go by (and they probably are), only the feature will have English subtitles - so there's not much difference!

[foggy eyes]

Good stuff, thanks for the reports. I'll pick up both the Rocha and Has discs as soon as LFF has finished - Sanatorium sounds much better than expected.

[Wittsdream]

Any word on Black God, White Devil? Saragossa Manuscript and the last two Antonioni discs aside, I don't quite trust Mr. Bongo enough to blind buy yet.

The Antonioni looks perfectly fine to my eyes, very much in concert with the price tag that Bongo is selling it for. Black God's arrival is imminent, but I assume that it will look about as good as the edition available from Brasil. The one that I was iffy about was Alea's Memories of Underdevelopment, which is getting a release stateside by New Yorker at some point, but the YouTube teaser trailer issued by Bongo for this film cemented my purchase (clever idea that!).

[MichaelB]

After a truly appalling beginning (The Adversary, Cronaca di un amore), Mr Bongo seems to have settled down to deliver perfectly acceptable discs considering their ultra-low price point - I didn't have any particular issues with the transfers of the last two Antonionis, the two Has films or Under the Volcano.

You certainly get a lot more extras with, say, Criterion's L'Avventura and Under the Volcano, but you have to pay for them - which seems fair enough.

[perkizitore]

I bought Black God and pre-ordered Sanatorium from HMV for 7.64 pounds with my student discount.Also,my purchase was made through Quidco,so it merely costed me 7 pounds.Apparently,Sanatorium is already in stock at Mr.Bongo's store,but more expensive than the retailers.I have to say that i really like the pricing tag of Mr. Bongo,only Second Sight seems to match it.

[zone_resident]

DVD Times on The Hour-Glass Sanatorium

[The Digital McGuffin]

From the Mr Bongo website:

A little heads up on the first of our confirmed 2009 titles…

Strawberry & Chocolate by Tomas Gutierrez Alea
Lucia by Humberto Solas
Terra Em Transe by Glauber Rocha
Man Of Iron by Andrzej Wajda
Boccacio 70 - Four films directed by De Sica, Fellini, Visconti and Monicelli respectively
Marriage Italian Style by Vittorio De Sica
Antonio Das Mortes by Glauber Rocha
Earth (or Zemlya) by Aleksandr Dovzhenko

[MichaelB]

From the Mr Bongo website:

A little heads up on the first of our confirmed 2009 titles…

Man Of Iron by Andrzej Wajda

What, no Man of Marble first? I know it didn't win the Palme d'Or, but it's a noticeably better film - and Man of Iron makes a lot more sense if you've seen it beforehand.

And I suppose it's too much to hope for the excellent-looking extras on the Polish disc to be licensed and subtitled for the likes of us?

[Perkins Cobb]

Nice to finally get Antonio Das Mortes (is that even available in Brazil yet?), the Solas films, and hopefully a decent transfer of Boccaccio 70.

[Cabiria21]

Nice to finally get Antonio Das Mortes (is that even available in Brazil yet?), the Solas films, and hopefully a decent transfer of Boccaccio 70.

yes it is available in a 2 disc SE in Brazil but non anamorphic I believe. Nice transfer though.

Has anybody seen the Mr. Bongo DVD of Memories of Underdevelopment (or have a link to a review of the DVD, I could only find one review of the DVD but didn't seem very trustworthy) and can vouch for the pic quality. Is it the same as the washed out DVD released by the Cuban Arts Council or whatever they are called....

[zedz]

Nice to finally get Antonio Das Mortes (is that even available in Brazil yet?), the Solas films, and hopefully a decent transfer of Boccaccio 70.

I'm posting comments on the Brazilian Rocha discs over here. If Mr Bongo isn't porting the extras, I'd strongly advise going the extra mile for the original two-disc sets. Copious, revealing extras, all subtitled (except for Black God, White Devil, as noted above somewhere), and these are films that thrive on context.

Lucia is a great film. I'm looking forward to seeing it again. Strawberry and Chocolate seemed a bit dated and tentative even on its initial release, so it might look antique now. And I'm assuming that we're assuming that Earth will be another bad transfer? Are there any decent versions of this around that this release might be porting over?

[GaryC]

Has anybody seen the Mr. Bongo DVD of Memories of Underdevelopment (or have a link to a review of the DVD, I could only find one review of the DVD but didn't seem very trustworthy) and can vouch for the pic quality. Is it the same as the washed out DVD released by the Cuban Arts Council or whatever they are called....

A copy arrived yesterday, and I'll be reviewing it in due course. I haven't seen the Cuban edition but can't comment. This looks like it was derived from a UK cinema print: it begins with the Contemporary Films concentric-circles logo. It's 1.66:1 non-anamorphic (I don't know what the OAR should be), with the black bars I'd imagine being matting on the source print rather than due to DVD authoring. From a quick glance it looks quite soft, and there's some ghosting noticeable on my PC monitor. However, the running time, and comparing it to the BBFC time when they passed it in 1969, indicates that there has been PAL speed-up. The disc is all-regions.

Incidentally, I wonder why none of Mr Bongo's recent DVD releases are logged on the BBFC website? (From the packaging, Memories of Underdevelopment is a 15; Hour-Glass Sanatorium also a 15 and Black God White Devil an 18. There can't be many films from 1964 or earlier which still earn 18 certificates nowadays.)

[Stefan Andersson]

Hi all! Re: aspect ratio of HOURGLASS SANATORIUM, I´ve seen a 35mm print and it was definitely 2.35 CinemaScope. Malavida Films (distributors of the French dvd) confirms in a French-language e-mail to me that the only available video master was 1.78.

Seems like a similar situation to Second Run´s KNIGHTS OF THE TEUTONIC ORDER.

According to Internet info Wajda´s 2.35 epic POPIOLY is also out on Polish DVD at 1.78 only. I´m sure other Polish 2.35 movies are similarly cropped, either for 16:9 or because they´re older transfers made by people who thought reduction from to 2.35 to 1.78 was better than pan/scan from 2.35 to 1.33.

I posted on this subject in the Screen Captures thread. Sorry for double posting but it seems like vital info!

[Perkins Cobb]

Good catch on the Sanatorium AR. That just went from the top to the bottom of my list of stuff to buy, sadly.

[MichaelB]

Good catch on the Sanatorium AR. That just went from the top to the bottom of my list of stuff to buy, sadly.

Well, it's unlikely you'll get a better version any time soon, and it's absurdly cheap.

[Perkins Cobb]

But I'm fortunate enough to live in a city where 35mm screenings of films like The Hourglass Sanatorium stand a good chance of coming around sooner or later, so I can afford to ignore flawed DVDs for the time being without feeling like I'm missing out.

[Awesome Welles]

An ad in this month's S&S indicates that a Cuban Cinema Boxset is coming in 2009 - to which I asked Mr. Bongo:

I recently saw an ad in this month's Sight and Sound indicating that Mr Bongo will release a Cuban Cinema boxset, will this contain the previously released Cuban films Soy Cuba and Memories of Underdevelopment as well as new Cuban cinema releases?

To which the Bongo team speedily replied:

Yes, the forthcoming Cuban Cinema boxset will contain both of these titles and other Cuban releases.
thankyou for your interest
Bongo team

But I am left wondering which version of Soy Cuba it will be?

[Perkins Cobb]

Setting aside for a minute the fact that Soy Cuba isn't really a Cuban film ... they better not make me buy it again to get whatever other unnamed releases they're (not) talking about.