Radiance Films General Discussion & Wishlist

[L.A.]

Angel's Egg (1985) from you guys? [-o<

[Calvin]

Angel's Egg (1985) from you guys? [-o<

I recall that Arrow tried when they released In the Aftermath but even they couldn't unlock whatever rights entanglement it's in.

[MichaelB]

Estonia is the most exciting one for me so far, a country totally ignored by the usual film world. Dead Mountaineer's Hotel would be a dream release and feels very much like a Kat Ellinger produced release (I'm thinking about her commentary on Eureka's fantastic release of The White Reindeer, from Estonia's older brother Finland). definitely hope it happens and could see it being a great first foray into Estonian cinema.

This could conceivably be Polish or Estonian (it's a co-production), but Pilot Pirx's Experiment (1979) is well worth disinterring too - one of the better Stanisław Lem adaptations, with an original score from Arvo Pärt from back in the days when he still had to write film and television music in order to pay the rent. (Fascinatingly, it's obviously him, but it also completely fits the generic idiom.)

[ryannichols7]

Estonia is the most exciting one for me so far, a country totally ignored by the usual film world. Dead Mountaineer's Hotel would be a dream release and feels very much like a Kat Ellinger produced release (I'm thinking about her commentary on Eureka's fantastic release of The White Reindeer, from Estonia's older brother Finland). definitely hope it happens and could see it being a great first foray into Estonian cinema.

This could conceivably be Polish or Estonian (it's a co-production), but Pilot Pirx's Experiment (1979) is well worth disinterring too - one of the better Stanisław Lem adaptations, with an original score from Arvo Pärt from back in the days when he still had to write film and television music in order to pay the rent. (Fascinatingly, it's obviously him, but it also completely fits the generic idiom.)

I would love to hear Arvo Pärt do any film score, added this to my personal watchlist and hope someone can get ahold of it.

dare I say Fran is talking about Dersu Uzala here? Imprint just announced it for Australia, it's a major director, and all existing copies are known to be pretty rough. almost seems like he's answering that announcement, which Imprint is bannering as "a masterpiece by a director finally coming to Bluray", but I think many of us would agree we'd rather see the best it can be when it comes to disc - and we know Criterion and Mosfilm were in the process of restoring it.

either way in the future, if it does get restored I'd love to see Radiance bring this film out in the UK. along with any Kurosawa the BFI doesn't already have...so maybe the Shochiku titles that MOC did in the DVD era

[Calvin]

I mean it could be but I don't think there's anything in those tweets that points to it specifically. In fact, Dersu Uzala has already had Blu-Ray releases in Italy and Spain. Even if it is referring to the Imprint announcement it could be The Road Home!

[Stefan Andersson]

+1 vote for Dead Mountaineer Hotel!

Another suggestion for a Baltic state film: Four White Shirts (Latvia, 1967), a 2018 Cannes Classics selection:
https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/film ... lti-krekli
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_White_Shirts
https://eng.lsm.lv/article/culture/cult ... s.a289615/
https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/74-e ... ds-kalnins

Sorry if I´ve mentioned this suggestion in an earlier post --- an André Delvaux box set? Un soir, un train seems to have had rights issues (not sure), but a Bluray has been announced by Editions Montparnasse:
https://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/viewto ... 22&t=39811 - Jan. 27 post

The Delvaux box set from Cinematek in Belgium is OOP, as is the standalone DVD of Woman in a Twilight Garden:
http://cinematek.eu/?node=241&lng=en

[L.A.]

How about Norway? Nine Lives (1957) is an essential film.

[pianocrash]

Popular request Dead Mountaineer's Hotel was released on blu in Estonia, which I haven't tried to purchase yet, but does exist (quoted from the Tallinnfilm thread):

Estonian/English bilingual booklet. Estonian SDH, English, and Russian subtitles on film and extras, film itself also has French subtitles.
MPEG2 encode though at least it is progressive 1080p 24fps, and while have not watched the whole thing, the bitrate looked to be on the healthy side (~30Mbit/s).

Brad Henderson (Vinegar Syndrome) is a big fan, and he probably is aware of that 2021 release, but I'd be happy if any label released it for a wider/deluxe editionned audience.

[FrauBlucher]

Craig Keller is joining Radiance. And a tweet about the potential booklet design.

Today's job is looking over loads of booklets to choose stock paper, weight and finish. We prefer full height with a less glossy finish and pages that don't crumble when you turn them. What do you expect of a booklet when you open the case?

You can throw in your two cents here

[ryannichols7]

really thrilled Craig is joining, as not only was he the architect for those super thorough MOC booklets, he knows the Criterion roadmap design is super goofy

I voted full height, in the style of Indicator and the good Criterion booklets

[ryannichols7]

Fran goes to Japan at last. nice to see some confirmation....

there was another Italy tease the other day too - I won't rest until I see Il Posto announced as an early spine

[Telstar]

Distribution deals inked with MVD Entertainment Group for North America and with Elevation Sales for the United Kingdom and Ireland.

[ryannichols7]

Distribution deals inked with MVD Entertainment Group for North America and with Elevation Sales for the United Kingdom and Ireland.

brilliant to see them come stateside. hopefully Barnes and Noble carries their releases here like they do for Indicator and Arrow already, has made it a very easy way to pick these up

now we ask the question of whether there will be US/UK exclusive titles. couple titles I can't remember if I already mentioned, but the following Bergmans are unclaimed in the UK..

The Devil's Eye
Hour of the Wolf
Shame
The Passion of Anna

and would love a home and some actual extras (only Shame got any from Criterion, despite all of them being held in high enough regard) if they were to be released in the UK.

Imamura's Profound Desires of the Gods I think I mentioned before but now we have confirmation it's been restored, as has Edward Yang's A Confucian Confusion, both titles I see being in line with Radiance. just some ideas, I'm sure I'll be back with others..

[Finch]

Four boxsets in the pipeline as per Fran's latest tweet.

[rapta]

Imamura's Profound Desires of the Gods I think I mentioned before but now we have confirmation it's been restored, as has Edward Yang's A Confucian Confusion, both titles I see being in line with Radiance. just some ideas, I'm sure I'll be back with others..

Wouldn't mind double-dipping on the Imamura for the new restoration, especially if it could be paired with some others not available in HD in the UK, such as Intentions of Murder or The Pornographers. Let's see what happens, but then again Imamura has already been largely covered before by MoC and later Arrow, and I assume Fran had some insight into how the latter sold.

Yang would be a great proposition as there aren't many of his films in HD over here, which is a shame. I thought MoC might move onto him after doing a few Hou titles, but I guess they're more distracted by the martial arts films from Taiwan (I don't blame them, sales are no doubt much stronger).

[yoloswegmaster]

From the official Radiance account over at the other forum:

Absolutely appreciate that this is a long and drawn out process. It takes about 12 months to put out a release and especially over the summer where a lot of Europe shuts down it can slow things down even more. We're racing to get releases sorted for announcement but didn't want to announce piecemeal because we're focused on a wide variety of titles we didn't want people to look at one or two titles and then think that would set the tone for the whole label so we're working on a good bunch of titles we can announce in one go.

Furthermore we want to announce with some decent specs, maybe not complete but on the way. This again will give people a good impression of what Radiance releases will be like. So people don't have to ask "will these have extras", "are you adding commentaries", "does this come with a booklet" etc.

It was mentioned somewhere but these things get lost easily but we're looking at the end of the year for announcements with releases in early 2023. We're hoping to do an interim announcement ASAP, after the summer at least.

To give you a steer we're mostly focused on arthouse and arthouse/genre crossover, less focused on broad and well known films, but there's always exceptions. If a film we like comes up we'll certainly go for it.

What we have in mind for the launch slate takes in 1960s-2020s, Japan, Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, US. Action, sci-fi, horror, comedy, drama, crime. But ultimately they're films we like, which is the guiding principle.

[Calvin]

I'm hoping that Radiance's Swedish acquisition(s) aren't Bergman - between the US and UK he's already got 6 Blu-Ray box sets to his name! While I'd certainly snap up the TV cut of Face to Face, it'd be far more exciting if we got some Hasse Ekman or Bo Widerberg.

Yang would be a great proposition as there aren't many of his films in HD over here, which is a shame. I thought MoC might move onto him after doing a few Hou titles, but I guess they're more distracted by the martial arts films from Taiwan (I don't blame them, sales are no doubt much stronger).

From memory, I think that A Confucian Confusion is the first Yang restoration from the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute - who MoC and Criterion have previously licensed from. Other Yang restorations have been via the Central Motion Pictures Corporation and none of their restorations had been given UK / US releases until the recent releases of Tsai's Rebels of the Neon Gods and Vive l'amour. Who knows why but you have to think there's some explanation as to why none of them have been licensed - you'd have to think that, if they were available to them, MoC would have gone for Dust in the Wind or A Time to Live A Time to Die before Cute Girl and The Green Green Grass of Home.

[ryannichols7]

Imamura's Profound Desires of the Gods I think I mentioned before but now we have confirmation it's been restored, as has Edward Yang's A Confucian Confusion, both titles I see being in line with Radiance. just some ideas, I'm sure I'll be back with others..

Wouldn't mind double-dipping on the Imamura for the new restoration, especially if it could be paired with some others not available in HD in the UK, such as Intentions of Murder or The Pornographers. Let's see what happens, but then again Imamura has already been largely covered before by MoC and later Arrow, and I assume Fran had some insight into how the latter sold.

Yang would be a great proposition as there aren't many of his films in HD over here, which is a shame. I thought MoC might move onto him after doing a few Hou titles, but I guess they're more distracted by the martial arts films from Taiwan (I don't blame them, sales are no doubt much stronger).

I think that Imamura title is way too big to not have an in print disc. Criterion (who naturally have the rights and have sat on them - but hopefully the new restoration pushes them!) of course haven't done the disc here and the MOC has been OOP for ages. the latter two would be awesome, but I'll admit I'm starved for basically any new Imamura BD release at this point. Arrow's treatment of the Survivor Ballad films was a miracle in itself. Fran is a noted fan of Profound Desires so it wouldn't shock me

Yang would be a really good crossover director for Radiance, you wanna have someone who's big enough to sell but also have obscure enough movies/movies that didn't get much from the other labels love to sell. I've posted in several places (including this thread, of course) about how crazy it is that Terrorizers, That Day on the Beach, In Our Time, and Taipei Story (not including Criterion lumping it in a box) have all been restored yet don't have US or UK releases. I watched the Nova Media disc of Terrorizers and it looked awesome - now it would be great to have an edition of it with more consistent subtitles, extras (Tony Rayns was literally BFF with Yang), etc. Hou of course has the other 3 80s works and the upcoming Millennium Mambo restoration. Tsai has everything except Goodbye Dragon Inn unclaimed but again, I feel like Second Run will continue handling his films in the UK

I'm hoping that Radiance's Swedish acquisition(s) aren't Bergman - between the US and UK he's already got 6 Blu-Ray box sets to his name! While I'd certainly snap up the TV cut of Face to Face, it'd be far more exciting if we got some Hasse Ekman or Bo Widerberg.

Yang would be a great proposition as there aren't many of his films in HD over here, which is a shame. I thought MoC might move onto him after doing a few Hou titles, but I guess they're more distracted by the martial arts films from Taiwan (I don't blame them, sales are no doubt much stronger).

From memory, I think that A Confucian Confusion is the first Yang restoration from the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute - who MoC and Criterion have previously licensed from. Other Yang restorations have been via the Central Motion Pictures Corporation and none of their restorations had been given UK / US releases until the recent releases of Tsai's Rebels of the Neon Gods and Vive l'amour. Who knows why but you have to think there's some explanation as to why none of them have been licensed - you'd have to think that, if they were available to them, MoC would have gone for Dust in the Wind or A Time to Live A Time to Die before Cute Girl and The Green Green Grass of Home.

and totally fair on Bergman - I'd rather see the other directors first (who I know nothing about, but I'd love to learn!!!) since it seems only Bergman, Jan Troell, and Victor Sjostrom are the only Swedish directors that exist to the anglophone world. very glad Arrow is at least getting Lukas Moodysson out there but we need more. I mostly was suggesting those Bergman films since they seem pretty "up for grabs" and I think would fit Radiance's "genre crossover" bill pretty well - Hour of the Wolf I could hear Kat Ellinger doing a commentary for as we speak! but they aren't as much a priority as lesser loved directors, or films that don't have BD releases

which brings me to the last point. it still really irks me that those two Hous you named (plus A Summer at Grandpa's) have French BDs but nothing in the US or UK. Hou and Yang may not be "lesser loved" directors but so many of their films have gotten the short end of the stick for so long, and it's weird that this continues, even after its shown that there's great interest in them, as well as Tsai.

[rapta]

I think that Imamura title is way too big to not have an in print disc. Criterion (who naturally have the rights and have sat on them - but hopefully the new restoration pushes them!) of course haven't done the disc here and the MOC has been OOP for ages. the latter two would be awesome, but I'll admit I'm starved for basically any new Imamura BD release at this point. Arrow's treatment of the Survivor Ballad films was a miracle in itself. Fran is a noted fan of Profound Desires so it wouldn't shock me

Yang would be a really good crossover director for Radiance, you wanna have someone who's big enough to sell but also have obscure enough movies/movies that didn't get much from the other labels love to sell. I've posted in several places (including this thread, of course) about how crazy it is that Terrorizers, That Day on the Beach, In Our Time, and Taipei Story (not including Criterion lumping it in a box) have all been restored yet don't have US or UK releases. I watched the Nova Media disc of Terrorizers and it looked awesome - now it would be great to have an edition of it with more consistent subtitles, extras (Tony Rayns was literally BFF with Yang), etc. Hou of course has the other 3 80s works and the upcoming Millennium Mambo restoration. Tsai has everything except Goodbye Dragon Inn unclaimed but again, I feel like Second Run will continue handling his films in the UK

Yeah, I hope someone picks up Profound Desires as I would like to double-dip for a new restoration. I barely hesitated with that Survivor Ballads set, and would also double-dip on Vengeance is Mine if Criterion decided to port it here (or any other Imamura that MoC released before, if I'm honest, provided they're new scans.). And it would make sense to do a few Imamura titles at once, especially if they haven't been released at all here before (like the couple I mentioned, but also his later stuff like Why Not?, Dr Akagi, Warm Water Under a Red Bridge, and especially The Eel).

Similarly befuddled why an Oshima set hasn't been attempted by a UK label yet. Was hoping MoC would be up for more after Cruel Story of Youth, but...seems that was it for them (just like their attempt at some Suzuki, I suppose). Arrow obviously reissued Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (as part of their Jeremy Thomas package) and Criterion ported In the Realm of the Senses recently, but both of those were released here already years ago by Optimum/StudioCanal. Criterion managed to do Death by Hanging for the US, and Carlotta have done a set including Death By Hanging, Boy and The Ceremony, but no such releases here though. Carlotta have similarly done sets for Naruse, Mizoguchi and Ozu, the first of those feeling like it's overdue here (don't think the DVD sales excuse from Eureka or Arrow still sticks, they can definitely sell these films if they want to). Mizoguchi had a fair shake for anyone collecting when the MoC set was released, but surely the high price it's now going for on eBay shows there's a growing demand for this stuff in HD (ditto the MoC/BFI Naruse DVD sets)?

Curiously, Carlotta have done a bunch of solo Japanese titles you'd expect to see here too actually. Shinoda's Silence seems like an obvious one by now, surprised MoC haven't upgraded theirs (great film, I do prefer the Scorsese but this is beautifully realised and would benefit from the leap to HD). Another Toho title they released is Mifune's sole directorial effort Legacy of the 500,000, and they've done a few from other studios too such as Imai's Bushido (Toei) and Shinoda's Demon Pond (Shochiku). Can anyone attest to the quality of these discs/masters?

As far as other Asian titles, it's also worth mentioning they seem to have had no trouble releasing several Hou titles (including Cheerful Wind, A Time to Live A Time to Die, Dust in the Wind) and Yang's Taipei Story (another distributor did The Terrorisers). They've even announced Brocka's Cain and Abel, which I was hoping a UK label might release but now I might just import the US disc (it's Region B friendly).

So yeah, I'd hope that Radiance are aware of some of these gaps in the market and might be able to fill at least a few of them. Would make sense to at least test the waters with one or two Yang/Hou titles, maybe some Imamura/Oshima/Shinoda, and go from there really. Stuff that would tie into people's collections already, and might spur some renewed interest in these more-than-worthwhile areas of cinema. I'd snap up any of the above in a heartbeat! If you want an example of a title that clearly hit the spot, just look at how quickly MoC's Kwaidan release sold out (so...more Kobayashi please!).

[Calvin]

It seems like France has always got more Japanese releases than elsewhere, so the current state of affairs isn't much of a surprise and it's also why a release in France is not usually suggestive of an imminent release here.

As the BFI have said before rapta, the masters for Naruse's films aren't really up to much - as the Carlotta box set proves! As for the Oshima, we know that most of his films are with Criterion in the US and we really have no idea how much of their US holdings they've also picked up UK rights for since they entered that market.

When it comes to Japanese directors, my main hope is for Shinji Somai. Arrow finally bit with Sailor Suit and Machine Gun, but that's several notches down from his best work with Typhoon Club, P.P Rider, and Moving.

which brings me to the last point. it still really irks me that those two Hous you named (plus A Summer at Grandpa's) have French BDs but nothing in the US or UK. Hou and Yang may not be "lesser loved" directors but so many of their films have gotten the short end of the stick for so long, and it's weird that this continues, even after its shown that there's great interest in them, as well as Tsai.

It seems probable that there's some sort of right issues affecting them. It just seems unlikely that MoC would have went for his early works, which are relatively obscure even in his own filmography, if they could have got his later, more acclaimed works. The issue might just be the asking price, who knows. Digital rights have never seemed to be an issue - they're available on Amazon US via an outfit named AsianCrush. Hopefully that isn't what's preventing a physical release.

[DeprongMori]

No idea what's on the table here rights-wise or otherwise, but I'll go ahead and put some of my most wished-for upgrades out there:

- Michael Roemer's Nothing But A Man (no idea where the rights to this are currently)

Just watched Nothing But a Man on YouTube after having given up on finding the long-OOP 2004 DVD at a decent price. Such a beautifully observed, acted, and photographed film. A real treasure of American neo-realism. After checking around a bit, it seems Michael Roemer is apparently not interested in licensing it — I thought it might be an issue with music rights. Still, looking forward to tracking down Roemer’s other elusive film The Plot Against Harry, and also seeing what else his creative partner Robert Young has done.

- box set of the Jan Svankmajer shorts

You know about the BFI set of Svankmajer shorts, right? (I’m pretty certain it is still in print.) From what I understand from inquiries in the BFI Facebook group about a Blu-ray remastering, assembling the collection again at this time would be nearly impossible and it was an amazing feat to negotiate all of them in the first place. I’d have to find the original thread to find the exact details of the issues involved.

[ianthemovie]

Glad to have helped introduce you to Nothing But a Man. I agree that it's a treasure, an important precursor to the films of Haile Gerima and Charles Burnett, even if it is technically a film by a white director.

I wonder what Roemer's resistance to licensing it might be, especially now given that the resurgence of interest in vintage Black cinema would seem to ensure interest in it. I saw that one of his other films, Vengeane Is Mine with Brooke Adams, was recently rediscovered and re-released theatrically. I know Michael Koresky is a fan of Nothing But a Man and recall a podcast where he called it the best film of the 1960s.

I'm aware of the DVD set of the Svankmajer shorts but am holding out in the hopes of an eventual Blu-ray release

[hearthesilence]

Does Roemer have the rights? I think he'd like to put it out - he pops up occasionally to do Q&A's for all of his films, so I can't see why he'd be against re-issuing them. He also teaches at Yale IIRC - I actually had lunch with him because I was hanging out in a coffee shop with my employers in New Haven and by some crazy coincidence, Roemer walked in and recognized one of them so we all wound up eating lunch together. I didn't know who he was at the time - great guy.

[DeprongMori]

In searching for information on the distribution of the (excellent) 1964 American independent neo-realist film Nothing But A Man, I ran across a fascinating article (to me at least, and perhaps to other film nerds) on Donald Rugoff and Cinema V’s marketing campaigns for hard-to-market independent and foreign films in the 1960s and 1970s.

I also discovered that Roemer’s scripting partner and cinematographer on Nothing But A Man, Robert M. Young, has two films in the Collection — ¡Alumbrista! and The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez.

[MichaelB]

You know about the BFI set of Svankmajer shorts, right? (I’m pretty certain it is still in print.) From what I understand from inquiries in the BFI Facebook group about a Blu-ray remastering, assembling the collection again at this time would be nearly impossible and it was an amazing feat to negotiate all of them in the first place. I’d have to find the original thread to find the exact details of the issues involved.

Production of the Švankmajer set took three years from inception to release, and a lot of that involved tracking down rightsholders and usable masters. Although admittedly part of that was thanks to a mid-point decision to increase the scope of the project from just twelve shorts (the ones the BFI had put out on VHS) to all twenty-six, which meant existing deals had to be renegotiated, but it still wasn’t easy.

And while I know that some of the shorts have been upgraded to HD, I have no idea how many.

Put it like this: I’m sure the BFI would be very keen to upgrade (there’s a good reason why the set is still in print some fifteen years later!), but they clearly think it’s too much of a challenge right now. And I suspect they still have the UK rights to the shorts, so it wouldn't be an option for Radiance anyway.