Czech DVDs

Message

Skritek · #76 Post by **Skritek** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:46 am

Upcoming important Bonton releases:

VÅ¡ichni dobÅ™Ã rodáci (all my good countrymen) by VojtÄ›ch JasnÃ½
Návrat ztraceného syna (Return of the Prodigal son) by Evald Schorm

Since it's Bonton, I doubt there will be English subs, but who knows.

#77 Post by **zedz** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:02 pm

Skritek wrote:Upcoming important Bonton releases:

VÅ¡ichni dobÅ™Ã rodáci (all my good countrymen) by VojtÄ›ch JasnÃ½
Návrat ztraceného syna (Return of the Prodigal son) by Evald Schorm

Since it's Bonton, I doubt there will be English subs, but who knows.

The Schorm is a great film. If it's a decent transfer (and unsubbed) we should start lobbying SecondRun.

Skritek · #78 Post by **Skritek** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 5:55 pm

In the early month of next year the following (of interest) films are scheduled for release:

O slavnosti a hostech (NÄ›mec, 66), which naturally already has a SR release

ÄŒest a sláva (BoÄ

alfons416 · #79 Post by **alfons416** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 7:36 am

anyone know anything about MucednÃci lásky / Martyrs of Love (1966) by Jan Nemec?

The movie got a screenplay by the great Ester Krumbachová and it also has both the Maries (from Sedmikrasky) in the cast. would love to see this!

Skritek · #80 Post by **Skritek** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:23 am

It also has Lindsay Anderson and Karel Gott in it and I think it consists of three Episodes without too many words. Hames writes about it in his book.

I have unfortunately never seen it, but it would be a blind buy for me

.

MichaelB · #81 Post by **MichaelB** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:55 am

Skritek wrote:It also has Lindsay Anderson and Karel Gott in it and I think it consists of three Episodes without too many words. Hames writes about it in his book.

I have unfortunately never seen it, but it would be a blind buy for me

I've heard rumours that it has no dialogue at all - or at least nothing significant. And NÄ›mec's earlier Diamonds of the Night is perfectly comprehensible without subtitles, so he has form.

(This may seem an irrelevant point, since Filmexport Home Video's DVD of Diamonds has subtitles - my review is here - but I actually recommend switching them off as they're a little too overzealous: they translate the German dialogue as well as the Czech, and I don't think you're meant to understand it! To back up this line of reasoning, if you switch the Czech subtitles on instead, they transcribe the German instead of translating it.)

jsteffe · #82 Post by **jsteffe** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 7:18 pm

I saw Martyrs of Love about twenty years ago in a 16mm print. I wouldn't say it matches up to Diamonds of the Night or The Party and the Guests, but anything by Jan NÄ›mec is worth checking out. I vaguely recall it having some dialogue that needed to be subtitled, but it also had beautifully textured black-and-white cinematography. I suspect that it's something akin to Iosseliani's Les Favoris de la lune, meaning that the dialogue is secondary.

Skritek · #83 Post by **Skritek** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:28 am

Bonton is (apparently) scheduled to release PÅ™Ãpad pro zaÄ

MichaelB · #84 Post by **MichaelB** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:57 am

Skritek wrote:It seems that only the Kalamita DVD has English subs and "Patrani po Ester" (a doc about Ester Krumbachova). Haven't checked her newer films though.

I've only had a quick spin through it so far, but I'm delighted (and surprised) to confirm that PátránÃ po Ester seems to be completely bilingual - i.e. with English menus and subtitled (and extensive) extras as well as the main feature.

Speaking of docs, does anybody have any idea about releases of Klic k urcovani trpasliku by Sulik (about Juracek) and Sentiment by Tomas Hejtmanek (about Vlacil)?

From what I hear, Second Run tried to licence Sentiment as an extra on Marketa Lazarová, but Hejtmanek wanted it released separately in its own right.

petoluk · #85 Post by **petoluk** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:58 pm

Hi guys!

FYI, a bunch of new reviews appeared @ DVDFreak:

- firstly, most of the Slovak Cinema of the 70's collection has been reviewed (all these are English-friendly):

ÄŒervené vÃno I-II (1976) Andrej Lettrich
Keby som mal puÅ¡ku (1971) Å tefan Uher
Ä½alie poÄ¾né (1972) Elo Havetta - looks much better than the older Slovak Film Institute's disc
Medená veÅ¾a (1970) Martin HollÃ½
Orlie pierko (1971) Martin HollÃ½
Pacho, hybskÃ½ zbojnÃk (1975) Martin Å¤apák
[url=http://dvdfreak.bloudil.cz/freak.php?p= ... strom&dz=0]Postav dom, zasaÄ

Person · #86 Post by **Person** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:52 pm

[quote]Pane, vy jste vdova! (1970) Václav VorlÃÄ

Skritek · #87 Post by **Skritek** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:57 pm

Three films by Chytilova are scheduled:

"Ovoce stromu rajskych jime" in April
"Sedmikrasky" in May
"Vlci bouda" later in the year

All by Bonton, so I don't know about subtitles.

Also, the releases of "O slavnosti a hostech" and "Vojtech, receny sirotek" have been delayed, because the respective directors weren't happy with the transfers.

The rest of the apparently to be released titles by Bonton have been announced.

3 by Kachyna:
Noc nevesty (The Holy Night)
Kocár do Vídne (Coach to Vienna)
At' zije Republika (Long Live the Republic!)

another one by Hynek Bocan:
Pasták (it seems this wasn't released until after 89)

another one by Masa:
Hotel pro cizince (Hotel for Strangers)

another one by Schorm:
Den sedmý, osmá noc (Seventh Day, Eighth Night)

If all of these will be released, then this is a year I can't wait for. =D>

Some more titles have been announced:

by Vlacil:

Dym bramborove nate (1976) (Smoke on the Potato Fields)
Marketa Lazarova (1967) (seems like Second Run releasing this pushed Bonton to release many, many films

)
Stiny horkeho leta (1977) (Shadows of the Hot Summer)
Mag (1987) (Magician)
Stin kapradiny (1984) (Shadows of Fern)

other:

Signum Laudis (Martin Holly, 1980) supposedly his best
Tajemstvi oceloveho mesta (The Secret of Steel City) (Ludvik Raza, 1979) a Sci-Fi/Adventure
Bozska Ema (Heavenly Emma) (Jiri Krejcik, 1979)
Zanik samoty Berhof (End of the Lonely Farm Berghof) (Jiri Svoboda, 1983)
Pesti ve tme (Fists in the Night) (Jaroslav Soukup, 1986)
Kinoautomat: Clovek a jeho dum (A Man and his House) (various, among others Pavel Juracek, 1966)

And some others, that I doubt are of interest for non-Czechs 8-) . This year could be even better than I expected...and more expensive

.

It seems that this shop still sells "Obrazy stareho sveta", I have just ordered some other DVDs from them, so if there is interest I can comment on my experience.

It seems however that their site isn't working in English.

I've bought some Czech DVDs when I was in Prague the last few days, and the following don't have English subs:

Nikdo se nebude smat (Bocan)
Obcan Vaclav Havel jede na dovolenou (Novak brothers) (a new doc, my cousin told me it's very good)
Fararuv Konec (Schorm) (I've only watched a couple of seconds, but the quality doesn't seem to be optimal, that is not too sharp)
Navrat ztraceneho syna (Schorm)
Lasky mezi kapkami deste (Kachyna)
Udoli vcel (Vlacil) (but the print looks really great)

All of the Slovak films of the 70s have English subs, plus small booklet with critical analysis of the film and other info, but these are only in Slovak. The original poster is also printed in the booklet. I strongly recommend to buy some, they are a real bargain for the price, even with shipping.

jbeall · #88 Post by **jbeall** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:46 pm

Looks like Schorm's Everyday Courage is coming out next week, but no English subs. Dammit!

MichaelB · #89 Post by **MichaelB** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:17 pm

Skritek wrote:I've bought some Czech DVDs when I was in Prague the last few days, and the following don't have English subs:

Udoli vcel (Vlacil) (but the print looks really great).

Still tempting, as it's clearly better than the Facets, and I'd rather see it without subtitles than piss-yellow out-of-sync ones.

petoluk · #90 Post by **petoluk** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:29 pm

FYI, the 1st half of the Slovak Cinema of the 60's collection has been announced for autumn '08:

322 (1969) Dušan Hanák IMDb
Boxer a smrť (1962) Peter Solan IMDb
Deň náš každodenný (1969) Otakar Krivánek
Drak sa vracia (1967) Eduard Grečner IMDb
Jánošík (1963) Paľo Bielik IMDb
Kristove roky (1967) Juraj Jakubisko IMDb
Organ (1964) Štefan Uher IMDb
Pieseň o sivom holubovi (1961) Stanislav Barabáš IMDb
Slávnosť v botanickej záhrade (1969) Elo Havetta IMDb
Slnko v sieti (1962) Štefan Uher IMDb

The 2nd half should follow in autumn '09...

Cheers!

Peto

Morandi · #91 Post by **Morandi** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:07 am

has someone tried to buy some of those slovak cinema of the 70's or 80's titles through the sme.sk site, or else, is dvdbest.sk the only possibility?

thanks in advance.

Skritek · #92 Post by **Skritek** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:50 pm

petoluk wrote:FYI, the 1st half of the Slovak Cinema of the 60's collection has been announced for autumn '08:

Kristove roky (1967) Juraj Jakubisko

As great as this is, I hope they'll release Jakubisko's other stuff in 2009.

I've just watched "Ruzove sny" by Dusan Hanak and I very strongly recommend it.

I wrote to SME.sk but never got an answer (although my Czech isn't exactly great and there was nobody around to correct it, so maybe they just ignored me...).

I'm pretty sure there are other places on the net to buy them, but I don't know which is the best.

quequetz · #93 Post by **quequetz** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 5:28 pm

I have bought a dozen dvds from the SME collections from gorila.sk and have been very pleased with the service. Very reasonable shipping rates (to Canada), responsive (in English). Will be going back to them for the 60s set

Skritek · #94 Post by **Skritek** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 4:17 am

So "Fruits of Paradise" was scheduled for release on April 7th, which means it will be in stores about a month later. "Daisies" is scheduled for release in May, which again means it will be in stores a month later. I do however strongly assume it will be without English subtitles, which is a shame.

I've bought over the last few months the Czech DVDs for (DVD picture quality/film rating):

End of a Priest (Schorm) (mediocre/excellent)
Love between Raindrops (Kachyna) (very good/good to very good)
Return of the Prodigal Son (Schorm) (very good/excellent)
Nobody will Laugh (Bocan) (very good/very good)
Let's Sing all Around (Trojan) (very good/solid to good)
The Bed (Reif) (excellent/very good but strange)
Valley of the Bees (Vlacil) (excellent/very good to excellent)
Utrpeni mladeho Bohacka (Filip) (very good/very good) (a very pleasant surprise)
Run Waiter Run (Smoljak) (very good/very good)
Pride and Glory (Bocan) (very good/excellent)
Hotel for Strangers (Masa) (very good/good to very good)
Zahrada (Sulik) (excellent/very good) (the only one with english subs)

plus:
Everyday Courage (Schorm)
Pearls of the Deep (various, includes shorts by Herz and Passer)
these I haven't watched yet.

I also would like to recommend the Slovak releases, the best (of the ones I've seen/bought) would be "Rose-tinted dreams" by Hanak.
I also very greatly enjoyed "If I had a Gun" by Uher, which has loads of style.

"And I'll run to the ends of the world" is a nice and calm little film, certainly worth watching.
"Build a house, plant a tree" is probably Jakubisko's weakest (of his pre-1991 films)

"Sweet Troubles" by Juraj Herz (made in the 80s) is good, but only worth buying/watching if you want to see a different Herz (that is different than Cremator).

So I'm still very excited about the Slovak films of the 60s, can't wait to watch them.

Indianske Leto

It seems that the new release of Saša Gedeon's debut will have English subtitles. I warmly recommend this nice little film, especially since it is a little cheaper than the regular Czech DVD.

The Czech release of Sedmikrasky/Daisies, while not having English subtitles features as an extra a few (silent) minutes of b/w from shooting the film.

I don't know yet if it is worthwhile, as I haven't seen it. But the price of these new discs is happily only 300 ck (instead of 400).

Perkins Cobb · #95 Post by **Perkins Cobb** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:42 pm

I'm reading Peter Hames' book on the Czech New Wave (thanks to the recommendation of some forum members) and am naturally bummed to find that Bonton dumped their English subtitles just as they began to release a boatload of '60s material. (Petoluk, Skritek, thanks for the reports on these.)

I, too, am eager to see the Slovak '70s films now. Question: Anyone have any idea yet (or just speculation) on whether the Slovak '60s DVDs will have English subtitles? And, is there anybody out there creating "fansubs" for the Czech New Wave DVDs, i.e. Bocan's Nobody Will Laugh or Schorm's Everyday Courage?

Skritek · #96 Post by **Skritek** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:51 pm

I dare say that there will be English subtitles on the Slovak releases, but to be sure you'll probably have to wait until about August.

I doubt there is anyone creating fansubs, I've actually thought about it, but I'm too lazy for that. (At the moment I don't even have the time.)

As for reading, I strongly recommend the interview book "Closely Watched Films" by A.J. Liehm. I don't know about it's availability in English though, but I assume MichaelB knows more about that.

The Japanese boxset of Zeman films is getting re-released. Now it contains also "Vynalez zkazy" and "Baron Prasil". (The edition of "Carodejuv ucen" is still the German one however.) It's supposed to be a bit lower priced than the earlier release.

Later this year "Oldrich a Bozena" by the Czech filmmaker Otakar Vavra. He is one of the most important Czech filmmakers, mainly because of his status as a mentor at the FAMU to the New Wavers.

He is however also very controversial, because he has made lots and lots of Communist (possibly even Nazi back in the forties) propaganda. Apparently a man with no backbone, or maybe he just had other priorities - not up to me to judge him here.

I was however wondering, if anybody (probably MichaelB) has seen any of his films, next to Witches Hammer? I'm especially interested in his "historical" films. The Hussite Trilogy of the 50s, which certainly was communist propaganda, but I'd be interested in how they are made and hold up. (I think they were amongst the most expensive Czech films ever back then.)
And, because I love good depictions of the early Middle Ages, I'm rather interested in Oldrich a Bozena, but there are few (and of pretty different opinions) reviews in Czech, so I have no idea if it is worth buying. Come to think of it, this could be the only film taking place in the early eleventh century.

Skritek · #97 Post by **Skritek** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:10 pm

Here is an official list of the Slovak films of the 60s to be released this year. Strangely "Slnko v Sieti" isn't among them, it was supposed to be released also. It's only 9 films now, since there already came out a DVD with three documentaries on August 21.

Perkins Cobb · #98 Post by **Perkins Cobb** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:14 pm

Well, fuck ... because of course Uher's Slnko v Sieti (The Sun in a Net) is probably the best known of these in the English-speaking world, and the one I most wanted to see. DVDbest.sk is still listing it with an October 23 release date, but I have to imagine the link Skritek posted supersedes that. Get a look at the cover while you still can. (Update: On the page Skritek linked to, each DVD appears to have a release date one week apart from September-November, with only October 10 being skipped. Maybe Sun in a Net is slated for that date but the article omitted it for some reason?)

Skritek, does the phrase "Titulky a menu majú slovenské a anglické" confirm English subtitles? I recognize the first & last words but not "menu majú" (and does anybody know a free Czech/Slovak translator on the web that actually works?).

This page has probably been mentioned before in this thread, but it discusses most of these films briefly.

MichaelB · #99 Post by **MichaelB** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:54 am

Perkins Cobb wrote:Skritek, does the phrase "Titulky a menu majï¿½ slovenskï¿½ a anglickï¿½" confirm English subtitles?

If I'm not very much mistaken, it means "Subtitles and menus in Slovak and English", which I imagine is what you wanted to hear.

Skritek · #100 Post by **Skritek** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 3:53 am

Yes, it indeed means that. I'm sorry I didn't mention it, I thought it redundant because they always contain English subtitles.
Since there are ten more films scheduled for next year, maybe it was postponed. (Although admittedly, I would have liked at least 20 more films of the 60s and 10 from the 70s.) The cover on DVDbest is actually the original artwork for the film, or at least I think so.

If somebody wants it, I can translate the text. Although most of it is just a description of the film, which will be included on the back cover in English. Thus it will be possible to read, when all specs are up on certain sites (they usually have front and back covers).