Vinegar Syndrome and Their Partner Labels

[PfR73]

Awesome, I had been waiting to make sure they were included before ordering a copy. Thanks!

[SeizureMilk]

Speaking of Zerograd, why is the English translation Zerograd anyway. The Russian title when directly translated means Zero City, it's on the back of the standard edition cover art, it's on the posters, it's on the credits even. So unless the director or studio choose to make it Zerograd, I don't really get it.

[MichaelB]

Presumably for the same reason that we don't refer to the Siege of Lenin City or the Battle of Stalin City.

It's generally known - certainly amongst people who'd be interested in watching Zerograd in the first place - that "grad" means "city", but keeping it in the original Russian makes it feel more Russian. You're in little doubt about the film's nationality from that title in a way that's far less clear if it had been needlessly translated.

[Matt]

It’s seemingly impossible for me to discern Vinegar Syndrome’s actual release dates. When is the “Piotr Szulkin's Apocalypse Tetralogy” set actually coming out?

[SeizureMilk]

It’s seemingly impossible for me to discern Vinegar Syndrome’s actual release dates. When is the “Piotr Szulkin's Apocalypse Tetralogy” set actually coming out?

Per the site:

When will you begin shipping orders?
This year, HBF orders will begin shipping out on Monday, June 5th starting with Subscribers, then Flash Pre-order customers, and then all other orders.

So most likely for regular customers, maybe wait about a month for your order or when the site comes up, contact support for help.

[therewillbeblus]

It’s seemingly impossible for me to discern Vinegar Syndrome’s actual release dates. When is the “Piotr Szulkin's Apocalypse Tetralogy” set actually coming out?

VS seems to be a rare label to announce their releases on the actual release day, at least for the bi-annual sales, so it was May 26 (just like we all bought Freeway when it was unveiled last Black Friday and received it a week later). If you bought it during their sale you’ll get it with your order shortly. However, the standard editions have different street dates from third party sellers, usually like a month or so later. I don’t see this one listed yet, probably because all the SEs sold out, but other VS releases already available on their website have preorders up on DD et al

How bout that Criterion tho

[domino harvey]

I remember far enough back when there was no Criterion monthly announcements, and we found new titles by waiting for the cover art to populate in broken image links

[Matt]

Okay, I did see a release date of May 26 for the VS title on Blu-ray.com, but thought it was wrong. It’s not urgent that I get it, I just want a chance to get it. Will they not be restocking the Standard Editions? Would that be because these are from the experimental VS Labs line?

And DH, I remember Jun-Dai writing a script that would scrape the Criterion site like every 5 minutes for new cover images. That was always kind of fun until Criterion got wise to it.

Before that were the fabled printed catalogs.

[agnamaracs]

There's a good chance Kani is announcing

Spoiler

Spacked Out (2000)

for the beginning of Partner Month tomorrow.

[SeizureMilk]

Also Prague Nights from Deaf Crocodile

[What A Disgrace]

Along with Spacked Out and Prague Nights, previously mentioned, highlights include Has's How To Be Loved from Yellow Veil (all but confirming that the label is dedicating itself to the filmmaker), and Bujalski's Funny Ha Ha from Factory 25.

[pzadvance]

Love all the Has covers so far. Can anyone vouch for How to be Loved?

[Grand Wazoo]

I want to throw in a recommendation for Therapy Dogs. It's kind of amazing, an absolute punk-as-fuck hybrid doc/narrative shot in secret by actual high schoolers in their own school. It's wild that director Ethan Eng began this when he was 16 and became the youngest director to ever premiere a feature at Slamdance

[therewillbeblus]

I want to throw in a recommendation for Therapy Dogs. It's kind of amazing, an absolute punk-as-fuck hybrid doc/narrative shot in secret by actual high schoolers in their own school. It's wild that director Ethan Eng began this when he was 16 and became the youngest director to ever premiere a feature at Slamdance

Seconded, I really enjoyed this and cool to see it getting a physical release outside of Vimeo!

I'm also really excited for an improved release of Funny Ha Ha, assuming this Factory 25 release won't be a BD-R inside a weird book-pamphlet that awkwardly sticks out of my shelf.. I have a kinship with this film for a variety of reasons, but partially because it takes place in my hood. Kate Dollenmayer even wears a shirt of my neighboring elementary school from her first appearance!

[MichaelB]

Love all the Has covers so far. Can anyone vouch for How to be Loved?

Obviously, I'm biased, as I wrote the booklet essay, but it's an absolute stunner - albeit very different from The Saragossa Manuscript and The Hourglass Sanatorium.

Here's what I wrote about it on a first viewing a decade or so ago:

How to Be Loved (Jak być kochaną, 1962)

[Andrzej Wajda's short film] Warsaw turned out to be the perfect apéritif before tonight's main course, which I knew in advance was the most celebrated film that Wojciech Has made before The Saragossa Manuscript. Like Wajda's film, it's about the lasting psychological damage inflicted on ordinary Poles by WWII - in this case the actors Felicja (Barbara Krafftówna) and Wiktor (Zbigniew Cybulski). They first work together in a pre-war production of Hamlet - he's the title role, she's Ophelia, he's a big name, she's a debutante. But their relationship shifts radically when he's suspected of murder and has to go into hiding: she conceals him in her flat for years, even to the point of letting German soldiers use her as a regular fuck-toy in exchange for them not searching it thoroughly. Far from being grateful, Wiktor resents this confinement - like all actors, he craves an audience, and is oblivious of the damage that his subsequent selfishness does to Felicja both professionally (after the war, she's accused of being a collaborator) and personally. Has's masterstroke is to narrate all this in flashback with the help of Felicja's waspish, cynical voiceover - so we know from the start that she'll survive her many brushes with death (sheltering a wanted man is a capital crime in Nazi-occupied Poland), but we also know upfront that she pays a terrible psychological price that leaves her unable to form lasting relationships with anyone, despite two very promising prospects. Krafftówna gives one of the strongest female lead performances that I've seen in a Polish film, while Cybulski bravely plays against type as an arrogant but weak-willed man who becomes more loathsome with each successive scene.

(My opinion of Krafftówna's performance is far from a minority one - she died recently, and pretty much every obituary mentioned How To Be Loved very prominently indeed. And her list of stage and screen credits was colossal.)

[swo17]

I'm also really excited for an improved release of Funny Ha Ha, assuming this Factory 25 release won't be a BD-R inside a weird book-pamphlet that awkwardly sticks out of my shelf

Yes but what we really need is The Color Wheel

[therewillbeblus]

I'm also really excited for an improved release of Funny Ha Ha, assuming this Factory 25 release won't be a BD-R inside a weird book-pamphlet that awkwardly sticks out of my shelf

Yes but what we really need is The Color Wheel

For sure, I'm hoping Radiance gets to it if Factory 25 doesn't

[pianocrash]

I'm also really excited for an improved release of Funny Ha Ha, assuming this Factory 25 release won't be a BD-R inside a weird book-pamphlet that awkwardly sticks out of my shelf

Yes but what we really need is The Color Wheel

Hard to forget that Alex Ross Perry once said his films only should be released on DVD only (time's up, pullup!), but maybe that has something to do with my bearings on the quality of his work. However, I still want to see Impolex someday, in some way, either way (I can only hope it misaligns in such a way that it's brilliant).

The Hustler White soundtrack was impossible to resist (and now sold out), as I'm sure Bruce LaBruce's films are never going to be reissued for scores of reasons (DVD are still out there, Alex Ross Perry). EDIT: the 2015 Strand branded/restored blu-ray is currently out of stock at Wal-Mart...... :^o

Great to see Spacked Out, as I'm sure it'll gain fans with the 2K upgrade, though my shelf will be a bit less colorful without the teal DVD case.

But most importantly, I have to take issue with the mumblecore pictures reissued on this label's branches, which decided to not include the commentaries from the previous DVD editions (Quiet City, USA, Funny Ha Ha, etc.), but maybe that's a prestige decision to iron out the old antics that surrounded those types of films (important for context, in the grand scheme, but boring/shit stirring for the present). But it would be great if a future edition of The Color Wheel had a dialogue-free option, though [-o<

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah I just checked my copy, and this is basically just a reprint of the old Funny Ha Ha's blu-ray package with a new restoration

[FrauBlucher]

With Janus/Sideshow picking up Ceylan Nuri Bilge's About Dry Grasses, maybe Criterion can get Uzak (Distant) an old New Yorker Film release

[AxeYou]

With Janus/Sideshow picking up Ceylan Nuri Bilge's About Dry Grasses, maybe Criterion can get Uzak (Distant) an old New Yorker Film release

Big World Pictures, a VS partner label, already released Distant recently: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Distant-Blu-ray/326855/

I’ve been eyeing it for a while. Would you recommend the film for a blind buy?

[Peacock]

If you like modern slow cinema it’s a nice one. It’s been a long time since I saw it though so hard to give a proper review, but I’ll never forget the hilarious scene involving the film Stalker and pornography!

[swo17]

I just compared The Hourglass Sanatorium to the Polish Blu-ray from the Scorsese set. To my eyes, they're from about the same source but the old Polish Blu-ray has visibly better compression

I've now also compared the two discs for The Saragossa Manuscript. In this case, I can't really tell a difference between the two transfers

[Rayon Vert]

This is a bit confusing regarding the Szulkin release. If I understand, it was sold out as soon as announced and that's why it's not listed on the site? I guess I'll trust a post on the blu-ray.com forum that says it'll be back on July 1st.

[CSM126]

Wrong thread, but VS is only displaying partner label releases this month. Mainline products will be back next month.