Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#101 Post by Gregory » Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:13 am

Speaking just for my own experience, I've never heard "slow cinema" used pejoratively. The only similar complaint I've heard was just that a film was "slow," but of course that's hardly the same thing as referring to "slow cinema."
Big Ben wrote:
Sat Sep 28, 2019 12:40 pm
I've only ever really seen it used in a descriptive sense. Slow Cinema to me is just like any other descriptor and it's used to describe the films of filmmakers like Tsai Ming Liang or Apitchatpong Weerasethakul. I've only ever seen it used a pejorative in the "Damn bro this movie is slow" sense.

Wikipedia even has an article about it discussing it in some capacity. With sources!
I dont follow what you're saying. If you've only ever seen the term used pejoratively, then I don't see how you can say that it's just like any other descriptor. And I don't see it being used as a pejorative in the Wikipedia article you link.

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Big Ben
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#102 Post by Big Ben » Mon Sep 30, 2019 2:40 am

Gregory wrote:
Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:13 am
I dont follow what you're saying. If you've only ever seen the term used pejoratively, then I don't see how you can say that it's just like any other descriptor. And I don't see it being used as a pejorative in the Wikipedia article you link.
My bad.

When I describe something slow in a pejorative sense I mean it in the same vein as "Wow this movie was boring/slow. Nothing happens!" etc. I apologize for not being particularly erudite in my post but that's essentially what I mean. It's nothing more than a base description of a film in a negative criticism based context and not a broader descriptor of a subset of films. This can of course apply to films made by directors associated with Slow Cinema but I doubt many people watching the films in question are just stumbling into them either. One does not simply stumble into a Tsai Ming Ling film like one might a film on Cable TV.

When I think of it as a descriptive one I think of the films made by filmmakers listed in this thread, Tsai, Tarr, Weerasethakul and even precursors like Angelopoulos or Tarkovsky. Slow, meditative with complex set-pieces and compositions. I realize it's not exactly as specific as saying "It's a Drama film" but I know exactly what someone means when someone refers to "Slow Cinema" within a certain framework and I think quite a few people on this site do too. As evidenced in this thread though we can't get past certain perceived ambiguities in language and descriptors. Quite a few people here know exactly what a Tarkovsky film is because they can visualize in their minds a film like Stalker, Solaris or Andrei Rublev but how many of us could coalesce the experience into a simple term that a great many people would understand? It's not that anyone in here is intentionally being malicious or obtuse it's just that language can be a little difficult sometimes.

For those interested there is a dedicated site for these types of films specifically.

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L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#103 Post by L.A. » Mon Sep 30, 2019 6:21 am

I am excited about Son of the White Mare (1981).

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#104 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Oct 17, 2019 6:24 pm


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tenia
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#105 Post by tenia » Fri Oct 18, 2019 2:38 am

I've seen one : it's pretty nice.

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criterionsnob
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#106 Post by criterionsnob » Sun Oct 27, 2019 2:05 am

I just watched the new Arbelos Blu-ray of The Juniper Tree, and enjoyed it immensely. One of my favourite Blu-rays of the year. The restoration is gorgeous, and it's a trip seeing Björk so young.

Calvin
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#107 Post by Calvin » Wed Feb 12, 2020 10:18 am

Arbelos ran a Reddit AMA last week. It didn't generate much in the way of news, other than that the Son of the White Mare release will also contain new restorations of Marcell Jankovics’ shorts Sisyphus and The Struggle and that there will be more Hungarian restorations released as well.

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tenia
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#108 Post by tenia » Wed Feb 12, 2020 11:17 am

I see some of their earlier problematic encodes were mentioned. I actually had the opportunity to quickly chat with David Marriott at Lyon last Oct and they indeed, as mentioned in the AMA, took notice of the negative feedback regarding these, especially Funeral Parade of Roses. That's why they're now working with David Mackenzie (who's thus likely to encode Satantango).
He was very lovely, but also happy to see someone digging that deep into technicalities, telling me he felt encodes weren't often enough discussed, even though this is 100% into the hands of the label (so no excuse if it's not good enough).

Soothsayer
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#109 Post by Soothsayer » Wed Feb 12, 2020 1:08 pm

Their restoration of Nina Menkes' "Queen of Diamonds" was the biggest discovery of the year for me in 2019. I'm eagerly awaiting the blu-ray for it.


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criterionsnob
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#111 Post by criterionsnob » Thu Apr 09, 2020 6:24 pm

From the latest Arbelos newsletter today:
Hello Arbelos fans,

We hope you’re all staying safe and healthy. We’re pleased to announce that after a tremendous theatrical run our new 4K restoration of Béla Tarr’s 7.5 hour masterpiece Sátántangó will be available for streaming rental starting April 17th as a week-long “virtual screening” in partnership with our friends at Film at Lincoln Center, and directly through our Arbelos website. Later in April and into May, the film will expand to other online platforms in including Kanopy, iTunes, Amazon and more.

Our Blu-ray, meanwhile, is now officially scheduled for release on November 10th, 2020. We’ll be releasing two editions: a limited collector’s edition set limited to 300 copies available exclusively through our site, and a 2-disc standard edition. A full list of bonus features and pre-order details is forthcoming. As you might have assumed, the developing COVID-19 pandemic has caused delays in our production schedule and we had originally planned to release the set sooner. That said, rest assured we’re doing everything in our power to produce a set worthy of Béla Tarr’s masterpiece. We thank you all for your continued support!

- Team Arbelos

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Ribs
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#112 Post by Ribs » Thu Apr 09, 2020 6:33 pm

Two discs seems pretty light, considering the length, no? I hope the SE has it stretched with a little more breathing room

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domino harvey
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#113 Post by domino harvey » Thu Apr 09, 2020 6:42 pm

Undoubtedly the SE will be the same discs with either a third bonus disc or some kind of booklet/commemorative cat plush, I can’t imagine they’d go through the expense of reauthoring the whole set for 300 copies

beamish14
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#114 Post by beamish14 » Thu Apr 09, 2020 6:45 pm

Hope the limited version includes some kind of edition of the novel or vinyl soundtrack.

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What A Disgrace
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#115 Post by What A Disgrace » Thu Apr 09, 2020 7:25 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Thu Apr 09, 2020 6:42 pm
Undoubtedly the SE will be the same discs with either a third bonus disc or some kind of booklet/commemorative cat plush, I can’t imagine they’d go through the expense of reauthoring the whole set for 300 copies
I can only imagine what kind of plushes such an edition of Werckmeister Harmonies would have.

Anyway, looks like my first Christmas gift.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#116 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Apr 09, 2020 7:35 pm

Criterion's War and Peace is two discs with over 2 1/2 hours of supplements. For those in the know, how much space does an audio commentary take up?

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domino harvey
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#117 Post by domino harvey » Thu Apr 09, 2020 7:45 pm

Assuming 192 kbs, even for a film this long it’d take up well below a 1 GB total

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swo17
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#118 Post by swo17 » Thu Apr 09, 2020 7:46 pm

Tons of static shots should save a lot on bitrate

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tenia
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#119 Post by tenia » Fri Apr 10, 2020 3:11 am

It's also an Academy format IIRC so the bitrate will be spread over less pixels to handle, and I don't think it'll have a 5.1 track not tons of soundtracks.
In this context, half the movie (225 min) on a fully used BD-50 can get a 27 Mbps total bitrate, which would be 25 for a video and 2 for the sound/subs/etc.

This seems quite OK for such a movie, especially if David M encodes it (my understanding is that he's likely to, and is even more so since Carlotta will release it later on video too and he's certainly going to encode it then anyway, so maybe they'll work something out to share the encode).

FrauBlucher, for a 450 min movie, a 192kbps audio commentary will take : 450 min × 60 sec × 192kbps × 8 = 648 Mb.

GoodOldNeon
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#120 Post by GoodOldNeon » Fri Apr 10, 2020 3:44 am

The Co-CEO of Arbelos said the following in a Reddit AMA:
Craig Rogers wrote:The issues with some of our earlier (then Cinelicious Pics) releases most certainly informed our encoding process. Believe me, no one wants our discs to look perfect more than me. I spent all the time restoring the images! Our last several releases have been encoded by David Mackenzie's team at Fidelity in Motion. They are the gold standard in blu-ray encoding and will continue to handle our releases for the foreseeable future.

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MichaelB
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#121 Post by MichaelB » Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:52 am

David managed to squeeze Shoah onto two discs very convincingly, and that’s both longer and markedly grainier.

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tenia
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#122 Post by tenia » Fri Apr 10, 2020 7:06 am

GoodOldNeon wrote:The Co-CEO of Arbelos said the following in a Reddit AMA:
Craig Rogers wrote:The issues with some of our earlier (then Cinelicious Pics) releases most certainly informed our encoding process. Believe me, no one wants our discs to look perfect more than me. I spent all the time restoring the images! Our last several releases have been encoded by David Mackenzie's team at Fidelity in Motion. They are the gold standard in blu-ray encoding and will continue to handle our releases for the foreseeable future.
I've chatted briefly with David Marriott last year at Lyon and he indeed told me that while there wasnt many customers or pro-related people digging into compression, they clearly learnt from their mistakes especially on Funeral Parade of Roses and chose to tackle the matter and amp up their game there.
It was funny to see his view vs Criterion's on this matter.


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FrauBlucher
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#124 Post by FrauBlucher » Sat May 02, 2020 3:06 pm

Sounds like there is a chance Satantango could be delayed

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senseabove
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Re: Arbelos / Cinelicious Pics

#125 Post by senseabove » Tue Aug 18, 2020 4:11 pm

Looks like Arbelos has Damnation lined up after Satantango:
Béla Tarr, Hungary, 1986, 116m
Hungarian with English subtitles

A key turning point in Béla Tarr’s career, the first of the director’s six collaborations with novelist László Krasznahorkai signaled a visible shift away from the verité realism of his early features and toward the highly stylized, black-and-white otherworldliness that would become his signature. The story is a kind of desiccated film noir, focusing on the efforts of a dour loner, Karrer (Miklós Székely B.), to steal back his estranged lover—a lounge singer (Vali Kerekes) in a funereal bar named Titanik—from her debt-addled husband. Karrer lures the husband into a smuggling scheme that will force him to leave town, but these well-laid plans soon go awry, and the characters play out their doomed destiny through enveloping layers of rain, shadow, and despair. An Arbelos Films release. New 4K restoration by the Hungarian National Film Institute – Film Archive.

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