Radiance Films General Discussion & Wishlist

[GaryC]

I think his stuff is ready to go too. At least for his best films, he definitely has excellent-looking HD masters - during the height of the pandemic, the Munchen Film Museum held a partial retrospective that was available for home viewing, and everything I saw looked great. Last Chants for a Slow Dance and All the Vermeers in New York would be the two I'd reissue first. (If I had to pick three, The Bed You Sleep In would be another one.)

I've not seen Last Chants, but do know of it. Would the rabbit-killing scene have problems with the BBFC? The film has never been submitted to the BBFC before, as when it was released in the UK it was in 16mm without a certificate. If the scene was judged to be infliction of cruelty and suffering on an animal that was in control of the filmmaker, then it would fall foul of British law, specifically the Cinematograph (Animals) Act of 1937. If however, the scene is deemed a "clean kill" then it would likely pass.

In early 1983, Channel 4 had a month-long Jost season, with a documentary on the man (Jost's America) and showings of Last Chance for a Slow Dance, Angel City and Speaking Directly. Those remain the only TV showings of those films in the world, ever. The only one I got to see was Angel City. Unfortunately both Last Chants and Speaking Directly were edited by C4. After a complaint following an advisory in the TV Times, the rabbit scene was taken out of Last Chants. As per Keith Howes's book Broadcasting It, in Speaking Directly at one point Jost talks about his own penis and begins to masturbate on camera. This was obscured electronically by a black rectangle which...grew larger as the scene progressed.

Incidentally, Last Chants is listed in 1001 Films to See Before You Die.

[zedz]

Fran on the Discord: "Sadly the slow cinema masterpiece we had planned had to be junked as the new director approved 4K restoration we had been promised turned out to be less than desirable and had revisionist changes"

Can we get our Clue Boys on this one? Intrigued by what this could possibly have been

It is intriguing, if only because most of the major "slow cinema" directors I was thinking of don't strike me as fussily revisionist, or at least haven't shown that tendency in the past where restorations have been done.

The definition of "slow cinema" has been stretched by some people well past breaking point ("No fight scene? You're in!"), but I'd expect Radiance to come down on the more rigorous side.

[andyli]

Does Hou Hsiao-hsien count as slow cinema? His three films with Shochiku (Good Men, Good Women; Goodbye South, Goodbye; and Café Lumière) have recently received 4K restoration. Could Radiance be also taking an interest in these when they procured The Eel from Shochiku? Though with Hou's current physical state I doubt he would have anything to do with the restoration process let alone re-editing anything.

[therewillbeblus]

My bet is on The Travelling Players

[beamish14]

My bet is on The Travelling Players

I thought of that as well, but Angelopoulos’ widow really doesn’t seem keen on altering his films in any way. The prints and DCPs his estate have all look great and don’t appear to have any changes.

[domino harvey]

For whichever film it is, could the "revisionist" alteration be a new color timing that Radiance contractually wouldn't be able to tinker with for their release?

[TechnicolorAcid]

For whichever film it is, could the "revisionist" alteration be a new color timing that Radiance contractually wouldn't be able to twinker with for their release?

Didn’t Tchao Pantin keep the blue tinted master that was given to Radiance, cause if so then it wouldn’t seem like the color timing would be a major enough decision that not being able to reverse it would be grounds to cancel a release.

[domino harvey]

I thought that was one of the ones they went out of their way to say they fixed? Did that not end up happening?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Alternative theory: Tsai Ming-liang's The Wayward Cloud was restored in 4K a couple years ago. That restoration premiered at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, but it hasn't been picked up by anyone since then. None of the reviews on Letterboxd from that festival pointed out anything wrong with the restoration, but they did indicate that the film has some intense content that might make a distributor think twice before putting the film out.

The Wayward Cloud restoration has been held up by a rights issue with the French co-producer, not any lack of interest from distributors.

Apichatpong Weerasthekul's been working on 4k restorations of several of his films over the past few years, too.

4K restorations of Blissfully Yours, Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century, and Uncle Boonmee are briefly teased in Strand's latest catalog of upcoming theatrical releases, so these are definitely coming sooner rather than later. But all four have been previously released in the UK and I don't know about their current distribution status. I also have no idea whether Apichatpong is the type to make "revisionist changes"—AFAICT there was no monkeying around with the Mysterious Object at Noon restoration, but that's not much to go on. Maybe the "revisionist changes" were for reasons related to Thai censorship, much as all home video releases of Cemetery of Splendour removed a moment that could be seen as disrespecting the royal anthem, but the wording of Fran's comment strongly implies the changes were at the behest of the filmmaker, not an outside authority.

[Black Hat]

My bet is on The Travelling Players

I thought of that as well, but Angelopoulos’ widow really doesn’t seem keen on altering his films in any way. The prints and DCPs his estate have all look great and don’t appear to have any changes.

What's the reason his films are unavailable/rarely screened?

[MichaelB]

The standard joke in my profession is that it's much easier dealing with filmmakers who are safely dead - at least provided their estates and/or rightsholders are supportive.

Although I'm genuinely sorry that Jean Rollin isn't alive to see what we've been doing with his back catalogue (I've been watching The Iron Rose in 4K HDR this week, and it's eye-poppingly gorgeous), but by universal consensus everyone who had any dealings with him seems to have regarded him as utterly lovely.

[beamish14]

My bet is on The Travelling Players

I thought of that as well, but Angelopoulos’ widow really doesn’t seem keen on altering his films in any way. The prints and DCPs his estate have all look great and don’t appear to have any changes.

What's the reason his films are unavailable/rarely screened?

They’re all controlled by his estate, and they have produced new prints and/or DCPs of all of them. The issue is the burden of distribution, and his widow wants another company to take control of that, but it doesn’t seem like she’s been able to reach a satisfactory deal with anyone.

[Matt]

I wonder if she's like Mylène Bresson, who, ages ago, was allegedly willing to license Four Nights of a Dreamer to Masters of Cinema if they paid for her extensive dental work.

[beamish14]

I wonder if she's like Mylène Bresson, who, ages ago, was allegedly willing to license Four Nights of a Dreamer to Masters of Cinema if they paid for her extensive dental work.

I think it’s kind of an all or nothing deal with her. She wants all of Angelopoulos’ films to be bundled together and not spread amongst a million companies/individuals like the mess that befell Fassbinder’s work when he died. When I saw her talk, she seemed genuinely exasperated and overburdened with taking care of her late husband’s legacy, but all of the prints I saw looked absolutely stunning, and I think they’re continuing to tour the world

[domino harvey]

I wonder if she's like Mylène Bresson, who, ages ago, was allegedly willing to license Four Nights of a Dreamer to Masters of Cinema if they paid for her extensive dental work.

I'm sorry but this is kind of awesome

[DJBillyMac]

Not that spine numbers necessarily mean anything, but I just looked to see what gaps there currently are in their numbering. 117-121 are all blank at the moment - maybe 2 of those will be another Shinobi set, or the entire thing is a five-film Oshima set. Or maybe it's something else entirely! 123 and 124 are blank also and come right after La Terra Trema. Possible that they are keeping with a couple of earlier instances and saving those numbers for multiple films by the same director, so maybe that could be Senso and La Notti Bianchi. Nothing we didn't already know here I guess but whenever they go out of order on spine numbers I'm always mildly curious about it.

[Finch]

Poland, Japan, France and Italy teased for tomorrow.

[rapta]

Reckon there's a good chance Shinobi Vol. 2 gets announced tomorrow, but have no idea what this Polish title is going to be (hopefully a nice surprise; maybe some Has, Kawalerowicz or Zanussi). Guessing the Italian title will be another Raro title (likely, as they haven't had one for the last couple of months; maybe Magnum Cop?), but if not then probably more classic Italian stuff (Visconti's Le notti bianchi and Senso are expected later in the year). The French title will no doubt be In My Skin - I'd be very surprised if it's not, in fact.

[What A Disgrace]

Since the last Polish release was for animation, maybe the next one will be a 180 and be a set of documentaries.

[ryannichols7]

Shinobi
In My Skin
Le Notti Bianche

and sign me up for whatever Poland is!

[geoffcowgill]

I'm going to take a stab that the Polish film is Through and Through (1973) https://letterboxd.com/film/through-and-through/. It matches the TAT and the "a couple of serial killers" clues, is apparently pretty hard to find, and sounds pretty Radiance-like.

[Finch]

Newsletter hint: next month, an ogre!

[TechnicolorAcid]

The Ogre of Athens!!!

[TMDaines]

Newsletter hint: next month, an ogre!

Ogro (1979) by Gillo Pontecorvo, I guess. Volonté as the lead. Pure Radiance that.

[MichaelB]

Since the last Polish release was for animation, maybe the next one will be a 180 and be a set of documentaries.

There's a lot to be said for a Polish documentary set, especially since those amazing PWA sets dried up years ago. The Kieślowski docs have subsequently been reissued on Blu-ray (although, annoyingly, only as a bonus disc in Curzon's 4K Three Colours Trilogy box), but there are loads of amazing films out there that could really do with an upgrade. Wojciech Wiszniewski is still an all too well-kept secret, but he's unquestionably one of the most original filmmakers of the 1970s - and from anywhere, not just Poland.