136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

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MichaelB
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136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#1 Post by MichaelB » Thu Jan 14, 2021 5:32 am

Image
FATHERLAND
(Ken Loach, 1986)
Release date: 19 April 2021
Limited Edition Blu-ray (UK premiere)


Ken Loach collaborated with playwright Trevor Griffiths (Comedians) for this underseen political drama about an East German protest singer (played by Gerulf Pannach) who emigrates to the West when he falls foul of the authorities. He arrives to much interest from the media – and a potentially lucrative record contract – but wishes only to be able to perform his songs, and to find his father, another exile, who had left his home country during the 1953 East German uprising.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• High Definition remaster
• Original mono audio
Language Barriers (2021): new interview with editor Jonathan Morris
Talk About Work (1971): Ken Loach’s documentary for the Central Office of Information, photographed by Chris Menges, interviewing young people about their work
Right to Work March (1972): documentary film of a five-week protest march from Glasgow to London that saw the participation of a number of cultural figures, including Loach and other filmmakers
• Image gallery: publicity and promotional material
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Frank Collins, an archival interview with Ken Loach, an extract from Loach on Loach, an overview of contemporary critical responses, new writing on the short films, and film credits
• UK premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited edition of 3,000 copies

#PHILTD136
BBFC cert: 15
REGION FREE
EAN: 5060697920192

Image
CARLA'S SONG
(Ken Loach, 1996)
Release date: 19 April 2021
Limited Edition Blu-ray (UK premiere)


The first collaboration between director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty – a relationship which now extends to fifteen feature films and shorts, including My Name Is Joe and I, Daniel BlakeCarla’s Song tells the story of George (Robert Carlyle, Trainspotting), a Glaswegian bus driver, and Carla (Oyanka Cabezas), a Nicaraguan refugee. Set in 1987, the film follows the pair as they meet, fall in love, and travel to Nicaragua in search of Carla’s former lover, a possible victim of the civil war.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• High Definition remaster
• Original stereo audio
• Audio commentary with director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty (2005)
Keeping Up Appearances (2021): new interview with producer Sally Hibbin
Two Worlds Collide (2021): new interview with editor Jonathan Morris
Tuning in to Nicaragua (2021): new interview with composer George Fenton
Background to the Art (2021): new interview with art director Fergus Clegg
Sounds of Music (2021): new interview with sound recordist Ray Beckett
Keeping Up Appearances (2021): new interview with script supervisor Susanna Lenton
• Deleted scenes
• Original theatrical trailer
• Image gallery: publicity and promotional material
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Michael Pattison, an extract from Paul Laverty’s introduction to his screenplay, Ken Loach on recutting the film, an extract from a report on the Nicaraguan premiere, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
• UK premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited edition of 3,000 copies

#PHILTD137
BBFC cert: 15
REGION FREE
EAN: 5060697921397

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Finch
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#2 Post by Finch » Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:56 am

With the Fatherland cover, Indicator have their first candidate for the Worst DVD covers thread. I haven't seen the film so can't say how representative it is but it's ugly all the same.

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MichaelB
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#3 Post by MichaelB » Thu Jan 14, 2021 11:04 am

It's from the original theatrical poster.

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swo17
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#4 Post by swo17 » Thu Jan 14, 2021 12:06 pm

It's better than the Twilight Time cover

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knives
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#5 Post by knives » Thu Jan 14, 2021 12:42 pm

MichaelB wrote:
Thu Jan 14, 2021 11:04 am
It's from the original theatrical poster.
Which can still be incredibly ugly.

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domino harvey
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#6 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jan 14, 2021 9:13 pm

It kind of looks like a Facets cover

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Boosmahn
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#7 Post by Boosmahn » Thu Jan 14, 2021 11:30 pm

swo17 wrote:
Thu Jan 14, 2021 12:06 pm
It's better than the Twilight Time cover
I disagree. It's not like the Twilight Time cover is good, though...

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Dr Amicus
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#8 Post by Dr Amicus » Fri Jan 15, 2021 7:43 am

Both solid, mid-range Loach - but I haven't seen them since their first screening on Channel 4 or the LFF screening respectively so that could be memory playing up. Incidentally, do we know which cut of Carla's Song we're getting - the original theatrical cut or the slightly trimmed (by about mins) later version?

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MichaelB
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#9 Post by MichaelB » Fri Jan 15, 2021 8:06 am

Loach was famously unhappy with how Fatherland turned out, but it's one of those films that's aged better than one might have expected at the time because - as nobody could have foreseen back then - it's now become a fascinating time capsule of life and attitudes in both East and West Berlin only a few years before the Wall came down.

And of course since this is a Ken Loach film it doesn't adopt a superficial "East Germany evil commies, West Germany righteous good guys" take - he and screenwriter Trevor Griffiths are not remotely blind to the severe downsides of living in the East, but neither does the West turn out to be a land of milk and honey. Which doesn't come as a surprise to what must be the most bracingly cynical protagonist in any Ken Loach film - an East German protest singer who's essentially being kicked out of the country for asking too many questions, only to be just as confrontational when granted an audience with the West German Minister of Culture. There are two interrogation scenes where very similar questions are asked of him - but the interrogator is East German in one, and American in the other.

Also true to Loach is the linguistic authenticity - not just accents this time, but also language. I've had to prepare two sets of subtitles for previous Indicator films with snatches of foreign-language dialogue (Eve being a good recent example), but this is the largest translation subtitle file I've prepared for a film primarily (but only just!) in English, with no fewer than 427 lines translating German dialogue. (A normal feature typically only has three times that much, sometimes less.)

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Dr Amicus
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#10 Post by Dr Amicus » Fri Jan 15, 2021 1:30 pm

I'm particularly interested in rewatching Fatherland, as I said it's probably over 30 years since I saw it and remember the general outline and that I rather liked it - and that the reviews hadn't been great when it was released. I have a feeling it might have been the first Loach I saw - his earlier films / TV work I didn't get to see at least until the 90s, and I'm pretty sure got to see it before Hidden Agenda (his next theatrical film). The extras on this look enticing as well.

Carla's Song - only the second Loach film I got to see at the cinema (after Land and Freedom). I recall the first half was stronger than the second, but am looking forward to see how it holds up as whole (whichever cut is included!).

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MichaelB
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#11 Post by MichaelB » Wed Feb 17, 2021 12:04 pm

At Ken Loach's request, the disc showcases the 2005 recut, but all the deleted scenes are presented elsewhere, and in every case it's obvious why they were deleted (sometimes painfully so!).

To quote Loach directly from the time of the recut:
All of my films are director’s cuts – it’s just that sometimes the director gets it wrong. We made Carla’s Song ten years ago and it has niggled at me ever since. I had the sense when we were editing it that the film was getting away from me – that it was overlong and that I wasn’t being tough enough on the material. It was my fault entirely; there’s no hiding place.
But anyone worried about further revisionism to his back catalogue should be reassured by:
That said, I don’t think I shall do any more. You shouldn’t keep looking to the past; you have to live in the future.

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knives
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#12 Post by knives » Wed Feb 17, 2021 1:49 pm

I’m glad he’s only expressing his inner WKW once.

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Dr Amicus
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#13 Post by Dr Amicus » Wed Feb 17, 2021 6:52 pm

At least twice - not wanting to go off topic too much, but the BFI DVD of Black Jack was cut slightly from the original release, I think with similar reasoning. Again, the deleted scenes were on the disc.

Back to Carla's Song, it may be my dodgy memory, but I'm sure when I first saw a reference toe a Director's Cut the running time quoted was a mere 65 mins. I'm assuming this was a typo in wherever this was I saw it, but my recollection was that the implication was the second half had been drastically reduced (I know this is highly unlikely - and I think i took it with a pinch of salt at the time but it was still odd).

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MichaelB
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#14 Post by MichaelB » Sat Feb 27, 2021 9:01 am

Full specs for both of these:

Carla's Song:

Image

Fatherland:

Image

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MichaelB
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#15 Post by MichaelB » Tue Apr 06, 2021 12:49 pm


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Finch
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#16 Post by Finch » Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:32 pm

Clearly the alternative pun was too smutty to use.

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MichaelB
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Re: 136-137 Fatherland & Carla's Song

#17 Post by MichaelB » Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:41 pm

Finch wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:32 pm
Clearly the alternative pun was too smutty to use.
Beaverland.


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