The Chris Marker Collection

[Yami]

On June 2nd, Soda will be releasing a collection of Chris Marker films consisting of "three works that pre-date La Jetée, the featurette that firmly planted his name as a filmmaker, as well as a series of seven shorter films that span each decade of his career thereafter. These remarkable curios reveal much about him, his ideas and his visuality, as well as his take on the modern world from an artistic point-of-view - from China, Siberia and Israel in the 1950s to the Pentagon, art collectives, cheshire cats, haikus and early new media."

Included will be:

Sunday In Peking (Dimanche à Pékin, 1956) (BLU-RAY)
Letter To Siberia (Lettre de Sibérie, 1958) (BLU-RAY)
Description Of A Struggle (Description d'un combat, 1960)
The Sixth Side Of The Pentagon (La Sixième face du Pentagone, 1968)
The Embassy (L'Ambassade, 1973)
Theory Of Sets (Théorie des ensembles, 1991)
Three Video Haikus (Trois Video Haikus, 1994)
Blue Helmet (Casque bleu, 1996)
E-CLIP-SE (1999)
The Case Of The Grinning Cat (Chats Perchés, 2004)

[Oscar Rothman]

I don't see any mention of a blu-ray release in that article.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by Oscar Rothman

I don't see any mention of a blu-ray release in that article.

That article doesn't specify, but rest assured that it will be a 3 disc dual format set (I presume 1 Blu-Ray and 2 DVDs) - I've had it confirmed by Soda. There's an Amazon placeholder as well.

[rapta]

Thought this was confirmation of details for a second but yeah, this is happening (as I and a couple of others had posted on the Arrow thread when I brought up Chris Marker at some point).

Great news anyway. I'll be going to the Whitechapel exhibition too.

[EvilJames]

Just to confirm as well, only two films (Sunday In Peking and Letter From Siberia) are on the Blu-Ray, as these were the only ones with high-def masters available. However, these and many of the other shorts are English-language home video premieres, so it's an essential purchase for any Marker fans.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by EvilJames

Just to confirm as well, only two films (Sunday In Peking and Letter From Siberia) are on the Blu-Ray, as these were the only ones with high-def masters available. However, these and many of the other shorts are English-language home video premieres, so it's an essential purchase for any Marker fans.

Thank you for the confirmation, James! It looks like a tremendously exciting release - I'm a big fan of Marker's essay films and 'Sunday in Peking' and 'Letter from Siberia' are almost impossible to find in good quality. A Blu-Ray release is a godsend!

[MichaelB]

What a bizarre month June is turning out to be - who'd have predicted that we'd see multiple Walerian Borowczyk, Alain Robbe-Grillet and Chris Marker films coming out on English-friendly Blu-rays?

[SimBelm]

I'd never have predicted this wonderful announcement. I love it.

[Mansinthe]

Originally Posted by SimBelm

I'd never have predicted this wonderful announcement. I love it.

i loved sans soleil and la jetee. so this is a must have for me

[Sinthetic]

Fantastic news. La Jetée is one of my favourite films of all time, so I'm looking forward to seeing some of his other stuff.

[rapta]

Anyones dispatched yet?

[MichaelB]

Mine, yesterday.

[edcresdee]

[rapta]

Originally Posted by edcresdee

Lucky bugger Ed! I went with the cheap option (Zavvi) and they STILL haven't dispatched mine. I've emailed them though...hopefully will come soon!

(Soda are on a roll...very anxious to get those Reichardt and Jarmusch sets too!)

[edcresdee]

Originally Posted by rapta

Lucky bugger Ed! I went with the cheap option (Zavvi) and they STILL haven't dispatched mine. I've emailed them though...hopefully will come soon!

(Soda are on a roll...very anxious to get those Reichardt and Jarmusch sets too!)

I had Herzog, under the skin and this preordered but decided to cancel the Herzog and stick with amazon because it was pretty much the same price and better packaging.But because I ordered using that 10% off PR orders, i could only cancel the whole order. Ordered this from Amazon instead, it seems worth paying £17 for though, nice packaging.
Have Soda released anything else in this Soda Film Art (SoFA) series? It has 5 on the spine i think? Would Jarmusch and Reichard be in it too?

[EvilJames]

Originally Posted by edcresdee

Have Soda released anything else in this Soda Film Art (SoFA) series? It has 5 on the spine i think? Would Jarmusch and Reichard be in it too?

There are two other releases so far - Piercing Brightness (dual format) and The Lebanese Rocket Society (DVD only). "3" and "4" are Agnes Trouble (a.k.a. Agnes B)'s Je m'appelle Hmmm and Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky's Watermark, respectively, which will be released later this year.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by EvilJames

There are two other releases so far - Piercing Brightness (dual format) and The Lebanese Rocket Society (DVD only). "3" and "4" are Agnes Trouble (a.k.a. Agnes B)'s Je m'appelle Hmmm and Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky's Watermark, respectively, which will be released later this year.

Yeah was about to say this. I might get Watermark at some point as Baichwal & Burtynsky's Manufactured Landscapes was pretty good (still available on BFI DVD by the way).

Originally Posted by edcresdee

I had Herzog, under the skin and this preordered but decided to cancel the Herzog and stick with amazon because it was pretty much the same price and better packaging.But because I ordered using that 10% off PR orders, i could only cancel the whole order. Ordered this from Amazon instead, it seems worth paying £17 for though, nice packaging.
Have Soda released anything else in this Soda Film Art (SoFA) series? It has 5 on the spine i think? Would Jarmusch and Reichard be in it too?

Yeah I got Herzog from Amazon using one of those £5 off code (for a Tweet I think it was), making it about £40 which isn't bad (Under The Skin I have ordered with Zavvi but I'm hoping either HMV or Amazon will drop the price to a similar price just before release). I'm not sure the Jarmusch and Reichardt sets would be classed as part of their 'art' series. Maybe they'll do another series (US indie directors maybe) or just release it as part of their general affair. I've recently realised I have a lot of Soda releases both on DVD and blu-ray and they're all great titles, but I'm glad they're chasing back catalogue titles now as they usually only released new acquisitions (Herzog's Little Dieter the only exception I can think of). I'd like to see what the Only Lovers Left Alive steelbook looks like but to be honest I am happy with the amaray anyway.

PS: got a response from Zavvi - they're chasing it up and have forwarded the complaint on to the higher-ups apparently. My other order (for Top Of The Lake) has finally been dispatched after several weeks of being 'out of stock' and at one point 'pre-order now' (ridiculous as it has been out since last summer).

PPS: okay gonna complain again. Just went on the Zavvi page and it says "In stock | Usually dispatched within 24 hours" on the product page. Let's see what they say about that!

[EvilJames]

Originally Posted by rapta

I'm not sure the Jarmusch and Reichardt sets would be classed as part of their 'art' series. Maybe they'll do another series (US indie directors maybe) or just release it as part of their general affair. I've recently realised I have a lot of Soda releases both on DVD and blu-ray and they're all great titles, but I'm glad they're chasing back catalogue titles now as they usually only released new acquisitions (Herzog's Little Dieter the only exception I can think of). I'd like to see what the Only Lovers Left Alive steelbook looks like but to be honest I am happy with the amaray anyway.

The Jarmusch and Reichardt sets will be part of the general branding rather than the SoFa (Soda Film + Art) series. Only Lovers steelbook artwork is coming soon...

[Yami]

The SoFa series could turn into something really quite special, if future releases have an experimental/avant-garde/essay film tilt like the Marker set. It would be great to see some stuff like mid-late period Godard, Hans-Jurgen Syberberg, Chantal Akerman, Joris Ivens, Shuji Terayama, Straub-Huillet, Maya Deren etc. With some of the recent announcements, Soda has become one of the most exciting labels around. I'm looking forward to getting stuck into the Marker set.

[rapta]

Would be a dream come true if they one day released some animation stuff...Len Lye is a personal hero of mine, but also Norman McLaren or Stan Brakhage would be particularly great.

Glad to say Zavvi finally shipped my copy...should arrive on Saturday/Monday with any luck!