Vinegar Syndrome et al.

[swo17]

Air Doll (Dekanalog)

I started watching this but noticed a glitch in the image at about the 10:40 mark. (The Criterion Channel stream, which also has Dekanalog branding) has the same issue. I mean, I guess there being a glitch in the matrix around here would make sense, but I doubt the effect was intentional

[domino harvey]

You’re not supposed to take it out of its packaging! Now it’s worthless

[Glowingwabbit]

I haven't gotten a chance to dive into the set, but the booklet for Righting Wrongs is incredibly difficult to read. The text looks very faded against the different colored backgrounds of yellow, pink, and blue. It almost looks like they used different shades of the same color, one for the text and one for the background. I really don't understand how someone thought that was a good idea. Just keep it simple.

[Finch]

I had a different issue with the Ilya Muromets booklet: the font used for the majority of the text is too small. I'd have paid a higher price for a thicker booklet.

[Glowingwabbit]

I had a different issue with the Ilya Muromets booklet: the font used for the majority of the text is too small. I'd have paid a higher price for a thicker booklet.

Oh absolutely that one was annoying. I just received Sampo and I'm afraid it's the same. They clearly just uploaded it from the original Video Watchdog magazines.

[vsski]

Air Doll (Dekanalog)

I started watching this but noticed a glitch in the image at about the 10:40 mark. (The Criterion Channel stream, which also has Dekanalog branding) has the same issue. I mean, I guess there being a glitch in the matrix around here would make sense, but I doubt the effect was intentional

I have the UK BD and it has what I assume is the same issue. In motion it feels like a small stutter of the picture, although hardly noticeable but when going through in stop motion at 10:36 and at 10:38 parts of the picture show pixelation patterns.
Personally I don’t find it a huge problem, but I guess nobody bothered checking since it seems the same on all releases.

[swo17]

I'd say it was certainly noticeable and distracting, though to be "fair" I'm watching it on a 83" 4K TV

[vsski]

I'd say it was certainly noticeable and distracting, though to be "fair" I'm watching it on a 83" 4K TV

Sorry to hear that, as that sounds definitely worse than what I’m seeing. When I read your comment I pulled out my disc to check and yes I could notice it, even on a set-up inferior to yours, but I have to look and pay attention closely to notice it.

[criterionsnob]

New CIP trailer. Likely their next release to be announced.

SpoilerShow

The Kid Brother (aka: Kenny) (1987)

[ianthemovie]

New VS titles announced:

The Birds II: Land's End
Hot Snake/Guns and Guts
The Incredible Melting Man
Forgotten Gialli Vol. 5

New partner label announcements:

The Films of Doris Wishman, Vol. 2: The Moonlight Years (AGFA)
Natural Enemies (Fun City)
The Kid Brother (CIP)
After Blue (Altered Innocence)
Robinson's Garden (Kani)
The Cornshukker (VHSHitfest)
Dead North (Saturn's Core)
Faults (Yellow Veil)
Streets of Death (Culture Shock)
Summer of Blood (Factory 25)
You Can't Kill Meme (Utopia)
Hearts Beat Loud (Gunpowder and Sky)
Lo Sound Desert (ETR Media)

[colinr0380]

After Blue should be coming from Anti-Worlds in the UK at some point too (perhaps around the same time as the Altered Innocence disc releases), so it will be interesting to compare the extra features between the releases.

[Calvin]

After Blue should be coming from Anti-Worlds in the UK at some point too (perhaps around the same time as the Altered Innocence disc releases), so it will be interesting to compare the extra features between the releases.

We'll probably be waiting a while for it though - they've not yet released Jumbo on Blu-Ray and its theatrical release was 13 months ago!

[L.A.]

Natural Enemies interests me.

[therewillbeblus]

Wow, Hot Snake looks like a lost film- I can’t find it anywhere on the 'net. I found Guns and Guts though, and it’s a semi-compelling mess of a movie. At first glance, it's a pretty low-energy buddy western revenge movie, where neither principal is well-drawn or interesting in any way. They’re amoral empty vessels. But one ridiculous aspect that's impossible to ignore is how both male leads look absolutely identical. I know this has happened before in other films, and posed frustrating audience confusion as a consequence of a blind casting agent or lazy director phoning in a shred of investment in the picture's schematic sensibilities, but I've never seen anything like this: The two white men both have the same kind of long-hair, the same length beards, similar hats, and barely any alteration to clothing to differentiate them- only a higher pitch dubbed voice for one v the other. However, by the time we are in our second or third scene with them, I couldn't discern which was the slightly-more self-actualized or less impulsive one who approaches the other at the outset. The short answer is: It doesn't matter, and that's where there's some intrigue to this tangled question-mark of a movie.

The lack of including a single detail that may segregate these two men into independent beings essentially blends them together, away from a colorful dynamic of western individuality or themes around moral order, and this destroys the value of either’s passion or quest as distinct or meaningful beyond its reptilian endgame. I’m not sure if this tactic was intentional in driving home that sensation that disillusions us from any faux-hold of utility on their narratives, but it’s powerful nonetheless- though not as much as Thriller- A Cruel Picture’s engagement with this idea, which may also not be intentional! These “characters” are just caught in a Sisyphean cycle of getting into superfluous conflicts and choosing their sole intervention of lame acts of aggression for sport; fighting their boring lives and the boring nature of their missions with boringly-staged fisticuffs out of boredom, and doing little to un-bore us from their limp spirit in the process. The film exploits the banality in rote violence, and constructively so, though its strategy at achieving this effect necessitates subverting what we’ve come to expect and want from these kinds of films, so it’s not going to be for everyone. I thought it was an amusing idea, but unfortunately that's only how the first half functions...

The problem is that the film switches gears with the introduction of a third character, who looks nothing like these vapid anti-personalities and is far more affective and personable. He's not bearded and stands out as confident and coy about his allegiances, embodying the individuality the others lack. This doesn't gel with the insipid vibe that's already beset the milieu, and the trio's dynamic breaks apart statically muffled shells of the two previously-hardened dopplegangers and allows for sillier bits and labile mood shifts to occur as they all lose their stoic monotony. The film then begins to thinks its violence can be sexy, in friction with the dull, routine fights populating the first act, and culminating in a Wild Bunch-lite finish. I don't know- maybe I misread the first section, but its undercutting of all the glistening mirages of the western -to sober us with impotence to toxic masculinity plaguing society- was the most interesting thing about the film, and I'm left unsure of how to think or feel about it as an uneven whole. Here's hoping Hot Snake is better, but this isn't operating on any wavelength VS hasn't already covered, and in fact it's right in line with the underwhelming slo-mo violence of Thriller- A Cruel Picture, only without the ulterior motives and power of that film's elisions, so fans of the label probably know exactly what they're in for to some degree.

[furbicide]

After Blue is one of the best films of the year, so it's great to see that getting a release – highly recommended for anyone who hasn't caught it yet and is into weird, erotic, dreamlike, Ruiz-meets-Robbe-Grillet-style sci-fi.

[Grand Wazoo]

Yellow Veil Pictures confirms a release of Calvaire for early next year.

I've been waiting for this one. The Palm Pictures dvd is a blurry mess.

[Yakushima]

Re: therewillbeblus - Glad you took a chance on Grandmother's House and enjoyed it! This film literally haunted me for years after I caught it on TV one night.

[yoloswegmaster]

Cybthia Rothrock has confirmed that 'Yes, Madam' will be released by Vinegar Syndrome.

[Ribs]

She misspoke - as the title was already confirmed to be forthcoming by 88 USA (and Eureka in the UK).

[therewillbeblus]

VS' Thriller- A Cruel Picture 4K edition is excellent, outside of some early sloppy English subtitle transitions that feel machine-generated (in the first ten minutes, "realy" and "thankyou" came up within the same character's speech). I haven't made my way through all the extras yet, but Alexandra Heller-Nicholas' commentary is involving and informative. I was pleased with her academic focus on film grammar outside of her thematic specialty, as well as her flexibility in acknowledging and appreciating how aspects of these films that are perversely taboo can be enjoyed by consumers without being subject to moral diagnostics. Ultimately I wish she delved deeper into why this film is in particular so powerful, outside of a few specific scenes. She acknowledges that she's going to provide broader context of rape revenge in addition to specificity of this film, but I found myself wanting more about how and why this film leans towards the Ms. 45 anti-catharsis vs. I Spit on Your Grave catharsis she outlines from the outset, and yet there's hardly any posturing at the psychology I barely grazed in my writeup on alienation and ingrained behavioral associations from trauma. Oh well, it's an interesting commentary that gave me a lot to chew on and intrigued me toward a subgenre I've often resisted, even igniting perhaps-enough curiosity to seek out one of her books

[tenia]

I overall find that subtitles aren't VS' forte. I remember some of their SDH subs being quite poor in terms of readability, combining spelling mistakes, lines too fast and spaces too short in between them.

[L.A.]

Beaver’s review for Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives

[agnamaracs]

Once again, Canadian International has posted a preview of their September offering.

SpoilerShow

It's another Don Owen film, 1964's Nobody Waved Good-Bye.

[criterionsnob]

Excellent!

[Calvin]

I find that I'm picking up everything that they're putting out and this will be no exception. I've never seen it but I've heard very good things. I wonder if they'll include the sequel as well.