Deaf Crocodile

[TechnicolorAcid]

I wonder if the standard edition which I ordered through Orbit will already include the fixed discs. I'm thinking probably not, because it's due for release later this month, at least according to Orbit. I'll check out the affected scenes when my order arrives.

Unless they sell out and do a second pressing then I imagine your disc will probably be an affected copy unfortunately (which is shame since it affects what’s my favorite film of the entire set).

[DeafCrocodile]

There's an audio error on the Yuri Norstein release.

More details: https://www.reddit.com/r/boutiquebluray ... se_has_an/

For full transparency, I've made it obvious I'm the OP of the reddit thread, and have posted this here just to inform. Sorry for the intrusion!

To be clear, the audio error is quite minor. No one else noticed this until the Reddit poster pointed it out. I missed it, third party QC missed it - everyone missed it. Regardless, there is a minor error. We unfortunately cannot do a disc replacement program for this (we'd literally go out of business). That said, we will get the error fixed and offer a free digital download of the fixed version once we've got that, and future printings of the standard edition (we don't reprint deluxe editions) will include the fix.

Also, as was mentioned above these are all-new restorations. The underlying scans are the same, but all nine films were fully restored from scratch. It was a massive undertaking. This is not simply a re-release of the Japanese release. We're very, very proud of this release. Please don't hesitate to purchase over this minor glitch. Thanks!

[Finch]

I've only seen Hedgehog out of all the films in the set before and am excited to see the rest of them. Thank you for the wonderful work you do, Craig and Dennis!

[Lanerlan]

To be clear, the audio error is quite minor.

Respectfully, I don't agree that the error is minor. I have instructions in my thread about scenes where it's obvious, and my opinion on its significance.

I'll cross-post the latter:

The sound effects accompanying what I consider the most important scene (the dancing scene) are off-sync. The intention, per the original, was abrupt and jarring action coinciding with abrupt and jarring sound effects. The initial leer of the camera is an impact that forces a disruption, to the lives of the women and to the phonograph. Then, each man is ripped away by a record-scratch. The metaphor is obvious and effective for that reason.

But the timing being what it is, I wonder if this scene is altered and the point completely changed. Because the record-scratch now comes after the men disappear, it almost seems like the sound must be the women reacting, because it's now after a beat. I wonder if many viewers will simply take this as a scream, and not a repetition of the record-scratch?

I don't think the same emotive effect is reached by it being off-time. Everyone will have their own opinion, but my own experience was this :

I was too caught off-guard by noticing it to know how major or minor this is in terms of its effects for most viewers (in my mind, it's just incorrect), but my viewing partner, who had seen the film before, later told me that scene 'didn't have the same impact as last time.' It was only after I shared that I noticed the error that they wondered if the timing was responsible. I understand that's anecdotal, but there you go.

[andyli]

I can sympathize with the situation of not discovering the error and not able to offer a straight-up replacement program. I just hope they print enough copies of the fixed disc in the future so I could have the chance to pick one up once they are included in a future sale.

[eerik]

New trailer for the Dead Mountaineer's Hotel.

[nicolas]

Got the Krakatit LE today, my first Deaf Crocodile LE. The film's 4K master was created in 2016 and apparently in SDR but DC made a new HDR/DV grade, which is only mentioned on the Scanavo case back cover. HDR on top of SDR isn't always beneficial if the masters underneath are imperfect with visible limitations or the colorist goes overboard with adding brightness that shouldn't be there. This isn't one of those grades. It's actually one of the best SDR-to-HDR "upgrades" I've seen as it's so gentle and careful to the highlights and near-black areas. The encode wasn't done by David Mackenzie but is very good.

This is the kind of subliminal work I appreciate the most in releases as going in different directions can quickly derail the entire presentation. That's why doing HDR for SDR should always be decided on a case-by-case basis. Well done, Deaf Crocodile and hoping to see more 4K releases like this in the near future.

[MichaelB]

One of Deaf Crocodile's major advantages is that one of the label's co-founders is a top-notch film restoration professional, so they very much do know what they're doing.

[eerik]

New slipcase painting by Hans Woody and standard edition wrap by Beth Morris.

Deluxe Limited Edition shipping in late March
4K DOLBY VISION + BLU-RAY COMBO

DEAD MOUNTAINEER’S HOTEL (“HUKKUNUD ALPINISTI” HOTEL) – 1979, Tallinnfilm, 84 min. "I was on call to drive to a mountain hotel. The hotel's name was The Dead Mountaineer," says police inspector Peter Glebsky (Uldis Pūcītis) at the beginning of Estonian director Grigori Kromanov’s dazzling, paranoid mixture of locked-room mystery, 1970s Euro giallo, classic noir whodunit, and (unbelievably) alien sci-fi ala THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. Based on a novel by famed Soviet authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (STALKER, HARD TO BE A GOD), the hall-of-mirrors plot follows Glebsky as he’s trapped by avalanche in the ski lodge with a rogues’ gallery of weird suspects: tubercular gangster Hinckus (Mikk Mikiver), creepy hotel owner Snewahr (Jüri Järvet, KING LEAR), a wall-climbing physicist (Lembit Peterson), a louche, wig-wearing beauty out of a Bryan Ferry song (Irena Kriauzaite) – oh, and the Dead Mountaineer’s faithful St. Bernard. The interior of the hotel (brilliantly art directed by Tõnu Virve and Priit Vaher, and photographed by Jüri Sillart) is straight out of a Dario Argento or Sergio Martino thriller: all chrome-and-marble with Space Age modern designs, drenched in champagne and feather boas. Featuring a stellar electronica / prog score by composer Sven Grünberg, the film combines an eerie THE SHINING-like mountain locale with speculative sci-fi straight out of Chariots of the Gods. “This is the end of the road. The only way is back,” as the hotel owner cryptically smiles. Newly restored in 4K by Deaf Crocodile in collaboration with the Estonian Film Institute and Film Archive. In Estonian with English subtitles.

Bonus Features:
New 4K restoration by Craig Rogers and Michael Coronado for Deaf Crocodile and color grade by Tyler Fagerstrom.
First-ever Worldwide 4K UHD + Blu-ray release
New commentary by film historian Michael Brooke
“Snow Job: A Routine Investigation in Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel” - new visual essay by Ryan Verrill & Dr. Will Dodson of Someone’s Favorite Prod.
Excerpt from the documentary BONUS TRACK (2016, dir. Riho Vastrik) on composer Sven Grünberg and his score for the film (13 min.)
Original trailer
Vintage “Making of DEAD MOUNTAINEER’S HOTEL” featurette created by Estonian Public TV
Vintage Soviet Estonian newsreel footage on the making of the film (2 min.)
New artwork by Beth Morris

Deluxe Edition Bonus Content:
Limited Edition of 3000 units
Hard slipcase featuring new painted cover art by Hans Woody
60-page illustrated booklet including:
New essay by Soviet film scholar Peter Rollberg
New essay by film historian Michelle Kisner
New essay by film critic Walter Chaw

https://deafcrocodile.com/products/dead ... ed-edition

[Stefan Andersson]

Deaf Crocodile plans to release Czech silent films by Jan Kolár "including The Arrival From the Darkness (1921) and St. Wenceslaus (1930), as well as a number of shorts." Jan-Christopher Horak has been asked to contribute an essay.
https://archivalspaces.com/2026/02/06/3 ... nt-cinema/

[MichaelB]

Excellent news! I reviewed The Arrival from the Darkness for the Journal of Film Preservation when the Czech National Film Archive brought them out on Blu-ray a few years ago:

The Arrival from the Darkness is a splendidly full-blooded horror opus, openly influenced by Stellan Rye and Paul Wegener’s The Student of Prague (Der Student von Prague, 1913), with a distinct hint of Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari, 1920) in its treatment of the revival of Ješek Dražický (Lamač), a man from the era of the Emperor Rudolf II. As he’s brought back to life by his descendant Bohdan (Theodor Pištěk), lighting effects recall the uncanny close-up of Conrad Veidt as he awakens in Caligari. Ješek becomes convinced that Bohdan’s wife Dagmar is his own long-lost love Alena (both played by Anny Ondra) and resolves to steal her for himself – a plan that depends on Bohdan not discovering that Ješek is wholly dependent on mysterious vials of fluid that only keep him alive for three days at a time. Technically, it’s very impressive, with several creative superimpositions as well as confident cross-cutting between two different eras – when Ješek is asked what he makes of the future, he replies that while he’s impressed with technology like cars, he thinks that there’s been no real progress in understanding the human soul.

[nicolas]

Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel will be encoded by Fidelity in Motion!

[MichaelB]

Got the Krakatit LE today, my first Deaf Crocodile LE. The film's 4K master was created in 2016 and apparently in SDR but DC made a new HDR/DV grade, which is only mentioned on the Scanavo case back cover. HDR on top of SDR isn't always beneficial if the masters underneath are imperfect with visible limitations or the colorist goes overboard with adding brightness that shouldn't be there. This isn't one of those grades. It's actually one of the best SDR-to-HDR "upgrades" I've seen as it's so gentle and careful to the highlights and near-black areas. The encode wasn't done by David Mackenzie but is very good.

This is the kind of subliminal work I appreciate the most in releases as going in different directions can quickly derail the entire presentation. That's why doing HDR for SDR should always be decided on a case-by-case basis. Well done, Deaf Crocodile and hoping to see more 4K releases like this in the near future.

With the caveat that I'm one of those strange people that watches films for narrative and aesthetic pleasure rather than to minutely scrutinise the grain structure of the encode (especially when the viewing isn't work-related), I'm happy to endorse this: it looked absolutely terrific on my setup.

But how bizarre that this comparatively obscure (albeit very good) film should be the first Czech film to get the 4K UHD treatment!

[nicolas]

Spoiler

Got the Krakatit LE today, my first Deaf Crocodile LE. The film's 4K master was created in 2016 and apparently in SDR but DC made a new HDR/DV grade, which is only mentioned on the Scanavo case back cover. HDR on top of SDR isn't always beneficial if the masters underneath are imperfect with visible limitations or the colorist goes overboard with adding brightness that shouldn't be there. This isn't one of those grades. It's actually one of the best SDR-to-HDR "upgrades" I've seen as it's so gentle and careful to the highlights and near-black areas. The encode wasn't done by David Mackenzie but is very good.

This is the kind of subliminal work I appreciate the most in releases as going in different directions can quickly derail the entire presentation. That's why doing HDR for SDR should always be decided on a case-by-case basis. Well done, Deaf Crocodile and hoping to see more 4K releases like this in the near future.

With the caveat that I'm one of those strange people that watches films for narrative and aesthetic pleasure rather than to minutely scrutinise the grain structure of the encode (especially when the viewing isn't work-related), I'm happy to endorse this: it looked absolutely terrific on my setup.

You’ll always make me chuckle when you post this, Michael. Until next time!

[Michael Kerpan]

Are there any other obscure but good adaptations of Capek's works?

[MichaelB]

Jan Švankmajer's Insect (2018)?

[Michael Kerpan]

Sounds sort of marginal to the actual work of the Capeks.

[DeprongMori]

Are there any other obscure but good adaptations of Capek's works?

Don’t know whether it’ll be good, but there is a film adaption in production for The War with the Newts.

[Michael Kerpan]

Interesting.

I would love to see an adaptation of Absolute at Large (probably preferably animated).

[colinr0380]

Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is also notable by having a 2009 pont-and-click adventure game (spoilers) made out of it! From Akella studios, who in 2007 had somehow turned Hard To Be A God into an RPG!

[eerik]

Do Amazon and Deep Discount sell the "deluxe editions" or am I waiting for nothing? Is Diabolik the way to go for ordering to Europe or are there other recommended stores?

[MichaelB]

I’ve used Diabolik ever since Deaf Crocodile split from Vinegar Syndrome, and if their service remains at the same level there’s no reason for me to change.

[TMDaines]

Do Amazon and Deep Discount sell the "deluxe editions" or am I waiting for nothing? Is Diabolik the way to go for ordering to Europe or are there other recommended stores?

No, I think they keep them for indie stores.

[eerik]

Thanks for the feedback. I will order Dead Mountaineer's Hotel and Teuvo Tulio set from Diabolik then. Shipping is on the expensive side but I'll survive.

[MichaelB]

There've been surprisingly few reviews of the Norstein set, but this video one is festooned with ravishing clips (even though he gets my name wrong).