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Responding to a question on the other forum, Craig said there are some bigger items coming in the second half of the year and the UHD release(s) will be dual format.

And Vinegar Syndrome are listing all DC titles except Kin-Dza-Dza! for half price if you check their Going Out Of Print section (same apparently with Altered Innocence).

Highly recommend picking up The Tune, which I just spent $8 more on like... a few days ago, which sucks. But it's an excellent release with wonderful Academy restorations of Plympton's Oscar-nommed shorts and the film itself.

Those subscription rates are pretty high unless they start doing more releases

furbicide wrote: Tue Apr 09, 2024 2:09 pm Give me Lopushanskiy or give me death!
(A Muratova set would also be acceptable)

It is Muratova set or death for me, but Lopushanskiy would be sweet too!

Sadly, there is no hint of Muratova - Ukraine was not mentioned in their teaser list of countries. Still, THE SAVAGE HUNT OF KING STAKH announcement is very exciting!

Do temper your expectations; this is no masterpiece on the level of Kin-Dza-Dza. It is still an atmospheric and memorable work with fine performances by Boris Plotnikov and Vladimir Fyodorov (an actor, poet, and nuclear physicist whose most famous role was the villain Turanchoks in Richard Vicktorov's "To the Stars by the Hard Ways").

Finch wrote: Tue Apr 09, 2024 5:47 pm And Vinegar Syndrome are listing all DC titles except Kin-Dza-Dza! for half price if you check their Going Out Of Print section (same apparently with Altered Innocence).

Thank you for the heads up, Finch!

I went ahead and ordered Bubble Bath LE, Jack Be Nimble SE (both blind buys), and Kin-Dza-Dza LE, which will be the fourth Kin-Dza-Dza Blu-ray in my collection (the other three are Russian, German, and Japanese).

I hope the DC's version of Kin-Dza-Dza will be the finest thanks to David Mackenzie's authoring.

Is there anything not worth getting from VS right now? Or any titles in particular that people are hyped on, other than what's been mentioned today

I wonder where Deaf Crocodile will be pressing their discs going forward. I don’t think VS/OCN presses at the dreaded Mexican replicator, because I’ve never received a scratched disc from them.

therewillbeblus wrote: Tue Apr 09, 2024 8:01 pm Is there anything not worth getting from VS right now? Or any titles in particular that people are hyped on, other than what's been mentioned today

I just did a sweep of the Deaf Crocodile titles I didn't have in the sale, because everything I've seen on the label has been worth a punt (especailly at half price). The Shahram Mokri box is the jewel in their crown to date, so grab it while you can, everybody.

therewillbeblus wrote: Tue Apr 09, 2024 8:01 pm Is there anything not worth getting from VS right now? Or any titles in particular that people are hyped on, other than what's been mentioned today

I’d say to try and hold your breath for some of the slower selling titles which look to be World War III, Bubble Bath, and Benny’s Bathtub (there’s also Kin Dza Dza but I imagine it will start selling quicker once it becomes half off). Personal recommendations from their lineup are Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians, ZeroGrad, and Time of Roses, all still in stock and great films.

For the record, these titles are only leaving the Vinegar Syndrome site, they will still be available as per Craig on the other forum:

All of our titles will continue to be available through our own shop and DiabolikDVD. We'll also be supplying other online retailers with our back catalog and future standard editions.

Felidae is Coming Soon Based Off This Image Posted on Twitter

And per Mr. Crocodile himself:

Deaf Crocodile wrote:German kitties in 4K/HDR/Dolby Vision is coming...

I've been wanting to watch Felidae for years!

Aside from Felidae, King Stakh and the already announced Adela Has Had No Supper Yet, DC hinted at those on youtube:

Khitrovka The Sign of Four
The Outcasts (1982)

interview with DC and Diabolik's Jesse

TechnicolorAcid wrote: Tue Apr 09, 2024 10:13 pm Felidae is Coming Soon Based Off This Image Posted on Twitter

And per Mr. Crocodile himself:

Deaf Crocodile wrote:German kitties in 4K/HDR/Dolby Vision is coming...

That’s real exciting. I’ve only seen the English dub, but it’s such a great oddity.

Finch wrote: Tue Apr 09, 2024 11:13 pm Aside from Felidae, King Stakh and the already announced Adela Has Had No Supper Yet, DC hinted at those on youtube:

Khitrovka The Sign of Four
The Outcasts (1982)

interview with DC and Diabolik's Jesse

Alongside “Trapped Ashes” which was produced and written (in part) by one of the company’s founders. Also Khitrovka was already announced if memory serves correct.

They also obliquely hinted at Lemonade Joe in a Facebook post, which wouldn’t be the tiniest bit surprising - even if they hadn’t already released an Oldřich Lipský film (and with another confirmed for certain), it could hardly be a more perfect fit for them.

Savage Hunt of King Stakh takes a similar approach to folklore that McCabe & Mrs. Miller did to westerns: Does myth pale in comparison to reality when nakedly facing life’s harsh meaning, and yet also enrich history to give us both pleasure and meaning - and isn’t pleasure part of the meaning of life? I thought a bit of Marketa Lazarová too, especially that first question - only that film’s second question pointed to an inevitability, and organic nature of socialization to create stories, myths, fiction, to.. simply create, together. That’s what we do when we communicate at all. It pointed to the loneliness and tragedy of being alone with, or blind to spiritual solutions, and posited if this was man's organic or conditioned nature and fatalistic yielding a result of increased alienation borne from fear. It was a richer film for it.

Anyways, this film doesn’t seem to be doing that. It’s far more cynical about folklore’s utility, I think, and yet it exists as a cinematic offering of fiction itself. Like Prague Nights, I’m not sure I gel well with spacious, loose Czech folklore. If that film was comprised of short segments that each felt either vacuous or missing opportunities to realise their potential, this just feels like a longer version of that: something that could be leaner without losing any content and still gradually establish a dominant, potent tone, or retain its epic scope but fill it with.. well, simply 'more' material. The last act has some gems, but it mostly played as a collection of singular, inconsistently-engaging moments rather than a cumulative experience for me. That often makes films less memorable and yields low motivation to return - I hope that doesn’t happen here, because I’m very curious to see how this will play restored.

MichaelB wrote: Wed Apr 10, 2024 5:06 am They also obliquely hinted at Lemonade Joe in a Facebook post, which wouldn’t be the tiniest bit surprising - even if they hadn’t already released an Oldřich Lipský film (and with another confirmed for certain), it could hardly be a more perfect fit for them.

It would be amazing if I went from seeing zero Oldřich Lipský Films in 2023 to seeing perhaps his four best films in 2024.

Deaf Crocodile is looking for a name for their monocled crocodile. The prize is all twenty-three of their releases so far.
If you sign up for their newsletter, they'll send you a message about it.

Kin-Dza-Dza! has more in common with Gilliam than the influences cited in its liner notes (although I suppose Monty Python counts), not just in terms of his general weird approach to this kind of already-weird material, but in its messiness and messy batting avg of achieving intended effects from gags or drama. I like Gilliam's work a lot more than I liked this, which started strong with its deadpan banter between the two leads, some clever satirical allusions, and promise of a fun journey... But the duo's chemistry is mostly sidelined for a genuine focus on world-building and hammering in the same sociopolitical commentary for way too long, plus the 'adventure' underwhelms (and it's apparent that it will fail to stimulate pretty quickly). The last act offers some new stuff, but by then I wasn't very engaged. I still came away admiring the film as a creative form of rebellious art, but I wish it was a lot shorter and tighter. A condensed work could've birthed some manic energy and made this great.

Benny's Bathtub is all-over-the-place, and uses its slapdash eclecticism to dish out some fun surprises. The film frontloads its strongest ideas with the adult interaction in the park, which must be one of the most perverse Children's Film moments I've seen (though the accompanying shorts have some rivaling bits), but it moves into some funny interplay and one bit with an octopus/starfish that transforms into an experimental film for a few minutes! I didn't love it as a whole - some skits didn't work as well as others, and the treasure hunt segment petered out too quickly - but a few pieces were gold.

I'm glad I didn't blind buy Kin-Dza-Dza! then because I can't stand Gilliam's films.

Well, it’s also very much steeped in a sense of humor I just don’t connect with, as is the case with many releases from this label (I guess I prefer Eastern European dramas to comedies) - so if you do, that might trump my subjective comparison

Finch wrote: Sun May 05, 2024 11:56 pm I'm glad I didn't blind buy Kin-Dza-Dza! then because I can't stand Gilliam's films.

I wouldn’t say that it’s entirely like a Gilliam film since Kin-Dza-Dza is a lot more dry and less madcap those type of films though I’d understand why someone would say that it’s similar. However if there’s a one comparison I’d find apt it’s probably PlayTime since they’re both dryly observant meditations of being human that generally move around their worlds with characters confounded by their worlds, and trying to grasp everything, drifting through set pieces branched together by the thinnest of plots. But while PlayTime is more optimistic for humanity’s future through bursts of color and a sense of joy with a message that even in materialistic worlds, humanity will always shine, Kin-Dza-Dza is arguably more cynical about our society but not in a Brazil kind of way in that it’s all because we’re so weathered down by technology, it’s more in a sense that the human experience is always going to fall into it’s faults no matter what conditions and that the best thing to do is just carry on because everything in the end will be fine. At least that’s what I think about the film, I have a bit more in defense of Kin-Dza-Dza but that’s for another day.

Thank you both for your replies!