Vinegar Syndrome and Their Partner Labels

[therewillbeblus]

Oh, and speaking of non-safe blind buys, The Wild Boys aka Cahiers du cinéma's #1 film of 2018 Les Garçons sauvages was also an early Altered Innocence title, I'm just noticing

I did indeed like this a ton- though I only came to realize the clever use of gendered actors as the film progressed. While it's not a film begging for specific analysis, the mise en scene-inspired narrative is clearly serving a coming-of-age story, albeit one that doesn't play by any 'rules'. The mixture of adventure, fantasy, and horror isn't novel to concoct youthful development from sobering consequence, but the unique tone recontextualizes these elements into aesthetic phantasmagoria over magical realism, to evoke the sense of destabilization these kids feel from physiological, social, and temporal confusion in relation to their elusive future being planned without their permission, including their identity-formation in relationship with sexuality and gender. It's a powerlessness ubiquitous in pubescent evolution, and the chaotic film language externalizes their internal states with supreme respect for the experience. We get animalistic celebrations of freedom, hypervigilance under oppression, resistance to bodily change, attraction towards an adult role model figure that may not actually be a worthy leader, and all kinds of inexplicable impulses and dynamic shifts. There is also a filterless aura of eroticism permeating the film that fluidly slides along the spectrum from perversity to innocence (and yes, in that order, at least to start!), and the score is sensational at capturing this eclectic and nebulous experience with music that remains haunting and ethereally playful. I appreciated the order-of-operations as well, in how we're introduced to seemingly immoral, borderline-sociopathic behavior, only to transform our comprehension of their struggle into a validating if not endorsing portrait of the messy psychosexual stage of growth.

[Ribs]

In an extremely odd turn up for the books, among other things this month’s partner releases includes Morvern Callar from Fun City. How on Earth did Criterion not lock this one down?

[Glowingwabbit]

In an extremely odd turn up for the books, among other things this month’s partner releases includes Morvern Callar from Fun City. How on Earth did Criterion not lock this one down?

I'm glad they didn't. I love the slipcover.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

In an extremely odd turn up for the books, among other things this month’s partner releases includes Morvern Callar from Fun City. How on Earth did Criterion not lock this one down?

Good for them. Fun City has been one of my favorite new labels of the last year. Their small collection is so well curated with excellent special features. I'm curious as to who licensed this to them as I know it was previously Palm Pictures. Are any of their releases even in print? The only Blu-ray I think they might've put out is Stop Making Sense.

The next Vinegar Syndrome Pictures release (their contemporary sublabel) is The Scary of Sixty-First. I was surprised when I saw this in theaters earlier this month and that it opened up with the Vinegar Syndrome logo, so I presumed this release was coming. That all said, I thought the film was a mess and a terrible pastiche of popular cult films (Rosemary's Baby, Possession, Persona, and Suspiria) all wrapped in forced crass language and lazy internet observations.

[Ribs]

I mean, I think (not that it’s a competition) it’s by far the VS partner label with the highest hit rate and they havent released a thing I haven’t immediately put on a list for some priority. I am just flabbergasted that this film that I feel very recently was described as having elements issues coming out from a label that has not released anything remotely like it before.

[dwk]

Good for them. Fun City has been one of my favorite new labels of the last year. Their small collection is so well curated with excellent special features. I'm curious as to who licensed this to them as I know it was previously Palm Pictures. Are any of their releases even in print? The only Blu-ray I think they might've put out is Stop Making Sense.

They seem to have released The Basketball Diaries on Blu-ray.

Morvern Callar doesn't appear on Palm Pictures site, so I am assuming that they no longer have it. (Six String Samurai is still on the website, but VS has released that on UHD, presumably under license from Palm.)

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Good for them. Fun City has been one of my favorite new labels of the last year. Their small collection is so well curated with excellent special features. I'm curious as to who licensed this to them as I know it was previously Palm Pictures. Are any of their releases even in print? The only Blu-ray I think they might've put out is Stop Making Sense.

Palm is effectively dead. As of 2018 their entire staff was one woman whose only job was to handle screening requests for titles that hadn't already lapsed. They do evidently have somebody making periodic updates to the website, but I doubt the films listed there reflect anything except what's still available as new old stock.

Morvern Callar doesn't appear on Palm Pictures site, so I am assuming that they no longer have it. (Six String Samurai is still on the website, but VS has released that on UHD, presumably under license from Palm.)

I don't have this release, but there's no mention of Palm on the back of the package. Dollars to donuts that Palm's rights lapsed and Vinegar Syndrome picked them up, just as Janus picked up Demonlover, Arrow JSA, Neon Memories of Murder, KimStim Bright Future, and so on.

[Calvin]

The new Canadian partner label sounds promising. Has anyone got any thoughts on The Ernie Game?

[criterionsnob]

I'm excited about the Canadian partner label as well, and curious what else they'll be releasing. I'm only familiar with Don Owen's film Nobody Waved Goodbye, but pre-ordered the disc anyway. The Ernie Game and many of his other films are streaming for free (in Canada at least) on the NFB site.

[criterionsnob]

More info here on what Canadian International Pictures will be releasing. It's a collaboration between Canadian film writer/programmer Jonathan Doyle and Arbelos Films co-founders David Marriott and Ei Toshinari.

In addition to the films on THE ERNIE GAME disc, this includes Robert Fortier's racecar daredevil doc THE DEVIL AT YOUR HEELS and Gilles Groulx's landmark John Coltrane-scored THE CAT IN THE BAG (LE CHAT DANS LE SAC), both of which will be paired with several other treasures from the NFB archive. CIP will also collaborate with Winnipeg's Zellco Entertainment on a long overdue Blu-ray release of 1973's THE RAINBOW BOYS, directed by Gerald Potterton (HEAVY METAL) and starring the legendary Donald Pleasence (HALLOWEEN).

[What A Disgrace]

A label dedicated to classics of Canadian cinema is a dream come true, and something I've been wanting since I saw Mon Oncle Antoine over a decade ago. Since then, the only Canadian films I've been able to see were, of course, those of Norman McLaren (which need a Blu-ray release!), and several films by Michel Brault (ditto). I'll be throwing caution to the wind and ordering Ernie's Game.

[Never Cursed]

Spoiler

Unless the definition of the word has changed, I don't see how she's throwing "shade" at Kubrick by quoting him. The film is also dedicated to him.

Spoiler

It's an ironic, partially mocking visual quotation - reverent to a point, yes, but also ribbing his movie for the absurdity of the conspiracy idea. The thing that's annoying about its usage is also the main problem with the film: it retains an unbelievably smug/ironic superiority to the films it's aping while also being infinitely more poorly made than them. Maybe there's a better phrase, but I still think that Nekrasova is "throwing shade" by exhibiting at once sincere appreciation and snickering mockery, and I think that attitude overall is quite exasperating in the context of this movie.

[Calvin]

More info here on what Canadian International Pictures will be releasing. It's a collaboration between Canadian film writer/programmer Jonathan Doyle and Arbelos Films co-founders David Marriott and Ei Toshinari.

Thanks for that.

I feel similarly to What a Disgrace, so I've stuck a pre-order in as well. Hopefully they release some Jean Pierre Lefebre and Michel Brault and, while I doubt any label will touch Claude Jutra's films considering the allegations against him (I certainly don't hold out any hope on an upgrade of Mon oncle Antoine from Criterion), I'd still like to see releases of Wow, À tout prendre, and Kamouraska.

[domino harvey]

Thread for VSP's release of the Scary of Sixty-First split here

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I just noticed that Altered Innocence's jacket copy for Death of Nintendo refers to it as "Raya Martin's debut feature" and I confess I did a quick Google search to check if there's another Raya Martin directing movies in the Philippines now (there isn't). I could understand the mistake if he were a new-ish face, but he had a feature at Cannes over a decade ago!

[Glowingwabbit]

I just noticed that Altered Innocence's jacket copy for Death of Nintendo refers to it as "Raya Martin's debut feature" and I confess I did a quick Google search to check if there's another Raya Martin directing movies in the Philippines now (there isn't). I could understand the mistake if he were a new-ish face, but he had a feature at Cannes over a decade ago!

Wow I didn't notice that. That's quite the mistake. It looks like he's directed a bunch of features before this one.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

He made his first when he was 21! And he has several others that would be perfectly in keeping with Altered Innocence's mission if they want to dig further into his filmography (Now Showing, Next Attraction, How to Disappear Completely).

[brundlefly]

For fans of Johannes Nyholm's Koko-di Koko-da, VS partner Dark Star is releasing a Region A blu in a couple weeks that bests the UK release with special features:

• Commentary with director Johannes Nyholm and lead actor Leif Edlund
• Behind the Scenes
• Deleted Scenes
• Short Films: Puppetboy (2008) and Las Palmas (2011)
• Reversible sleeve artwork
• English SDH subtitles

[colinr0380]

Vinegar Syndrome also has a pre-order up for Detention under its Dekanology partner label.

Whilst I have not seen the film to be able to discuss whether it is good or not, this has a really interesting provenance. It is based on a Taiwanese horror videogame released in 2017 that is set in the period of the White Terror (the same period of martial law depicted in Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness). Here's the Errant Signal video that talks about the game with major spoilers for the plot twist which will presumably be the same in the film version.

It is the first feature by John Hsu, who has done a number of shorts, in particular directing the great short film from 2008 Intoxicant about a real life visualisation of an internet forum coming under a cyberattack (complete with 24-style countdown clock!). That short is probably the other best visualisation of the online space on film along with All About Lily Chou-Chou, and in its literalisation of the online into a real world space anticipates Hideo Nakata's Chatroom film by a couple of years!

Perhaps most interesting is what came afterwards: the game developer's follow up to Detention, Devotion, was pulled from Steam after apparently containing some art mocking Chinese President Xi Jinping. It then briefly appeared on GOG.com before being swiftly removed from there as well, and Red Candle Games had to go to the lengths of setting up a website to buy it directly from them without a third-party vendor. If you want to check out Devotion (which is yet another horror game showing the influence of that P.T. demo) here's a Keith Ballard playthrough of it.

[Adam X]

It feels like there needs to be a thread split to let the “partner label” releases shine on their own, rather than being buried in their distributor’s thread.

[Ribs]

I personally don’t think that’s neccesary - while I think everyone has been impressed with the work VS has been doing lately I feel as though there is basically nothing the mothership label puts out that gets much discussion here, and as everything is always announced together, it just means having two discussions being updated and getting new posts instead of just one. I’d possibly switch the title of this to “Vinegar Syndrome and Friends” or something like that but I don’t really think any of the labels beyond maybe Fun City have particularly demonstrated enough interest that they could benefit from their own thread.

[Glowingwabbit]

It feels like there needs to be a thread split to let the “partner label” releases shine on their own, rather than being buried in their distributor’s thread.

I'm wondering if the the title of the thread could just have "partner labels" or "ocn distribution" added to it. Except for 2 months out of the year partner labels are announced at the same time as VS titles so it makes sense to keep them together for that reason as well.

Edit: I agree with what Ribs just mentioned. Personally I also think having them all in one thread might also help others see something they might not have otherwise been interested in.

[Glowingwabbit]

Since it was never posted in full here are all January announcements (note: they don't usually have this many partner labels releases in one month so this was likely a special new year slate):

Vinegar Syndrome:

Forgotten Gialli: Volume Four

• Arabella Black Angel (Stelvio Massi, 1989)

• The Killer is Still Among Us (Camillo Teti, 1986)

• The Sister of Ursula (Enzo Milioni, 1978)

Dead Heat UHD (Mark Goldblatt, 1988)
Master of the World (aka Conqueror of the World (Alberto Cavallone, 1983)
Curfew (Gary Winick, 1989)

VS Sub Labels:

Fortress of Amerikkka [VSA] (Eric Louzil, 1989)
The Scary of Sixty-First [VSP] (Dasha Nekrasova, 2021)
Anyone But My Husband / Sweet Punkin [Peekarama] (Roberta Findlay, 1975-1976)

Partner Labels:

The Ernie Game [Canadian International Pictures] (Don Owen, 1967) *also includes Owen's earlier films
Girlfriend From Hell [Culture Shock] (Daniel Peterson, 1989)
Killing Spree [Terror Vision] (Tim Ritter, 1987)
Koko-di Koko-da [Dark Star] (Johannes Nyholm, 2019)
The Midnight Swim [Yellow Veil] (Sarah Adina Smith, 2014)
The Monster of Camp Sunshine & Honeymoon of Terror [AGFA] (Ferenc Leroget, 1964)
Morvern Callar [Fun City Editions] (Lynne Ramsay, 2002)
Pals (Colegas) [Altered Innocence] (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1982)
El Planeta [Utopia] (Amalia Ulman, 2021)
Sinistre [Saturn's Core] (Ronnie Sortor, 1995)
The Unknown Man Of Shandigor [Deaf Crocodile] (Jean-Louis Roy, 1967)

[therewillbeblus]

I’d possibly switch the title of this to “Vinegar Syndrome and Friends” or something like that but I don’t really think any of the labels beyond maybe Fun City have particularly demonstrated enough interest that they could benefit from their own thread.

And of course Fun City is the one partner label that does already have its own thread!

El Planeta [Utopia] (Amalia Ulman, 2021)

I wasn’t too crazy about this film, but I definitely think plenty of people here will like it. It’s a playful life-imitates-art black comedy that never really lifted off the ground - frustratingly so when it’s leaning into several potential risks, tonal shifts, macro political content, and self-reflexive micro-relationships (a mother-daughter relationship this perverse starring the writer/director and her mother is ripe for interpretation) - yet is an admirable enough debut nonetheless. Though the way it was sold to me as “Jim Jarmusch making an Almodóvar film” is both pretty accurate and destined to disappoint when compared to either influence!

[What A Disgrace]

Making a separate subsection for Vinegar Syndrome and their partner labels, with each label getting its own thread, doesn't seem completely outlandish considering all the partner labels they have.