Crescendo House Discussion Thread

[dr727]

"CRESCENDO HOUSE will initiate the life of a film with a limited edition, collector's home video run. Each carefully curated film will feature unique artwork, packaging, and hours of special features in an effort to celebrate the value each film contains as a distinct work of art.

Our goal is to expand the mainstream visibility of international or otherwise underrepresented films in order to provide viewers with an array of choices that more accurately reflects the diverse world we inhabit. As film lovers, we cherish the thrill that accompanies seeing something unique and unlike anything else. We hope that you experience the same excitement with our slate of films."

https://crescendo.house/

[dr727]

#001 Labyrinth of Cinema (2020)

A movie can change the world!

Director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi leaves a message for the new generation. Not just a message—an energetic and powerful entertainment experience, the like of which you’ve never experienced before!

Setouchi Kinema, the only movie theater on the Onomichi seafront, is about to close its doors. Its last night of existence will be an all-night marathon screening of Japanese war films. When lightning strikes the theater, three young men in the audience find themselves thrown back in time into the world inside the screen. The trio are thrust into the Boshin War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Battle of Okinawa and then finally Hiroshima on the eve of the atomic bombing. There, they meet the traveling theater troupe “Sakura-tai”. But can they alter the course of destiny to save the troupe?

Filming in his hometown of Onomichi for the first time in 20 years, director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi's final film invites us into an intoxicating and fresh cinematic world. Against a backdrop that traces the history of Japan’s wars, Labyrinth of Cinema shapeshifts between styles and genres, drawing influences from silent films, talkies, action flicks, musicals, and more - and creates something triumphantly new and unique in the process. Obayashi, with a boundless optimism, showcases the raw energy within the medium, and the power of cinema to enact real change.

The main cast features Takuro Atsuki, Takato Hosoyamada, and Yoshihiko Hosoda as three youths transported through time into the world inside the silver screen and fated to cross paths with three heroines portrayed by newcomer Rei Yoshida, Obayashi film debutante Riko Narumi and Hirona Yamazaki, who appeared in the director’s previous work Hanagatami.

https://crescendo.house/pages/labyrinth-of-cinema

[dr727]

#002 Bloodsuckers (2021)

A Marxist vampire comedy about longing and Das Kapital.

August 1928. A Soviet factory worker by the name of Lyovischka is cast in the role of Trotsky by the director Sergei Eisenstein for his film 'October'. But his dreams of an actor‘s life are shattered when the real Trotsky falls into Stalin‘s disgrace and he is edited out of the film. The romantic dreamer flees his communist homeland and wants to try his luck in Hollywood.

Instead, he finds himself stuck in a glamorous German seaside resort on the Baltic Sea where, pretending to be a fleeing aristocrat, he wants to rustle up the money for a passage to New York. While out checking out the area, he meets the young factory owner Octavia Flambow-Jansen, who is spending the summer months by the sea, together with her clumsy servant Jakob. The eccentric millionairess takes an interest in the mysterious refugee and offers him a hideout in her luxury manor. His cover‘s quickly blown and he falls in love with his dazzling host even faster – very much to the annoyance of Jakob, who has literary ambitions as well as the hots for his boss. A summer romance kicks off – just too bad there are vampires around... And worse still, Octavia‘s a bloodsucker herself.

Filmmaker Julian Radlmaier's literal take on Marx's famous vampire allusions is a unique vision and a rare and open-ended dialectic in a contemporary filmmaking landscape obsessed with one-sided debate. It is a rejuvenating satire that retains a myriad of thought-provoking points, and counterpoints, without sacrificing its accessibility or sense of humor.

https://crescendo.house/pages/bloodsuckers

[dr727]

#003 Fukoka (2019)

Love is an unending battle between languages, though it can only accept one.

Back in college, Jea-moon and Haehyo were bosom buddies, but their friendship floundered when they both fell in love with the same woman, Soon-yi. 28 years later, Jea-moon, now the owner of a second-hand bookshop in Seoul, travels to Japan to meet his onetime friend, who runs a bar in Fukuoka. He is accompanied by his enchanting young neighbor So-dam, who suggested the meeting in the first place. But in Fukuoka, the traumatic conflict of a long-buried past gradually implodes…

Director ZHANG Lu anchors the plot in realism, in the here and now. And yet the unexpected power outage, the full moon in the night sky, and the TV tower that seems to disappear and reappear all invoke a ghost story, as ZHANG Lu resurrects his characters’ haunted pasts.

Zhang Lu’s smooth camerawork explores the marvelous locations just as delicately as he does the souls of his protagonists. FUKUOKA is an amusing film about the ability to let go.

https://crescendo.house/pages/fukuoka

[ShellBeacher]

Curious about #3. Waiting in keen anticipation for Labyrinth of Cinema, which I pre-ordered from them!

Would love for these folks to get a hold of some films like the criminally-unreleased-in-the-west JUZO ITAMI catalogue (other than Tampopo, from Criterion).

[carbls]

Does anyone know what happened to Crescendo House? I reached out to them but never heard back.. I assume sales weren't great on Labyrinth which is too bad as they had (have?) some interesting titles lined up

[dr727]

Originally Posted by carbls

Does anyone know what happened to Crescendo House? I reached out to them but never heard back.. I assume sales weren't great on Labyrinth which is too bad as they had (have?) some interesting titles lined up

I’m thinking that they move at a different pace than many boutiques (one more similar to Arbelos). It’s worth mentioning that CH also does theatrical distribution alongside physical releases. Their social media accounts are active FWIW.