The Eureka & Masters of Cinema Thread

[Rob4]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Eureka saving me money in June with yet three more Asian titles just announced.

Lady Reporter, Samurai Reincarnation and Revenge.

I could post the spec but will leave it to someone who actually gives a stuff about them.

Normally, I would say the same but Samurai Reincarnation has me intrigued. It looks like a pretty mad action/horror hybrid.

Anyone seen it and can recommend?

[J Harker]

Three more titles about to OOP at Eureka if anyone's interested. Nothing im the least bit interested in, but it's good they've started announcing these things.

Screenshot_20230404_104421_Instagram.jpg

[J Harker]

Eureka have a western sale on. Dozen or so titles, £10.99 each.
https://eurekavideo.co.uk/promotions/western-sale/

Sent from my SM-G780G using Tapatalk

[MrBarlow]

Andrzej Zulawski: Three Films (Limited Edition Box Set) (Blu-ray)
Director: Andrzej Zulawski
1971,1972,1988 Poland
FantasyHorror
£42.99
Release Date: 31st July 2023

An uncompromising visionary and a true maverick of European cinema, the Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present three films by Andrzej Żuławski, all making their UK debuts on Blu-ray from new 4K restorations.

Rich with multilayered symbolism and apocalyptic imagery, The Third Part of the Night is Żuławski’s highly influential debut feature film. After his whole family is slaughtered during the Nazi-occupation of Poland, Michal (Leszek Teleszyński) decides to join the resistance but descends into madness after encountering a doppelgänger of his murdered wife.

The Devil is a violent tale of Satanic seduction during the Prussian invasion of Poland in the 17th century, which proved so controversial upon release that it was banned for 16 years.

And finally, On the Silver Globe, Żuławski’s masterpiece about a team of astronauts who land on a desolate planet and start a new society. When filming was 80% complete, the Polish government ordered the production to be shut down and all the negatives be destroyed. Miraculously, the original film reels were preserved and ten years later the film was presented at the Cannes Film Festival to great acclaim.


SPECIAL FEATURES
Limited Edition Box Set [3000 Copies]
Limited Edition Hardbound Slipcase
All films presented in 1080p HD from definitive 4K restorations
Optional English Subtitles for all films, from translations by Daniel Bird and approved by director Andrzej Żuławski before his death in 2016
Escape to the Silver Globe (dir. Kuba Mikurda, 2021) – acclaimed documentary on the production history of On the Silver Globe
Brand new feature length audio commentary on On the Silver Globe by Daniel Bird
Michael Brooke on “The Third Part of the Night” – Brand new interview
Michael Brooke on “The Devil” – Brand new interview
Brand new video piece by Daniel Bird on the cinematography of On the Silver Globe
Brand new video piece by Daniel Bird on the costumes and props of On the Silver Globe
Brand new documentary short by Daniel Bird using previously unseen archival footage from the filming of On the Silver Globe
Brand new interview with Lukasz Żuławski
Brand new interview with Adam Żuławski
A Limited Edition 60-page collector’s book featuring new essays and archival material
**All Extras Subject to Change

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

So is The Silver Globe complete or not?

80% completed says the blurb. That's no use unless it's been finished since. There'll be scenes missing and no post production.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

So is The Silver Globe complete or not?

80% completed says the blurb. That's no use unless it's been finished since. There'll be scenes missing and no post production.

According to Wikipedia:

"On June 1, 1977, work on the film was stopped by decision of Janusz Wilhelmi, vice-minister of cultural affairs. Wilhelmi shut down the film project, which was eighty percent complete, and ordered all materials destroyed. The reels of the unfinished film were ultimately not destroyed, but preserved, along with costumes and props, by the film studio and by members of the cast and crew.

At the end of 1985, Żuławski accepted the proposal to complete the film. In 1986, shots were shot from the streets of contemporary Poland, to which the director added the missing scenes from off. The acting team recorded postsynchrons. Castle members abroad were dubbed

On July 10, 1987, the film passed positively with collaudation. In May 1988, a version of the film, consisting of the preserved footage plus a commentary to fill in the narrative gaps, premiered at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival."

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

So is The Silver Globe complete or not?

80% completed says the blurb. That's no use unless it's been finished since. There'll be scenes missing and no post production.

It's the version that Andrzej Żuławski signed off on for release in 1988, eleven years after production was abruptly shut down by Poland's Deputy Minister of Culture. The voiceover acknowledges from the start that the film is incomplete:

Originally Posted by Opening Voiceover

You will see a film made ten years ago, a shred of a film, a two-and-a-half hour story, one-fifth of which is missing. That one-fifth dating back to 1977, when the film was annihilated, will never be recreated. In place of the missing scenes, you will hear a voice which will briefly explain what was to be.

But anyone who's seen the film will confirm that this really doesn't matter. Żuławski wasn't trying to make a conventional narrative feature, he was trying to make the most completely immersive sci-fi experience that anyone had attempted up to then. I've seen the film several times, and while countless images are permanently burned into my cerebral cortex, I couldn't begin to synopsise the plot from memory - but the same applies to Possession and indeed most other Andrzej Żuławski films. As for post-production, it's been fully edited and scored, and the VFX were created and executed on set - rather than create alien landscapes artificially with mattes and the like (which wouldn't have suited the endlessly mobile camerawork), Żuławski took his cast and crew to places like the Gobi Desert and took advantage of fully 360˚ real-life landscapes instead.

In other words, it's incomplete in terms of what Żuławski was trying to make, but complete in that it's the film that Żuławski authorised for commercial release. Essentially, Poland's equivalent of Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons, with the difference that Welles actually got to shoot the footage that was subsequently destroyed - but this makes little difference as far as the end result is concerned.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Don't know who this Opening Voiceover is Michael just quoted but it's not a member here.

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Don't know who this Opening Voiceover is Michael just quoted but it's not a member here.

I don't know who it is either (he's not credited), but it's not you. And while the chances of anyone mistaking an unattributed quotation for a continuation of your original post are slim, experience tells me that they're not zero.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Michael Brooke

I don't know who it is either (he's not credited), but it's not you. And while the chances of anyone mistaking an unattributed quotation for a continuation of your original post are slim, experience tells me that they're not zero.