BD 274-276 Andrzej Żuławski: Three Films

[rapta]

Okay, two interesting updates on this set.

Unfortunately, due to an issue with the master for THE DEVIL, we have had to reschedule the release date for ANDRZEJ ŻUŁAWSKI: THREE FILMS until 31 July 2023.

Whilst moving into the final stages of production before disc authoring, we submitted some of our new video extras to Andrzej Jaroszewicz for his approval (Jaroszewicz worked as cinematographer on a number of Żuławski’s films and was a camera operator on THE DEVIL). Upon reviewing footage from THE DEVIL, Jaroszewicz expressed some concerns.

THE DEVIL was originally restored back in 2015, but was rejected by Żuławski as the colour grading was incorrectly applied. After Żuławski died in 2016, Daniel Bird made great efforts to have the film graded correctly, and Andrzej Jaroszewicz was brought in to oversee this new grading, which was completed that year.

So, upon reviewing our extras, Jaroszewicz was surprised to see footage from THE DEVIL that used the older incorrect grading. After contacting our licensor, it seems that at some point in the past 7 years the version of the film approved by Jaroszewicz has gone missing and the older version is all that is on file. After assessing the situation and raising the issue with the Polish Society of Cinematographers, it is clear that the only solution is to go back to the original materials and re-do the grading, with Jaroszewicz again overseeing the project.

As such, we will not be able to make our originally planned release date. The rescheduled release date will therefore be 31 July 2023. We apologise for this delay.

And the good news:

We can also now reveal that our ANDRZEJ ŻUŁAWSKI: THREE FILMS release will now be upgraded to a 3-DISC SET.

[Adam X]

Good news on both fronts then. Though unfortunate that the colour grade has to be redone at all, at least Eureka are willing & able to wait for the work to be completed.
Not having had the opportunity to see the films restored yet, I’m really, truly looking forward to this set.

[rapta]

Good news on both fronts then. Though unfortunate that the colour grade has to be redone at all, at least Eureka are willing & able to wait for the work to be completed.
Not having had the opportunity to see the films restored yet, I’m really, truly looking forward to this set.

Me too, I actually bought Second Run's DVD release of The Third Part of the Night in a charity shop a couple of years ago thinking it was long-OOP, but hadn't got around to watching it. I'd obviously heard of On the Silver Globe more and more over the years too, and almost thought we'd never see a home video release (outside of Poland, at least). So this is easily my most anticipated MoC release in some time, and I'm glad they're taking the care to make it a special one. It does sound like a worrying amount of work to do last minute, but I'm guessing that's been accounted for in the two month delay (I expect everything else is on track).

[MichaelB]

If everything else is ready to go (which is presumably the case given the original schedule), it's simply a case of re-encoding a single video element on one of the discs and replacing the relevant file.

Indicator had this situation with The Revenge of Frankenstein where everything had been fully authored for some time but they were waiting for Sony's 4K restoration to turn up. As soon as it did, it was off to David Mackenzie for encoding, and that file was simply dropped into the existing build. If I remember rightly, the final master was QCed and sent for replication in a matter of days.

(This is why all the extras feature clips from the old master.)

[tenia]

So we have :
Le chat qui fume who have already just released their set (I suppose with the older color grading for The Devil).
Eureka who will release their set with the corrected The Devil color grading.
Camera Obscura who claims 2 of these restorations aren't 4k restorations.

Looks like a fun project !

[Drucker]

Pretty much handled in a completely ideal manner by Eureka, giving us everything people on this forum asked for. Kudos for the transparency.

[criterionsnob]

Good news about three discs. Now if they could redo the cover art to match the Camera Obscura release.

[mhofmann]

Great news about the upgrade to three discs, and also the approved grading! Kudos to Eureka here for doing the right thing twice.

[Peacock]

This set has been delayed again due to the same issues as previously announced. New release date is 28th August.

To counter this sad news Eureka have added another disk - again - bringing this up to a 4-disk set.

This hopefully resolves the issue with the 3-disk announcement where Silver Globe was presumedly sharing one disk with its feature length documentary.

Hopefully the 4th disk also includes some new extras but who knows!

[mhofmann]

To counter this sad news Eureka have added another disk - again - bringing this up to a 4-disk set.

This hopefully resolves the issue with the 3-disk announcement where Silver Globe was presumedly sharing one disk with its feature length documentary.

Presumably great news! But let's be careful what we wish for. This might well end up being a 3-single-layer and 1-dual-layer disc set, or even worse... hoping to be proven wrong here, of course.

[criterionsnob]

Beaver

[Peacock]

Eureka were still advertising this as 4 disks in their last Twitter/X post on the 27th so it’s strange that Gary received a 3 disk screener set. Still assuming they will place the Silver Globe extras on the 4th disk…

[What A Disgrace]

He also lists the "acclaimed documentary" as 10 minutes long, but I'm pretty sure it's about 90.

[black&huge]

for a while now Gary hasn't accurately posted the specifics for both physical packaging or disc content. I can't remember any examples off the top of my head but there were more than a few releases that came in digipaks that he listed as being in clear/standard cases or things that don't come with any slips that he listed as being included. I think he just copies and pastes initial disc info or just guesses if something comes in regular packaging and doesn't bother to specify it. So who knows he may have gotten a four disc set and was just too lazy to detail it.

[Ashirg]

I just verified with Gary and it is indeed 10-minute documentary directed by Dobrotka Weickiewicz and not Escape to the Silver Globe

[criterionsnob]

The Eureka website lists it as 4 discs and includes Escape to the Silver Globe (dir. Kuba Mikurda, 2021), which is the 94 minute documentary.

[rapta]

Perhaps what they've done is added Escape to the Silver Globe as a box set exclusive, but didn't make check discs for it for some reason? Or maybe Gary just didn't get sent one.

[Peacock]

What are everyone’s thoughts on the caps for On the Silver Globe?

The blacks look overly crushed in some of those shots unfortunately. I’m guessing this is inherent to the restoration though rather than something done on Eureka’s end. Still I’m incredibly grateful we are finally getting this in an English friendly edition!

[tenia]

Perhaps what they've done is added Escape to the Silver Globe as a box set exclusive, but didn't make check discs for it for some reason? Or maybe Gary just didn't get sent one.

Looking at the menus caps he posted, he probably only received the 1st 3 discs and the 4th one is Escape from the Silver Globe, since it's not on those menus caps.

[MichaelB]

There's definitely a fourth disc; Gary must simply not have been sent it.

[Calvin]

The included audio for On the Silver Globe is stereo rather than mono and is seemingly a downmix of a 5.1 upmix.

[EddieLarkin]

Ha, Camera Obscura say the upmix and its downmix is a piece of crap. Replacement disc or no sale, Eureka.

[tenia]

What a clusterf**k of a release. It should be way simpler to know who's releasing what and for it to be faithful to the original state of the movies, and yet, I don't even know now how these restorations were done (2K ? 4K ?), if The Devil actually has a different color grading that what, for instance, Le chat qui fume has released without the delays Eureka had to get their hands on the proper grading, and now there is no mono track when Eureka states the mono track spec on Silver Globe should read stereo but really should be mono because that's the original mix of the movie.
I often say that I tend to distrust eastern-European restorations for reasons like these, especially Poland, and it's saddening to see this is still going on (I'm also, though maybe the Eureka set doesn't have this issue, not convinced by The Third Part of the Night's look, which seemed excessively un-natural looking on the French disc).

[therewillbeblus]

Does Eureka usually provide replacement discs? And should we expect some U.S. label i.e. Criterion to pick up the slack and improve on this release? Kinda feels like this is as good as it's gonna get, but maybe that's unjustly pessimistic

The Third Part of the Night does look a bit odd, but it also feels fitting to the film, if I remember correctly from my viewing ten-odd years ago

[yoloswegmaster]

The U.S. rights are with Mondo and they are apparently still working on the set despite it being in production for years now. Hopefully they will be able to fix the audio mistake and release it on 4K (if they were actually restored in 4K).