Ah, what a week to put behind me. A final few days of high-maintenance students, last-minute Christmas shopping, my screening at Blim, and today, the seven-hour marathon screening of Satantango (thank you, Vancity Theatre!)... I'm exhausted. I may just get around to cleaning out the mold in my kitchen sink tomorrow; laundry can wait, as further activity will be necessitated by the holidays. At the moment, I'm stalling going to bed so I can just fuck around online for awhile - something I haven't really been able to do lately and am savouring. Some brief news about upcoming DVD releases, then:
If anyone missed it, Jodorowsky's feud with Abcko is at an end, and El Topo and The Holy Mountain will be seeing release on DVD soon. Jod's Myspace page is worth taking a peek at, if you're a fan - make sure you watch the video clip. It's been a long time since I've watched either of these films; I'm not sure how enthusiastic I am now - the huge fandom these films have garnered is a little off-putting, frankly, since a lot of the folks who triumph Jod don't know or care much about more "serious" cinema... but be that as it may, I used to love certain parts of El Topo. The grin on Jod's face when he asks his vengeful son to help him beg, the sooner to be able to kill him, is one of those moments that I carry with me everywhere. The second half of that film strikes some very personal chords with me...
A varied mixed lot of 70's cinema is due out soon, in fact. No news on US releases of Husbands, Death Watch, or Zabriskie Point - three old favourites of mine I'd happily revisit on DVD -- but Cammell and Roeg's Performance is coming out in February, with intense speculation on the net about whether it is likely to be a properly restored version. On the Criterion Forum, I also believe I noticed the news that Pasolini's Salo will be coming back to life as part of the Criterion collection. This is exciting to note, since I think there are flaws to my boot of it...
Vastly less important than Salo - tho' of note to me, since it's a film I have not seen - is the rather surprising news that the film "adaptation" of Desmond Morris' The Naked Ape - a book I am fond of - will be released in the new year. "Collectors DVD" site SuperHappyFun had been selling a version of it for awhile there, before the official release was annoucned. They also recently removed Ingmar Bergman's Face to Face from their lists - does that mean it's forthcoming in North America? (There IS a European release, I gather...).
Now if only I could find a copy of Emile de Antonio's In the King of Prussia! I see some crafty fellow has a used VHS edition on Amazon for $150... Hey, I wonder if anyone is selling pirate DVDs of Saul Bass' Phase IV (not the Brian Bosworth thing - it's a weird old SF thriller about human beings struggling to fight against, or adapt to, ant consciousness)...? I should check (note to self - check on Pontecorvo reissues, too). Seeya.
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Click here for a peek at what I got up to later that night. It's nearly 5AM now and I've been posting on Pointless Waste of Time (as Pemmican).
How many people turned out for Satantango?
ReplyDeleteThere were around twenty of us to start - me, my Russian friend Marina, critic Tom Charity, and about 15 or so others. About half of those others were weeded out at some point; there were fewer than 12 of us in the theatre when it ended, mostly people whose faces are getting pretty familiar to me at this point. Terrific film.
ReplyDeleteHey, didja see OLD JOY? Great little film, coming up at the Vancity Theatre in January. Think you'd like it - it's extremely subtle, gloriously shot, and has a great score and sensitive, nuanced performances. I've seen it three times now...
20 is more than I’d have guessed would show up for something like that. I haven’t seen Old Joy; I will catch it at the Vancity; thanks for the headsup.
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