In Second Run's "mind", what is the point of releasing DVD titles by Jancso that have already been released in France with English subs? This is a director with a very limited following. It just seems redundant. Third Run, even. Maybe the two firms should collaborate somehow and stop releasing overlapping titles.

Barmy, are you in the US? Your attitude seems very US-centric.

The UK has 60m people who are currently not exposed in any way to Jancso (apart from Second Run's THE RED AND THE WHITE). Second Run are, valiantly IMO, releasing Jancso films for the people of the UK.

It's easy to sit at the end of the internet, with a host of international etailers at your fingertips and bitch about companies releasing "the same films" but at the end of the day, Second Run's core market is the UK -- and the people of the UK deserve a good hard dose of Jancso (one of my favourite directors).

More to the point, Second Run discs are a lot cheaper if you're based in the UK.

The Clavis discs seem to be going for about €25 (or £17/$32), not including international postage - but I can generally pick up Second Run releases for £10 (or €15/$19) all inclusive.

So unless the Clavis discs are really dramatically better, it's a bit of a no-brainer.

You can get the Clavis 3 DVD box set on eBay for $20 (although postage is a bitch).

Maybe you are too UK-centric? I am assuming most UK Jancso fans will be internet-savvy enough to find the French Jancso DVDs.

I'm just suggesting that, since there are at least 10 great Jancso films that are completely unavailable, it seems odd that all of the Second Run releases are already available.

I think that's a low quality Chinese bootleg.

I would feel better if it were, since I paid 50 euros (I think). If it's a bootleg I'm surprised the seller's rating is so high, as the picture is of the Clavis box.

Anyway, you can get them from US sellers for around $25. I take your point on price, and maybe the existence of the Clavis DVDs won't negatively impact sales of the Second Run DVDs even though they are coming out many months afterwards. Who knows?

Who's selling the Clavis box for $25 from the US?

Sorry, I wasn't clear--the individual DVDs are $25 each.

I've done a lot of buying and selling on ebay and I've learned (the hard way) how to spot a bootlegger - there's a huge amount of them on ebay. They almost always do have high feedback because there are a lot of people who are very happy to get a pirate edition of something that is normally much more expensive. If you look through the feedback for the negatives you'll find comments about the dvds being bootlegs, chinese covers, no hard case, dvd won't play etc.
For example from this seller's feedback 'Chinese issue ! No DVD case shipped ! Overcharged on shipping ! Watch out !' and 'Item was not as discribed. Generic knock off.'
They also seem to be good at getting customers to withdraw negative feedback.

This seller also has lots of Criterion bootlegs and a few Second Run and Masters of Cinema. I am certain this is not genuine Clavis although it probably has a poor quality reproduction of the Clavis cover. Generally if you see a western release that's cheap and from China then it's a bootleg.

EDIT: I should have said pirate not bootleg.

Second Run now has a My Space page.

We have avoided My Space for a while (we didn't know any 13 year olds who could look after it for us) but everyone else is doing it and it does seem that there has been an increase in the number of discerning film viewers on there. Possibly an effect of the involvement of that dear Mr M*rdoch?

In theory the page should work in conjunction with any announcements on here, our newsletter and website. Though initial impressions are that, due to the clunky back end, it does appear to be something of a leech on ones time...

If any of the forum are participating in the My Space thing please do add us as a friend. Thank you.

The next Second Run screening will take place on Tuesday 12th December 2006.

The film screened will be Milos Forman's 'Audition/Talent Competition'.

"Milos Forman's debut... and a wonderful film" - Time Out

Konkurs is Milos Forman's debut film and is considered to be the film that launched what is known internationally as the Czech New Wave. It was originally made as two seperate 'featurettes' - but the style and themes were very similar and so they were released as one film.

Date: Tuesday December 12th
Time: 8pm
Free entry.


The Flea Pit
49 Columbia Road
London E2 7RG
0207 033 9986
www.fleapit.com

All of our early 2007 releases are now up on the main e-tail sites (amazon etc).

However, for some reason that we have yet to fathom, the e-tailers have decided to list all our new releases as Region 2.

They aren't. They are all, as normal, Region 0.

A quick update:

- A big thank you to everyone who voted for any of our titles in the Masters of Cinema 2006 poll - The Cremator came in sixth and Blissfully Yours at eight. Your support is much appreciated. We are blown away to get two titles in the Top 10 of such a respected poll.

- There will be no Fleapit screening this month. We will resume again in February.

- Don't forget the Munk retrospective that is running at the Riverside in London through January:

Wed 10 - Double Bill: Bad Luck at 6.45pm and Citizen Piszczyk at 8.55pm

Wed 17 - Double Bill: A Visit to the Old City at 6.30pm and Man on the Track at 6.50pm

Wed 17 - Double Bill: Passenger at 8.35pm and The Last Pictures at 9.35pm

Two Second Run screenings happening in London next week. Both on Tuesday 13th February.

Our next Fleapit event will be a screening of Ryszard Bugjaski's 'Interrogation (Przesluchanie)'.

Based on a true story reflecting the Stalinist terror of the early 1950's, Ryszard Bugjaski's harrowing film was banned under martial law in Poland and only became available on underground VHS through a copy smuggled out by the director at great risk. Tonia (Krystyna Janda), a singer in a sleazy cabaret, is imprisoned without explanation. Days become weeks become months, varied only by the persuasion, intimidation and torture of interrogation. Janda's outstanding depiction takes you to places few films are willing to explore.


Date: Tuesday February 13th
Time: 8pm
Free entry.

The Flea Pit
49 Columbia Road
London E2 7RG
0207 033 9986
www.fleapit.com

Then over at the October Gallery in conjunction with Pocket Visions we will be screening Nicolas Philibert's 'Every Little Thing'.

" An intimate, profoundly sympathetic and admirably honest look at life in an institution. Philibert is a master film-maker and his work should not be missed by anyone who takes contemporary cinema at all seriously" - Geoff Andrew

The protagonists in Nicolas Philibert's documentary 'Every Little Thing' are the patients and staff at the La Borde psychiatric clinic in France. Each summer they perform a play on a stage set in the grounds of La Borde. The film charts the rehearsals for the play and allows the viewer a glimpse at life in one of the world's most highly regarded psychiatric institutions.

Date: Tuesday February 13th
Time: 7.30pm

The October Gallery
24 Old Gloucester St
London WC1N 3AL

www.pocketvisions.co.uk

please god don't listen to this, I've been waiting for Second Run to release a proper version of The Round-up since the label started. Since watching the Red and the White a year ago on the R1 Image disc I have literally been salivating for the Round-up. If 2nd run released Roundup and Marketa Lazarova in editions costing £100 I would still buy them (and I'm not rich). Btw I just watched The Party and the Guests, kudos 2nd run, how nice to see an elegant and understated movie about authoritarianism.

Surveillance on the Screen: THE EAR (Ucho)


Throughout May and June, Picturehouse cinemas will be presenting an excellent programme of films under the title of Surveillance Cinema. Included is Second Run's very own THE EAR (Ucho), Karel Kachyna's landmark 1970 Czech film which was banned and remained unseen for twenty years. THE EAR is screening on the following dates:

May 6th The Gate, Notting Hill - London
May 19th Harbour Lights - Southampton
May 27th Ritzy, Brixton - London
May 27th Cameo - Edinburgh
June 3rd Picturehouse – Greenwich

The season looks at some of the films that have predicted the future as well as reflected the social and political contexts that produced them - Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM, Haneke's HIDDEN, Andrea Arnold's RED ROAD, Winterbottom's CODE 46 and Michael Radford's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR. It is timely that these films, which create dystopian visions and make significant comments on our ever-increasingly watchful society, are all screened together to contextualise the development of surveillance.

For full details please go to www.picturehouses.co.uk

Third Part of the Night (Trzecia część nocy): UK Screenings & Żuławski interview

Andrzej Żuławski will be in the UK to attend three special screenings of his debut film The Third Part of the Night. Żuławski will introduce the film and participate in a Q&A discussion after each screening.

Starting this weekend in London, the dates are as follows:

London, Curzon Soho - Sun 13th May 12.30pm
Cambridge, Arts Picturehouse - Tues 15th May 6.30pm
Edinburgh, Filmhouse - Wed 16th May 8.15pm

Third Part of the Night - Time Out Critics Choice

Time Out's film critics have picked Sunday's screening of The Third Part of the Night as their number one critics' choice event for the forthcoming week, describing the film as a 'Haunting and austere World War Two drama'.

It's going to be a great event, with Andrzej introducing the film and then being interviewed on stage afterwards by critic Paul Ryan.

Hope to see some of you there.

Here's the full Time Out review:

"World War II Poland: a men gets a second chance. Michal's wife and child are killed by German soldiers, but in a nearby town he discovers and stays with a woman in labour who looks just like his dead wife. A complex and surreal work, the film is obsessed with the distinctions between love as self-preservation and self-sacrifice. But it's just as much the hallucinations of a dying man. Not an easy film to come to terms with because of its cerebral nature and its self-consciousness; a haunting first feature, all the same."

Are we correct in thinking that this will be a screening of the DVD, rather than a film print?

That's correct, we will be screening the DVD. The quality of the digital projection there is very good.

And they do a mean latte!

I saw a Jodorowsky double bill which I imagine was from the DVD, and the quality was perfect. The fact that there was a fight more or less in the cinema had nothing to do with this!

I'm looking forward to this. I wonder whether you have any hopes of obtaining the rights to The Devil, the next film.

It was good to see some Criterion Forum members at the Żuławski event in London yesterday. I'm sure they'll agree that if you can get to one of the other screenings that Andrzej is attending this week (Cambridge tomorrow & Edinburgh on Wednesday), it will be well worth it.

Second Run is very keen to release more of Andrzej's films and I'll keep you posted of any developments in the future.

In the meantime, we have a host of great films coming out between June and the end of the year. I will update you on all those shortly.

Agree.

Thank you.

Are these the ones that were previously coming out in the early part of the year??

Seriously though, love all of it and can't wait to see what else is on the slate.