Label Discovery - Cinematographe

Matt gets to discovery another new (to him) boutique physical media label on today's episode! This time he is diving into a Vinegar Syndrome sub-label called Cinematographe, which specializes in filling in some of the gaps in the American film cannon. From lesser known titles by acclaimed directors to films that slipped through the cracks of notoriety and wider distribution, they have a lot to offer and a great package to offer it in. As part of this label discovery, Matt samples three releases from Cinematographe that caught his eye: Goin' South, Thieves Like Us, and Swimming To Cambodia. Is this label worth the time to discover?

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Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Welcome to Cinema on a Shelf, a podcast about movies and physical media. My name is Matt, and thank you for spending some time with me instead of watching a movie. I promise I will try to make it worth your time. Speaking of, perhaps you may want to actually go out and watch a few movies after this, potentially around a specific label, because this episode is my most recent episode in my continuing label discovery series, where I go about checking out a new physical media label to me, something that I didn't have in my collection previous to taking a little bit of a sampling of it. I've done this in the past with a few different labels, including uh one directly related to the label that I will be discussing today, which is Cinematograph. Now, Cinematograph is actually a sublabel of vinegar syndrome. So if you're interested in vinegar syndrome and the kind of thing that they do, um you can go back and check out my previous episode about that. But um, one of the things that I do talk about with vinegar syndrome is that they are a distributor and a physical media label that actually does a lot in terms of partner labels, but also sub-labels, so ones that they have a little bit more, I guess, direct control over. And uh Cinematograph is one of those, one that they really use to highlight a specific type of release. So we're gonna be talking about cinematographs specifically today in this episode, and uh this is kind of well-timed because it's actually gonna be coming out a day before uh the vinegar syndrome annual halfway to Black Friday sale. So if you're listening to the episode and you're getting a hankering to maybe check out Cinematograph, or maybe you already have and you're looking for more of what they have, they are gonna be on pretty big sale, which is one of their couple of big sales on the Vinegar Syndrome store online. So I guess well timed by me. I didn't necessarily mean it to be that, but I have had several releases from Cinematograph that I purchased with the idea of doing this label discovery episode. So I was really happy to actually get a chance to check out some of the releases, of which I will talk about a little bit later. But in typical fashion with these episodes, I did want to give a little bit of an introduction to cinematograph, what they're all about, the type of thing that they do with their label specifically. So, as I mentioned, they are a vinegar syndrome sub-label. They are directed and curated by a man who also works as a producer for Vinegar Syndrome named Justin Laliberti. Um, he also is involved with OCN Distribution, which uh we've I've talked about previously, are sort of a distribution arm for a lot of partner labels and uh some of the other releases that Vinegar Syndrome does and sells on their uh their website. Uh so Justin is the one specifically that is it seems to be the head curator for Cinematograph as a whole. This is a sub-label from them that is is basically producing Blu-rays and 4K discs. And uh a good number of these are in combo packs. I didn't go and and count out specifically how many they have of each, but they are made for the region A audience. So some of the releases have been released in other areas of the world for region B or other areas, but if there is a Blu-ray as part of their set, which there always is at least a Blu-ray, they are for Region A players. So if you are international and you're looking to get into Cinematograph, you will need a region free player for the Blu-rays, which is gonna be important because even if it is a 4K Blu-ray combo release, most of the supplemental special features are on the Blu-ray disc, but not the 4K just because of space limitations. The cinematograph label has sort of a stated goal of the type of stuff they're looking to release, and that is to quote unquote fill the gaps in the canon of American cinema, which is a really interesting description and can be taken several different ways when you look at some of the things that they have been releasing. Most of their releases, in fact, I think all of their releases kind of span from the 1960s through to the late 1990s. They haven't really ventured outside of those parameters in terms of time. A number of the films that they've released have come from, you know, eras of especially the 60s and 70s, that are sort of um films that are directed by well-known directors, auteur directors from that kind of quote-unquote new Hollywood era. They, you know, people like Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese recently had one of his early films, Fox Car Bertha, that was released by Cinematograph. Other directors like Carol Reese, thing, uh, you know, also have had additions on cinematograph. And none of these are necessarily the most high-profile films, as you can imagine, with you know, the stated goal being to fill in the gaps of the canon of American cinema. They're not gonna be the ones coming out and saying, hey, we are gonna release MASH, or we're gonna release Taxi Driver, or we're gonna release the French Lieutenant's Woman from you know, either of those three directors. They're gonna be looking at some of those films that are maybe lesser seen, lesser known, that maybe have not had a good high-definition edition on physical media available to view. And even though they do go into you know the 80s uh with some of these films and then into the 90s, they do also, I think at other times have films where they uh again are are are filling those gaps in the canon in a little bit different ways, you know, with some of their releases like uh let's say Go Fish, which is a very underseen uh lesbian film that you know for a long time was I think more talked about than than seen. And uh I I only really kind of heard about it first when Cinematograph announced they were putting it out, and heard a bit more about it when I was watching The Watermelon Woman, which Criterion did a wonderful edition of, and looking at the idea of you know, this this canon of lesbian films. So it is also looking at films and filling in some of those, you know, release gaps, or with some of their newer films into the 90s, ones like Red Rock West, uh New Rose Hotel, ones that maybe uh have weird distribution limbo or were maybe produced by like smaller studios that are no longer in business and the you know the rights have been a little bit dubious and maybe past hands a few times. Of a lot of the films that they are releasing, they they sort of fall into one of those two categories, either those like studio films that probably have a big name director to them, and they're maybe kind of in the the middle part of their discography, or ones that people aren't as familiar with, or ones that came out on more independent or smaller labels that maybe don't exist anymore, and their catalogs were bought up or kind of left in limbo for long periods of time, and has meant the films are sort of little seen at this point, and cinematograph is taking the opportunity to give them a real kind of loving addition, which is uh something of Vinegar Syndrome certainly does with a lot of the other films that they do on their main line and uh sub other sub-labels. And you know, I I I think this is a really interesting kind of goal and you know, a masthead almost for the label, because there are a good number of films and filmmakers, even really well-known filmmakers, that just don't have all of their films available and people maybe just haven't even seen them because they're really not streaming anywhere or harder to find on on physical media. Um I know the I know the the gentlemen on on the the big picture that do the uh the physical media high council were just talking about this in their most recent episode about you know directors that they wish more of their films were available for. Cinematograph, I think, is is doing some work in that area, and they're still a pretty new sub label. In fact, they only really began releasing the their physical media releases in 2023, so we're looking at just right around three full years that they've been in operation at this point. They have 33 releases so far. Um, I'm recording this in May of 2026, and they are about to release their 33rd. I think it's up for pre-order at the moment, but by the end of the month it will be available. The earliest release that they put out was the 1980 film Little Darlings, and the most recent one that is the pre-order from May 2026 is from 1982, and it is Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, which is a Robert Altman film, which is actually not the last time we're going to talk about Robert Altman in this episode, because uh one of the films that I checked out and discovered was also a Robert Altman film. In terms of their release strategy and the types of editions that they do, they will initially put their films out as uh kind of a limited edition, similar to what Radiance Films does, uh, in that they, you know, will have a really nice like a box with the you know packaging and everything that they have with it in a uh a numbered edition. And then eventually uh several months down the road, they do release a standard edition. Uh, I don't have any of the standard editions myself, so I can't actually speak to what is in those standard editions outside of you know the the packaging and things, which I'll talk about in a second. So I don't know if they have a version of a of the booklet in there or if it's just the discs. If I were guessing, I would say it's probably just the discs. So if there's a Blu-ray and a 4K, it would include both of those, I would imagine. But the ones that I have in my collection and have checked out are all the limited edition versions of the film. All of their limited editions do come with J cards. So in instead of an Obi-strip, which is something a little more common with uh, say, Radiance titles or uh other releases that you may see from different parts of Asia and Japan, they're where they're a little more popular. These J cards are the ones where they're like a loose piece of paper that covers the entire back of the release and then kind of goes underneath and then up ever so slightly onto the front. So if you look at it from the side, it forms a J. Then they have little clear stickers that they sort of affix to them. Most people, I think, keep the J cards on their release or attached to the release. I I don't know, I guess a collector's a little bit different with those, but it does contain a lot of the information about what's on the disc. So I do do keep them on the ones that I have. But they, you know, in in a similar way, I guess, the the J card I've seen in some Aero Films releases as well as as some other physical media labels, too. But this is what is going to kind of come in the limited edition versions. Now, the all these limited editions have real just super high quality packaging to them. Um they they really are commendable. And in my in my vinegar syndrome episode, I did praise the the materials and just how sturdy things are from vinegar syndrome. And uh not only does this carry over to cinematograph, they actually really step it up for cinematograph releases to a point where it is um it's very close to maybe what I would say as like a real gold standard of of packaging in terms of a boutique physical media release. The the boxes that are on the outside of the releases are quite thick, really nice and sturdy. They usually are sort of like have like a matte finish to them, which uh as someone with you know a oily skin and oily fingers, I really appreciate because they don't pick up a whole lot of fingerprints or anything like that. So that's great. Then on the inside, they do have uh like an inner case that slides in and out of the box, and they are designed to be more like a book where the book is containing the disc or the discs and then has an attached booklet into it. So instead of having a loose booklet where it sort of also slots in there and then you can read it in, it is like it is attached to the spine of this book-like case, which I think is a nice touch. It does make it a little bit uh not necessarily awkward, but I guess it's a different experience to read the essays on that are contained in the booklet because it is part of of this this this inner kind of you know case book, uh whatever you want to call it. So it is a little bit different for that. However, it is also something that you see in some packaging that is more of like a standard Blu-ray bookcase packaging. I don't know, there might be a specific name for it. I know I have a few in my collection that are like that, have an attached booklet. So it's maybe convenience-wise, not as great for reading the booklet, but it it is a really, really high quality material that's going into this book with the discs and everything else. To add to the feel of it really being a book cover as well, this inner bookcase is actually cloth bound and is foil embossed on the the front of it to sort of show the uh the title of the film and it's a little bit of embossing sort of on the spine as well with the cinematograph uh logo, which is actually awesome. I love the logo in that. Uh it's like a little kind of eye almost, like half, half-winking eye. But the it it basically feels very much like a book. And if you think of, you know, if you own a book that has like an outer cover on it, and you take that outer cover off and just feel what the book is, it is very much that like kind of you know rougher cloth-bound book, which is exactly what this feels like. It's it it's incredibly high quality. It really is, and I I really need to commend the people at Cinematograph for the the type of care that they're putting into the packaging. It does feel incredibly premium, incredibly sturdy. Uh, it also has this really great touch that again adds to the book-like feel of it, which is it has a little ribbon attached on the inside of the the outer box sleeve that helps you to pull the inner book out. Again, it just it it almost resembles to me like a uh like a bookmark ribbon that's attached to a cloth-bound book, like that. Uh, it just it has this real book-like feel to it. And I I think it's a really, really nice touch. I think it's also really great for you know handling of the case. Obviously, the the inner book is is like a hardcover book, you know, so you're you you're not gonna dent it by pulling this ribbon out with it. It's a really nice touch. I I really you know, like I said, of anything that I've checked out that's new to me, or even anything else that I have in my collection, even the sturdiest of of boxes from other labels, uh, you know, they're with really nice materials on them. This feels like just that one extra step that just adds to the premium feel of it. So it, you know, if for for having films that they are releasing that are sort of the slip through the cracks of American cinema kind of films, uh, it does give a real feel of importance to these films. That you know, what they're what they're doing, what they're preserving is like it looks really nice on the shelf, and even when you dismantle everything and read the, you know, take the discs out and read it. It's it's just this this really great. I I've gushed enough about this, but like I I think you can get the idea. It it is really, really top-notch. With this top-notch kind of release, they do have sort of a regular cadence of their releases for typically doing one release per month. There are a few exceptions to this. There'll be some months where they maybe have two films that they're gonna do, and sometimes they may have a month where they take, you know, the month off. I I think mostly around December is when they they kind of don't do a release, which makes complete sense. And uh so, you know, over the course of, like I said, the three years they have the 33 releases total, so it's not perfectly one a month, but it is relatively close to that. And it does mean that their catalog has been able to sort of grow steadily without you know suddenly having a real glut of releases that is is tough for people to keep up with. And I know a lot of people are that I've seen online and heard talk about cinematograph are really big fans of the type of thing they do, and it does allow for people to sort of collect along with them without really having to break the bank. Now, that being said, these are not necessarily inexpensive releases. Uh, a good majority of cinematograph releases have a 4K disc as part of them. Not all of them, mind you, but you know, you you do pay a little bit more for those releases because you're getting a 4K disc as well as a Blu-ray for that one. They, you know, I I think are certainly with the packaging they have, I think they do justify that price in a lot of ways. But it is nice to see a label that is sort of growing at a speed where they they don't have to worry about losing people necessarily, where you know, if if you uh are maybe dipping in and out of them a little bit and do want to be a a completist and collect everything, it is it's it's a little more reasonable to do, especially for a label that is just three years old instead of you know having a hundred releases, then you know, they they have 33, and it's it's a little bit easier to check out if you are interested in them. Which of course I was uh both in wanting to do this for an episode and also just in the the word of mouth that I've heard from Cinematograph. Have you know heard real high praise for their releases, real high praise for a lot of the you know the preservation and you know vinegar syndrome is is very much known for this, known for really good transfers, really good restorations, and I wanted to check them out for myself. So, in typical fashion for these label discovery episodes, I go about picking three releases that I'm gonna check out, and uh they can catch my eye for various reasons, but basically I want to get like a little bit of a slice of what the label does. And in this case, it is, you know, with three releases, it's it's right around 10% of what they do have available now. So when I talk about these three titles, I'll give a little bit of a description of what the film is. It isn't necessarily a film critique or a review. Uh, I have a letterboxed account for that, but you know, we'll talk a little bit about what the packaging on each one kind of looks like and what's in there, what the look and feel and sound of the film itself is like, and then touch on the supplements and the booklets that are available with each one as well. I guess the easiest way to talk about these and break them down is to maybe go in order of their earliest release to the latest release. For the ones that I picked up. And I'll say the three titles that I've picked up and then just start going through them one by one. So the three that I grabbed were Goin' South, the 1978 film directed by Jack Nicholson, Thieves Like Us from 1974, which is directed by Robert Altman, and Swimming to Cambodia from 1987, which is directed by Jonathan Demy. Going South of those three is the earliest film that Cinematograph released of the ones I picked up. I believe it's the third one they released overall. But it is uh it's a 1978 Western directed by Jack Nicholson, who is much more well known as an actor, but it was someone that was uh also really involved with the new Hollywood wave of things, uh especially kind of in the the early days of New Hollywood in the in the 1960s. You know, Jack Nicholson's career goes all the way back to the early 60s, being in, you know, starring in Roger Corman films like uh like the the very early Little Shop of Horrors, and it's it's far lesser known that he actually did direct three films, and this is the second of those three films, is going south. So cinematograph put out a 4K and Blu-ray combo of this film. Now, the film itself stars Jack Nicholson as well, so you do get to see Jack, not just have him behind the camera. It also has several other somewhat recognizable actors, the biggest one being actually the screen debut of Mary Steenbergen, who would go on through uh certainly at the end of the 70s but into the 1980s to be quite a household name as far as you know, star vehicles in many, many different films. She would go on to Academy Award nominations and lots of other notoriety. This is her very first film, and the film itself, even though it's a western, is very much played up as kind of a uh satirical comedy in some ways, not maybe very heavy on the satire, I would say, but certainly some absurdist comedy going on in the film. So Jack Nicholson plays a um cattle thief that has been captured and thrown in jail, uh, the one one person within his sort of group of thieves that is captured and is is going to be hung in the town square in which he's captured. And the only way that anybody that's going to the gallows can be saved is if a an unmarried woman in the town agrees to marry the man, which is exactly what happens with Mary Steinbergen's character. And, you know, there's a whole bunch of you know the small town political aspects of things and why exactly Mary Steinbergen's character has married him. There are some ulterior motives there that sort of change and uh shift throughout the film, are played up for comedy, but also are are played up in sort of a genuinely tender way. So there's it's almost a romantic comedy aspect of this film as well as everything else. It certainly is a little bit of a curious film in a lot of ways. It does feel like it's dipping its toes into sort of several different interests and ideas. Um, I mentioned Jack Nicholson being really heavily involved with the new Hollywood aspect of things. This sort of fits into that, even though it is in the later 70s. It does still have this sort of like 70s mentality in terms of how it's shot. It is gorgeously shot by um men who would actually become a legendary cinematographer, Nestor Almendros, who we has an incredible career, and they actually talk about him a little bit in the supplements. And it's so it really is kind of a very beautiful, beautifully shot Western film. Has some very absurd comedy that sometimes makes you smile and giggle, and sometimes is sort of like, ah, okay. You know, it doesn't always land necessarily, and it's you know, in a Jack Nicholson directed film, he I think one of the reasons he didn't direct a ton of films is because none of the films that he directed were necessarily large successes, and uh yeah, which is very interesting for uh the man that effectively would become like the most popular star in Hollywood for oh man, like literal decades. You know, Jack Nicholson was always front row at the Oscars for however many decades. He was sort of the man. He's like a he's a bit of a modern icon in a lot of that way. And uh it I don't think he ever really got his footing as a director. I did really enjoy the film for what it was, I think it did have a lot of merit to it artistically, specifically in in the visuals and how it played out and you know, some of the interesting takes on some of the subject matter that it has. And you know, the this release does dive into a little bit of that. I mentioned that they they do discuss Nestor Almendros. There is a great video essay called A Man with a Camera that really focuses on Nestor's work before, during, and after this film, and how celebrated that he was. There is also a video essay called Jack of Three Trades, which is a focus on Jack Nicholson, the director. So kind of going with his three films, uh Drive He Said, Going South, and The Two Jakes, which is the sequel to Chinatown. And uh those those are the only two supplements that are on this disc, other than a commentary track from film critic Simon Abrams, which does tread a lot of similar sort of discussions to what go on in the two video essays, and really specifically the you know the idea of Jack Nicholson as the director, almost as the case study, really does weave its way through the entire Going South release, even through the booklet in this one, which the the the two essays that are involved there, um, which are called Jack Nicholson, The Western and Going South by Chris Shields, and Jack Nicholson's 1978 Go On South by Mark Elliott. As you can tell by the titles, they do really focus on Jack Nicholson himself and very much in the role he played as both an actor and a director, and why exactly he really caught on in some ways, and as a director, really didn't catch on so much. And, you know, despite a lot of his efforts and a lot of his interest in those things, uh, you know, and he would go on to do be uh a producer on a lot of films as well, which I think he was also much more successful at. But he did, I think, have a real genuine interest in directing, which unfortunately didn't translate into huge box office success for him. I think the supplements in this disc do really have a good focus on that as an idea, which I think maybe tells you a little bit about this as well with the film, and that it's film isn't necessarily a full success. I do think personally, for me, I I did enjoy a lot of aspects of it, and I think it does have a lot going for it, but it does, I think, exist to really highlight an interesting case of a very famous actor going into directing and it not quite working out for him. And uh I, you know, I I think it's a very interesting curio for this film, you know, because it is such a unique film, such a kind of a unicorn of a film that doesn't, like I said, doesn't necessarily come together, but still has a lot of really interesting things about it. And I I think as far as the release goes, it it knows that, and I think it highlights those aspects and does give you a little bit of a chance to deep dive into Nicholson the creative, as opposed to just the actor in this case. Keeping in this new Hollywood timeline, uh, my second release actually falls right into this time as well. In this time, sort of in the mid-70s, with Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us, which is also a 4K and Blu-ray combo release. This is uh, I guess I wouldn't really call this a Western, although it sort of has the feeling of like a depression-era western, if you could, a more of a depression-era crime film. Uh, it stars Keith Carradine, Shelly Duvall, uh, Louise Fletcher, uh a huge number of other actors that frequently have appeared in in Robert Altman films, people like John Shuck, people like Tom Scarrot. Tom Scarrot has a really small role. Um, other, a lot of other actors that actually were in the same film together recently, you know, a few years before this, in McCabe and Mrs. Miller, which is an incredibly well-known Robert Altman film. It has a real loving edition on the Criterion Collection. I think is probably one of the most widely seen, well-known, well-regarded Robert Altman films, sort of within, you know, the Robert Altman Mount Rushmore, however you would want to categorize it. And Thieves Like Us is, you know, one of those, like I said, of the slip through the cracks a little bit. Robert Altman is is a great director. He really is a of a real singular vision of uh an author filmmaker that had a career that spanned decades and decades and decades from the 60s going into the 2000s before uh his his death. And he um he also worked in television, which influenced a lot of his style and how he did things, and you know, like his his trademarks like overlapping dialogue and you know, sort of long lingering shots that slowly pan into someone. Uh he has some really interesting trademarks that he started honing in his time in television. He's also sort of the the uh king of the ensemble film in a lot of ways. So many of his films have large casts with, you know, a maybe not necessarily everybody is a star, but a lot of real interesting characters that play a role in these like sprawling, you know, dramas or comedies. If you think of a film like MASH, you know, even though even though you have the two young surgeons that are kind of the main characters, there are so many peripheral characters that pop up that have memorable moments that really contribute to this ensemble story that's going on. That would obviously continue into McCabe and Mrs. Miller, uh, into Nashville, into you know, even his later films like Gosford Park. Uh he kind of became known for this style in uh especially things like The Player and shortcuts, and some of his most famous films and you know, widely awarded films are these these sort of larger ensemble pieces. And even a smaller film like Thieves Like Us does still have a real ensemble feel to it. It's it's a story of uh Keith Carradine's character who is a very, very young, the youngest member of a trio of bank robbers who are are robbing banks throughout parts of Mississippi where the story takes place and kind of getting a bit of notoriety to them for uh you know big takes at different banks, and uh having that fame be something that two of the members are sort of much more interested in than Keith Carradine's character, who is a young man who was in jail for murder and was sprung from jail. In fact, all three of them escape from from prison and are basically now robbing banks. This is what they do. And he begins to fall in love with Shelley Duvall's character, who is one of his partner's uh cousins, I guess. And they form this kind of unlikely bond that does blossom into you know a romance, and that that plays out in and amongst these other things and other influences: family, crime, uh the you know, culture, the depression, things that are going on. And it's a I really enjoy this film. I'm a big Robert Altman fan myself. Uh, he's got a a huge filmography that I have not even, I don't even think I've seen half of them, but so much of what he has made that I've seen, I have really enjoyed. For I just I love his style, the overlapping dialogue, and the way that he, you know, is able to weave themes into his films, which in themes like us, it actually works very effectively in a lot of ways. One of the really unique things about this film is there really isn't a traditional film score, you know, with a backing soundtrack to it. It is effectively soundtracked by the radio, which you know this takes place during the Depression in Mississippi, where a good amount of people had radios in their homes, were listening to radio broadcasts from the 30s, news broadcasts, um, you know, with different current events, different. There's a at one point there's a presidential speech that's going on, uh, a lot of advertisements, a lot of radio plays, and you know, other pieces of entertainment, like readings of Romeo and Juliet at one, you know, very, very critical romantic point, which is actually played up in a very funny way as well, uh, with some repeating aspects to it. And it it uses the radio to underpin this idea of sort of this this impending cultural shift that's going on, because it's also, you know, it taking place in the 30s in Mississippi, which at that point in time were were really kind of behind some of the technological advances that the rest of that part of the United States or even different parts of the world were undergoing, and even some little you know, intrusions of some of this like modernity that's coming in. The the fact that there isn't a lot of scenes without a Coca-Cola bottle in it, or you know, Shelly Duval's character uh basically, I don't think she drinks water ever in this film. I think she's only drinking Coca-Cola out of a glass bottle. Um, even scenes where where they're they're in a prison, there's a sign for the prison mess hall that literally has the like Coca-Cola sponsorship on it. It's things like that that really aren't there's not attention necessarily called out to it, but it's this Robert Altman way of weaving uh a theme into his story without explicitly having to come out and say it to you. Uh, it's it's a really great style that he used in a lot of his films and that a lot of his writers that he worked with as well used. And in this case, they're the writer, the screenwriter of the f of uh of Thieves Like Us is Joan Tewkesbury, who Robert Altman would work with many more times. Uh, in fact, shortly after this, Joan was the one that would write screenplay for Nashville, which is one of Altman's most celebrated films. So for this disc, Cinematograph has really worked a little bit more in looking at, you know, the history of Robert Altman and also some of the other people involved: Joan Tewkesbury, Keith Carradine, Shelly Duvall, several of the other actors, and kind of placing it into a historical context of you know this being kind of in between McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Nashville, two really high-profile films from Robert Altman, and kind of places it within that time, which was was very fruitful. And uh, even though this film wasn't the you know the the most well-known or highly regarded film, it kind of places it within that like artistic movement of some of Robert Altman's biggest successes. And it does that really well with uh a lot of different great supplements. There's a uh really interesting commentary track with uh Nathaniel Thompson, who's a film historian, who again does a lot of that kind of historical signposting and you know, looking at Robert Altman's style at that point and some of the ways that he was able to experiment with this film or elaborate on other things that he was doing with some of his earlier films and how he might expand on them later on. There is also a really nice inclusion of a an archival commentary, uh, one that was previously recorded for what I'm assuming is a DVD release of this film, but it's a commentary with Robert Altman himself, which is really nice. Uh Bob Altman was somebody when you would hear him speak about his films, had an interesting candor in a lot of the ways he spoke about them. And it, you know, he just he has a very distinctive voice too. So it's almost kind of like nice to hear a commentary track from someone like him who, you know, can speak directly to the film and he wasn't wasn't afraid to speak directly about his film. So it is a really nice, even though it wasn't commissioned specifically for this release, they were able to license it from a previous physical media release. So it's a really, really nice inclusion here that uh I I know I really appreciated. There's a great interview with Joan Tewkesbury in terms of how she got involved with Robert Altman screenwriting her work on some earlier films, obviously the the work they would do on this film and later on with Nashville and in other capacities. She would also go on to continue to be a screenwriter, but also be a director in her own right in some ways. So she spoke a little bit about that and about how uh Robert Altman sort of fostered that in her and how he would do that with a lot of the community of artists that he worked with on his films. And there's an interview with Keith Carradine, the main actor in the film, who is uh someone you may have seen in other films. He's also the younger brother of David Carradine, another very well-known actor who modern audiences may know more as Bill from the Kill Bill films. Both of them were the sons of an actor, John Carradine, as well. So Keith does talk a little bit about um, you know, coming from a family of acting and how he initially didn't really want to do it and then sort of fell into it a little bit after some other things sort of failed and got uh you know, he he kind of got into filmmaking because of uh being in Robert Allman films after after like being in a uh production of hair, which is a which is just a great way to great story for that. Uh it's a really fun interview, and actually this interview was recorded not specifically for this release, but specifically for Radiance Films, which I've talked about on a different episode. And uh it was licensed from the Radiance release for the Cinematograph release, because Thieves Like Us was made available by Radiance in a Region B edition, which I believe came out before the Cinematograph one. But um they, you know, even though they were closely uh, you know, related to each other, Cinematograph does have a lot of their own stuff in it. I didn't compare specifically to what's on the Radiance disc versus this one, but this is an interview that they did uh, you know, get the rights to include on this. So um kudos to Radiance and Cinematograph for working together on that. There's also a uh booklet with three different essays in this one. Uh one is called Children of the Depression by Mitchell Beaupre. The second is I Don't Want to Leave You by Carlos Valdaras. And the third one of these, which is actually a real personal favorite of mine in this booklet, called Capitalism's Suffocating Grasp by uh Maria E. Gates. This is a really interesting like this was the real standout essay in actually any of the three releases that I read, just because this is something I really picked up on with the film. I mentioned about the Coca-Cola aspect and the radio. You know, the um Maria really dives into some of the, you know, uh idea of like capitalism sort of encroaching into the lives of these people, and how you know the the sounds and the programs coming out of the radio at different points sort of juxtapose that or create a a little bit of a hilarious. Various counterbalance of what you're hearing and what you're seeing. It uh yeah, I I really enjoyed this one. I thought this was a a really nice read that kind of just just partnered really well with one of the big things that I noticed from this film, which um I did again, I I enjoyed this film, I think, more than going south. Um, it's I do really like Robert Altman. It certainly isn't one of Robert Altman's best, but I because I do really like the Altman style and the things that he brings to it, the way that this film is tackled is really interesting. And I just enjoy the way that it delivered on some of the relationships and the dialogue. It didn't spell everything out for you. It allowed the viewer to just sort of like live in this cycle of bank robbery, which goes into romance, which goes into you know violence, and then obviously the consequences of some of that, and uh fame and notoriety, and uh again, capitalism as Maria Gates writes about. So I I did really enjoy this release, and I think it I like the focus on sort of placing it within the oeuvre of Robert Altman. Now, the third release that I was able to pick up to review is one that I was very, very interested in because of the main subject of this film and uh also the director, but sort of specifically there were a few things that overlap to catch my my eye on this one. And this release is called Swimming to Cambodia from 1987. It's directed by Jonathan Demy, well-known American director, very famously, you know, was an Oscar-winning director for The Silence of the Lambs, had an incredibly varied career through a lot of different decades, and was also sort of known for taking a bit of a chance on some different artistic styles in films, whether it was a documentary or specifically, which relates to swimming to Cambodia, a performance film or a filmed performance. I'm not exactly sure what the best term for it is here. Uh, this is a Blu-ray release that focuses around a monologue from Spaulding Gray, who, uh, if you're not familiar with Spaulding Gray, he is a an American um theatrical performer, actor, monologuist, I guess is probably one way. He's most known for his theatrical monologues. And he came up in, you know, the New York City theater scene, kind of alternative theater, small theater, counter-programming type of thing, where he you know was putting on these sort of one-man show monologues, but less of a performance and more about one man sitting down at a desk with some notes going through a monologue on specific topics. It's incredibly unique. And, you know, I I had heard the name Spalding Grey a few times. There have been some other boutique labels that have done some other of his monologues, and uh, you know, there's some documentaries about the man Spalding Grey. He um he is is not around anymore. He uh committed suicide in the mid-2000s after you know suffering a an accident that left him an incredible amount of pain, and uh, even though he was you know still producing art and working through it, um, you know, they he he met his end. And he is an incredibly uh incredibly talented performer, incredibly interesting performer, a real storyteller, and just had a way, you know. I think everybody in the world knows somebody that just tells a great story. He has a way of describing, you know, the most mundane thing in a way that you're just absolutely riveted by. And he also did do some acting. Part of this monologue, which is um actually just a monologue that he was doing theatrically, and they, you know, Jonathan Demi worked with them to put it on film. But when he was writing and sort of creating Swimming to Cambodia, it was all based around an acting job that he was doing as a supporting actor on the 1984 film called The Killing Fields, which I actually personally just had the chance to watch for the first time relatively recently, just a few months ago. And it's a uh first of all, it's a pretty incredible film, and it's one that boy do we need on a high definition uh edition on physical media. It is out of print and very hard to find. Uh, it's it is uh it is well worth the discovery if we if and when we do get that. But he did have you know a short stint as a sporting actor on that film, but did stay for a good amount of the shooting, so was in Thailand and you know, going from place to place as they were shooting. Uh the film does take place in Cambodia during the Cambodian War, sort of the Vietnam War era. And the this monologue, Swimming to Cambodia, really talks about some of his experiences shooting that film, but also his experience with discovering the history of Cambodia, then the actual history of Cambodia. It is riveting. I like the other two films I watched of the cinematograph releases, I I did enjoy in different ways. This was the real discovery for me. Um, it was actually my first full monologue of Spalding Grays that I have watched. But man, was I was absolutely riveted by this film. Um boy, to see something like this live in a theater must have been an absolutely amazing time. And um, he just has this wonderful dynamic way that maybe just fits in with my brain, with how my brain works. But you know, whether it's jumping off on a tangent or the humor that's that's present through part of it, or the you know, the the self-deprecation. I don't know, man, but just this whole thing really, really just gripped me. And it's filmed really simply a lot of the time. One of the wonderful things about Jonathan Demi as a director, especially with stuff like this and um something like his concert films like Stop Making Sense, uh, the wonderful Talking Heads concert film, which he he actually filmed and directed just a couple of years before this, and I think got him involved to do to want to do more performance film. It's he just has this way of letting the performance do the talking, and they do talk about that in this release a little bit of just like really recognizing the the magnetism of the performance of Spauld and Gray and just allowing him to be the engaging, riveting monologue performer that he is, and even though there are definitely some some filmic touches through parts of it, they're very light. It just allows everything to breathe and be experienced. And I kind of don't want to dive into the film too much more than that, just to really say that like the this this knocked me out. It really did. It's one of the the one of the more interesting discoveries that I've had of a film in a long time, and um, you know, makes me really interested to go into the other spaulding gray monologues that were filmed and some of the other documentaries about the man to kind of get into his history a bit more because he was a a real real talent. And this uh this cinematograph edition really does you know focus on uh a lot of people's perspectives of coming onto a project like this and the the collaboration and the effort that was put into just like just capturing this lightning in a bottle that was going on on the New York stages and these small stages on the the like not even off Broadway, like off off Broadway, the real alternative theatrical experience that was going on in the 70s and and 80s into when Swimming to Cambodia was filmed. So, in these different perspectives, we have a lot of people that are coming at their involvement with Spawn Grey in a different lens. So there's there's several different video interviews. There's one called Lifting Up the Carpet with the director Roland Joffy, who didn't direct this film but was the director of The Killing Fields, who cast Spaulding Gray, who, you know, he talked about his experience on the film, and then also his experience of seeing Swimming to Cambodia uh live, and then also the film of it. And so kind of coming from having having worked with him on a on a film in an artistic capacity, and then sort of experiencing this other side of Spaulding Grey and the interest he had in what he brought to the killing fields, but also in how he put together what he did for this monologue, and you know, the um even even the involvement of like using clips from the film. Jonathan Demi was able to get clips from the killing fields to actually use in in Swimming to Cambodia, which was uh quite interesting as well. There is an interview with the executive producer Ira Deutschman uh called A Good Story is a good story. And uh Ira was somebody that did work with Spalding Gray in several different capacities, and in this case got the film put out on a very, very small distributor. I'm I'm forgetting the name of it, if it's Cinecon, something along those lines. And they uh, you know, were kind of a very, very independent production house. They really didn't need a lot with this film, you know. It's like they I think they said it cost like about half a million dollars or less to make, and that was something they could sort of do because of the the you know the small scale of the the nature of the film and you know the successes and and how they were able to garner a lot of like independent spirit awards that year. Be uh it was it was really you know a an interesting take again on a little bit of the production side of things, bringing Jonathan Demi onto it, and how how that aspect of getting it out into the public and having it be kind of a an unqualified success for an independent release at that point in time. So another interview with the producer Edward Saxon called The Great Sensorium of the World, that is a little bit, you know, more of a a dive into Spauld and Gray himself, because uh Ed Saxon was someone that did have a little bit more involvement past just this film with Spauld and Gray. And then there's there's actually two podcast episodes, so shout out the more podcasts. It would be interesting, it'd be interesting to see more podcast audio excerpts and episodes included with physical media. I kind of like this. It is two episodes from the pure nonfiction podcasts, uh, one specifically related to Jonathan Demi and some of his work. I believe this is a little bit shorter or more of an excerpt talk that talk around swimming to Cambodia and some of the other films that are sort of like that. And it uh it takes excerpts from an interview that the podcast host did with Jonathan Demi. And then also another episode with Jonathan Demi and Spaulding Gray's former partner, Renee Shafransky, who was a producer on Swimming to Cambodia, and she's actually uh heavily involved in one arc of the story that goes on in in the monologue, and uh they you know talk a little bit more specifically about the film and about Spaulding, and uh yeah, it's a it's get more podcasts and in physical media. I kind of I kind of like this as an idea. There is one uh aspect of the the special features I didn't get a chance to check out, and that's the commentary track with uh with the film critic Scout Tatoya. And I I'm actually interested to check it out because I'm not 100% sure what exactly the commentary would go with. I know some commentaries really talk about like this shot or this scene or something related to what's on screen, but because it really is framed in a way where it is Spalding Gray at his desk with his notes, with the his props performing for, you know, an audience as it's being filmed in certain special ways. Uh I I'm I'm interested to what would be on this commentary track. If it maybe is, you know, talking about some of the perspectives that are covered in some of the other areas. I'm not sure yet, so I can't fully speak to that one. Uh I'm interested to check it out for sure. I will say the booklet for for this release is is also really quite informative, has has four total essays in it, and again does does look at some of these different lenses of looking at Spald and Gray the performer. Um, one of these is called Focusing on That Perfect Moment by David Stewart, which is referencing the idea of you know experiencing a perfect moment, which is part of the monologue. Uh, one called This Really Happened by Maria E. Gates, so Maria Gates has has come up again. Falling in Love with Yourself by Keith Ulick, and The Confessions of Spaulding Gray by Chris Shields, who also had an essay in Go On South, the Jack Nicholson, The Western and Go On South essay. So I actually am quite interested in that, and I I don't know in the other cinematograph releases. I didn't cross-reference this, but uh it is interesting that perhaps cinematograph is using some of the same writers again and again, and maybe I I kind of like that idea of you know having some trusted writers or sources or you know, sort of people that are are critiquing or deep diving into certain things and almost having like a staff writer is the wrong word, but kind of the ethos of of this of having some people that come back again with ease. I do, I do think that's a really interesting idea, and you kind of can curate some some perspectives or some people that that are really good writers that have interesting things to say about this. So um, yeah, this is the swimming to Cambodia disc, and this is like I said, the one that is just a Blu-ray, given that it, you know, was a lower budget film, doing a 4K of this, you know, I'm not sure that the the materials that it was filmed on even really would lend themselves to being like great sharp 4K's. I will say, and I haven't really talked about the look, feel, or sound with any of these three, but overall, I think the the vinegar syndrome trait of great visuals and great sound really really carries over into the cinematograph releases. Um, you know, there are there's certain parts of each one, especially the two that were on 4K, that, you know, sometimes they're a little bit grainy because of the movement or the low light that's going on, which I think is to be anticipated on most 4Ks that were done in this era in the 60s and 70s, you know, color photography. But they really do look wonderful. There's some some really interesting colors, and you know, the starkness of the desert in a lot of ways, and the Depression era Mississippi is, you know, the the details and the film are really interesting, and they do come through really vibrantly on the actual presentation of the discs. Packaging-wise, I I think I've gushed about the packaging already as to how much I loved it. Each of the the discs that I have do have sort of some either commissioned packaging or are riffing on some imagery that they use in posters or in some other uh sort of uh marketing materials in in different ways. The Thieves Like Us one actually is done up with a uh a painting of the the main characters of of Keith Carradine and Shelly Duvall, which uh is I think much nicer than the the poster. They actually talk about that in the supplements for Thieves Like Us that the poster art was like weird and maybe inconsistent and not maybe didn't do the film a real service. So maybe this is correcting that a little bit. I don't know. But uh yeah, I I I think the everything that is offered within these three cinematograph releases, I I really enjoyed, and I can give you know as close to my highest recommendation about it as I could in terms of the packages that are there and supplements that are included. Uh really good essays as well, really well-written essays, a couple of real standouts in that way as well. I do actually have a fourth cinematograph release that I have in my collection, which is the 4K Blu-ray combo for the great Elaine May comedy A New Leaf, which I may potentially save for a future episode because I do actually have an out-of-print uh edition of a new leaf as well, which maybe I'll do a bit of comparison about. I don't know, that that's a maybe an idea for a future episode, but I have already, you know, expanded my cinematograph collection past these three initial ones that I have. So if that's not a recommendation to dive into the label, I'm really not sure what else would be. I think, you know, your mileage may vary in terms of the films that they're choosing, but if there is a film that you look through in the well, currently 33 that they have available, or any future releases, if you're interested in them and the film sounds interesting, or maybe you enjoy a director like I did with the Robert Altman film, and you want to do a bit more of a deep dive into some of their stuff, it's uh I I I really recommend it. And I I know I'm not the only one in doing some research online for this. There are a lot of big cinematograph fans out there, and I think it's completely warranted. You know, the again, I think is it for everyone? Maybe not, but I do think what they do, if any of their titles interest you, then you're going to get a lot out of that release. And I know there's several others that I am definitely very interested in checking out and going a little bit further into. And, you know, now that now that I've had a chance to dip my toes in and see what they're all about, it kind of makes me even more interested to do just that. I think that is where I'm going to leave it off for today's label discovery episode about cinematograph. Um, yeah, really, really happy with with uh with this label. I'm looking forward to digging into it even more. Um yeah, if you're interested in digging into even more of what uh what I've got available for other episodes of cinema on a shelf, I do have several different ways that you can you know keep tabs with what I have. Obviously, you know, I'm updating everything on all of the podcast platforms and on YouTube. So definitely check back for everything, or if you have any interest in my old episodes, then they will be available for you there. I do also have an Instagram account where everything is kept track of. It is at cinema on a shelf. If you want to talk movies as well, I do have an email, cinemaonashelf at gmail.com, that uh I'd love to go back and forth talking about movies uh in physical media and any topic that you can think of with that. I do also have a substack for cinema on a shelf, which I have done a little bit of writing for. I I don't haven't had anything new in a little bit now, and it uh it may play into physical media, it may play into movies at large a little bit more, but it's a little bit of an expansion of what I do on the podcast here. If you want to follow me on Letterboxd, I do also have a Letterboxed account that um you know I will do some some reviews and some film tracking for. My username is at Maddie236. Um, give me a follow there if you would like. I'm a big Letterbox fan and would love to follow you back. Uh if I if you're interested in checking out more podcasts that I'm involved with, my wife and I have a movie discovery podcast called I Can't Believe You Haven's Seen, where we go back and forth watching movies that one or the other of us has never seen before. So definitely check that out. It is also available on most podcast apps and YouTube. And as I mentioned in my last episode with my collector conversation with Dakota Arsenal of the ContraZoom pod, I am doing some physical media reviews for Dakota on the ContraZoom website. So if you go to ContrazoomPod.com and look for some of their physical media release reviews, uh you'll see at least one for me on there now, and hopefully more to be uploaded in the very near future. So uh yeah, lots of ways to discover what uh what I'm doing out there. And thank you very much for taking the time to listen through this episode and discover anything else I've got going. I'm uh really grateful. I have a have a fun little following of people and looking forward to interacting with you even more. Until next time, take care.