MEMORIA (Limited Collector's Edition)

[rapta]

As had been teased elsewhere, one of the best films of 2021 - Apichatpong Weerasethakul's MEMORIA - will be getting a Limited Edition Dual Format release on July 25th (via Sovereign Films), and featuring the following extras, as well as a booklet and poster:

• Q&A with Simon Field - Tilda Swinton talks with Simon Field at the ICA as they discuss Memoria, from the film's inception, how she became involved, filming in Colombia, and how audiences have received the film worldwide (duration 30m).
• Q&A with Peter Bradshaw - British writer and chief film critic at The Guardian talks with Tilda Swinton and director Apichatpong Weerasethakul in a fascinating insight into the making of Memoria (duration 27m)
• Roundtable Discussion - A engaging discussion between Simon Field, Tilda Swinton, director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, producer Diana Bustamante, editor Lee Chatametikool, and sound designer Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr as they each offer their own specialist insights into the making of Memoria (approx 48m).
• Behind the Scenes - Get a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes in three specially selected sequences from the on-location shoot of Memoria in Colombia.
• Photo gallery - A special selection of stills going behind the scenes of Memoria

Pre-order links: Sovereign Films (direct) / Amazon / Rarewaves

[knuckles96]

Really glad about this - was told a while back it would never see a home release, but would be on a permanent 'world tour' in cinemas.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by knuckles96

Really glad about this - was told a while back it would never see a home release, but would be on a permanent 'world tour' in cinemas.

Thought that was just in the US where Neon were distributing it theatrically in an experimental fashion. Would definitely have to hit home video and streaming eventually to recoup on the investment...not a realistic business plan to have a slow roll-out in one country and other strategies elsewhere.

Anyway, I did ask Sovereign a while ago but they never responded, but a Blu-ray was name-dropped recently (I think in a magazine article or press release somewhere). This is their second only Blu-ray release after a bizarrely timed limited edition of Effie Gray (for the hardcore fans, I guess?). Anyway, sounds like they're going hard which is never a bad thing...let's hope it's a decent encode and tastefully put together. I also hope this pushes other labels to consider picking up other Weerasethakul titles like Syndromes and a Century (I think Second Run will upgrade their DVD titles once they've been restored).

[blujazz]

Ordering this directly.

The cinemas-only approach is only in the US with Neon. Sovereign had a big splash on this film in January opening in bigger cities in the UK for a couple/several weeks.

[jugmarker]

I hope a standard edition is not too far behind. I'm not interested in having a DVD included and the £24.99 price point is too high for me.

Sovereign also distributed the film in Ireland I got to see it at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin. I liked it a great deal. It's fairly quiet and contemplative, but there are particular moments where it is quite loud and I hope that's reflected in the blu-ray's sound mix.

[roiroiroi]

What is the spoken language of this film? Can't find the info on the Amazon page.
Either way I'm hoping this bluray will have English subtitles!

[rapta]

Originally Posted by roiroiroi

What is the spoken language of this film? Can't find the info on the Amazon page.
Either way I'm hoping this bluray will have English subtitles!

Mostly Spanish with some English.

[CelestialAgent]

Hopefully some of Sovereign’s other titles like Bad Luck Banging, Petrov’s Flu, The Great Movement end up making it to disc too. While Sovereign hasn’t done the tour method from the US, they’ve still given it an astounding 5 month window before releasing it on VOD next month.

[Sifox211]

Originally Posted by jugmarker

I hope a standard edition is not too far behind. I'm not interested in having a DVD included and the £24.99 price point is too high for me.

Sovereign also distributed the film in Ireland I got to see it at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin. I liked it a great deal. It's fairly quiet and contemplative, but there are particular moments where it is quite loud and I hope that's reflected in the blu-ray's sound mix.

It's a lot cheaper at Rarewaves - £17.67

[rapta]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Hopefully some of Sovereign’s other titles like Bad Luck Banging, Petrov’s Flu, The Great Movement end up making it to disc too. While Sovereign hasn’t done the tour method from the US, they’ve still given it an astounding 5 month window before releasing it on VOD next month.

Triangle of Sadness just won the Palme d'Or, so I'm guessing that'll be a future Blu-ray too...

[CelestialAgent]

Triangle of Sadness is Curzon though, so who knows if they’ll even give that a disc.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Triangle of Sadness is Curzon though, so who knows if they’ll even give that a disc.

It is? I only said cos I saw it on their site recently under ‘Coming soon’: https://www.sovereignfilms.co.uk/triangle-of-sadness

EDIT: weird, just saw the announcement that Curzon acquired it like you said. Maybe Sovereign financed or produced it in some capacity?

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by rapta

Triangle of Sadness just won the Palme d'Or, so I'm guessing that'll be a future Blu-ray too...

You’d think, but we’re still waiting on that Titane release so I’m guessing Cannes winners don’t factor too much into these decisions.

[CelestialAgent]

Sovereign are both producers and distributors of films. Some of the films they list like The Tree of Life, Jodorowsky’s Dune, Voyage of Time, Cunningham aren’t distributed by Sovereign.

[Cinesimon]

Madman Australia are releasing a single disc blu-ray, region b of course: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Memoria-Blu-ray/314402/

[BluBonnet]

[Art_bell]

Anyone have any details on the region coding for this release?

[Dragun]

Originally Posted by Art_bell

Anyone have any details on the region coding for this release?

Likely Region B.

[Art_bell]

Originally Posted by Dragun

Likely Region B.

I'm thinking you're right. Bummer!

Dunno how official it is, but this is the only listing I could find with mention of region coding, they've got it as 2/B:

https://www.rarewaves.com/collection...ectors-edition

[minister_x]

Originally Posted by Art_bell

Anyone have any details on the region coding for this release?

Just checked, and actually this is coded for all regions (according to my multi-region Sony player). However, do note that most of the extras are 1080i/50 if that makes any difference.

Somewhat intriguingly, the included DVD is NTSC, and has optional subtitles (I couldn't disable the Blu-ray's subtitles for non-English portions on my player). The included DVD does not have any PAL content as far as I can tell, but it also doesn't have most of the extras.

The poster is quite flimsy and has been folded at least three times to fit inside the Scanavo case. The booklet looks like it has a fair bit of content in, which looks quite nice at first glance, but it's a snug fit for the booklet and the case inside the slipcase (not rigid, so can just about get the set out without damaging the structure. The booklet also confusingly has two pages in between page 5 and page 7, but given what looks like a wealth of content that can be (partially) ignored...

Here's a breakdown of the two discs; will get a BDInfo created too.

DISC ONE (Blu-ray)
* The Film
"Memoria In Conversation" 2022 Round Table Discussion with Simon Field, Tilda Swinton, writer/director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, producer Diana Bustamente, editor Lee Chatametikool, and sound designer Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr (48:14)
2022 Q&A with Simon Field and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (7:34)
2022 Q&A with Simon Field and Tilda Swinton (29:45)
2022 Q&A with Peter Bradshaw, Tilda Swinton, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (27:21)
"Behind the Scenes" featurettes (with Play All option - 25:09) [1080p/24]
- Extract 1: Bogotá - "Where Twelve Lanes of Traffic Meet" (11:18)
- Extract 2: Bogotá - "The Dolly is 150 Metres Long" (4:58)
- Extract 3: Túnel de la Línea under construction - "It's Like Working Underwater" (8:52)
Photo Galleries [1080p/24]
- Stills from the Film (1:23)
- Behind the Film Stills (1:23)
UK Theatrical Trailer (1:53) [1080p/24]

DISC TWO (DVD copy)
* The Film
2022 Q&A with Simon Field and Tilda Swinton (30:59) [480p]
UK Theatrical Trailer (1:53) [480p]