Czech DVDs

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MichaelB · #51 Post by **MichaelB** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 5:58 am

I've been very impressed by the Slovak Film Institute's work on both occasions that I've encountered it, namely:

1) their DVD of DuÅ¡an Hanák's Pictures of the Old World (Obrazy starého sveta);
2) the master they supplied of Jan Å vankmajer's only Slovak film, Down to the Cellar (Do pivnice), for the BFI DVD of his short films - for my money, the finest transfer on the set by a very considerable margin. I understand they went back to the original negative and created a new master under the supervision of the film's cinematographer, and it showed.

petoluk · #52 Post by **petoluk** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 1:49 pm

Skritek wrote:I doubt all of them are worth buying...

I'd say you omitted the most important one - Jakubisko's Postav dom, zasaÄ

Skritek · #53 Post by **Skritek** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 3:06 pm

I omitted the Jakubisko feature because I thought it was one of Jakubiskos weakest efforts from his earlier years. I could easily be mistaken about the quality, since I haven't seen it yet.

Concerning Zeman, is the Japanese release of his films worth buying, the price on Yesasia is really, really high (at least for me), so I'm not sure if it's worth it (I understand Czech, so subs aren't a problem).

Lino · #54 Post by **Lino** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 9:06 am

Skritek wrote:Concerning Zeman, is the Japanese release of his films worth buying, the price on Yesasia is really, really high (at least for me), so I'm not sure if it's worth it (I understand Czech, so subs aren't a problem).

YES! They're totally worth your money! I have them all (a small fortune on its own) and all the prints are restored and there are plenty of shorts and even a vintage documentary on Zeman to be found in them. In short: buy them one a month and collect them all. They're as good as it gets.

Lemmy Caution · #55 Post by **Lemmy Caution** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 11:48 am

Anyone familiar with Viktor Kubal's film Krvavá Pani (1980)?
The dvd just turned up and IMDb and I know nothing about it. A mere 6 votes thus far and not much info at all. It says that it is animation, though I didn't register that from the Dvd.

Steven H · #56 Post by **Steven H** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:09 pm

Lemmy Caution wrote:Anyone familiar with Viktor Kubal's film Krvavá Pani (1980)?

I got this from the SFU site.

The Slovak Film Institute, in cooperation with Global Network Distribution, is currently releasing on DVD the second full-length animated film by Viktor Kubal, the Bloody Lady (1980). It is a story of crime and love inspired by the historical legend about the cruel Lady of ÄŒachtice.

The DVD has a Slovak and English menu, it is equipped with subtitles in ten languages (Slovak, English, French, Spanish, German, Hungarian, Czech, Polish, Italian and Russian) and bonuses (documentary â€œViktor Kubal, the Magician â€

Lemmy Caution · #57 Post by **Lemmy Caution** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 1:21 pm

Thanks for the info.
I'll try to pick it up in the next few days.
Sounds promising.
Though I don't know about The Lady, as the PRC is winning the battle against Wikipedia again.

Skritek · #58 Post by **Skritek** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 2:13 pm

I'll probably buy the box when I'll have more money.

As for Krvava pani, it has a 73% rating on CSFD (Czecho-Slovak film database), which is less then his other film Zbojnik Jurko. But I've never seen anything by him, so I don't know.

Another animated film will be released in CZ: Velka syrova loupez by Vaclav Bedrich (I think he's mentioned in Hames' book) It's supposed to be great (although for kids), but I've never seen it.

petoluk · #59 Post by **petoluk** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:30 pm

Lemmy Caution wrote:Anyone familiar with Viktor Kubal's film Krvavá Pani (1980)?

Well, there's a tech review over @ DVDFreak.

When it comes to Czech/Slovak DVDs, try searching there...

Skritek wrote:Concerning Zeman, is the Japanese release of his films worth buying, the price on Yesasia is really, really high (at least for me), so I'm not sure if it's worth it (I understand Czech, so subs aren't a problem).

Well, it depends - I've seen all Zeman's films years ago as a kid, and was fascinated by them at the time, so for me it was a no-brainer to buy both boxes + the standalone release of Ukradená vzducholoÄ

Skritek · #60 Post by **Skritek** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 3:54 pm

According to DVDFreak Krabat/Carodejuv ucen has the German track on the Japanese release. Is that really so?

petoluk · #61 Post by **petoluk** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 3:47 am

Skritek wrote:According to DVDFreak Krabat/Carodejuv ucen has the German track on the Japanese release. Is that really so?

Unfortunately - YES. (I've got the disc myself, so you can trust me on this.

)

Also, it seems the film's intended AR was 1.33:1, not 1.79:1 as on the Japanese DVD. (FYI, here you can find a comparison between the DVD & a full-frame Czech TV broadcast.)

Cheers!

Peto

Lemmy Caution · #62 Post by **Lemmy Caution** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:58 pm

[quote="Steven H"]
I got this from the SFU site.
The Slovak Film Institute, in cooperation with Global Network Distribution, is currently releasing on DVD the second full-length animated film by Viktor Kubal, the Bloody Lady (1980). It is a story of crime and love inspired by the historical legend about the cruel Lady of ÄŒachtice.

The DVD has a Slovak and English menu, it is equipped with subtitles in ten languages (Slovak, English, French, Spanish, German, Hungarian, Czech, Polish, Italian and Russian) and bonuses (documentary â€œViktor Kubal, the Magician â€

Steven H · #63 Post by **Steven H** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 3:04 pm

Thanks for the review, Lemmy Caution. I'll definitely be trying to see this. Anyway you could post a few screen captures?

Lemmy Caution · #64 Post by **Lemmy Caution** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 3:22 pm

Er ... talk me through it.

I have no idea how to go about such.
I do have a Dvd rom.

Steven H · #65 Post by **Steven H** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 3:27 pm

If you have either Nero Showtime or PowerDVD they both have image capture options (usually you just right click on the screen while it's playing and a "capture image" option appears.) It will usually send it to a folder it creates in your My Documents (if you're windows, no clue about Macs) and if you fiddle with the options you can get it to send it somewhere else. If its too much trouble I'll just have to fend for myself, and I appreciate the words in any case.

petoluk · #66 Post by **petoluk** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 5:43 pm

Steven H wrote:Anyway you could post a few screen captures?

Actually, I posted a link to a review of the disc with screen caps just a few posts above...

petoluk wrote:
Lemmy Caution wrote:Anyone familiar with Viktor Kubal's film Krvavá Pani (1980)?
Well, there's a tech review over @ DVDFreak.

Cheers!

Peto

Steven H · #67 Post by **Steven H** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 6:27 pm

petoluk wrote:
Steven H wrote:Anyway you could post a few screen captures?
Actually, I posted a link to a review of the disc with screen caps just a few posts above... :wink:

My mistake! I only looked at the Zeman link and ended up getting carried away at that site forgetting all about the DVDFreak one. Thanks for the info.

Lemmy Caution · #68 Post by **Lemmy Caution** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:51 am

If you look at those screen caps for Krvava Pani, the first four are done in something of a Sunday morning cartoon style and come from the first 25 minutes when things are happy and sunny. Then the key moment of drama/change in cap. 5, and caps 6-10 are in a darker more expressionistic style, sometimes reminiscent of silent films and 30's horror (especially caps 7 & 8). There were even times when I thought a soviet worker style was referenced briefly, which I think occurred one time just after cap #8.

[Note: Cap. 3 shows the fish out of water gag .. and it was a fox not rabbit]

But thanks for the software recs for doing screen caps. I can probably pick up the software for a dollar or so next time I'm at the market.

petoluk · #69 Post by **petoluk** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 3:30 pm

FYI, there's a couple of new comparisons over @ DVDFreak:

Na kometÄ› / On the Comet [Broadway (Japan) vs. CÄŒV / Bonton]

[url=http://dvdfreak.bloudil.cz/freak.php?p=udolivcel&dz=0]ÚdolÃ vÄ

solent · #70 Post by **solent** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:24 pm

To all you Czech experts out there: have Evald Schorm's films ODVAHU PRO USEDNI DEN [COURAGE FOR EVERYDAY, 1964] & NAVRAT ZTRACENEHO SYNA [RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON, 1966] been released anywhere on DVD? I'm hoping for Second Run releases as the only possibilities since their track record on Eastern Euro films has been impressive so far.

petoluk · #71 Post by **petoluk** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 7:12 pm

solent wrote:To all you Czech experts out there: have Evald Schorm's films ODVAHU PRO USEDNI DEN [COURAGE FOR EVERYDAY, 1964] & NAVRAT ZTRACENEHO SYNA [RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON, 1966] been released anywhere on DVD? I'm hoping for Second Run releases as the only possibilities since their track record on Eastern Euro films has been impressive so far.

Hi!

As far as I know, these 2 titles are not available on DVD. Návrat ztraceného syna should be released here by the end of this year, however, I'm sure there won't be any English subtitles on the disc. I didn't hear anything about KaÅ¾dÃ½ den odvahu (which is the correct Czech title of the other film) lately...

Cheers!

Peto

P.S. A comprehensive index of Czech/Slovak films available/to be released on DVD can be found @ zona.bloudil.cz - check the right-most column of the page. It's Czech-only, but you don't have to speak Czech to understand it - e.g. the following entry is pretty clear, ain't it?

Schorm Evald
Návrat ztraceného syna (1966) - CÄŒV/Bonton - v ÄŒR ohláÅ¡eno na 12/2007

Skritek · #72 Post by **Skritek** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 7:15 am

Has anybody seen the films by Chytilova that are released in the Czech Republic? I've seen Hra o Jablko, Panelstory and Faunovo... and now I'm wondering if the films released on DVD (Kopytem sem, kopytem tam, Sasek a kralovna, Kalamita) are worth buying.

Another film I'm not too sure about buying is "Posledni lec" by Vladimir Sis. It seems to have originally been a play and the main actor also wrote the script, but I've no idea what it could be like.

tavernier · #73 Post by **tavernier** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:14 am

Also...do any of those Chytilova DVDs have English subs?

Skritek · #74 Post by **Skritek** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:58 am

It seems that only the Kalamita DVD has English subs and "Patrani po Ester" (a doc about Ester Krumbachova). Haven't checked her newer films though.

Speaking of docs, does anybody have any idea about releases of Klic k urcovani trpasliku by Sulik (about Juracek) and Sentiment by Tomas Hejtmanek (about Vlacil)?

petoluk · #75 Post by **petoluk** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 4:07 am

Skritek wrote:The Slovak Film Institute will be releasing a series of films from the 70s in the near future... I have to admit that I haven't seen any of them, but from what I've read it seems that Medena veza... are worth buying.

There's a tech review of Medená veÅ¾a over @ DVDFreak - looks stunning, pity they didn't make it anamorphic though...

Cheers!

Peto