the death of VHS, disappearing films, and the state of cinephilia

Hard to pick a thread for this... Brody on Amos Vogel and Cinema 16:

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/limits-american-cinephilia

Excellent megamix of VHS footage

https://vimeo.com/76346612?outro=1

Forcing myself, in advance of a move, to take four boxes of duplicates that I also have on DVD to the Salvation Army. You'd think that would be the most obvious thing in the world, but I initially boxed them all up for the move, then unboxed them and removed the duplicates. Rosemary's Baby, Sweet Smell of Success, three copies of Taxi Driver...tomorrow's your lucky day, Luddite person out there.

https://www.fiafnet.org/pages/News/FIAF-Statement-Cinemateca-Brasileira-07-2021.html

"It is with great shock and upset that the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and its 172 Members and Associates around the world heard reports of a fire in one of the warehouses of the Cinemateca Brasileira in São Paulo on 29 July 2021."

It's too soon to tell what if anything has been lost, but the initial reports are heartbreaking.

Ugh

i sort of feel sorry for people who want to rent sam fuller's 'hell and high water'.

Own it on blu now so get fucked.

but tapes also make it more fun to pick what you're watching tonight...fewer choices, weighty enough that you really have to pull a few off the shelf, lay them out and make a choice by whatever system

Scapulomancy or gtfo imo

Sortilege way too convenient

an actually useful tech device would be a set of a half-dozen VHS size blocks and when you press a button, their surfaces all become VHS covers for six random movies from your watchlist, and you and whoever you're watching with agree to pick what to watch from these six tapes. no clicking around in the menu ever again. this is what we brought home from the video place.

not exactly the right thread for this but on the plane I saw the first 20 extraordinary minutes of SICCITÀ (2022), an Italian film set in a near future where it has not rained in Rome for 3 years. it's an ensemble piece looking at all layers of society, intimate, political, funny, desperate, beautifully photographed, pacy. Just amazing.

So I'm like, well, I'll find a way to see the rest when I get home. but there is no way. It's not on any streaming service I can find. It's not on Karagarga. It's not on Pirate Bay. Not on DVD! ARGGGHHH!!! I have to know what happens!!

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt13806164/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_3_act

Out of interest, how did you see it on the plane? Was it one of the in flight films?!

Yes!

American Airlines, no less.

email american airlines and ask how they got hold of it

I should!

Apparently this has grossed a little north of $1m lol. I don’t understand anything. It’s a little unusual in its structure and that it doesn’t have a single protagonist but it’s so epic, so pacy, so relatable, it’s hard to see how a streaming service hasn’t just snaffled it up and marketed the hell out of it to its “cognoscenti” audiences at the very least.

I really wanna see this now.

It’s on MUBI now.

aha! Thank you!

In the US too? Doesn’t seem to be :(

hmm yeah not “now showing” on my uk app either

Aw shit 😞

I haven’t joined MUBI yet but it *looked* like it would be available to watch there, was gonna sign up today …

Well, eventually, I guess.

it's on the torrents at idope.se, an Italian blu-ray rip which probably won't have ENG subs.

Looks like the blu-ray was released on January 23.

I'm not sure where I would even buy a new Blu Ray or DVD these days!

I checked Amazon even though i don't have an account there and nothing. eBay has a couple of copies but the shipping from Italy is like 20 euros. Just found a torrent I think.. "Traccia n. 6" looks promising....

Durata: 02:03:59 (7439.008 s)
Contenitore: matroska
Production date: Fri, 20 Jan 2023 15:38:13 +0100
Totale tracce: 6
Traccia n. 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC) {eng}
Traccia n. 2: audio (A_DTS) [DTS-HD MA] {ita}
Traccia n. 3: audio (A_AC3) {ita}
Traccia n. 4: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF8) [FORCED] {ita}
Traccia n. 5: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF8) [NON UDENTI] {ita}
Traccia n. 6: subtitle (S_TEXT/UTF8) [REGOLARI] {eng}

It’s on Amazon

Ah amazon.it! Well i’m not opening an Amazon account just for this because fuck Amazon

one of you has sent me a... note... on ilxmail and i am v grateful, writing this here since you can't reply to ilxmail

Of *course* it’s on Amazon, which I will never join to watch movies or TV.

No, the blu-ray is for sale. I only mentioned it because Tracer had said it wasn’t.

lost media: movies direct to video

for future reference, there are plenty of places to buy DVD/blu rays beyond Amazon (I use Zavvi UK), and of course if you're in central London you can drop by Fopp.

Any particular DVD sites recommended for Americans?

(I know a bunch of good sites for older movies but am unsure about new movies/TV show DVDs.)

i appreciate the website recommendations! but fyi none of them sell siccita and no sic i am not going to create an amazon account just for the pleasure of paying shipping from italy

I don’t recall advising anyone to create an Amazon account for any reason

it has bbc4 written all over it tbh. I'm sure if you wait a while it'll turn up.

lol the ring of truth

otoh better not wait too long or bbc four won’t exist