5/71 Mother Joan of the Angels

[Bikey]

Strange Things Are Happening

[Bikey]

Cinemas Online

[MichaelB]

Mondo Digital:

Second Run released a DVD in 2005 from the best video master at the time, which unfortunately still wasn't all that great. Dull, smudgy, and filled with distortion, it's been replaced with a remastered 2012 edition that plays like an entirely different film. It's a gorgeous restoration, to put it mildly, and the perfect way to make the acquaintance of this fascinating film.

[Bikey]

Gordon Thomas at Bright Lights Film Journal

[Bikey]

Sad news... we just heard that the great Polish actress Lucyna Winnicka, star of Kawalerowicz's NIGHT TRAIN and MOTHER JOAN herself, died on 22 January 2013.

[TMDaines]

This title doesn't seem to be stocked at too many e-tailers: Click. Is there any reason why thehut, Zavvi, WOWHD and others don't have it?

[Bikey]

We have plenty of stock of this title, and it is available at many of the usual e-retailers.
The Hut, Zavvi and WOWCD are all supplied by the same wholesalers, so it could be that they are another knock-on effect of HMV going into administration (ie suppliers are being more careful about supplying stock direct to retailers?)?

[Bikey]

Close Up Film Centre begin a regular strand of Second Run screenings with Jerzy Kawalerowicz's stunning MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS (Matka Joanna od Aniołów) - Tuesday 17th Nov at 8pm.

[What A Disgrace]

Blu-ray upgrade coming in October.

[therewillbeblus]

Very cool. I finally got around to this recently and really enjoyed it, though I definitely interpreted the possession as a self-induced psychological tactic to make sense of uncomfortable situations and emotional states.

Spoiler

When the priest finally breaks down and commits violence to 'save' the abbess, it feels like a desperate attempt to engage in a tangible act with so much outside of his control, which causes a psychological breakdown. The abbess' alleviation of her symptoms also seems like a reprieve in feeling a connection with another person -the priest- caring for her, even if it's done in a perverse manner. I wondered if the whole demonic possession spreading across the community of nuns stemmed from a sense of isolation and lack of reciprocity from a tangible higher being or outside human connection.

I realize the film is deliberately ambiguous, but I enjoyed entertaining this reading more than a straightforward one

[What A Disgrace]

• Mother Joan of the Angels (Matka Joanna od Aniołów, 1960) presented from a 2K remaster by WFDiF Poland, supervised by cinematographer Jerzy Wójcik.
• An in-depth discussion of the film by the critic, curator and scholar Michał Oleszczyk.
• An expansive filmed appreciation by producer and film historian Michael Brooke.
• The Projection Booth commentary.
• 32-page booklet featuring essays by author and film lecturer Dr David Sorfa, and Michael Brooke.
• New and improved English subtitle translation.
• UK premiere on Blu-ray.
• MORE TBC

9 November

[beamish14]

This screened in a nitrate print in Los Angeles earlier this year. I truly couldn’t believe that such a thing would exist for a post-1950’s film. It did look a bit rough, though

[GaryC]

This screened in a nitrate print in Los Angeles earlier this year. I truly couldn’t believe that such a thing would exist for a post-1950’s film. It did look a bit rough, though

Nitrate stock was discontinued by Kodak in 1951, in the West at least. But presumably there was stock needing to be used up after that, maybe more of it in Poland, or did East European manufacturers continue with nitrate for a while?

For another example, Lorenza Mazzetti's Together (1956) was largely shot on nitrate in 1954 (apparently the stock used dated from 1949), but reshoots were on safety. I presume release prints were safety, though.