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^ Turbine and The Frighteners comes to mind. It still hasn't had a release elsewhere.

I'm very pleasantly surprised that they haven't overlapped with Second Run yet. True, their emphases are slightly different - Second Run is more towards the auteur-driven arthouse end of central/eastern European cinema, while Deaf Crocodile is much more into genre films and animation, but Second Run's Ikarie XB-1 and Tomorrow I'll Wake Up And Scald Myself With Tea would fit perfectly into the Deaf Crocodile catalogue.

Interestingly, they're both putting out Oldřich Lipský films this year, but they've picked different ones - Second Run did Happy End, while Deaf Crocodile did Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians and the forthcoming Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet.

Incidentally, if you have the BFI's Jan Švankmajer shorts set, there's a five-minute compilation of Švankmajer-designed scenes from Adela, under the alternative English title Nick Carter in Prague. And it's so obviously Švankmajer's work that it's hilarious - I've said this before, but the man-eating plant's distressingly realistic tongue is as convincing as a signature.

(Švankmajer was banned from making his own films at the time, so took a day job as a VFX supervisor at the Barrandov Studios in Prague - hence his collaborations with Lipský.)

As a reminder, subscriptions through DiabolikDVD close at the end of the month

The first item from my subscription has shipped.

Sadly, I have to wait until September, but I otherwise applaud their decision to ship three at a time to foreigners like me. It's shipping costs that make importing truly eye-watering these days.

MichaelB wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 5:20 pm Sadly, I have to wait until September, but I otherwise applaud their decision to ship three at a time to foreigners like me. It's shipping costs that make importing truly eye-watering these days.

Why don’t you use reshippers? You’ve mentioned more than a few times about the eye watering nature of imports to your country. I live in the sunny United Kingdom and like many on here use reshipment companies to handle most of my US orders (apart from Severin and Vinegar Syndrome who have reasonable international rates). This isn’t the place to get into it but there are other threads here where people recommend good value companies. It’s very cheap considering. I may spend a total of £90 on a 120 item or so delivery. Obviously much less for smaller packages (and you can consolidate multiple packages together on the US end).

Because I import so little from the US as a general rule (the plunge in the value of the pound post-2016 being the major reason) that the extra faff isn't worth it.

I can't begin to imagine importing 120 items in one go - how much would the total order have cost if you think £90 delivery is a bargain? I'm sure it is by comparison, but you would appear to be significantly better off than me financially. (Mind you, I freelance for boutique labels, so that's pretty much a given!)

Deaf Crocodile's three-months-at-a-time arrangement suits me perfectly; I'm in no hurry.

The new podcast episode of Unsung Horrors with the Deaf Crocodile crew has them mention them that they’re attempting to find a lost Mexican sci-fi animated film which is most likely Roy de Espacio.

MichaelB wrote: Wed Jul 17, 2024 9:28 am Because I import so little from the US as a general rule (the plunge in the value of the pound post-2016 being the major reason) that the extra faff isn't worth it.

I can't begin to imagine importing 120 items in one go - how much would the total order have cost if you think £90 delivery is a bargain? I'm sure it is by comparison, but you would appear to be significantly better off than me financially. (Mind you, I freelance for boutique labels, so that's pretty much a given!)

Deaf Crocodile's three-months-at-a-time arrangement suits me perfectly; I'm in no hurry.

Hi Michael, sorry to continue being off-topic, I’ll quickly reply one last time.

That’s absolutely fair enough, especially if you’re not buying much from the US.

I think I ordered 25 Criterions in the B+N sale, around 45 Kinos in their current sale, some items from Amazon and Diabolik as well etc etc. So for me, consolidating all these sale items into one large box every few months makes sense financially (and strangely usually avoids import fees). Back when Barnes and Noble used to ship to the UK I’m sure their shipment costs for large Criterion sale orders with boxsets etc was usually around £100 so I feel like I’m getting good deal here by putting all my different label sale items into one Fedex shipment… but maybe you’re right; maybe it is too high a figure!

(And I’m not sure I’m much richer, just more irresponsible!)

Also of note is that on the aforementioned podcast they mentioned they would be releasing Jiri Weiss’ The Golden Fern in December, 2 70s DEFA animated films from a woman director and 2 70s “glam rock” Eastern European musicals (which seems most likely to be Veronica and Veronica Comes Back).

Peacock wrote: Wed Jul 17, 2024 9:23 am

MichaelB wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 5:20 pm Sadly, I have to wait until September, but I otherwise applaud their decision to ship three at a time to foreigners like me. It's shipping costs that make importing truly eye-watering these days.

Why don’t you use reshippers? You’ve mentioned more than a few times about the eye watering nature of imports to your country. I live in the sunny United Kingdom and like many on here use reshipment companies to handle most of my US orders (apart from Severin and Vinegar Syndrome who have reasonable international rates). This isn’t the place to get into it but there are other threads here where people recommend good value companies. It’s very cheap considering. I may spend a total of £90 on a 120 item or so delivery. Obviously much less for smaller packages (and you can consolidate multiple packages together on the US end).

I feel better already about the size of my recent reshipment orders.

Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet is up for pre-order at DiabolikDVD.

• New audio commentary by Czech film expert Irena Kovarova of Comeback Company and Czech film critic and screenwriter Tereza Brdečková

Four rare Jiří Brdečka animated shorts:

• Badly Drawn Hen (Špatně namalovaná slepice / Gallina Vogelbirdae) – 1963, 13 min.
• Forester’s Song/To The Forest (Do lesíčka na čekanou) – 1966, 9 min.
• What Did I Not Tell The Prince (Co jsem princi neřekla) – 1975, 9 min.
• The Miner’s Rose (Horníkova růže) – 1974, 8 min.

Exclusive to the Deluxe Edition

60-page booklet including:

• New essay by film historian and expert on Central & Eastern European cinema Jonathan Owen.
• New essay by film critic Walter Chaw (Film Freak Central).
• Excerpts from the book JIŘÍ BRDEČKA: Life-Animation-Magic (2015, Limonádový Joe Publishing)
• New hard slipcase with artwork by Beth Morris

Very cool, I know the subscriptions run exclusively through Diabolik, but can we expect other retailers to handle it as well?

therewillbeblus wrote: Fri Jul 26, 2024 9:56 pm Very cool, I know the subscriptions run exclusively through Diabolik, but can we expect other retailers to handle it as well?

Considering places like Orbit had Savage Hunt it’s expected that this will also be available elsewhere.

Anyways I’ll say this is a fantastic film and while Lipsky’s Mysterious Castle is a wry and leisurely film, Adela is more chaotic and fast paced with a good amount of charm to it with the general vibe that you’re reading a genuine pulp detective novel filled with little nods to the character and the universe he lives in giving a sense that the scope of Carter’s stories (almost like The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in a weird way) are more vast than we get to know from what we see. It’s just a genuinely fun time and a glorious ode to American pop culture with a slew of imagination, highly recommended.

Cool, thanks. Yeah I love Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet, and it's probably their best release after The Unknown Man of Shandigor. An easy blind-buy from a label with very few easy blind-buys

It looks like Orbit is offering the deluxe edition for King Stakh but I would expect most other retailers like Amazon and Deep Discount to only offer the standard editions

Deaf Crocodile announced the following titles on Disc-Connected Podcast:

Trapped Ashes (2006, 4K)
Cathedral Of New Emotions (2006)
Freckled Max And The Spooks (1987)
Gwen; Or, The Book Of Sand (1985)
I Married A Strange Person (1997)/Two more Bill Plympton shorts
Mutant Aliens (2001)/Two more Bill Plympton shorts
Signals (1970, 4K)
In The Dust Of Stars (1976)
Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wasteland (1967)
Kingdom In The Clouds (1969)/Mama, a.k.a. Rock And Roll Wolf (1976) (Double Feature)
The Devil's Bride (1974)
The Mystery Of The Third Planet (1981)/The Pass (1988) (Double Feature)

I heard of the Plympton ones but nothing else.

I'd heard of Freckled Max and the Spooks, but only because the director is Juraj Jakubisko and I made a mental note of several of his films after seeing the brilliant Birds, Orphans and Fools. Everything else (except Trapped Ashes, which was confirmed a while ago) is so new to me that I wonder if I'm having a fever dream.

I myself really really hope that The Mystery of the Third Planet release leads to the release of the 2nd greatest Russian cartoon series of all time with a Cheburashka release considering they’re both directed by the same man.

The Mystery Of The Third Planet is a SF animation masterpiece, one of the grandest moviegoing experiences of my childhood in Soviet Union. I never hoped to see it restored and released in the West. What a joy!

Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wasteland (1967) - a very exciting move by Deaf Crocodile as it’s a 60s Japanese independent film. It has quite a following (probably largely due to its title). Third Window released it on Blu in the UK a while back. It’s a strange, dream-like crime movie which makes less and less sense as it goes along. It’s hurt a little by its low budget, the storyline feels small and contained. But if you love the Japanese New Wave and want to see something made even more on the fringes of Japanese cinema then this is worth a go!

Signals - or, to give it its full title, Signals: An Adventure in Space - is a pretty blatant East German rip-off of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I'm afraid it didn't impress me at all the only time that I saw it, but that comes with the major caveat that it was in pan-and-scan standard-definition 4:3 and dubbed into Polish, so I'm more than happy to concede that my viewing was significantly compromised. After all, 2001 itself would undoubtedly suffer quite significantly when given that treatment!

One other film that is (likely) on Deaf Crocodile’s eventual roster is Alraune (1928) aka A Daughter of Destiny, garnered from conversation with the restorer and correspondence with the label. It was a thoroughly enjoyable twisted tale from Weimar cinema, starring Brigitte Helm and Paul Wegener. I’m pretty thrilled for that one.

All of these announcements remind me that I really need to edit the release list.