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Sounds too good to be true.

As I said elsewhere, if the Munich guys consider this a work in progress it will most likely take a few years until they arrive at a version they deem to be as complete as possible. And then, and only then, there might be a release via the Filmmuseum label (which is of course the obvious candidate). I'm pretty sure it will come, actually, but given all the delays with the releases they announced years ago (literally, think of the Barnet!), I wouldn't hang my hopes too high that this will come anytime in the near future. But I'm very, very glad that they're doing something about bringing this series into a somewhat presentable shape.

Where is the best/cheapest place to buy Filmmuseum discs? I've yet to explore their catalogue but that Kalatozov set looks great.

Any other recommendations would be appreciated as well.

Try http://www.jpc.de . At least with new releases, they usually have very competitive prices (and who wants to buy from amazon these days, anyhow). The Kalatozov is a must have, but I'd also very much recommend their Vertov discs, the Ruttmann set very obviously, or Kuleshev's "Po Zakonu". If you want to look further, the two Lamprecht releases as well as their Asta Nielsen discs (Pabst's "Die freudlose Gasse" !) should be extremely attractive for any silent film fan. First-class transfers of not always first-class prints (though usually more than acceptable), but that latter point must really be forgiven.

Tommaso wrote:Try http://www.jpc.de .

And compare to this.

It gets kind of lost/forgotten among all the other amazing releases but the Materialfilme disc was one of the greatest blind buys I've ever made.

Apparently I hadn't looked at this thread in slightly over 2 years. I'd love to get that Asta Nielsen set.

Keep in mind that (depending on where you are) most of the German titles are likely available at your local Goethe-Institut library - they usually have a good selection of these, and since they're relatively expensive it's nice to be able to explore some of the more obscure ones without having to blind-buy.

Out of those, I'd recommend at least Material by Thomas Heise, which along with the shorter 1980's works in that set is pretty essential if you have any interest in recent European history and/or documentary filmmaking in general; Zwischen gestern und morgen, one of the most important German post-WWII "rubble" films (along with The Murderers Are Among Us); and Nerven, which is interesting to say the least, and required viewing for anyone seriously into silents.

Has anyone seen either of the films on the recent Richard Blank disc?

https://www.filmmuseum.at/en/shop/three_songs_of_lenin" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dziga Vertov's Tri pesni o Lenine coming in September.

And apparently another Benning: natural history / Ruhr.
Not a popular view around these parts, but the lack of Hi-Def releases of Mr. Benning's movies feels like a wasted opportunity.

JimmyTango wrote:https://www.filmmuseum.at/en/shop/three_songs_of_lenin

Dziga Vertov's Tri pesni o Lenine coming in September.

The Image went out of print and this now is listed for $100, so this is good news for anyone who needs it.

Another new release listed,'Oktoberfest München 1910-1980'.

A unique collection of film documents about the Munich Oktoberfest: early silent footage and amateur films, newsreel clips and TV shows, experiments with color, 3-D, CinemaScope, and multi-channel sound - and works of New German Cinema directors like Ferdinand Khittl, Herbert Achternbusch and Percy Adlon.

natural history & Ruhr is supposed to be out now, but doesn't appear to be listed on jpc yet. I'm waiting until jpc stock it instead of ordering directly from EF as it'll be cheaper -- could anyone else who's planning on doing the same thing post here if/when you see it appear on jpc? Ofc I'll do that if I see it first. Would be appreciated!

Tommaso wrote:No, the new resto of "October" is indeed not available anywhere, and it looked pretty great in the arte transmission last year, so that's a very welcome release. Forget about any earlier releases of the film. I just can't see the sense in pairing it with "Potemkin", given that the Transit release with the Meisel score is perfectly fine. Or perhaps we're in for a surprise here, of a kind that I just can't fathom at the moment. (...)

According to the 'Restoration Row' column on the latest issue of Film Comment, the Potemkin restauration carried out by the Vienna Film Museum does indeed seem to have something new up its sleeve: a talkie! "German Sound-on-Disc Version, with synch dialogue and additional sound by Edmund Meisel".

foggy eyes wrote:natural history & Ruhr is supposed to be out now, but doesn't appear to be listed on jpc yet. I'm waiting until jpc stock it instead of ordering directly from EF as it'll be cheaper -- could anyone else who's planning on doing the same thing post here if/when you see it appear on jpc? Ofc I'll do that if I see it first. Would be appreciated!

And so far is being offerd by a single marketplace seller on Amazon.de

JAP wrote:And so far is being offerd by a single marketplace seller on Amazon.de

:-k Wonder why this is taking so long...

Wonder what happened to "Three Songs About Lenin"? Maybe a November release?

foggy eyes wrote:natural history & Ruhr is supposed to be out now, but doesn't appear to be listed on jpc yet. I'm waiting until jpc stock it instead of ordering directly from EF as it'll be cheaper -- could anyone else who's planning on doing the same thing post here if/when you see it appear on jpc? Ofc I'll do that if I see it first. Would be appreciated!

In case you're still interested jpc has it for pre-order for € 19.99 with a December 12 delivery date. About to order mine together with Fragments of Kubelka!

JAP wrote:In case you're still interested jpc has it for pre-order for € 19.99 with a December 12 delivery date. About to order mine together with Fragments of Kubelka!

Thanks so much for posting! Going to put in a 'pre-order' now! \:D/

Some people have already had a copy for a while...

JAP wrote:

foggy eyes wrote:natural history & Ruhr is supposed to be out now, but doesn't appear to be listed on jpc yet. I'm waiting until jpc stock it instead of ordering directly from EF as it'll be cheaper -- could anyone else who's planning on doing the same thing post here if/when you see it appear on jpc? Ofc I'll do that if I see it first. Would be appreciated!

In case you're still interested jpc has it for pre-order for € 19.99 with a December 12 delivery date. About to order mine together with Fragments of Kubelka!

I hadn't ordered anything from jpc since the beginning of the year so they sent me a concerned 'we hope you are still alive' email that included a 20% discount off anything and everything, so I had a little German blowout that included the latest batch of Filmmuseum releases (Benning, Blank and the Oktoberfest collection, which seems to include some really interesting stuff on the second disc, including a feature by resident New German Cinema wackjob Herbert Achternbusch). With the discount and the removal of VAT they came down to 13.44 apiece. So, if you haven't used jpc for a while, check your inbox / junkmail.

Edit: Just to clarify, list price on these from EF is 29.95, so the jpc price is already heavily discounted, even though they don't indicate it as such.

zedz wrote:I hadn't ordered anything from jpc since the beginning of the year so they sent me a concerned 'we hope you are still alive' email that included a 20% discount off anything and everything, so I had a little German blowout

Haven't had one of those discount emails for years but thanks for rubbing it in

foggy eyes wrote:

zedz wrote:I hadn't ordered anything from jpc since the beginning of the year so they sent me a concerned 'we hope you are still alive' email that included a 20% discount off anything and everything, so I had a little German blowout

Haven't had one of those discount emails for years but thanks for rubbing it in

I last made an order with them on 21.11.2013, so hopefully I'm due one!

TMDaines wrote:

foggy eyes wrote:

zedz wrote:I hadn't ordered anything from jpc since the beginning of the year so they sent me a concerned 'we hope you are still alive' email that included a 20% discount off anything and everything, so I had a little German blowout

Haven't had one of those discount emails for years but thanks for rubbing it in

I last made an order with them on 21.11.2013, so hopefully I'm due one!

I only opened it by accident, since the header was something completely innocuous like "Mr [your name here], best wishes to [your city of residence]"

I got one of those coupons too, though I couldn't for the life of me figure out why since all my Filmmuseum discs were purchased second-hand from board members. Turns out it was 'cause of Out 1 last year