Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

[zedz]

Hot on the heels of the big, essential Jonas Mekas box set from Potemkine / Re:Voir, the latter has released more Mekas, in the form of Guns of the Trees and The Sixties Quartet.

[htshell]

Jonas Mekas screenings in Philadelphia, April 19-20. Also a panel discussion with Andrew Lampert, Amy Taubin, Jackie Raynal and Ed Halter.
http://ihousephilly.org/jonasmekas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[antnield]

LUX just have released John Woodman: The Landscape Films 1977-1982, collecting nine of the 13 works he produced during that period. The set comes with a booklet containing notes from Woodman himself and Malcolm Le Grice.

[AlexHansen]

Pere Portabella set finally coming out.

[swo17]

This Amazon seller only has a 93% rating, but they've got a few brand new copies of the OOP Walden with the massive book on sale for only $86 shipped.

[knives]

Though you could the French set for just a little more on .es

[Lemmy Caution]

I spotted a documentary Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film (2012) directed by Pip Chodorov.
It has interviews with Brakhage, Jacobs, Mekas, and archival footage of Richter and Warhol among others.
Anyone familiar with this?

[htshell]

It's a very good documentary with the operative word in the title being A History of Experimental Film. It's a highly subjective history from someone who has been in this scene since he was very young. There can be some gripes, chiefly among them that no women filmmakers are discussed, and that it follows almost exclusively the canonical figures of experimental film (something that could seem at odds with the spirit of the genre), but again it is a personal history, not an attempt to provide an all-encompassing narrative of the genre. I enjoyed the film very much.

[Gregory]

It's still showing here and there, but there's also a Kino Lorber DVD of it, which I haven't found any reviews for yet.

[Saimo]

Franco Brocani's Necropolis (1970), starring Tina Aumont, Carmelo Bene, Pierre Clementi and Viva, to be released on May 22.
The RHV disc will be English-friendly.
http://www.amazon.it/Necropolis-Tina-Au ... 00BX8PP62/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Time Out Film Guide:

"Brocani conjures together all your favorite European cultural and historical myth figures in order to attack the centuries of 'sublimation' that have produced our cities and their inhabitants. The gang's all here: Frankenstein's monster gropes towards the awareness that his mind is a universe; Attila, naked on a white horse, liberates his people from their ignominy; the ultra-caustic Viva bemoans the frustrations of married life and drifts into the elegiac persona of the Bloody Countess Bathory; Louis Waldon is a hip American tourist searching for the (missing) Mona Lisa. The range is extraordinary, from stand-up Jewish comedy to a kind of flea-market expressionism."

[htshell]

We ran Filmmakers Coop's 16mm print of Necropolis a few years ago. It's pretty terrible unfortunately. A post-Warhol ramble that despite the promising cast was pretty forgettable. But I'm happy that some Brocani is coming to DVD! Would love to check out his other films.

[Saimo]

The Necropolis DVD will feature three of his early shorts as bonus features.

[zedz]

We ran Filmmakers Coop's 16mm print of Necropolis a few years ago. It's pretty terrible unfortunately. A post-Warhol ramble that despite the promising cast was pretty forgettable. But I'm happy that some Brocani is coming to DVD! Would love to check out his other films.

I absolutely believe you that it's awful, but I doubt I can turn down the chance to see Viva play Elizabeth Bathory. In fact, I'm now finding it hard to imagine Bathory as anybody but Viva, shout-drawling about needing "maww VURR-gens, goddammit!"

[htshell]

In no way am I trying to discourage anyone from purchasing and watching this release! Just had to give my two cents since we rented this print without seeing it and it was sort of surprisingly dull. Maybe it will fare better with a cleaned-up version for the DVD, and the inclusion of his short films means that I will definitely pick up a copy myself.

[Matt]

Pere Portabella set finally coming out.

And yet here it is, "finales de Marzo," and it's not even listed in their online store as a pre-order.

[zedz]

Amazon.es lists it as available ("on import") from one vendor, who seems to be based in France and claims it's in stock, but he's a new vendor (Danger, Will Robinson!) and is probably bullshitting.

[Adam]

It's a very good documentary with the operative word in the title being A History of Experimental Film. It's a highly subjective history from someone who has been in this scene since he was very young. There can be some gripes, chiefly among them that no women filmmakers are discussed, and that it follows almost exclusively the canonical figures of experimental film (something that could seem at odds with the spirit of the genre), but again it is a personal history, not an attempt to provide an all-encompassing narrative of the genre. I enjoyed the film very much.

We're screening it in Glendale CA on Wednesday (April 3) for free, and I am doing a Q&A afterwards, if you are in Southern California.
http://www.lafilmforum.org/index/Curren ... _Film.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[vertovfan]

Portabella set now available for purchase from Intermedio.

[Saimo]

Franco Brocani's Necropolis (1970), starring Tina Aumont, Carmelo Bene, Pierre Clementi and Viva, to be released on May 22.
The RHV disc will be English-friendly.
http://www.amazon.it/Necropolis-Tina-Au ... 00BX8PP62/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Artwork (to be confirmed):

[repeat]

Maybe not literally the right thread, but I don't know if it's been mentioned here that the excellent documentary website DocAlliance also offers some interesting experimental / non-narrative films, namely Peter Liechti's 2009 masterpiece The Sound Of Insects (unfortunately not available in the US) as well as Signer's Suitcase, a good chunk of Peter Mettler's filmography, and some interesting looking 1980's work from András Szirtes, whom I at least hadn't heard of before.

Other good stuff (not sure if all of these are available worldwide):
Step Across The Border (Nicolas Humbert / Werner Penzel)
It Might Be That Beauty Has Strengthened Our Resolve: Masao Adachi (Philippe Grandrieux)
Artel and Landscape (Sergei Loznitsa)
Land of Madness (Luc Moullet)
2010 masterclass with Werner Herzog

[Lemmy Caution]

Sounds like a useful resource if Documentary Films becomes the next Genre List go.

[Gregory]

Step across the Border is wonderful and long available on DVD from Winter & Winter—well worth it if the audio and video quality are reduced in the streaming version, and also for the 12 bonus tracks on the disc.
W&W also released two more of Humbert's films, Middle of the Moment and Wolfsgrub, which I've not yet seen.

[zedz]

Pere Portabella set finally coming out.

And yet here it is, "finales de Marzo," and it's not even listed in their online store as a pre-order.

I received my Portabella set yesterday (ordered direct from intermedio). Have not watched a second of it yet, but it's a neat, utterly bare bones presentation: slipcase, twenty-two films on seven discs on layered, hinged plastic trays (like the UK Chabrol set, for example). One paragraph of intro text on the back cover (bilingual), plus a list of what films are on which discs and their year of production. No other liner notes, credits, booklet. Bonus features: the identical list of films / discs on the inside cover adds running times! Like I said, barest of bare bones, but no matter, so long as there haven't been any major screw ups with the transfers and subtitles.

[AlexHansen]

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts after giving it a spin. It'll probably be my next purchase unless there's something catastrophic transfer/subs-wise.

[swo17]

So apparently the relatively recent Image Blu-ray release of the Frank Sinatra film Suddenly includes as an extra Francis Thompson's N.Y., N.Y. in glorious 1080p! (Props to vertovfan for catching this.)