Miklos Jancso on DVD

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Scharphedin2
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 7:37 am
Location: Denmark/Sweden

#26 Post by Scharphedin2 » Wed May 31, 2006 7:56 am

Thanks Don Lope, you know I own the old RED AND WHITE laserdisc from Image Entertainment! And, I can tell you that it was one of the very worst laserdiscs (out of 500+ titles) that I ever purchased for image quality... a tradition that appears to be continuing in the DVD format, unfortunately. However, almost anything would be an immense improvement as far as I am concerned.

The Clavis set sounds really good, and the screen caps linked above look quite excellent to my eyes. I will give this a shot soon...

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skuhn8
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:46 pm
Location: Chico, CA

#27 Post by skuhn8 » Wed May 31, 2006 10:15 am

Dorian Gray wrote:Here's a "DreamQuest vs Clavis" comparison for Silence and cry.
wow. the clavis looks excellent. Considerable improvement.

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Barmy
Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 3:59 pm

#28 Post by Barmy » Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:39 pm

No one interested in Jancso should hesitate to buy the Clavis "Red Psalm" and "Silence and Cry". I found the sound to be a bit "thin", but otherwise have no complaints, other than the yellow subtitles (which, at least, are not garishly yellow). Of the 20 or so Jancso films I have seen, "Red Psalm" is my favorite.

I agree that the Clavis "Round Up" transfer is problematic. For me it's not so much that the overall image is dark, but dark things in the distance (such as people wearing dark clothes) are fuzzy and indistinct. I still think it's watchable, like a mediocre VHS.

I have, but haven't looked at, "R&W". This has been screened in 35mm a number of times in NYC and frankly I've never seen a decent print (maybe those were all the same print). However, based on those screenings, I have a suspicion that "R&W" even in pristine condition has a soft image. Maybe that is because this was one of the earlier (earliest?) films where Jancso did EXTREMELY long takes, and he used a different type of camera (subsequent Jancso films don't have the softness problem, however). The 35mm screenings of "Round Up" that I have seen have always been sharp, but "Round Up" doesn't employ the extreme long take style.

In the end, I think people need to be realistic. We now have US, UK and French companies issuing Jancso (in addition to DreamQuest, we have Facets' "Electra"). None of them have done an outstanding job. I'm not sure how many more companies are going to be issuing Jancso, particularly in restored versions. I would rather watch Clavis' crappy Round Up than the most pristine edition of some of the absurdly overrated directors that have been treated better on DVD. So, sample a few, and if you really like them, buy some more and don't get too agitated about the transfer.

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Scharphedin2
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 7:37 am
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#29 Post by Scharphedin2 » Thu Jun 01, 2006 1:58 pm

I agree. It is great to have access to these films at all, and some of them even in very nice transfers. I remember how ecstatic I was at being able to see RED AND WHITE on laserdisc. The image quality was poor, but it was a fantastic film, and at that time I just felt extremely happy to be in a position to view the film at all, and in its correct aspect ratio (it is not that long ago that pan&scan was the order of the day). It is easy to become spoiled, when we have become accustomed to the levels of perfection that are achievable with the DVD medium.

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Orphic Lycidas
Joined: Fri Jun 02, 2006 7:25 pm
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#30 Post by Orphic Lycidas » Mon Jun 05, 2006 2:09 am

I just received my copy of "Red Psalm" from Clavis last week and I've watched it half a dozen times. It's a masterpiece. "Red Psalm" has been at the very top of my "must find" list for years so I'm especially grateful that someone finally (!!!) put it out. It's perhaps the most intellectually abstract film I've ever see. The casting is perfect. The music is perfect (I haven't wanted the soundtrack to an art-film so badly since I first saw Peter Watkins' "Evening Land" two years ago). A lot of what goes on in the second half tends to go over ones head at first but I'm putting it all together. The final shot is very effective.

Barmy, where are you located that you've managed to see 20 Jancso films? The only ones I've been able to see are "Red Psalm," "Red & the White," "Electra, My Love," "Silence and Cry." I'll be able to get copies of "The Round Up," "My Way Home" and "Hungarian Rhapsody" (I think) sometime soon but besides those seven is there anything else out on cassette or bootleg? What do you think of "Agnus Dei," if you've seen it?

For any other Jancso fans, a link to an essay on the film by Raymond Durgnat.

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Barmy
Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 3:59 pm

#31 Post by Barmy » Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:14 pm

I live in NYC and, in the late 80s/early 90s, before artsy European flicks went out of style, Jancso films showed up from time to time. Some of his more recent stuff has also appeared briefly at Anthology Film Archives. I've seen the following, and possibly a few others.

Lord's Lantern in Budapest
Blue Danube Waltz
God Walks Backwards
Jesus Christ's Horoscope
Season of Monsters
The Dawn
Boccaccio in Hungary
Hungarian Rhapsody
Allegro barbaro
Private Vices, Public Virtues
Elektra
Red Psalm
La Pacifista
Silence and Cry
The Red and the White
My Way Home
The Round-Up

Anyway, La Pacifista is available at eBay as a bootleg and Season of Monsters and Private Vices are available at Video Search of Miami. Hungarian Rhapsody is available on VHS from Facets. All, of course, in fairly bad transfers. But all are stunning films.

Jancso article links.

Anonymous

#32 Post by Anonymous » Sat Jun 17, 2006 9:00 am

Very excited about Red Psalm. The problem of course is the execrable
subtitling. I have never seen anything worse. At one point meaning is actually reversed. I wonder if Orphic Lycidas is on the job. At any rate, his copies of The Round Up and Hungarian Rhapsody are in the mail.
Can't wait to find out what he has to say. I'm an old man and this is the first message I've ever posted anywhere. You guys are knocking me out.

Time to state the obvious, I think, concerning the FLICKS 1998 Graham Petrie monograph on Red Psalm vs. Durgnat's piece at ROUGE: the Petrie product is very flimsy, and the repetition inside the flimsiness is intolerable. Durgnat's essay at ROUGE, with all of its defects, seems to me to be a wonderful example of film scholarship.

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Scharphedin2
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 7:37 am
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#33 Post by Scharphedin2 » Fri Jul 07, 2006 7:13 pm

Don Lope de Aguirre wrote:I (unfortunately) own Second Run's 'The Red & The White' of which I had high hopes. Sadly, it's pretty crap...I read on a french forum that the Clavis edition is not very good either (as to which is better, I can not say). Ugetsu says that the Kino one is better than the 2nd Run (though if there are decent prints available why are they all crap?? :? )
AlaPage dispatched this set to me more than a month ago, and I was just about ready to throw lawyers and the whole nine yards into the affair in order to make them trace the package, when it finally arrived today.

I am very pleased with the set from the segments I have watched so far, and I agree that Red Psalm looks particularly filmic and beautiful.

However, my reason for posting is the ongoing debate over The Red and the White. On each of the discs in the set, there are excerpts from Clavis' other releases including The Red and the White. The excerpt, as far as I am concerned looks really good, but then the stills I have seen from the Second Run disc actually also look acceptable. Could someone who owns both, post a comment on which one looks better?

alfons416
Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:39 am

#34 Post by alfons416 » Thu Jul 20, 2006 7:37 am

anyone know how Clavis release of Almanac of fall by Bela Tarr is? i guess it's better then facets atleast, and there are no more versions around right now, right? it has english subs?

Hashi
Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:39 am

#35 Post by Hashi » Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:35 am

Don't know yet, but I've ordered it. Here's the first Clavis/Tarr reviews that I've seen... has English, Dutch, German and French subs.

Family Nest:

Le Nid Familial - Test DVD

Le Nid Familial - Clavis review

Wittsdream
Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:00 pm
Location: Chicago

#36 Post by Wittsdream » Thu Jul 20, 2006 12:29 pm

Do the Clavis Jancso titles (Red Psalm, Silence and Cry, My Way Home) BOX and Round Up ALL HAVE ENGLISH SUBTITLES?

I just want to make certain! Thanks.

alfons416
Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:39 am

#37 Post by alfons416 » Thu Jul 20, 2006 4:20 pm

Hashi:

thanks, family nest looks alot better than my facets atleast.

kekid
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:55 pm

#38 Post by kekid » Thu Aug 03, 2006 5:35 pm

Clavis "Red Psalm" is in 4:3 aspect ratio. Is this how the film was made?

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Scharphedin2
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#39 Post by Scharphedin2 » Thu Aug 03, 2006 5:49 pm

Wittsdream wrote:Do the Clavis Jancso titles (Red Psalm, Silence and Cry, My Way Home) BOX and Round Up ALL HAVE ENGLISH SUBTITLES?

I just want to make certain! Thanks.
The films in the box all have subtitles, and the quality of the discs is really nice. According to dvdfr.com The Round Up also has subtitles, and I believe their other releases are supposed to have them as well. It would seem that English subtitles are a general rule with Clavis. Regarding The Round Up you may want to read through the thread. I think someone mentioned it was not that great.

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tavernier
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#40 Post by tavernier » Thu Sep 07, 2006 3:03 pm

The Film Society of Lincoln Center in NYC is presenting a Jancso retro as part of a program called "Hungary: 50th Anniversary of 1956 Uprising," from Oct. 27-Nov. 16.

No details on the films yet, or whether it's complete.

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Barmy
Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 3:59 pm

#41 Post by Barmy » Thu Sep 07, 2006 4:35 pm

Wow, thanks! "Complete" seems VERY unlikely, but anything is better than the shabby treatment Jancso has gotten on the retrospective circuit.

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tavernier
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:18 pm

#42 Post by tavernier » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:13 pm

I knew you'd appreciate that news. 8-)

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Orphic Lycidas
Joined: Fri Jun 02, 2006 7:25 pm
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#43 Post by Orphic Lycidas » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:28 pm

Same here. I'll be saving my pretty pennies. Where can we go to keep updated (besides here, of course). Since this two 1/2 week program is dedicated to 1956 do we know for sure this is going to include a Jancso retrospective or are they just showing a film or two? Jancso never made a film directly touching upon the '56 revolution (for obvious reasons) so I'm curious how far they can go if they select only a handful of films judged to be relevant ("Red Psalm" would be a likely candidate, IMO). How far in advance do the Film Society's tickets go on sale? I looked up their website but couldn't find anything on pricing. Thanks very much for the info. =D>

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Gropius
Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2006 5:47 pm

#44 Post by Gropius » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:40 pm

tavernier wrote:The Film Society of Lincoln Center in NYC is presenting a Jancso retro as part of a program called "Hungary: 50th Anniversary of 1956 Uprising," from Oct. 27-Nov. 16.
There's something profoundly obnoxious about American institutions superficially celebrating the Hungarian 'struggle for freedom' as a triumph of American-style neoliberal plutocracy over the evil and obsolete spectre of communism. The irony is that the Hungarian film industry has declined substantially in the post-1989 free market paradise, having been swamped with Hollywood imports.

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Orphic Lycidas
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#45 Post by Orphic Lycidas » Thu Sep 07, 2006 8:40 pm

I'm not quite sure I understand how you mean that. While both the Stalinist bureaucracy and capitalist imperialism have attempted to re-write the history of the 1956 uprising along the lines you've stated the Hungarian revolution most certainly was not about the attempted "triumph of American-style neoliberal plutocracy over the evil and obsolete spectre of communism" and I don't know of any reason to assume the Film Society of Lincoln Center is attempting to foster so silly a notion. Rather the revolution was an attempt by the Hungarian working-class to free itself from the Soviet Union and introduce socialism and workers' democracy.

An article reviewing the history of the event in question, for anyone who might be interested. It also briefly touches upon earlier Hungarian history that will not be unfamiliar to students of Jancso (Bela Kun, the Horthy regime, etc). For some reason the link to the second half of the article is not currently functioning.

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Gropius
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#46 Post by Gropius » Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:52 am

Orphic Lycidas wrote:the Hungarian revolution most certainly was not about the attempted "triumph of American-style neoliberal plutocracy over the evil and obsolete spectre of communism"... Rather the revolution was an attempt by the Hungarian working-class to free itself from the Soviet Union and introduce socialism and workers' democracy.
Yes, I am well aware of this fact (I also frequent the WSWS, y'know). My point was that the American government has tried to hijack this anniversary to represent it in exactly the terms I described (Bush's speech in Budapest in June, using the anti-logic for which he is famed, outrageously tried to use Hungary '56 as a warped parallel to the war in Iraq), and the current Hungarian government is only too happy to go along with them.

Perhaps it is a bit unfair to tar the Lincoln Center with Bush's brush, but as an arts institution bloated with corporate cash, it can be held up as a flagship of the supposed success of American capitalism.

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skuhn8
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:46 pm
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#47 Post by skuhn8 » Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:40 am

Gropius, sorry, read you posts a couple times and still don't know what the hell you're driving at. Something about Bush's speech (which the HU administration certainly did NOT celebrate) and then the US hijacking of HU'56. I don't know.

There's a very large hungarian population in the US, most of it centered in NY (I heard there's even a tv station that broadcasts from there in Hungarian). '56 was a pretty big deal considering the balls it took to step up like that and the unfortunate occurance of the Suez crisis which diverted the world's attention. The fact that it succeeded at all (for those 5 days or so) is pretty amazing.

If you are trying to draw a connection between the Bush administration and Lincoln's film program...you must be privy to some information that I'm not aware of. Please share. Otherwise let's keep'em separated. Let's keep Dipshit's smelly fingers off good film.

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Lemmy Caution
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
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#48 Post by Lemmy Caution » Fri Sep 08, 2006 12:29 pm

There's a very large hungarian population in the US, most of it centered in NY
New Brunswick, New Jersey used to have a very sizeable Hungarian community. I've been told that it has largely been replaced by Mexicans these days. Not sure where the Hungarians have dispersed to, maybe just scattered throughout the suburbs.

Think I'll go with Silence & Cry tonight.

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Gropius
Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2006 5:47 pm

#49 Post by Gropius » Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:36 pm

I just returned from a screening of The Round-Up at the Barbican in London (also part of a brief 'Hungary '56' series, probably a scaled-down version of the New York one), and Christ it was a poor image: digital projection, out-of-focus, pallid, cropped to 1.33, as if the whole thing had been filmed from a television screen. And this was supposed to be a 'serious arts venue'.

Still, through the haze I could appreciate this as an accomplished film, if substantially more joyless and claustrophobic than The Red and the White, my only point of comparison so far. In a rather condescending article about Hungarian cinema by the Anglo-Hungarian writer Tibor Fischer in today's Guardian, he fleetingly compares The Round-Up to Beckett, which made some sense looking back on it (I'm thinking of the late play What Where - a cruelly repetitive dance with authority).

Anyway, on the way out I was handed a Second Run advertisement by one of their staff, who assured me that their DVD release (scheduled for March '07) will be better than what I saw today (couldn't be any worse).

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Orphic Lycidas
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#50 Post by Orphic Lycidas » Sat Oct 07, 2006 5:54 pm

It seems like the Film Society of Lincoln Center has finally put some info up on this event: "Resistance and Rebirth: Hungarian Cinema,
50 Years after ‘56," October 27 – November 16(http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/hungarian06.html). Apparently the event will be divided into three series: "Remembering ‘56," "New Cinema from Hungary" & "The Currents of History: A Tribute to Miklós Jancsó." The Jancso series is to consist of seven (7) films, although only "The Red and the White" and "Electra, My Love" seem to be officially confirmed for October. The November schedule isn't up yet.

Speculation:
I think it would be a fair guess to suppose that "The Round-Up" and "Silence and Cry" will be included as well since they're among the most popularly accessible. "My Way Home" and "Red Psalm"? Possible. "Agnus Dei" is the grail item for me (good term, 'grail item') and I know it is for a few other people here as well. Maybe we'll get lucky. Either way, it's great that this is happening.

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