Arrow & Terry Gilliam Need Your Help.

[DukeOfPrunes]

Originally Posted by Vakulinchuk

You know, I've just received Eureka's awesome La Planete Savage, incidentally also by Argos Films, and it's a packed release which could be called a Laloux boxset.
Anyway, after seeing the abysmal gap in quality between the SD shorts (Le dents du singe, les temps morts, etc.) and only one in HD (Les Escargots), I suddenly realized that you were right, and that the optimum would be to try to get all the already planned shorts in HD.

Although I originally own the French edition (arte), I also bought this MoC title for the extra short films featured in the extras. I think short films really add value, all the more when presented in HD. This is what made me pledge £60 for the restoration of Borowczyk's GOTO, and I really hope to have a "full" HD release. Anyway, I know people at Arrow will do their best to make it a reality!

[Yami]

Happy New Year!

We just wanted to say thanks again for the huge show of support you've given towards our Walerian Borowczyk project. It's been a tremendous honour for us to work on these films, and to play a part in making them available for audiences to see again, after being unavailable for so many years. Thanks to you, we're now scheduling the new restoration work of Borowczyk masterpiece Goto, l'île d'amour to begin very soon!

We also wanted to say that although we reached our initial goal of 20K, exceeding that figure has had the extraordinary benefit of allowing us to consider the restoration of the short films Borowczyk made for Argos Films. This wasn't part of our initial plan, but your overwhelming show of support has now made doing this a real possibility.

For those unfamiliar with this part of Borowczyk's oeuvre, these films are short, provocative pieces that provide vital insights into the filmmaker's world as well as important context to his features already produced and those still to come. And as with everything Borowczyk produced, these short films are masterworks in their own right that demand to be seen.

A bit of history is necessary here. Throughout his career, Borowczyk had a special relationship with Polish born French producer Anatole Dauman and his company, Argos Films. It was Dauman who co-produced Borowczyk's first non-Polish film, Les Astronautes.

What is more, it was thanks to Dauman that Borowczyk was introduced to a range of artists associated with the Parisian 'Left Bank': filmmakers like Chris Marker and Mario Ruspoli, painters like Max Ernst and the Serbian surrealist Ljuba Popović , the writer André Pieyre de Mandiargues and his artist wife, Bona.

Chris Marker played a minor, yet crucial role in Les Astronautes, while de Mandiargues provided the commentary for Borowczyk's spectacular 'documentary' on antique pornography, Une Collection Particulière.

Dauman also produced two of Borowczyk's award winning short documentaries on artists: Escargot de Venus (concerning Bona de Mandiargues' erotic snail drawings) and L'Amour monstre de tous les temps (which follows Ljuba putting the final touches to one of his giant, baroque and sexually bizarre canvases).

Argos also produced Borowczyk's final animation, Scherzo Infernal - that puts paid to the idea that animation and erotic are two mutually exclusive components of the director's career.

What we've now decided to do is assign any funds we raise over the initial goal of 20K towards the restoration of these seminal short films. We've set an unofficial goal for ourselves of 30K to make this possible, so we're hoping in the limited time we have left (Our Kickstarter campaign ends on January 11th) that this can be achieved. The terms are still the same, as are the benefits in contributing. The good news is that what you'll receive from contributing (whether you've already pledged or still plan to) will be an even richer and more comprehensive Borowczyk collection.

Help us reach £30,000 in pledges to restore the following short films:

Les Astronautes

Une Collection Particulière

Escargot de Venus

L'amour monstre de tous les temps

Scherzo Infernal

(and subject to availability of appropriate material’s Borowczyk’s short film of La Bête)

Thanks again!

Daniel Bird & James White

I'll be pleasantly surprised if this makes it to £30k in the next few days - fingers crossed!

[DukeOfPrunes]

I'm afraid it's a bit late now, but one can only hope! Too bad there isn't a £5,000 pledge where you get to meet Terry Gilliam, I'm sure somebody would have been glad to oblige

[Vakulinchuk]

Let's hope! If not... Is it possible to restore them all - and offer the box at a higher retail price?

[DukeOfPrunes]

Originally Posted by Vakulinchuk

Let's hope! If not... Is it possible to restore them all - and offer the box at a higher retail price?

Haha, seconded!

I do hope we'll get there, Scherzo infernal would be great in HD!!

[gitsurfer]

Up to £23,991 now so there's been a spurt in the last few days. Only 35 hours to go so I thought I'd give the thread a little bump in case it reminds anyone who was considering a pledge

[mattyl149]

I don't know how feasible it is for everyone here (finances are always tight) to increase their pledge by a couple of quid, but I'm seriously considering it. If it means we can get one extra short in HD, then it'll be worth it. I'm happy to pay £70 for a superior product and it would be almost a definitive boxset if we could have all the shorts in HD

Even if we could nudge it over £25,000, that would be great

[DukeOfPrunes]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

I think Arrow's attitude is that they've spent enough money on this project already (they've been unbelievably generous) - and I also suspect they'd be reluctant to exceed a £99.99 RRP.

But Scherzo Infernal is third on the priority list after Les Astronautes and A Private Collection, so we'd only need to get up to, say, £26K or £27K to guarantee an HD bump. Possibly less as it's under five minutes long.

Thanks for letting us know, Michael! Reaching £25K sounds possible before the end. As mattyl1149 says, it would only require for every backer to up the pledge by £2.5. I'm even considering to up my pledge to £150 if it could bring Scherzo infernal in HD (Parmegiani!!).

[thechicken]

Tempted to pledge as I do love the idea of kick starters funding movie restorations (risk-free for companies), but no real idea if Borowczyk is for me.

Is Behind Convent Gardens a good movie to get the idea of how much I'd like his other work from?

[Vakulinchuk]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

I wouldn't recommend Behind Convent Walls as a representative sampling of the work in the box - he was well into his sexploitation phase then, whereas the main function of the box is to turn the clock back to the 1959-75 period when he was regarded as a serious successor to Buñuel and Bresson (and one of the world's most original animators, which you wouldn't get from the later work at all!).

Still, being based on Stendhal, I'm very curious about this one... Does anyone know which is the best home video release of it?

[thechicken]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

Can I just challenge the bit in bold? The Borowczyk project is most definitely not "risk-free" - Arrow single-handedly bankrolled the restoration of two features and nine shorts before deciding that they'd reached their limit.

I'm not privy to the budgets of all Arrow's productions, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if this was one of their more expensive undertakings in terms of upfront investment on their part - and therefore one of the riskiest, given that Borowczyk has nothing like the commercial clout of Zombie Flesh Eaters or Time Bandits (to cite two other titles where Arrow paid extra for original James White restorations).

I meant rather than this particular project, but for future projects inspired by the success of this one. I've admittedly no idea of the true costs of restorations and distribution etc so my understanding is going to be a sinplistic one, but would kick starters for a single niche movie not be possible in the future? A certain amount of backers to get the rights and restore a single movie, and before any expenses are incurred the studio is able to know for sure the project will break-even or be profitable, and means no risk of a bunch of unsold copies if it turns out the movie doesn't have as many fans as originally thought. If this can lead to Blu-ray releases of more movies that otherwise would not get them, I'm all for it.

[Vakulinchuk]

From update no 1:

We have just been informed that the Cinémathêque Française has recently discovered a fine-grain positive 35mm print of Goto. This hasn’t been examined yet, but if it’s in good physical condition and if it contains those all-important colour shots, then it might prove to be an ideal source on which to base our restoration.

Have you guys examined this? How about the colour shots?

by the way, so close to 26k, awesome!

[DukeOfPrunes]

Just upped my pledge from £63 to £153 £26K would secure a third short film in HD, I believe. I sincerely hope the remaining shorts will be presented in 1080i on the Blu-Ray discs.

[gitsurfer]

Well it has finished at exactly £26,000 so we should hopefully have two, possibly three of those Argos shorts restored in HD in Addition to Goto. Great stuff!

[Mr Kite]

Originally Posted by gitsurfer

Well it has finished at exactly £26,000 so we should hopefully have two, possibly three of those Argos shorts restored in HD in Addition to Goto. Great stuff!

Wow what a success this has been.

[DukeOfPrunes]

Thank you Michael for your dedication to this project!

I'm glad people proved such campaigns could be a real success.
I can't wait to see the finished product.

[Mr Kite]

Originally Posted by DukeOfPrunes

Thank you Michael for your dedication to this project!

I'm glad people proved such campaigns could be a real success.
I can't wait to see the finished product.

+1

[Yami]

It's been nearly a month since funding was completed so I'm hoping that we get another update soon. Primarily, has the Cinémathêque Française's fine-grain positive of Goto been examined yet?

[Yami]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

If all goes according to plan, formal restoration should begin in a matter of days.

Terrific, thanks for responding. Also, is Boro's Dictionary still going to be updated?

[DukeOfPrunes]

Thanks for the heads-up!