Vinegar Syndrome and Their Partner Labels

[therewillbeblus]

I'd definitely appreciate some pre-Feb release recs for the sale.

To kick it off, I just watched All-American Murder and thought it was a lot of fun; part giallo-tinted American slasher, part neo-noir, part quirky comedy- as Christopher Walker plays a sincerely eccentric detective with some wildly unconventional methods and mannerisms (firing a gun with his hand cooly planted in his slacks pocket is the least of these question-mark idiosyncrasies, but no less awesome). Things just get crazier and crazier, but the film doesn't care about throwing every hedonistic ingredient in the pot of soup just to make it more flavorful, and that delivers way more entertainment than you could expect from a DTV mystery.

Obviously I'm going to continue to bang the table for everyone to buy Fun City's Jeremy if you like authentic films about youthful love/have a soul

[ianthemovie]

Just wanted to add that Ask Any Buddy's podcast page (as well as others) identifies the historian as Elizabeth Purchell, and not "Purcell" (as stated above), which took me a fit of realizing!

My bad! I had a moment of doubt about the spelling of her name and I should have looked it up. Glad you found the podcast, though. It's a fun (if NSFW) listen.

[Matt]

I'm delighted to see that VS et al is going down these roads, though it irks me some that Wishman's "The Amazing Transplant" is the previous Something Weird cut that is missing 7 minutes of footage, as confirmed via the VS facebook group, as AGFA couldn't find the materials (even though tracking down a copy of the full VHS release would be....implausible?).

A Doris Wishman film missing several minutes seems like a bonus. I would support a Blu-ray release that just deletes the films entirely!

(This is a joke. Doris Wishman is great and these AGFA box sets are a gift.)

[swo17]

even though tracking down a copy of the full VHS release would be....implausible?

As you're probably aware, that's exactly how they presented the complete cut of one of the films in the Fred Halsted set, and it was a last-minute find

[brundlefly]

I'd definitely appreciate some pre-Feb release recs for the sale.

If you haven't yet, I'm a big fan of Tilman Singer's Luz, available via Altered Innocence. For those who like inherently re-watchable pile-ons/have several souls.

And like some others here, found AI's Knife + Heart to be an unexpectedly moving post-giallo.

[therewillbeblus]

I'd definitely appreciate some pre-Feb release recs for the sale.

If you haven't yet, I'm a big fan of Tilman Singer's Luz, available via Altered Innocence. For those who like inherently re-watchable pile-ons/have several souls.

And like some others here, found AI's Knife + Heart to be an unexpectedly moving post-giallo.

Those are two I've actually seen and unfortunately liked neither- though I can understand why some people might and appreciate the recs regardless! This is a label (+ group of sublabels, sans Fun City, mostly) where it's tough to gauge what'll land and one of the harder sites to buy blind from. Still, I'm open to suggests, even if a lot of these are available for cheaper/equal price as the 50% at DD with their regular coupons

[brundlefly]

I'd definitely appreciate some pre-Feb release recs for the sale.

If you haven't yet, I'm a big fan of Tilman Singer's Luz, available via Altered Innocence. For those who like inherently re-watchable pile-ons/have several souls.

And like some others here, found AI's Knife + Heart to be an unexpectedly moving post-giallo.

Those are two I've actually seen and unfortunately liked neither- though I can understand why some people might and appreciate the recs regardless! This is a label (+ group of sublabels, sans Fun City, mostly) where it's tough to gauge what'll land and one of the harder sites to buy blind from. Still, I'm open to suggests, even if a lot of these are available for cheaper/equal price as the 50% at DD with their regular coupons

Totally appreciate that. Some of those labels have strong, polarizing stuff in them. Which makes them both a boon and a gamble.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I'd definitely appreciate some pre-Feb release recs for the sale.

Obviously I'm going to continue to bang the table for everyone to buy Fun City's Jeremy if you like authentic films about youthful love/have a soul

I second on Jeremy! A total blind buy which I thought was very sweet and pleasant. Fun City also released Frank Perry's Rancho Deluxe, a critically maligned film that I also thought was wonderful.

I think part of the fun and risk of Vinegar Syndrome is that it's such an odd diverse mix of titles that you'll often confront some terrible titles, but even the bad ones have interesting things. Out of the ones I love, I highly recommend the Jamaa Fanaka films. He's part of the now dubbed Los Angeles Rebellion group of black student filmmakers from UCLA like Julie Dash and Charles Burnett, but instead of dramas of mostly working class people, Fanaka had ambition to be a major genre filmmaker. Due to litigation between him and the director's guild, it never quite happened, but he did make hits like Penitentiary and find a bonkers film like Welcome Home, Brother Charles a healthy mix of indie drama about black life, but also a balls to the walls shocking revenge film.

I know you and Mr. Sausage have started diving into category III films and Vinegar Syndrome's release of Ebola Syndrome is beyond excellent. I'm still shocked a film that trashy was restored to look that good and really loved the special feature diving into the Cantonese slang used in the film. I recently saw Flesh & Bullets which is absolutely one of the most shockingly confounding films I had ever seen. Cornel Wilde and Cesar Romero give the most bizarre cameos I've ever seen in a movie and the whole film feels like a parody of male sexual desire. The recent 4K restoration of Dracula Sucks made that sort of creaky porno look better than it ever has. The "director's cut" (it seems multiple versions were made and the one released was one of many) is barely pornographic, but features some bizarre sexual antics. If you ever wanted to see Dracula piss on someone before drinking their blood, this is the movie for you. I really enjoyed Curtis Harrington's nasty film The Killing Kind, which taps into his love of the gothic and psychological into a 70s exploitation horror film. Nothing Underneath is one of the best 80s giallos I have seen and found it to be gorgeously shot. Death Promise is an extremely creaky but earnestly enjoyable low, low budget martial arts film about a man going after crooked landlords and killing them. Sort of surprised this theme has never been revisited with a theme like that.

[ryannichols7]

any non-genre partner stuff that can be recommended? I only own Rebels of the Neon God from Big World, no others. Radio On stood out and I'm not a big Ramsay fan so Movern Cavallar is out. how are the Makavejev and Passer movies they've released?

[therewillbeblus]

I wrote thoughts somewhere here (I think the separate Fun City thread got filtered back into this one?) but I liked both Born to Win and The Coca-Cola Kid, though neither will be eligible for sale prices. Walking the Edge is a blast, Smile is a good satire (much better than the comedic failure mockumentary Drop Dead Gorgeous) and I Start Counting! is an absolute masterpiece, though I have the BFI edition (if you're region free, I think it's supposed to have more extras). Don't sleep on that one- it's also a film that inverts whatever genre you think it is (horror, mystery, coming-of-age pic?) and becomes anti-genre in the most profound, unsettling, and satisfying ways

[Yakushima]

I highly recommend Grandmother's House.

[swo17]

You should probably grab Buster Keaton Rides Again now if you want it, even though it isn't on sale. Despite just barely being released, the limited edition is already sold out and there are only 400 something copies left as of this writing. Ilya Muromets is in only a slightly more favorable position

[Orlac]

VS is releasing some Jess Franco goodness! (well, relatively speaking!)

...plus we're dipping our toes into Jess Franco's vast filmography with the BD debut of the Red Lips films, KISS ME MONSTER and TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS, both exclusively restored from their 35mm negatives...

[MichaelB]

No Lulu’s Talking Asshole, no sale.

[Orlac]

No Lulu’s Talking Asshole, no sale.

I read a marvelous comment from Ken Begg of Jabootu.net the other day - http://jabootu.net/?p=18575

Although Tim Lucas argued that no one has the grounds to criticize any Jess Franco film until you've seen all his movies.

That was the exact moment, and I'm not exaggerating, when I realized that Tim Lucas is insane.

[pianocrash]

You should probably grab Buster Keaton Rides Again now if you want it, even though it isn't on sale. Despite just barely being released, the limited edition is already sold out and there are only 400 something copies left as of this writing. Ilya Muromets is in only a slightly more favorable position

I've never understood VS repress system, aside from the obvious lucrative titles like the Rad 4K, which sold out during one of the mid-year sales quite fast & never came back. A few titles & slips get an uptick/refill from time to time after the annual sales, but they don't directly state it outright, and I know scarcity is the mother of all buying habits, so who am I to judge? I can't imagine there's much of an audience for a repress of Let My Puppets Come (me?, but I suppose the bulk of the Damiano titles on VS are all based on strict pressing numbers), or moreso something like Mary, Mary! (a title that's still difficult to find, albeit in the -$100 range). I only mention this because of the Luz repress (with a new slipcover, after dropping off the site completely for a few months beforehand), as well as the disappearance of the one title I wanted to recommend to potential weekend sales partygoers, Joao Nicolau's John From (Altered Innocence), which seems to have been scrubbed from the VS website for a while now. I managed to pick up a copy after six months of searching a few weeks ago, and it's worth a purchase if you can swing it.

Anyway, my point is why would Buster Keaton Rides Again go completely OOP after it's first pressing? Is the Canadian stranglehold on that film really so lucrative? I should be asking this question with a puppet on my hand, maybe.

Roland Klick's Deadlock (Subkultur) is another great OOP title, but the original Subkultur 4K import itself can still be found for about the same price as the VS version, FWIW.

[EddieLarkin]

Anyway, my point is why would Buster Keaton Rides Again go completely OOP after it's first pressing?

I don't believe there's a reason to think it will. If a title is truly going out of print, the listing nearly always says so (as it did for the first volume of Smut Without Smut: This special limited edition slipcovered release is limited to 2,000 units. There will be no Standard Edition and it will not be re-pressed.). If a title that gets a standard edition eventually goes out of print because of rights coming to an end etc, they typically announce it on social media, like most other labels do.

[domino harvey]

No Lulu’s Talking Asshole, no sale.

I read a marvelous comment from Ken Begg of Jabootu.net the other day - http://jabootu.net/?p=18575

Although Tim Lucas argued that no one has the grounds to criticize any Jess Franco film until you've seen all his movies.

That was the exact moment, and I'm not exaggerating, when I realized that Tim Lucas is insane.

I still recall someone here arguing with my assessment of Jess Franco as the worst director of all time (which is still somehow too generous) on the basis that Tim Lucas had written a book on him. Like… so?

[Orlac]

No Lulu’s Talking Asshole, no sale.

I read a marvelous comment from Ken Begg of Jabootu.net the other day - http://jabootu.net/?p=18575

Although Tim Lucas argued that no one has the grounds to criticize any Jess Franco film until you've seen all his movies.

That was the exact moment, and I'm not exaggerating, when I realized that Tim Lucas is insane.

I still recall someone here arguing with my assessment of Jess Franco as the worst director of all time (which is still somehow too generous) on the basis that Tim Lucas had written a book on him. Like… so?

Tim Lucas is a great salesman - he could almost convince me to watch Mamma Mia or Transformers 2 again.

Note I said almost.

[Robin Davies]

I still recall someone here arguing with my assessment of Jess Franco as the worst director of all time (which is still somehow too generous) on the basis that Tim Lucas had written a book on him.

I wasn't aware that he had. If you're referring to Obsession, Lucas provided "additional material".

[Finch]

Mondo Digital and Cine Savant on Ilya Muromets

PS.: The film is slightly cheaper on importcds (once shipping and sales tax are figured in) than on deep discount which already is cheaper than Vinegar Syndrome's own site due to the $6 shipping charge if this is the only film you want to get. (I'll be getting Passing Strangers & Forgotten Letters at a later date)

[domino harvey]

My bad, I confused him with Stephen Thrower (both Thrower and Lucas were invoked in the post)

[Orlac]

My bad, I confused him with Stephen Thrower (both Thrower and Lucas were invoked in the post)

Thrower's first volume on Franco was quite engrossing, but the second was too much of a slog, a lot of the 80s and 90s films just aren't much fun to read about (and I assume aren't much fun to watch either!)

[Orlac]

Everything said, my life will be even better once someone does a bells-and-whistles BD of Franco's DRACULA, PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN, with the long missing unclothed scenes! Future generations will be grateful!

[yoloswegmaster]

Glad to see a Region A release of 'Righting Wrongs', as well as confirmation of more Hong Kong titles (including a ultra-gory film that has never been released on Blu)/.