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Any word on the Wiseman Volume 2 set? A similar subtitle situation as the first one?

June 28 Blaq Out emailed me the following:

Thank you very much for your order.
There have been some hitches in the production of the boxset, therefore engendering a delay in the reception. I know you received a shipping confirmation of your order but it was a mistake from our webshop, everything will be sent in the week of the 11th July. You'll be informed right after.

Thank you for your patience.

Just got volume 2 of the Blaq Out set and every film has softsubs this time out. Unfortunately I can't tell you if they're forced or not, since my only multi-region player is an HTPC and forced subs are a non-issue for me (I don't know any way to determine if a subtitle track is forced without digging around in the program chains, which I don't have time for at the moment).

Did you receive an email notification that your set had shipped? I got the June 28 email about the delay but no email informing me my copy shipped out later on.

Blaq Out had a system issue, sending dispatch e-mails to customers while they actually didn't. They receive their stock of boxsets last week only, actually.
I guess for some people, it might have been the other way around and they never received an email at all.

Volume 3 is set for release November 15th.

Anyone else still waiting on Volume 2 to arrive? Hopefully mine shows up this week or I'm going to be a little concerned.

Has anyone ordered the Zipporah BD of In Jackson Heights? There's no hope it's pressed unlike the past ones, right?

(In case anyone's curious, anyway, Peter Labuza's tweeted that Wiseman revealed at Q&A today he's currently busy making his next film, focused on the New York Public Library (for some reason I had thought that he was retiring, but apparently otherwise))

Yes, Wiseman said that to us too when he did a Q&A in France a few months ago. IIRC he was at the editing stage.

Ribs wrote:Has anyone ordered the Zipporah BD of In Jackson Heights? There's no hope it's pressed unlike the past ones, right?

(In case anyone's curious, anyway, Peter Labuza's tweeted that Wiseman revealed at Q&A today he's currently busy making his next film, focused on the New York Public Library (for some reason I had thought that he was retiring, but apparently otherwise))

I purchased the Blu Ray and it's a Blu Ray-R disc.

Oedipax wrote:Anyone else still waiting on Volume 2 to arrive? Hopefully mine shows up this week or I'm going to be a little concerned.

Well, still waiting. One email to BlaqOut went unanswered.

Update: They did get in touch - seems like the package was returned to them finally, and had an erroneous address for some reason or other. They're re-sending and even offered an extra DVD for the trouble.

I would have bought these if it weren't for the subtitle issue. (Or more precisely, lack of options for English-speaking consumers as this is really a non-issue for its intended French audience.) Volume Three also has no subtitles for several titles because they are already in French.

I was debating on finally buying these on DVD-R rather than spending $15 at a time for a single cinema screening, but I'm really hoping this French set is a sign that perhaps an English language DVD set may very well happen in the near future.

FWIW, I saw a small bit of Near Death earlier this week - a roommate of a friend had a copy he purchased from Wiseman. Criterion should definitely consider reissuing this (maybe as an Eclipse title), and doing a proper transfer, because the current DVD looks like video tape. If this was, say, a bootleg and the only way to see the film, it wouldn't be terrible, but this looks like a DVD encode of a very, very old video transfer of what's actually a film shot on 16mm film stock. Not a trace of film grain anywhere. Criterion's done great work with new transfers of D. A. Pennebaker's 16mm films (look at the film grain on The War Room, filmed only three or four years after Near Death) - this is what Near Death can look like, but it doesn't, not even close.

And I gave much rejoicing. This will be an excellent opportunity for a lot of people who probably have never seen one of his films.

It's absolutely remarkable, is what it is. I'm aware that rep screenings and rentals have kept his business afloat and probably provided most of his income for several decades but it's more than time his films were really, truly accessible to a curious audience that doesn't want to put out a ton of money for DVD-Rs.

I've tried for years to see his stuff. YEARS and now it's now finally going to be a reality. Thanks so much for sharing!

will it include Shirley Clarke's The Cool World, which he's been bogarting for years? Or Seraphita's Diary, which I don't think he allows to screen?

My large orders of expensive DVD-Rs from Zipporah are bar none my most regretted purchase in close to twenty years of buying DVDs and now Blu-rays. "This is likely the only way I'll ever be able to see these films," as I thought then. (I already had a boot of Titicut Follies at the time but bought the Zipporah disc anyway.)

And I asked them about The Cool World in 2008. They said they were working on it and were "thinking about restoring the original elements for the DVD release." I followed up with another inquiry in 2009 and there was no reply. Wiseman is now coming up on 55 solid years of failing to distribute or promote one of the great American independent films.

Gregory, I feel your pain :(

Just a note: although the first two Wiseman box sets all have those annoying, non-removable English subtitles, all of the English-language films in the third box set do indeed have defeatable subtitles, except for (why?) "Domestic Violence."

Sadly, though, no English subtitles for the French-language films.

Ex Libris is now available for purchase from Zipporah on DVD and blu-ray. With shipping, the Ex-Libris blu came out to the low low price of $46.90.

Oedipax wrote:Ex Libris is now available for purchase from Zipporah on DVD and blu-ray. With shipping, the Ex-Libris blu came out to the low low price of $46.90.

Too bad it's almost certainly a BD-R. Zipporah really need to partner with a label like Kino, or someone else who could distribute Wiseman's films on pressed media. $39.95 (plus $6.95 for shipping) for a BD-R is nuts.

$40 for one Blu is nuts imo

Then it's a good thing you're not a library or school that would have to pay $450 for the same disc.

It sure is. Even Criterions are 30 at non sale