Vinegar Syndrome and Their Partner Labels

[luxta]

1x Cinematographe Surprise release (BD of 90s genre-infused thriller)
The Blu-ray debut of a genre-bending sleeper from an iconic American filmmaker
We aren’t done with November yet! CIN-027 drops at midnight on 11/28 for Black Friday and marks the first foray into science-fiction for us

L̶o̶o̶k̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶K̶a̶f̶k̶a̶ ̶(̶1̶9̶9̶1̶)̶.

[The Narrator Returns]

It would be funny for Soderbergh to finally give up on that box set he’s been promising for years and just give all the movies to the boutiques.

[beamish14]

Sci-fi guesses? Could there be Russian sci-fi like A Visitor to a Museum?

Who am I kidding. It’s probably something like Laserblast or Nukie

[JSC]

I'd like to think it was Brother from Another Planet, but that's the 80s.

[beamish14]

I'd like to think it was Brother from Another Planet, but that's the 80s.

Liquid Sky immediately came to mind. That’s in their wheelhouse

[dwk]

Sci-fi guesses? Could there be Russian sci-fi like A Visitor to a Museum?

Who am I kidding. It’s probably something like Laserblast or Nukie

Cinematographe titles are only US films.

[Forrest Taft]

New Rose Hotel?

[beamish14]

New Rose Hotel?

God, I hope so. Still LionsGate, I thought. A gorgeous-looking film, but you’d never know it from the truly atrocious DVD

[BoltzmannBrain]

Liquid Sky immediately came to mind. That’s in their wheelhouse

In fact so much in their wheelhouse that it's been in the VinSyn catalog since 2017.

[beamish14]

Liquid Sky immediately came to mind. That’s in their wheelhouse

In fact so much in their wheelhouse that it's been in the VinSyn catalog since 2017.

Haha! Well, I thought some label must’ve put it out in HD

[sabbath]

I'd like to think it was Brother from Another Planet, but that's the 80s.

Criterion is working on Brother from Another Planet, apparently.

He got it from here: A poster at the Blu-ray.com forum said they met John Sayles at an event at their local library and Saylea said Criterion is working on The Brother from Another Planet

[Matt]

I went ahead and bought their UHD of "Who Killed Teddy Bear" just because how stacked the release is for an admittedly uneven film.
...
There's so little scholarly material out there on this film that it is hard to know what exactly is in the restored scenes that apparently have never been released before

This blog post, linked from DVDBeaver, is the only delineation of cuts that I've found
...
Really hope there's more info on how they tracked the original materials down in the booklet...

There's nothing in the booklet that talks about the original materials or even what the source of the transfer is. There's a line in John Charles' booklet essay that says "Vinegar Syndrome's edition rectifies this discrepancy [the cuts] by returning the film to Cates' original version. More than one element was carefully blended to create the most complete and highest quality presentation of Teddy Bear yet available to the home audience."

There's also a brief mention in an interview with Mike Thomas, one of the founders of Stand Releasing, of original prints being used for screenings over the years. But I can't believe the source for this extremely good transfer could be 60-year-old release prints that have been run through dozens of projectors.

The cuts that are listed in the blog post linked by senseabove are the same as those outlined by Charles in his essay. There's no information about who made the cuts, when, or for what specific reason. The commentary might shed some light on the source elements and the cuts, but listening to that will have to wait for another day.

The on-disc extra showing the Manhattan locations from the film as they are now has to be one of the most depressing supplements I've ever seen. You'll see these shots from the film of a vibrant, neon-lit Times Square and its more and less reputable environs, and then all the contemporary images are of stories-tall LED advertising screens next to vacant storefronts, porta-potties next to construction sites, and things like the Hershey's store or a CVS. Who could ever be nostalgic for a New York like this? Even the Central Park Zoo looks depressing.

The film itself is pretty fascinating. It's somewhere right between a David F. Friedman roughie like The Defilers and Polanski's Repulsion, both from the same year, 1965, as Teddy Bear. It reminded me a lot of Anton Holden's Aroused from 1966—"An emotional experience in wanton femicide" per the trailer—with its "psycho sex murder" theme, gorgeous New York street photography, and a detective who gets a little too involved in the case. It's kind of incredible that Sal Mineo is treated as such an object of blatant desire, shown swimming, working out all sweaty and shirtless, and generally writhing around in his Jockey shorts through a gauzy lens. I also liked how everyone around Juliet Prowse is predatory. She can't trust anyone! The ending is a little unsatisfactory, but maybe grimly realistic in that sense.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

I'd imagine that since it's Elizabeth Purchell and KJ Shepherd on the commentary they'd at least try to determine what was being cut given their other preservation projects.

[What A Disgrace]

Looks like one of Kani Releasing's next releases will be Masashi Yamamoto's Carnival in the Night (spine number 37). This will be the fourth film from the director released by the label. They also have Mike de Leon's Batch 81 (38), Isao Fujisawa's Bye Bye Love (35), and Akihiro Suzuki's Looking For an Angel (36).

[Finch]

Troll 2 4K
Stendahl Syndrome 4K
New Rose Hotel BD
Descendant of the Sun BD
Blue City BD

[beamish14]

New Rose Hotel is wonderful, but my god, Blue City? Even those who are curious just because of Walter Hill’s credit will be very disappointed

[Matt]

Best news for me is not only the announcement of The Adult Version of Jekyll & Hide and The Erotic Adventures of Zorro but the announcement that Distribpix is collaborating with Something Weird Video on releasing a whole series of David F. Friedman films. Zorro is possibly the most enjoyable film Friedman ever made. It was later shamelessly ripped off for the mainstream comedy Zorro, The Gay Blade. Obviously you have to have a tolerance for poorly shot, deeply unerotic softcore sex scenes, but Friedman was a whip-smart, very funny man, and that's most evident in this film. I don't want to oversell it, but if you have any appreciation for classic sexploitation comedy à la Russ Meyer (but on a shoestring budget), this is one of the best. I have an original poster for it that I liberated from the basement of Madison's Orpheum Theater!

[malachi_lui]

I’m most surprised that New Rose Hotel isn’t full 4K

[Matt]

Probably the same case we're seeing with a lot of movies of that time period—they only exist in their final form as a 2K digital intermediate.

[andyli]

New Rose Hotel was made and released around 1998, before DI is a thing in post-production even for major Hollywood films. Sooner or later we'll see this film receive a full on 4K restoration. Judging by the screenshots posted on its product page the HD transfer looks quite shabby.

[domino harvey]

Troll 2 4K
Stendahl Syndrome 4K
New Rose Hotel BD
Descendant of the Sun BD
Blue City BD

First Black Friday promo from VS I can remember without an objectively “big” title

EDIT the Blu-ray forum is having a collective meltdown about this lackluster slate and many seem unduly angry rather than disappointed. When even the whales who will literally buy anything are complaining…

[Peacock]

New Rose Hotel is pretty big to me! Glad I held off on the German Blu.

[jt938]

Just seems like the usual crybabys like Joel Goodsen and Driver 78 are the ones complaining. The slate was shit (aren't VinSyn's slates always?) but the entitlement on there is crazy. Thank god for Cinematographe though, I genuinely love most of the stuff they put out.

[What A Disgrace]

I'm glad their slate was shit, although I will eventually be suckered into every Distribpix release.

[CSM126]

They said somewhere (probably the splash page yesterday) that a big title got moved back to January because they had “too many great titles” for Black Friday. Obviously that was a lie because this lineup is shit.

They really want that ironic hipster audience to drop big bucks on Troll 2 and Garbage Pail Kids and… in this economy?

I’m looking ahead to Partners month instead. Better chance of something interesting there.