Czech cinema on Blu-ray

[djvaso]

This is nice but I am wondering as if NFA will release movies which are available in HD:
Crime Films
Strach (1963)
The Murderer Hides His Face (Vrah skrývá tvár) (1966)
Po stopách krve (1970)
Na kolejích ceká vrah (1970)
Vim, že jsi vrah (1972)
Sign of the Cancer (Znamení raka) (1967)
Motiv pro vraždu (1974)
Third Clinch for Tommy (Tretí skoba pro kocoura) (1983)

Comedies
Svatba jako remen (1967)
The Hit (Trhák) (1980)
Ball Lightning (Kulový blesk) (1979)
Run, Waiter, Run! (Vrchní, prchni!) (1980)
Léto s kovbojem (1976)
Svetáci (1969)
Behold Homolka (Ecce homo Homolka) (1969)
Hogo fogo Homolka (1970)
Homolka a tobolka (1972)
The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians (Tajemství hradu v Karpatech) (1981)

[Ernest Rister]

Anyone familiar with the films of Martin Frick? Shot 100 films, took his own life when the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia.

[jonali]

Accumulator 1 coming to BD in October, but apparently not an English friendly release:
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Akumu...lu-ray/213314/

[Jospef]

Originally Posted by jonali

Accumulator 1 coming to BD in October, but apparently not an English friendly release:
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Akumu...lu-ray/213314/

I added that because it is available to preorder now. It is not confirmed info about subtitles yet. But last Sverak's films had English subtitles - so this could have too.

[jonali]

Originally Posted by Jospef

I added that because it is available to preorder now. It is not confirmed info about subtitles yet. But last Sverak's films had English subtitles - so this could have too.

The

The previous DVD release from Magic Box did not have English subs, even though apparently it was listed among the specs:
https://www.amazon.com/Akumulator-1-.../dp/B0026O9ZCM
But, anyway, let us keep our fingers crossed this time around...

[TheDoug]

I just went to Music Box films web page and they do note that the AKUMULATOR 1 Blu-ray will have english subtitles. See link: http://www.magicbox.cz/dvd-hledani/akumulator-1

[Jospef]

Originally Posted by TheDoug

I just went to Music Box films web page and they do note that the AKUMULATOR 1 Blu-ray will have english subtitles. See link: http://www.magicbox.cz/dvd-hledani/akumulator-1

It is DVD... They don't have Blu-ray listed there yet.

[TheDoug]

Originally Posted by Jospef

It is DVD... They don't have Blu-ray listed there yet.

Whoops! My bad...didn't read the fine print.😁

[TheDoug]

Music Box Films finally has listed AKUMULATOR 1 in the blu-ray format. It also notes that it does come with English subtitles. October 24th is the release date. See link: http://www.magicbox.cz/dvd-hledani/a...-verze-blu-ray

[Admira]

https://en.bontonland.cz/akumulator-1-1/

[TheDoug]

I just ordered this set from: https://superstarshop.cz/obchod.php?...terovana_verze

They are a USA and english friendly shop whom I have done business with for quite a few years.

[Jospef]

Criterion should release 4K restoration of Jan Nemec's Diamonds of the Night soon (according to Czech NFA).

Also, I tried to do updated list of those 30 films that Criterion could release on Blu-ray + process of the restoration + already released titles elsewhere:

[Show spoiler]

1. All My Good Countrymen / Vsichni dobri rodaci (1968; V. Jasny) || 4K restoration in 2013: Czech release (without English subtitles)
   
   
2. Black Peter / Cerny Petr (1963; M. Forman) || 4K restoration in 2017: Czech and UK release (both region free with English subtitles)
   
   
3. A Boring Afternoon / Fadni odpoledne – short film (1964; I. Passer) || Restored: UK release (as Extra of Intimate Lighting)
   
   
4. Capricious Summer / Rozmarne leto (1967; J. Menzel)
   
   
5. The Cassandra Cat (When the Cat Comes) / Az prijde kocour (1963; V. Jasny)
   
   
6. Closely Watched Trains / Ostre sledovane vlaky (1966; J. Menzel) || 4K restoration in 2014: UK and Czech release (both region free with English subtitles)
   
   
7. Courage for Every Day / Kazdy den odvahu (1964; E. Schorm)
   
   
8. The Cremator / Spalovac mrtvol (1968; J. Herz) || 4K restoration in 2019 & already released by Criterion (21/04/2020); also Czech release (region free with English subtitles), UK release is unrestored (but region free with English subtitles)
   
   
9. Daisies / Sedmikrasky (1966; V. Chytilova) || 'Remastered': UK release (region free with English subtitles)
   
   
10. Diamonds of the Night / Demanty noci (1964; J. Nemec) || 4K restoration in 2018 & already released by Criterion (16/04/2019); also Czech and UK release (both region free with English subtitles)
    
    
11. Distant Journey / Daleka cesta (1949; A. Radok) || 4K restoration in 2019: Czech release (planned for 2020; region free with English subtitles)
    
    
12. The Ear / Ucho (1970; K. Kachyna) || 'Remastered': UK release (region free with English subtitles)
    
    
13. The Firemen’s Ball / Hori, ma panenko (1967; M. Forman) || 4K restoration in 2012: UK and Czech release (both region free with English subtitles)
    
    
14. Footprints / Stopy – short film (1960; J. Jires) || Restored & already released by Criterion (30/06/2015) as Extra of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders; also on the UK release (region free with English subtitles)
    
    
15. From Saturday to Sunday / Ze soboty na nedeli (1931; G. Machaty) || 4K restoration in 2016: Czech release (region free with English subtitles)
    
    
16. The Hall of Lost Steps / Sal ztracenych kroku – short film (1960; J. Jires) || Restored & already released by Criterion (30/06/2015) as Extra of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders; also on the UK release (region free with English subtitles)
    
    
17. Ikarie XB 1 (1963; J. Polak) || 4K restoration in 2015: Czech and UK release (both region free with English subtitles)
    
    
18. Intimate Lighting / Intimni osvetleni (1965; I. Passer) || 4K restoration in 2016: UK release (region free with English subtitles)
    
    
19. The Joke / Zert (1968; J. Jires)
    
    
20. Loves of a Blonde / Lasky jedne plavovlasky (1965; M. Forman) || 4K restoration in 2019: UK release (region free with English subtitles)
    
    
21. Marketa Lazarová (1967; F. Vlacil) || 4K restoration in 2011 & already released by Criterion (18/06/2013); also Czech release (region free with English subtitles)
    
    
22. Pearls of the Deep / Perlicky na dne (1965; J. Menzel, J. Nemec, E. Schorm, V. Chytilova, J. Jires)
    
    
23. A Report on the Party and the Guests / O slavnosti a hostech (1966; J. Nemec)
    
    
24. Return of the Prodigal Son / Navrat ztraceneho syna (1966; E. Schorm)
    
    
25. Shop on Main Street / Obchod na korze (1965; J. Kadar, E. Klos) || 4K restoration in 2017; UK release is unrestored (but region free with English subtitles)
    
    
26. Something Different / O necem jinem (1963; V. Chytilova)
    
    
27. Three Wishes for Cinderella / Tri orisky pro Popelku (1973; V. Vorlicek) || 4K restoration in 2015: Czech release (region free with English subtitles)
    
    
28. Transport From Paradise / Transport z raje (1962; Z. Brynych)
    
    
29. Uncle / Strejda – short film (1959; J. Jires) || Restored & already released by Criterion (30/06/2015) as Extra of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders; also on the UK release (region free with English subtitles)
    
    
30. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders / Valerie a tyden divu (1970; J. Jires) || 4K restoration in 2015 & already released by Criterion (30/06/2015); UK release is unrestored (but region free with English subtitles)
    
    + out of the 30 list:
    
    
31. Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman: Journey to the Beginning of Time Blu-ray / Invention for Destruction Blu-ray / The Fabulous Baron Munchausen Blu-ray (1955, 1958, 1961; K. Zeman) || 4K restoration in 2018, 2015 and 2016 & already released by Criterion (25/02/2020); also Czech (I, II, III) and UK releases (I, II, III) (both region free with English subtitles)

[Joseph Goodman]

Are there screencaps anywhere of Ikarie XB-1?

[kboumi]

Originally Posted by Joseph Goodman

Are there screencaps anywhere of Ikarie XB-1?

There’s a compressed youtube trailer (

IKARIE XB 1 - Jindřich Polák, 1963, Trailer - YouTube

) and these somewhat small caps on the NFA site http://eea.nfa.cz/cz/filmy/ikarie-xb-1/?ch=2-galerie.

What are you after? If it’s about image quality.: It’s a proper 4K restoration. There have been some problematic restorations done by the NFA (they’ve decided to leave in cue marks, for example (where stamped in the negative itself), as a "historical artefact", but mainly they’ve failed to do proper color grading work sometimes -- Adela jeste nevecerela (1977) to name one). But when it comes to Ikarie, that’s black-and-white, and according to an Association of Czech Cinematographers’ review (in Czech only, sorry http://www.ceskam.cz/cz/novinky/rece...mu-ikarie-xb-1), this is much better than some of their other ventures, partly because the negative itself has been in great condition. They still mention some slight misses in contrast and saturation of black but the bottom line is that this is a good restoration. So a safe buy if that was your concern. I’m not sure about the cue marks here, though...

[Joseph Goodman]

I was thinking more along the lines of DNR/grain reduction, but thank you for the information.

[kboumi]

Originally Posted by Joseph Goodman

I was thinking more along the lines of DNR/grain reduction, but thank you for the information.

I am not sure about the cue marks, you won’t notice the grading (if there’s something slightly wrong here, in this case definitely not noticeably), I am not sure about the encode, but I am absolutely and definitely sure that the grain is left untouched. You won’t find any DNR in any of these restorations whatsover (be it the work of NFA or http://www.theczechfilmfoundation.com/). Not even fake grain--for example Ze soboty na neděli (1931) was restored from more different materials and they are not tampered with, the grain structure is always left the way it was present in the material.

I found some additional caps in the Ministry of Culture FB post. They are not caps of the blu-ray itself, but it is the restoration, this is what you’ll get.:

https://www.facebook.com/ministerstv...04891506219945











Edit: The trailer on Vimeo has slightly better compression (and wrong gamma), the grain structure is therefore a little bit more evident in comparison with the youtube one. https://vimeo.com/167284428

[Dr_Bedlo]

Originally Posted by Admira

https://en.bontonland.cz/akumulator-1-1/

Yay!
My copy has just arrived. Will be popping this disc in tonight!

[jonali]

New restoration of Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955) coming on March 27!'

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Cesta...lu-ray/229393/

[Admira]

http://nfa.cz/en/e-shop/films/?a=18132

[Admira]

https://www.artusfilms.com/home/les-...s-tcheques-284