December 27, 2006

[JEAN-LUC GODARD]

The much-anticipated Gaumont French DVD release of Godard's Histoire(s) du cinéma was repeatedly delayed and then seemingly cancelled earlier this year. No English subtitles were planned for this release. We hear persistent rumours that Godard has been continually re-editing the film and adding to it, which is why the English subtitles as seen in recent North American screenings are in shambles and the DVD release keeps getting delayed. However, the small Spanish DVD company intermedio has recently released a 4xDVD set of Histoire(s) du cinéma, based on material licensed from Gaumont. Screenshots: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4]. The release carries an original French audio track with newly created, non removable, Spanish subtitles utilizing three different colors (to help distinguish the different voices). This PAL DVD edition clocks in at 268 minutes. 2 x 50 years of French Cinema (Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Miéville, 1995, 50 mins) is also included. Incidentally, a link to a fairly complete table of references for Histoire(s) du cinéma by Celine Scemama is found here. In other Godard news, the Jean-Luc Godard Collection Vol.1 (Alphaville, Pierrot le fou, Une femme est une femme, Le petit soldat, A bout de souffle, La Chinoise, and Made In The USA) is slated for a March release in Region 2 UK, by Optimum. As well, there is a Godard collection coming in March from Nouveax Pictures: The 60's Collection (Vivre sa vie, Masculin feminin and Two Or Three Things I Know About Her, all digitally remastered from restored prints). This is likely a simple rebundling of their previous Godard releases, at a budget price point. - T.T.

December 8, 2006

[MoC DVD OF THE YEAR AWARD 2006]

The 4th annual Masters of Cinema DVD of the Year Award (or should that be 'Criterion DVD of the Year Award'!) will be announced here on Xmas Eve. As usual, it is voted for by our readers. The voting period is from now until December 23.

We'd like our readers to vote for *one title* — their favourite DVD released in 2006 — so here are some simple guidelines that may help you decide: 1.) The DVD can be from anywhere in the world and must have been released sometime in 2006; 2.) You can vote for box sets; 3.) Choose your personal favourite release; 4.) Please don't vote for MoC DVDs, the vote will give us a warm glow but won't be counted. Thanks.

Like previous years, if you could also please give a sentence or two explaining why you've picked it, we'll publish a selection of your replies with the results.

Simply send your ONE title (and the name of the company who issued the disc) here. This is the only way to vote. If you're reading this - please vote! Thankyou! - NB. only one vote per reader please. Three lucky voters will be picked out of a hat to receive copies of the latest MoC Series releases. Good luck! and thanks for reading!

After 2004's ridiculous glut of Master and Commander votes, we're really good at spotting organised voting rings — so please just vote once because your favourite film may be banned from the results otherwise. Thanks!

If you want to see what happened in previous years, click here: 2003, 2004 or 2005. Good luck! and thanks for reading. - N. W.

November 19, 2006

[GARY GRAVER]

Filmmaker and Orson Welles collaborator Gary Graver died last Thursday, 16 November after a long battle with cancer. There's a message from his son and much more at his site garygraver.com. Gary recorded a commentary track with Bill Krohn for MoC's forthcoming edition of F FOR FAKE a few months ago, and his death so soon after is a real shock. - N. W.

October 24, 2006

[FRANTIŠEK VLÁCIL]

In our June 27, 2005 news update, we announced a petition for the DVD-release of the Czech medieval epic Markéta Lazarová (František Vlácil, 1967), a film which has repeatedly been voted best Czech film of all time by critics. In our February 26 and September 12, 2006 updates, we reported on the upcoming release of this film by the excellent Second Run. The film will be released in the Czech Republic by Bonton, and in the USA by Facets (still unconfirmed). Common among all these releases is that the material originates from a digibeta generated from a positive. However, our friends in the Czech Republic have paid out of their own pockets to have ten (10) minutes of the film transferred from an original negative, in order to demonstrate the dramatic improvements that are possible. Their small writeup is found here, and there are links to screenshot comparisons at the bottom of the page. One such sample screenshot pair is found here, where the top image is from the positive which is intended for use in the upcoming DVD releases worldwide, and the bottom image is from the "fan transfer" from an original negative. We join our Czech friends in urging those considering releasing this film on DVD to base their releases on nothing less than source material taken from a negative rather than using the digibeta now on the table (even if it means a delayed release). Anything else would seem like a missed opportunity, in our opinion. - T.T.

October 10, 2006

[DANIÈLE HUILLET, 1936-2006]

Sad news this morning: Danièle Huillet — recent co-recipient of the "innovation in the language of cinema" prize at Venice — has passed away. Though a leading figure (with Jean-Marie Straub) of the New German Cinema since the '60s, Huillet was born in France and lived in Rome for many years. The only Straub-Huillet film that has been released on DVD with English subtitles is Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968), though more titles have appeared in other regions thanks to Japanese Kinokuniya and the French journal Cinéma 10; the films of Straub-Huillet are sorely in need of renewed exposure. We at MoC mourn her loss. - D.C.

September 20, 2006

[SVEN NYKVIST, 1922-2006]

Sad news this morning: prolific cinematographer Sven Nykvist, known for his collaborations with Ingmar Bergman, Roman Polanski, Andrei Tarkovsky, and many others, died today at the age of 83. He was the subject of a documentary by his son, Light Keeps Me Company (2000), which referenced his battle with aphasia, a condition that prompted his retirement in 1998 after having shot 123 films. Read a (translated) excerpt from Sven's memoirs on MoC's Nostalghia.com microsite, here. - D.C.

September 19, 2006

[VENICE & STRAUB-HUILLET]

The 62nd Venice International Film Festival has drawn to a close — and not without an element of controversy over the festival jury's decision to award master filmmakers Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet a special prize for "innovation in the language of cinema"... which has nevertheless gone largely unreported in the English-language press. Full details, including commentary (and a translation of Jean-Marie Straub's press conference statements) by Tag Gallagher, can be viewed here. - C. K.

September 17, 2006

[ROBERTO ROSSELLINI]

In the midst of the Toronto International Film Festival, the Cinematheque Ontario released the program for its eagerly anticipated Rossellini retrospective from October 20 to December 10. As series organizer James Quandt writes, "My many attempts over the past twenty years to organize a retrospective of Rossellini's films, which I dearly love and highly prize, have all foundered. The reasons are many and complicated, involving legal and copyright problems, the sheer immensity of his oeuvre, the varying versions of many of Rossellini's films, the poor state of preservation of elements and prints, the lack of interest (commercial and otherwise) in anything beyond his half dozen famous works. . . . with the comprehensive Godard retrospective we presented in 2001-2002 and the complete Bresson retrospective we organized and toured in 1998, this has been the most arduous series we have ever prepared."

The series will include restored prints of Rome Open City, Paisan, Vanina Vanini, and The Rise to Power of Louis XIV, as well as rare screenings of such films as India, Mother Land and the 142-minute Era notte a Roma, as well as guest lectures by Tag Gallagher and Peter Brunette.

Incidentally, MoC TIFF favorites included Paz Encina's Hamaca Paraguaya, Reha Erdem's Times and Winds, and new works by Ceylan (Climates), Costa (Colossal Youth), Hong (Woman On the Beach), Jia (Dong and Still Life), Panahi (Offside), Tsai (I Don't Want to Sleep Alone), and Weerasethakul (Syndromes and a Century). - D.C.

September 16, 2006

[ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES]

In its 37 year history, Anthology Film Archives have often hosted retrospectives and special events involving filmmakers. From the vast quantity of material in Anthology's vaults, some of these events have recently been transferred to DVD. The first three DVDs are, Curtis Harrington at Anthology Film Archives, Meet the Kuchar Brothers and Stan Brakhage on Gregory Markopoulos & Jim Davis. Daryl Chin submitted this review. - T.T.

Jonas Mekas will be filming 365 short videos specifically intended for various portable multimedia player platforms, such as Apple's video iPod. He will be releasing these shorts one a day, beginning November 9, 2006. As well, he will be curating a downloadable series of classic shorts and videos by the likes of Martin Scorsese, John Waters, Jim Jarmusch, and Abel Ferrara. Don't miss Jonas' own charming introduction. - T.T.

September 12, 2006

[SECOND RUN]

Second Run are ready to launch their next two titles with the release of Andrzej Munk's Passenger [Pasazerka] (1963) on 25 September, 2006 and Aleksander Ford's Knights of the Teutonic Order [Krzyzacy] (1960) on 16 October, 2006 — both highly sought-after Polish classics from the early 1960s.

Second Run are preparing Karoly Makk's A Long Weekend in Pest & Buda for mid-November and the 2005 documentary Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes by Israeli film maker Avi Mograbi, is scheduled for 13 November, 2006.

Vlacil's beautiful Marketa Lazarova and Nemec's The Party & the Guests are being worked on for release in the first quarter of next year, alongside the first of two more films from Miklos Jancso, and Andrzej Zulawski's Third Part of The Night.

Second Run have tantalisingly announced that 2007 will see their first releases from India and Russia. More details soon!

In the golden Autumn of the DVD format, and in the face of rampant piracy — even among hardcore film fans — MoC urges its readers to support remarkable labels like Second Run who go the extra mile to find and release such exquisite rarities. - N. W.

July 12, 2006

[INDUSTRY]

The international market wars continue. Hollywood studios are trying old and new methods to maximize DVD profits and curtail piracy. In China, the Associated Press reports that Warner Brothers has begun selling titles for $2.75 in order to "build a legitimate, viable offering for the Chinese consumer."

In Japan, a country far less plagued by bootlegs, Paramount has filed an injunction in a Tokyo court hoping to extend its copyrights and squelch bargain-priced and "one-coin" public domain DVDs. Today, the Associated Press reports: "The Tokyo District Court ruled that the copyrights to the movies in question had already expired and the company releasing them again in DVD format, First Trading Corp., was not required to stop its sales." The films in question all pre-date 1953. - D.C.

June 29, 2006

[TECHNOLOGY]

Over the last few weeks, we've received a lot of email protesting the new windowboxing policy of the Criterion Collection (USA), the vanguard DVD company known for its fastidious presentations. Customers with newer displays must now contend with reduced resolution and screen size. As DVDBeaver recently put it, "equipment invariably improves at a much lower price and much faster these days and catering to people with inferior equipment can easily come back and haunt you. . . . We feel you will own your DVDs (especially your Criterion DVDs) much longer than you will own your current viewing system."

Jon Robertson has set up a petition in the hopes of convincing Criterion the error of their ways. He states: "Many people have voiced their displeasure at Criterion's attempts to address a hardware issue by compromising its software. As it stands, this practice remains a blot on the quality of their releases, so let us hope they can be encouraged to resume their former exemplary ways as soon as possible." - D.C.

June 21, 2006

[NORMAN McLAREN]

The long-awaited Norman McLaren's 7-disc Master's Edition is finally available. The careful restoration work was the main reason for the delay.

The DVD set produced by the National Film Board of Canada contains all of McLaren's films accompanied by technical dossiers and 15 original documentaries — 130 video and audio documents in all. See this NFB page for more information.

UPDATE: The set is available in France (see ChaletFilms.com or fnac.com) but it's not available in North America until late October (to be priced at about $100 (US)).

Two full-length demos showcasing the new transfers can be viewed here. They look spectacular, EXCEPT it appears the transfer suffers from a very heavy underscan (windowboxing) apparently introduced to compensate for the old CRT-style home television sets which have a tendency to overscan the image. While we appreciate the intent (see our article Looking Beyond the Edge elsewhere on these pages), we believe this procedure is now firmly passé and actually harmful as it reduces the resolution of the image, already a precious commodity on a non-high-definition medium like the standard DVD. Here is a frame grab from Boogie-Doodle to show the extent of the problem. - J.B.

June 7, 2006

[ROBERTO ROSSELLINI]

The film calendar has been strangely quiet during the centenary of Rossellini (1906-1977), no doubt due to the continued rarity and tangled rights to the filmmaker's oeuvre. Fortunately, Cinecittà has recently published a handsome PDF summarizing in English the status of all things Rossellini.

Among its disclosures:

· A Rossellini retrospective will screen in November at MoMA (USA), and will travel to the Cinematheque Ontario, UCLA Archives, and the BFI in London; other tributes are planned for the St. Petersburg and Tokyo film festivals, and the Trevi Cinema in Rome.

· Cinecittà is currently restoring Rome, Open City (and according to Variety, nine other Rossellini films), which will debut at the Venice and Rome festivals.

· The Museum of Rome in Trastevere will exhibit "Roberto Rossellini: the Art and Science of Humanism" in December.

· New books include Isabella Rossellini's In the Name of the Father, the Daughter and the Holy Spirit, Cristina and Luigi Vaccarella's My Name is Roberto Rossellini and I Make Films: Thirty Years of Correspondence, and Stefano Roncori's The History of Rome, Open City.

· RAI Trade has released Carlo Lizzani's documentary, Roberto Rossellini, in Italy on DVD (subtitles unknown), and broadcast Jean-Luis Comolli's documentary, The Last Utopia: Television According to Rossellini on Italian TV; Marie Genin and Serge July's short Once Upon a Time... Rome, Open City played at Cannes; and Guy Maddin's playful, touching My Dad is 100 Years Old continues to appear on the festival circuit.

Let's hope this is only the beginning of a full-scale Rossellini revival. - D.C.

June 2, 2006

[SHOHEI IMAMURA]

Shohei Imamura, 15 September 1926 — 30 May 2006

Tony Rayns' Imamura obituary from the Independent. - N.W.

May 2, 2006

[MILESTONE VIDEO]

Milestone Video (US) continues to set a standard for releasing important films on DVD. Despite two ongoing lawsuits and a potential subpoena for releasing Winter Soldier (1972), they still intend on releasing the DVD on May 30th. (DVDBeaver offers an early peek and strongly recommends the disc, here.)

In addition, Milestone tells us they're planning to release Marcel Ophuls' The Troubles We've Seen: A History of Journalism in Wartime (1994) on DVD in October, and critic Scott Foundas of the L.A. Weekly recently noted the following:

"As this article goes to press, [Charles] Burnett is in the final editing stages on what may be his most ambitious project to date — a biopic of Sam Nujoma, the first president of Namibia — and the folks at the invaluable Milestone Film & Video confirm that their long-standing project to issue both Killer of Sheep and My Brother's Wedding on DVD should reach fruition by year's end."

MoC salutes those working on these fine releases. - D.C.

April 21, 2006

[JACQUES RIVETTE]

An exciting weekend, and indeed spring, has arrived for enthusiasts (and neophytes alike) of Jacques Rivette's mysterious and masterful cinema. From Friday through Sunday, Anthology Film Archives in New York will be showing Rivette's rarely-screened four-hour 1972 masterpiece, Out 1: Spectre. Anthology's program notes rightly pronounce Spectre "THE holy-grail of cinema-going" (while also warning that the quality of the print being shown "is not ideal"), but cinema-goers in London will have a chance on this same weekend and the following too to catch both the holy-grail AND the holy-rood when the National Film Theatre projects all eight episodes of Spectre's 12-1/2-hour mother-work, Out 1: Noli me tangère, as part of its near-complete Rivette season. The number of times Noli me tangère has been publicly screened in the thirty-five years since its completion can be counted on three fingers, so the importance of taking advantage of this rare opportunity cannot be stressed enough. Whether the print will include the climactic scene of Jean-Pierre Léaud's breakdown that Rivette reportedly excised from a 1988 projection remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that the NFT's Rivette series will include several other essential masterpieces from the director's work, including first-feature Paris nous appartient, 1974's Céline and Julie Go Boating: Phantom Ladies Over Paris, Duelle (1976), Noroît (1976), Merry-Go-Round (1978), Le Pont du Nord (1981) and the complete Jeanne la pucelle (1993). Sadly, the integral versions of L'Amour par terre (1983) and Va savoir (2001, known as Va savoir +), will not be shown.

Closing out Rivette news for the month, the master's latest feature, slated for 2007 release, has shed its provisional title (and possibly provisional conception?) of L'Année prochaine à Paris (Next Year in Paris) to be rebaptized Ne touchez pas la hache (Don't Touch the Axe). Details are scarce at this point, but we do know that Pascal Bonitzer and Christine Laurent return as co-screenwriters for a cast that includes Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu, Bulle Ogier, and Michel Piccoli. An intriguing project indeed, when one considers that the scenario is adapted from a novella inside the same source-work as the Out 1 films, Honoré de Balzac's History of the Thirteen — and that this novella, The Duchess of Langeais, contains themes similar to those found in Rivette's 1966 La Religieuse (The Nun), also based around a convent and the torments of forbidden-love. Then there's that title: with "Noli me tangère" translating as "Don't Touch Me", should we expect from Rivette's latest work still more blood on the walls...? - Craig Keller

April 18, 2006

[INTERMEDIO]

MoC generally emphasizes DVD releases with English subtitles, but we occasionally highlight others. Intermedio is a Spanish DVD company that has announced the following titles for 2006, but without English subs: The Road to Bresson (1984), Marker's The Koumiko Mystery (1965) and Level Five (1997), Colección Philippe Garrel (1993-2001), Colección Raymond Depardon, Sokurov's Taurus (2001), and more. They seem to be a label to watch. - D.C.

March 28, 2006

[MORE SILENT TREASURES]

Thanks to a new grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the excellent National Film Preservation Foundation will release a 3-disc DVD set presenting social issue films from the silent era in the fall of 2007. According to the NFPF's press release, the content will range from "the one-minute Kansas Saloon Smashers (1901) to The Godless Girl (1928), Cecil B. De Mille's feature-length exposé of juvenile reformatories, and include features, documentaries, serial episodes, public service announcements, newsreel segments, and cartoons addressing social issues from different political and ideological perspectives." - D.C.

March 21, 2006

[BRUNO DUMONT]

This Friday (24th March) at 10:30am, Bruno Dumont will be at the Vue Cinema in Leicester Square, London to screen a film of his choice and give a talk about it and his own works. The film being screened is Im Kwon-Taek's Sopyonje (1993). The event has been organised by Camberwell Art School who regularly invite directors to talk about a film they love and feel an audience of 18 year old students should see. It should be a very interesting day and there are usually around 100 spare seats free, so we've been asked to mention to anybody interested in attending that they are more than welcome to pop along...

Dumont's new film Flanders is complete and ready for this year's Cannes Film Festival. A trailer for it can be viewed here (Quicktime 7 required) - if you get a load of code, instead of the movie, paste the URL directly into Quicktime Player. - N. W.

March 16, 2006

[TECHNOLOGY]

One of the latest examples of technology merging with cinephilia, the free podcast by Graeme Hobbs of MovieMail in the UK, highlights significant DVD releases biweekly; his latest entry reviews two of the BFI Dreyer discs. - D.C.

March 9, 2006

[CARL THEODOR DREYER]

According to the Danish Foreign Ministry in Paris, MK2 will release a Dreyer box set of DVDs soon, which, notably, will include the Cineteca Bologna's restoration of Vampyr (1932) as well as clips from a 1966 documentary by filmmaker Jørgen Roos (Dreyer's cameraman on They Caught the Ferry). Details in French, including a fine PDF, can be found here. - D.C.

February 26, 2006

[FRANTIŠEK VLÁCIL]

Second Run plans to release Markéta Lazarová (František Vlácil, 1967) on DVD by "mid-summer". Says Mehelli Modi of Second Run, "Plans for our Markéta are going very well. So much extra material to look at that [we] don't want to rush the release. [We] want our release, as much as possible, to be fully respectful of this wonderful film and the Czech community for whom this is very important. At the moment, we are in the midst of doing the all-new subtitles." Based on Second Run's stellar track-record, we have full confidence that this will be a first-class release indeed. The film has repeatedly been voted best Czech film of all time by critics, and Mark Le Fanu recently (see our June 27, 2005 news update) called it "...as remarkable in its own way as Tarkovsky's Andrei Roublev. In short: long overdue on DVD". - T.T.

February 25, 2006

[BLAQ OUT]

Blaq Out have launched a new limited-time VOD (video-on-demand) experiment, showcasing Erick Zonca's Le Petit voleur [The Little Thief] (1999). The film is available to download from blaqout.com until March 10, 2006. This is an interesting development because the film is available internationally, without language, region, or format restrictions — a brave and refreshing move in today's increasingly exclusionary climate.

Blaq Out continue to release formidable DVD editions. March sees Three Films by Raoul Ruiz on 2 x DVDs, containing Suspended Vocation (1977), The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (1979), Three Crowns of a Sailor (1983). April sees L'Enfant (Dardennes, 2005) and in June they release Coffret Jean-Paul Civeyrac, 3 x DVD, containing La Vie selon Luc, Ni d'Eve ni d'Adam, Les Solitaires, Fantômes, Le Doux amour des hommes, Toutes ces belles promesses, Tristesse beau visage, A travers la forêt, Jean-Paul Civeyrac: interstices. - N. W.

February 12, 2006

[PETER WATKINS]

Edvard Munch (1973), arguably Peter Watkins’ most perfectly realized artistic achievement, is currently available on DVD in two very different versions. The 174 min theatrical release can now be pre-ordered from New Yorker Video (R1/NTSC) and the 210 min TV version is available from Doriane Films, France (R2/PAL, no English subtitles). Oliver Groom (Project X Distribution) is responsible for the digital transfer and restoration of both versions. He recently provided us with the following statement on the two versions of Edvard Munch and their running times:

"When Peter first made the film as a TV production in 1973 - 1974, it clocked in at 210 minutes (PAL running time @ 25 fps). Then he revisited the film in order to cut a shorter version for the 1976 theatrical release. This runs 174 minutes and was blown up to 35mm. This shorter version (which he calls the "cinema version") is his preferred cut of the film.

"When I set about restoring and re-mastering the film in 2004, plans were to work only with the long TV version. So this is the version that we transferred to hi-def, etc., and is the version that was released recently on DVD by Doriane Films in France ( - incidentally it's a single DVD-9 disc release, not a double disc).

"As plans to re-issue the film theatrically in France and North America took shape in late 2004, we discovered that the 35mm CRI of the cinema version - the only negative element that exists - was in dodgy shape and suffering from "vinegar syndrome". This caused Peter great anxiety and he was very keen for a quality video master to be made before it was too late. So we created a "conform" of this cut from the restored TV version video transfer and laid the audio from the 35mm optical track against it.

"For the North American DVD release, we (well, I...) decided to stay with the cinema version. Perhaps this flies in the face of the conventional (but questionable) wisdom that the most definitive version of a film is the longest but I'm of the opinion that the filmmaker's preference is paramount. It's worth noting that the cinema version is not a hacked-down version of the long cut: the film has been carefully re-structured and the sound (a vital element) re-mixed.

"However the long term possibility is that we will follow up in 2007 with a double-disc "special edition" of the TV version (approx 220 mins NTSC running time). That would give me time to work on some significant extras to go with it. But that's a little dependent on how well the first DVD release does."

Having seen both versions, we conclude that they are both masterpieces in their own respect and that no Watkins film collection is complete without them both. We do hope the Region 1 release of Watkins' "preferred version" sells well, resulting in a future release of the long version in the form of a nice Special Edition with English subtitles and interesting bonus materials... - T.T.

February 7, 2006

[WALERIAN BOROWCZYK]

83-year-old Polish filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk died Friday while being treated for heart problems at a Paris hospital. Largely remembered for his '70s erotic art films (The Beast), many cinephiles especially revere him for his innovative surrealist animation. - D.C.

January 31, 2006

[KEITH ROSE / FALCONETTI]

The mesmerizing icon of Dreyer's dreamy meditation on faith and punishment is subjected to a new trial. Filmmaker Keith Rose's Falconetti (2005) is a 13 minute short film dealing with how our environment influences our emotional response to a film and the judgments we form about film. A topic close to our heart, indeed. Please read Prof. C. Holliday's review of Keith Rose's Falconetti, here. The film is set to hit the festival circuit shortly. - T.T.

[NAM JUNE PAIK, 1932-2006]

Nam June Paik, the Korean-American multimedia artist often called "the father of Video Art," died on Sunday, January 29, 2006, at his winter home in Miami Beach, Florida. Born in 1932 in Seoul, Korea, he began his interest in the arts as a musician; at the University of Tokyo, he graduated with a degree in the history of music in 1956, where his thesis was a study of the music of Arnold Schoenberg. Postgraduate work in music at the University of Munich and the Academy of Music in Freiberg brought him in touch with contemporary music, a subject in which he had always been fascinated. In Cologne, Paik found many avant-garde musicians; he became friends with many of them, among them Hans Werner Henze and John Cage. Cage would prove to be an artistic mentor for Paik, expanding Paik's ideas to include the performance of music as a distinct artistic event, the genesis of Happenings and Performance Art.

Starting in 1963, Paik began incorporating visual elements into his performance events: this led to his incorporation of television sets, which he manipulated so that the video signals were scrambled. At the same time that Paik was developing his ideas on video as an art medium, he was also involved in performances, often with his artistic collaborator, the cellist Charlotte Moorman. (They met when Moorman wanted to perform a composition by Hans Werner Henze; one of the "instruments" required by the score was "Nam June Paik"; Moorman's initial response was, "What's a Nam June Paik?") Some of these performances involved Ms. Moorman's playing the cello stripped to the waist; in 1967, during a performance at Jonas Mekas's Filmmakers Cinematheque, the New York City police arrested Paik and Moorman for "public indecency".

But it was as the pioneer artist in video that Nam June Paik will be remembered. Starting in 1963, he developed from using television as an element of decor to the many manifestations of analog video. By 1969, with the Japanese engineer Shuge Abe, Paik created the Paik-Abe synthesizer, one of the first video-imaging synthesizers in existence, which enabled the artist to manipulate, distort and metamorphize color, shape and image. During his retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City in 2000, Paik filled the famous Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda and the long, winding ramp with one of the most dazzling displays of technological art that had ever been exhibited. In his latter years, he was fascinated with laser technology, and with the possibilities of kinesthetic art without the encumberances of the television tube and monitor.

Nam June Paik was a pioneer in a generation of pioneers which included his many friends and colleagues, such as Charlotte Moorman, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Hans Werner Henze, Jonas Mekas, and the founder of Fluxus, George Macuinas; for many years, Paik participated in the innumerable Fluxus events, as did his wife, the video artist Shigeko Kubota.

Paik is survived by Ms. Kubota, a distinctive artist in her own right. - Daryl Chin

January 18, 2006

[TOM MILNE, 1926-2005]

There are new additions to the Memories of Tom Milne page including entries from Geoff Andrew, John Minchinton, Rui Nogueira, and finally, a photo of Tom! If you would like to contribute to this page, please email by clicking here. - N.W.

2005 Archive
2004 Archive
2003 Archive
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December, 2006

Holiday
(Cukor, 1938) Sony R1 USA

The Host
(Bong Joon-ho, 2006) KD Media R3 Korea

Lubitsch in Berlin
(The Oyster Princess, I Don't Want to be a Man, Anna Boleyn, Sumurun, The Wildcat, 1919-1921) Kino R1 USA

Mikio Naruse: Three Films (3 x DVD box set, new progressive transfers, illustrated audio discussion with Kent Jones and Phillip Lopate, 184-page book)
(Repast, 1951; Sound of the Mountain, 1954; Flowing, 1956) MoC R2 UK

Moscow Elegy
(Alexander Sokurov, 1988) Facets R1 USA

Stray Dogs
(Meshkini, 2004) Artificial Eye R2 UK

Who's Camus, Anyway?
(Yanagimachi, 2005) Film Movement R1 USA

November, 2006

49 Up
(Apted, 2005) First Run R1 USA

Army of Shadows
(Melville, 1969) BFI R2 UK

The Double Life of Veronique
(Kieslowski, 1991) Criterion R1 USA

The Fallen Idol
(Reed, 1948) Criterion R1 USA

Forbidden Planet (special edition)
(Fred M. Wilcox, 1956) Warner R1 USA

HANA
(Kore'eda, 2006) Shochiku R2 Japan

Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection (7 x disc set)
(1940-44) Universal R1 USA

Satantango
(Tarr, 1994) Artificial Eye R2 UK

Wind that Shakes the Barley
(Loach, 2006) Fox R2 UK

October, 2006

Ascent To Heaven (Mexican Bus Ride)
(Bunuel, 1952) Yume R2 UK

La Commune (Paris, 1871)
(Watkins, 2000) First Run R1 USA

The Great Madcap
(Bunuel, 1949) Yume R2 UK

Hands Over the City
(Rosi, 1963) Criterion R1 USA

Krzysztof Kieslowski Polish Documentaries
(1968-80) Polish Audiovisual Publishers R2 Poland

Latcho Drom
(Tony Gatlif, 1993) AV Channel R4 Australia

Norman McLaren: Masters Edition (7 x disc set)
Home Vision R1 USA

Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003
BFI R2 UK

Rediscover Jacques Feyder, French Film Master
(L'Atalantide, Crainquebille, Faces of Children) Home Vision R1 USA

Reds
(Beatty, 1981) Paramount R1 USA

Regular Lovers
(Garrel, 2005) Artificial Eye R2 UK

Tales of the Four Seasons
(Rohmer, 1990-98) Artificial Eye R2 UK

Woman on the Beach
(Hong, 2006) Bitwin R3 South Korea

September, 2006

Angry Harvest
(Agnieszka Holland, 1986) Home Vision R1 USA

The Big Animal
(Jerzy Stuhr, 2000) Milestone R1 USA

Celine and Julie Go Boating
(Rivette, 1974) BFI R2 UK

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
(Puiu, 2005) Tartan R1 USA

Gojira
(Honda, 1954) Classic Media R1 USA

Hail Mary
(Godard, 1985) New Yorker R1 USA

The Interview
(Harun Farocki, 1983) Facets R1 USA

Jigoku
(Nakagawa, 1960) Criterion R1 USA

Jiri Barta: Labyrinth of Darkness
(1978-'89) Kino R1 USA

Max Ophuls Collection
(Letter from an Unknown Woman, The Reckless Moment, Le Plaisir, The Earrings of Madame De...) Second Sight R2 UK

Nazarin
(Bunuel, 1959) Yume R2 UK

Offside
(Jafar Panahi, 2006) Artificial Eye R2 UK

Oskar Fischinger: Ten Films
(Allegretto, Motion Painting No. 1, Radio Dynamics, Spiritual Constructions, Study nr. 6, Study nr. 7, Kreise, Spirals, Wax Experiments, Walking from Munich to Berlin) Center for Visual Music R0 USA

Paperhouse
(Bernard Rose, 1989) Fox R2 UK

Paris nous appartient
(Rivette, 1960) BFI R2 UK

Passenger
(Andrzej Munk, 1963) Second Run R2 UK

Phantom
(Murnau, 1922) Flicker Alley R1 USA

Playtime
(Tati, 1967) Criterion R1 USA

The Quiet Duel
(Kurosawa, 1946) BCI Eclipse R1 USA

Red Angel
(Masumura, 1966) Fantoma R1 USA

Shoeshine
(De Sica, 1946) - progressive transfer, audio commentary, 36-page booklet - Eureka/MoC R2 UK

The Spirit of the Beehive
(Erice, 1973) Criterion R1 USA

August, 2006

Double Indemnity (special edition)
(Wilder, 1944) Universal R1 USA

Do You Remember Dolly Bell?
(Kusturica, 1981) Artificial Eye R2 UK

Convoy
(Peckinpah, 1978) Optimum R2 UK

Eternity and a Day
(Angelopoulos, 1998) New Yorker R1 USA

The Exterminating Angel
(Bunuel, 1962) Arrow R2 UK

Fantastic Planet
(Rene Laloux, 1973) - 2 Laloux short films, 40-page booklet, anamorphic - Eureka/MoC R2 UK

Funeral Parade of Roses
(Toshio Matsumoto, 1969) - director interview and commentary, 36-page booklet - Eureka/MoC R2 UK

Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque (2-hour USA version)
(Jacques Richard, 2004) Kino R1 USA

Hunger
(Henning Carlsen, 1966) New Yorker R1 USA

Indoctrination
(Harun Farocki, 1987) Facets R1 USA

James Stewart: The Signature Collection
(The FBI Story, The Naked Spur, The Spirit of St. Louis, The Stratton Story, The Cheyenne Social Club, Firecreek) Warner R1 USA

Jayne Mansfield Collection
(The Girl Can’t Help It, Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?) Fox R1 USA

Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales
(Suzanne's Career, The Bakery Girl of Monceau, La Collectionneuse, My Night at Maud's, Claire's Knee, Love in the Afternoon) Criterion R1 USA

Wanda
(Barbara Loden, 1970) Parlour Pictures R1 USA

When Father Was Away On Business
(Kusturica, 1985) Artificial Eye R2 UK

July, 2006

Almanac of Fall
(Bela Tarr, 1984) Facets R1 USA

Barefoot Gen
(Nakazawa/Masaki, 1983) Geneon Entertainment R1 USA

Buster KEATON - The Short Films, 1917-1923
(Keaton, 1917-1923) - 720 minutes, 4 x DVDs, new progressive encodes - Eureka/MoC R2 UK

A Canterbury Tale
(Powell & Pressburger, 1944) Criterion R1 USA

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (special edition)
(Lang, 1922) Kino R1 USA

The Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 3
(Border Incident, His Kind of Woman, Lady in the Lake, On Dangerous Ground, The Racket) Warner R1 USA

Harun Farocki: An Image
(Farocki, 1983) Facets R1 USA

Music in Darkness
(Bergman, 1947) Tartan R2 UK

Prison
(Bergman, 1949) Tartan R2 UK

Some Like It Hot (special edition)
(Wilder, 1959) MGM R1 USA

Yi Yi
(Yang, 2000) Criterion R1 USA

June, 2006

À nos amours
(Pialat, 1983) Criterion R1 USA

Faust
(Murnau, 1926) - the domestic German print, completely different takes to the previous Eureka/Kino edition - Eureka/MoC R2 UK

John Ford-John Wayne Collection
(2-disc Stagecoach, 2-disc The Searchers, Fort Apache, The Long Voyage Home, Wings of Eagles, 3 Godfathers, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, They Were Expendable) Warner R1 USA

The John Ford Collection
(The Lost Patrol, The Informer, Cheyenne Autumn, Mary of Scotland, Sergeant Rutledge) Warner R1 USA

Loulou
(Pialat, 1980) Artificial Eye R2 UK

Red Angel
(Masumura, 1966) Yume Pictures R2 UK

The Saga of Gosta Berling
(Mauritz Stiller, 1924) Kino R1 USA

Sympathy for the Devil
(Godard, 1968) Fabulous Films R2 UK

That Day (Ce jour-là)
(Ruiz, 2003) Kino R1 USA

Track of the Cat
(Wellman, 1954) Paramount R1 USA

May, 2006

Abhijan [The Expedition]
(Satyajit Ray, 1962) - new progressive transfer; video interview with Dilip Basu, and a 28-page booklet with original Ray sketches - Eureka/MoC R2 UK

Benny's Video
(Haneke, 1992) Kino R1 USA

Black Cat, White Cat (Kusturica, 1999) Artificial Eye R2 UK

Body and Soul
(Robert Rossen, 1947) Paramount R1 USA

Christ Stopped at Eboli (2-disc)
(Rosi, 1979) Infinity Arthouse R2 UK

The Dark Mirror
(Siodmak, 1946) Paramount R1 USA

Delicatessen
(Caro & Jeunet, 1992) Miramax R1 USA

Farewell, Home Sweet Home
(Iosselliani, 1999) Kino R1 USA

Fragments of a Chronology of Chance
(Haneke, 1994) Kino R1 USA

Funny Games
(Haneke, 1997) Kino R1 USA

Harlan County, U.S.A.
(Kopple, 1976) Criterion R1 USA

Kwaidan
(Kobayashi, 1964) - new progressive transfer; complete 183-minute cut, and a 72-page booklet - Eureka/MoC R2 UK

Late Spring
(Ozu, 1949) Criterion R1 USA

Letter from an Unknown Woman
(Ophuls, 1948) Paramount R1 USA

The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles, 1942) Universal R2 UK

Ozu Vol. 3
(Tokyo Twilight, Equinox Flower, Ohayo) Tartan R2 UK

Prison
(Bergman, 1949) Tartan R2 UK

Secret Beyond the Door
(Lang, 1948) Paramount R1 USA

The Seventh Continent
(Haneke, 1989) Kino R1 USA

Viridiana
(Buñuel, 1961) Criterion R1 USA

Winter Soldier
(Winterfilm Collective, 1972) Milestone R1 USA

April, 2006

Blissfully Yours
(Weerasethakul, 2001) Second Run R2 UK

The Chess Players
(Satyajit Ray, 1977) Kino R1 USA

Come and See (2 x DVD)
(Klimov, 1985) Nouveaux Pictures R2 UK

The Cyclist
(Makhmalbaf, 1989) Kino R1 USA

Every Little Thing
(Nicolas Philibert, 1996) Second Run R2 UK

Farewell, Home Sweet Home
(Iosseliani, 1999) Kino R1 USA

L'Intrus
(Denis, 2004) Fox Lorber R1 USA

The Complete Mr. Arkadin (aka Confidential Report)
(Welles, 1962) Criterion R1 USA

The Passenger
(Antonioni, 1975) Sony R1 USA

The Red and the White
(Jancso, 1967) Second Run R2 UK

Second Circle
(Sokurov, 1990) Kino R1 USA

Swamp Water
(Renoir, 1941) Fox R2 UK

Tickets
(Kiarostami, Loach, Olmi, 2005) R2 UK

Toni
(Renoir, 1934) - new progressive transfer; video interviews, and a 24-page booklet with a new essay - Eureka/MoC R2 UK

Videograms of a Revolution
(Harun Farocki, 1993) Facets R1 USA

March, 2006

10th District Court
(Raymond Depardon, 2004) Koch Lorber R1 USA

Buster Keaton: 65th Anniversary Collection (2 x DVD)
(two-reelers, 1939-1941) Sony R1 USA

Charulata
(Satyajit Ray, 1964) Bollywood Entertainment R2 UK

Coffrets Johan van der Keuken 1 & 2 (6 x DVD)
(1960-1999) Arte R2 France

Day of Wrath (with Casper Tybjerg commentary)
(Dreyer, 1943) BFI R2 UK

Exiles
(Gatliff, 2004) Image R1 USA

Free Cinema
(Various, 1952-1963) BFI R2 UK

Gertrud (with shorts & documentary)
(Dreyer, 1964) BFI R2 UK

Good Morning, Night
(Bellochio, 2003) Fox Lorber R1 USA

Hotel du nord
(Marcel Carne, 1938) Soda Pictures R2 UK

Howl's Moving Castle
(Miyazaki, 2005) Disney R1, Optimum R2

Mahapurush
(Satyajit Ray, 1965) Bollywood Entertainment R2 UK

My Neighbour Totoro
(Miyazaki, 1988) Disney R1, Optimum R2

Party Girl
(Nicholas Ray, 1958) Warner R2 France

Portrait of Hell
(Shiro Toyoda, 1969) Animeigo R1 USA

The Prisoner of Shark Island
(Ford, 1936) - commentary, video interviews, 24-page booklet with new essay, etc - Eureka/MoC R2 UK

Saraband
(Bergman, 2003) Tartan R2 UK

January, 2006

Assassination
(Shinoda, 1964) - 24-page booklet, new Joan Mellen essay - Eureka/MoC R2 UK

Exiles
(Gatliff, 2004) Home Vision/Image R1 USA

Gloria
(Cassavetes, 1980) Gaumont R2 France

Hallelujah
(Vidor, 1929) Warner R1 USA

Werner Herzog DVD Edition - Documentaries and Shorts (6 x DVD set) www.wernerherzog.com, R0 Germany

Intimate Lighting
(Passer, 1965) Second Run R2 UK

Saraband
(Bergman, 2003) Sony R1 USA

The Savage Innocents
(Ray, 1959) - uncut for the first time (10 minutes longer than the Spanish DVD); new progressive, anamorphic transfer; commentary by David Ehrenstein and Bill Krohn, and a 24-page booklet with original promotional material - Eureka/MoC R2 UK

Tony Takitani
(Jun Ichikawa, 2004) Strand R1 USA Vidas Secas
(Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1963) New Yorker R1 USA

The Virgin Spring
(Bergman, 1961) Criterion R1 USA Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors
(Hong Sang-soo, 2000) Tai Seng R1 USA Orson WELLES boxset - Touch of Evil / Citizen Kane / The Magnificent Ambersons
(Welles) Universal R2 UK