Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#176 Post by zedz » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:27 pm

Hot on the heels of the big, essential Jonas Mekas box set from Potemkine / Re:Voir, the latter has released more Mekas, in the form of Guns of the Trees and The Sixties Quartet.

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htshell
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#177 Post by htshell » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:32 pm

Jonas Mekas screenings in Philadelphia, April 19-20. Also a panel discussion with Andrew Lampert, Amy Taubin, Jackie Raynal and Ed Halter.
http://ihousephilly.org/jonasmekas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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antnield
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#178 Post by antnield » Tue Mar 05, 2013 4:27 pm

LUX just have released John Woodman: The Landscape Films 1977-1982, collecting nine of the 13 works he produced during that period. The set comes with a booklet containing notes from Woodman himself and Malcolm Le Grice.


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swo17
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#180 Post by swo17 » Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:17 am

This Amazon seller only has a 93% rating, but they've got a few brand new copies of the OOP Walden with the massive book on sale for only $86 shipped.

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knives
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#181 Post by knives » Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:13 am

Though you could the French set for just a little more on .es

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Lemmy Caution
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#182 Post by Lemmy Caution » Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:14 am

I spotted a documentary Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film (2012) directed by Pip Chodorov.
It has interviews with Brakhage, Jacobs, Mekas, and archival footage of Richter and Warhol among others.
Anyone familiar with this?

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htshell
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#183 Post by htshell » Thu Mar 21, 2013 12:21 pm

It's a very good documentary with the operative word in the title being A History of Experimental Film. It's a highly subjective history from someone who has been in this scene since he was very young. There can be some gripes, chiefly among them that no women filmmakers are discussed, and that it follows almost exclusively the canonical figures of experimental film (something that could seem at odds with the spirit of the genre), but again it is a personal history, not an attempt to provide an all-encompassing narrative of the genre. I enjoyed the film very much.

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Gregory
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#184 Post by Gregory » Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:59 pm

It's still showing here and there, but there's also a Kino Lorber DVD of it, which I haven't found any reviews for yet.

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#185 Post by Saimo » Mon Mar 25, 2013 8:12 am

Franco Brocani's Necropolis (1970), starring Tina Aumont, Carmelo Bene, Pierre Clementi and Viva, to be released on May 22.
The RHV disc will be English-friendly.
http://www.amazon.it/Necropolis-Tina-Au ... 00BX8PP62/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Time Out Film Guide:
"Brocani conjures together all your favorite European cultural and historical myth figures in order to attack the centuries of 'sublimation' that have produced our cities and their inhabitants. The gang's all here: Frankenstein's monster gropes towards the awareness that his mind is a universe; Attila, naked on a white horse, liberates his people from their ignominy; the ultra-caustic Viva bemoans the frustrations of married life and drifts into the elegiac persona of the Bloody Countess Bathory; Louis Waldon is a hip American tourist searching for the (missing) Mona Lisa. The range is extraordinary, from stand-up Jewish comedy to a kind of flea-market expressionism."

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htshell
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#186 Post by htshell » Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:19 am

We ran Filmmakers Coop's 16mm print of Necropolis a few years ago. It's pretty terrible unfortunately. A post-Warhol ramble that despite the promising cast was pretty forgettable. But I'm happy that some Brocani is coming to DVD! Would love to check out his other films.

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#187 Post by Saimo » Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:52 am

The Necropolis DVD will feature three of his early shorts as bonus features.

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#188 Post by zedz » Mon Mar 25, 2013 3:40 pm

htshell wrote:We ran Filmmakers Coop's 16mm print of Necropolis a few years ago. It's pretty terrible unfortunately. A post-Warhol ramble that despite the promising cast was pretty forgettable. But I'm happy that some Brocani is coming to DVD! Would love to check out his other films.
I absolutely believe you that it's awful, but I doubt I can turn down the chance to see Viva play Elizabeth Bathory. In fact, I'm now finding it hard to imagine Bathory as anybody but Viva, shout-drawling about needing "maww VURR-gens, goddammit!"

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htshell
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#189 Post by htshell » Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:42 am

In no way am I trying to discourage anyone from purchasing and watching this release! Just had to give my two cents since we rented this print without seeing it and it was sort of surprisingly dull. Maybe it will fare better with a cleaned-up version for the DVD, and the inclusion of his short films means that I will definitely pick up a copy myself.

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Matt
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#190 Post by Matt » Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:18 am

And yet here it is, "finales de Marzo," and it's not even listed in their online store as a pre-order.

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#191 Post by zedz » Mon Apr 01, 2013 11:28 pm

Amazon.es lists it as available ("on import") from one vendor, who seems to be based in France and claims it's in stock, but he's a new vendor (Danger, Will Robinson!) and is probably bullshitting.

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#192 Post by Adam » Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:53 am

htshell wrote:It's a very good documentary with the operative word in the title being A History of Experimental Film. It's a highly subjective history from someone who has been in this scene since he was very young. There can be some gripes, chiefly among them that no women filmmakers are discussed, and that it follows almost exclusively the canonical figures of experimental film (something that could seem at odds with the spirit of the genre), but again it is a personal history, not an attempt to provide an all-encompassing narrative of the genre. I enjoyed the film very much.
We're screening it in Glendale CA on Wednesday (April 3) for free, and I am doing a Q&A afterwards, if you are in Southern California.
http://www.lafilmforum.org/index/Curren ... _Film.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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vertovfan
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#193 Post by vertovfan » Thu Apr 18, 2013 11:57 am

Portabella set now available for purchase from Intermedio.

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#194 Post by Saimo » Fri Apr 19, 2013 3:29 am

Saimo wrote:Franco Brocani's Necropolis (1970), starring Tina Aumont, Carmelo Bene, Pierre Clementi and Viva, to be released on May 22.
The RHV disc will be English-friendly.
http://www.amazon.it/Necropolis-Tina-Au ... 00BX8PP62/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Artwork (to be confirmed):
Image

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repeat
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#195 Post by repeat » Fri Apr 19, 2013 7:09 am

Maybe not literally the right thread, but I don't know if it's been mentioned here that the excellent documentary website DocAlliance also offers some interesting experimental / non-narrative films, namely Peter Liechti's 2009 masterpiece The Sound Of Insects (unfortunately not available in the US) as well as Signer's Suitcase, a good chunk of Peter Mettler's filmography, and some interesting looking 1980's work from András Szirtes, whom I at least hadn't heard of before.

Other good stuff (not sure if all of these are available worldwide):
Step Across The Border (Nicolas Humbert / Werner Penzel)
It Might Be That Beauty Has Strengthened Our Resolve: Masao Adachi (Philippe Grandrieux)
Artel and Landscape (Sergei Loznitsa)
Land of Madness (Luc Moullet)
2010 masterclass with Werner Herzog

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Lemmy Caution
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#196 Post by Lemmy Caution » Fri Apr 19, 2013 8:18 am

Sounds like a useful resource if Documentary Films becomes the next Genre List go.

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Gregory
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#197 Post by Gregory » Fri Apr 19, 2013 11:13 am

Step across the Border is wonderful and long available on DVD from Winter & Winter—well worth it if the audio and video quality are reduced in the streaming version, and also for the 12 bonus tracks on the disc.
W&W also released two more of Humbert's films, Middle of the Moment and Wolfsgrub, which I've not yet seen.

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#198 Post by zedz » Thu May 02, 2013 11:54 pm

Matt wrote:
And yet here it is, "finales de Marzo," and it's not even listed in their online store as a pre-order.
I received my Portabella set yesterday (ordered direct from intermedio). Have not watched a second of it yet, but it's a neat, utterly bare bones presentation: slipcase, twenty-two films on seven discs on layered, hinged plastic trays (like the UK Chabrol set, for example). One paragraph of intro text on the back cover (bilingual), plus a list of what films are on which discs and their year of production. No other liner notes, credits, booklet. Bonus features: the identical list of films / discs on the inside cover adds running times! Like I said, barest of bare bones, but no matter, so long as there haven't been any major screw ups with the transfers and subtitles.

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AlexHansen
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#199 Post by AlexHansen » Fri May 03, 2013 12:18 pm

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts after giving it a spin. It'll probably be my next purchase unless there's something catastrophic transfer/subs-wise.

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swo17
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films on DVD

#200 Post by swo17 » Fri May 03, 2013 8:30 pm

So apparently the relatively recent Image Blu-ray release of the Frank Sinatra film Suddenly includes as an extra Francis Thompson's N.Y., N.Y. in glorious 1080p! (Props to vertovfan for catching this.)

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