Cinema On A Shelf

Collector Conversation with Marta Djordjevic (Rewind & Revive)

• Cinema On A Shelf • Episode 21

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In the latest part in the Collector Conversation series, Matt sits down with Marta Djordjevic (AKA @marta.mcfly on Instagram) from Rewind & Revive to chat about physical media. Marta is an accomplished entertainment writer and editor who has a real passion for collecting physical media, especially stuff that fits with her ethos of highlighting and deep-diving into forgotten and underseen international films. She talks about how much boutique labels like Radiance and Deaf Crocodile fuel her as a cinephile, how painful it can be to part with a movie collection, how she has evolved as a collector over the years, and gives a bounty of great recommendations to check out.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

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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/

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to Cinema on a Shelf, a podcast about movies and physical media. My name's Matt, and thank you for spending some time with me instead of watching a movie. And potentially that movie this weekend or this past weekend certainly was very likely the Odyssey, the new Christopher Nolan film that uh just recently came out and has made a big splash for being a big uh IMAX film and the first film ever to be fully shot on IMAX cameras. Uh I'm sure you've heard of it at this point in time. Um so I won't spend too much time talking about it because I haven't seen it yet, and uh it doesn't yet have a physical media release, which um, you know, I I'm gonna try and see it on a on a big screen soon. But um around here we talk about physical media, so we are gonna continue to do that in today's episode, and uh I'm really excited about today's episode because it uh I get to do the latest in my collector conversation episodes, where I invite a guest that is also a movie and physical media person onto the podcast, and we just have a bit of a conversation about physical media, about some of the things that they do for collecting, what interests them, and uh all sorts of different topics that may or may not come up as part of our conversation. Um I've been fortunate to do a couple of these already, and uh, really, really fortunate to be able to sit down recently to chat with Marta Georgievich, uh, also known by her Instagram handle as Marta McFly. You may have seen in one of her many posts and reels on Instagram about movie-related stuff, um, about some of the things that she's been collecting and watching, both in her physical media collection and also through some streaming services such as Canopy. Um, she has great taste in in films and really loves to dive into a lot of kind of underseen or underheralded films that deserve more attention, which is the big topic of both her own podcast as well as her Substack, which is called Rewind and Revive. It's uh it's one of my favorite film-related reads on Substack, and her podcast episodes are really great deep dives into some of those types of films that really interest her personally, and uh, you know, she always makes sure to sort of dive in and look at physical media um versions of what she's doing. Um her most recent episode was about the film Malper Twee from Radiance Films, which uh actually prompted me to pick it up. We talked a little bit about that in our conversation. And uh yeah, I know she has a new episode that she's been prepping for and getting ready to record, and is gonna be out into the world soon, which she also talks about in our conversation. So um I want to send it over to that conversation with us now. Hopefully, you will enjoy it as much as I did. So thank you for coming uh onto the podcast, Marta. It's lovely, lovely to have you today.

SPEAKER_03

It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we uh get to get to chat a little movies, a little physical media and such. Um I do before we fully get into it and start nerding out about everything, um, I want to give give you a chance to give give a little bit of an introduction as to uh yourself and um about what you what you do as far as maybe movie stuff or social media stuff. And um, yeah, floor is yours.

SPEAKER_03

Sure, thank you. Uh so my name is Marta. Um, I mean people online usually know me as Marta McFly. Uh ha ha, very funny. Um but my main focus these days is rewind and revive. Um outside of that, I am a freelance writer and editor. I work in uh entertainment media full-time. But yeah, rewind and revive is kind of like my film criticism and podcast hub where I focus on, I guess, primarily older, underseen uh international cinema. Um and that kind of started because I realized so many incredible films were disappearing from like our daily conversation, even though it just they feel still completely alive and still relevant when you watch them today. So through essays and and the occasional podcast episode, I guess, um reviews and then videos, as you said, on social media online, I kind of just built this thing where I'm trying to connect people with films they have may never have heard of otherwise. And that could be a director who's, you know, fallen out of the spotlight, or sometimes it's a film that never even was discovered in the first place. Um, but regardless of which, the goal is to kind of combine um educational and historical material in this conversational and easy to digest way. So yeah, that's kind of what rewind and revive is about.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and it's uh it's great. I rewind and revive's my it's like my really fun, like deep dive uh Substack read, which is great. And the the podcasts are uh are also really, really fun to check out. I know actually. I've I literally earlier this week recorded with uh a uh someone you've have had on your podcast and you've been on his uh Philip Marion. Yeah, yeah, we recorded uh a few days ago. His episode's just gonna be it will be already out, I guess, when this one comes out.

SPEAKER_03

Small little community because you also recorded with Dakota. Yes, who's in my critics group? Um that was an excellent episode. I was listening to that the other day. Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I it just kind of got to be friends with Dakota starting this whole podcast. And now I'm doing some writing with him for uh physical media reviews for his website too. So yeah, it's uh it's fun. Like you said, it's it's a small world once you start reaching out to people like that. So um, yeah, so it's a if if anybody's a substacker, definitely check Rewinding Revive out on there and on uh everywhere on Instagram. Um and you know, you you do a lot of great content on there, as you mentioned, about sort of like great older underseen films that kind of slip through the radar, whether it's from the modern times or maybe just from being directors of people aren't, you know, the the ones necessarily on the tip of everybody's tongue. Um, do you I do you have a a sort of a recollection as to when you sort of started to dive into some of these types of films?

SPEAKER_03

That's a good question. I mean, I've I've always been interested in the underseen. Um that began, I think, as early as well, no, I don't I shouldn't say high school. In high school, I was one of those kids that was obsessed with the French New Wave and Godard was everything. Um, I don't know. I would maybe say like 2019 I really started getting into the the nitty-gritty.

SPEAKER_01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Do you remember if you had like a gateway drug from that one, or it was just like, oh, there's a whole world out there.

SPEAKER_03

Good question. Um maybe not the first, but one of the early ones that sticks out to me would be Stage on Suzuki.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm.

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Started with Tokyo Drifter. And then from Tokyo Drifter, uh, branded to kill. And then from there, I mean the floodgates just open.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah. Yeah, he's super fun. I know we've we've connected before a bit about uh Tale of Sorrow and Sadness with when I did my my Radiance uh label discovery episode. I was that was one of the ones I got in there because I'm a I'm also a sort of a budding Suzuki head as well, because not everything that he's done is is super readily available, but I think it's slowly starting to get there, and Radiance is doing a bunch of those.

SPEAKER_03

So did you ever get the um they were doing a retrospective for his centennial? This was like a few years ago. Um, it hit a bunch of cities in North America, so Canada and and um America, and it was um it was just a a whole collection of prints from Japan that came to us, and we were watching all these unique films. It came to the Cinematech here in Vancouver.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it didn't come to Calgary. Um, unfortunately, we don't uh the the scene here in Calgary as far as like film goes, it's it's sort of it's not very robust, and at times like in micro niches is very robust. Like we have uh the the International Film Festival here is relatively decent. Like it's it's kind of in the it's it's not uh it's not at the level of of Vancouver or like VIF, but it's quite close. I think most of the stuff that that you guys had out that way we had here and had a bunch of premiers, like we had the No Other Choice and Sentimental Value that ran once, and it was just an accident that ran a few times. So like it was it was sort of the ones from like okay, everything goes to TIFF and then it spreads out to Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal, that sort of stuff. Um, and we have a we have a really interesting underground film festival that happened a couple of months ago, which has some really interesting genre stuff. But apart from that, we have sort of like two independent theaters. So it's really for a city of like one almost 1.7 million, it's really not a lot. So the screen time just sort of gets eaten up by some of the like, you know, when it's Oscar time, like the the one cinema will be like, okay, we're gonna bring in, you know, the it was just an accidents and the sentimental values and the um Surats and the ones that are getting a bit of notoriety there. And some of the ones, you know, at this time of year, like we recently had Blue Heron and we recently had Mylin Kicks, and so they'll like they'll be able to bring some of that Canadian stuff in, but they also will sort of uh you know, with times are limited with it. So the the traveling road show stuff that like that we don't typically get a lot of, which is a bit of a bummer. Uh but I know the cinematech does such good work. I've been to the VIF center a couple of times um with uh my relative that lives there, and that it's a really fun uh yeah, it's a really fun ecosystem that you've got going there, and with places like the park theater kind of being being revamped and having a bit of Rio, yeah. Yeah, the Rio. Like it's it's cool to see that happening in a place like Vancouver because otherwise those kind of go away and come back. So agreed. Yeah, um, so it kind of it it segues a bit into talking, I guess, about what what my podcast is about, which is physical media. And in those kind of films, the ones you're discovering where it's a little more left of center, um, I think those those kind of films are almost having a little bit of a like they're finding a moment in the last number of years. And I I don't know if physical media has everything to do with it, but I certainly think it has hurt it. Um and in in talking with you know you about that, I guess we're I I I can see the shelf behind you, and I know I know in in your stuff and some of the podcasts that I've listened to of yours and that you've been guessing on talking about physical media that it's something you're you're super um into and and do some collecting for. And you how long have you been like doing physical media collecting? Do you remember how long?

SPEAKER_03

It's kind of a um it's kind of been in segments. So I I mean I grew up with physical media. My parents were cinephiles, so we always had the VHSs and the DVDs and stuff. I've I always wonder where those went, like ever since I moved out. I'm like, well, what did you guys do with these? Um and then I I was collecting, you know, in college in my early 20s, um, but I wasn't focusing on criterion or anything, it was just kind of whatever I could find. Um, and then I moved abroad and then I sold everything, which I regret. So when I moved back in 2020, that's when all of this that you can see here started. Um, and it started with Criterion, and then from there I just kind of branched out.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think that's a that's a relatively, I think, common starting point. Like uh I already use the word gateway drug, but yeah, I I I'm very much in the same way. I mean, they're the oldest kid in town for a reason. And I yeah, they've they've been doing it long enough that I can even track being in in college in the early 2000s and being like, oh, that was even though I didn't have a lot of money at that point in time, that was the thing, right? And being Canadian, we're both Canadian as well. Uh that's also a little harder, harder to find with that.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, the um, and it uh you know, I I'm not sure if that kind of goes into what you know format. You said we having stuff older with DVDs. These days, do you kind of mostly tend to do some of the newer stuff, some of the higher formats, or do you go a little nuts with like how how deep do you roll with physical media these days?

SPEAKER_03

I I mean I collect Blu-rays are the uh preference, of course. Um, I will still get DVDs if there's like literally no other way for me to pick something up. If I can't watch it anywhere, I will I will get that DVD. I have uh region free player. So I'm on eBay quite often, and you can find some great stuff. Like even um this film over here, Haru, was one of my favorite films that I discovered a few years ago, and it wasn't available anywhere, and it was just this random eBay snag. I mean, granted, this is a Blu-ray. We're just talking about DVDs, but I I I'm just saying, in terms of um utilizing what resources you have available to find this sort of nitty-gritty.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I think the region-free thing is especially with going into foreign films, like there really is it's something I need I would like to dive into myself because I don't I don't have anything region free other than I guess a 4K or two, but they're pretty, they're natively region-free. Um, do you have like a do you kind of go typically like are you just an eBay scourer or do you do a little bit of local stuff here and there?

SPEAKER_03

I would say I buy online the most. I mean, it's also the the the priciest way, like directly from, you know, if I'm doing MVD or or Radiance or um I don't know where else, Deaf Crocodile. Uh otherwise I will, yeah, I'll do eBay. Um sometimes locally. There isn't all that much. I know Dakota on your previous episode said the similar thing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, yeah, I mean, I I could. I sometimes I will poke around locally, but by and large, I'm mostly an online gal.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's fair. And I the probably these days it's a little bit I'm gonna say tougher, and I everybody's a little bit different with how they do it. I know with being, uh especially with yourself being so close to a big center in the US like Seattle, at some point in time it might have been, okay, well, there's like a been to Scarecrow video down there, which is is such a fun, like, it's just such a fun, like, you could waste four hours in there, and it's just like, oh, this is so fun. Like, they're really, I don't feel like there we don't have the breadth of it up here for whatever reason. You know, there's some I've been into a place like Video Matica in Kingsway and Vancouver, which is is really a fun store as well, but you know, you're you're also in a in a niche market for something like that. But they they're they're serving the purpose for what they get. But yeah, I think um as much as nobody necessarily wants to be buying stuff online, I think at different times, it's sort of it almost makes the most sense. And I don't know that we we don't really get the we the heyday of the the criterion half-off sales anymore because they don't really ship up to Canada anymore.

SPEAKER_03

What happened with Barnes and Noble? Because I feel like it we weren't allowed, and then we were allowed a few years ago, and now we're not allowed again.

SPEAKER_01

The like I remember ordering stuff from there, and this would have been probably 12, 13, 14 years ago, even and right when the dollar was at par, which which was like, man, it was even a couple of the years where it was like, oh, our our dollars ahead of the US dollar, this is a bargain, and it was just fine, like it was just any sale. I would kind of order a bunch of stuff, and then I don't know when it stopped or kind of why it stopped, but it did for a while, and now it's just like there's no rhyme or reason to it anymore, I feel like. I don't know if they if Barnes and Noble has something weird. I did order stuff from Radiance through them when they did their 50% off. Oh, through them, their very first one, the the very first time Barnes Noble did a Radiance 50% off.

SPEAKER_03

That must have been like 2023, maybe I think so.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so it wasn't too long ago, but then it's since they've done another 50% off sale.

SPEAKER_03

Nothing, I know. Nothing.

SPEAKER_01

Who knows? I don't even think we can blame current administrations anywhere for that. Yeah, it's just it happens, but we can anyway. I listen, it's not it's not stopped me yet. So um you talk a little bit about the the boutique label stuff and criteria being sort of uh the one that got you into a little bit of it in radiance, and um Deaf Crocodile's one that that Philip shouted out actually as well, and is one that I'm I don't have anything personally and would love to dive into with it. Um is that sort of a an area that you primarily will look at or like focus on with what you collect?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah. So, like I said, Criterion was, as you called it, the gateway drug. Um, and and I still will buy Criterion titles, definitely. Um, it's just not my main focus. It's one of, you know. Um but I still love them. Like I always say Criterion is kind of what taught me film history and got me excited about it. Um, but currently I would say, yeah, it's Radiance and it's Deaf Crocodile primarily. Radiance, probably the most that I'm focusing on. Um, almost to the point where now people online like will I'll get DMs and they'll be like, you must be on their payroll. I swear I'm not. I just I have yet to pick up a Radiance disc that I didn't enjoy. It's crazy. And most of the time it's just I I know nothing about them either, um, about the titles themselves. So I I don't know what they do over there, what's kind of sort of sorcery that is. Um, but what I really like about Radiance is I think that most of the time their extras and their booklets are even better than what Criterion has. There's so much um to go through to to learn, to discover. The restorations are also beautiful. Yeah, and I mean also just reading, again, going back to the essays, reading what various writers, historians have to say. I've reached out to a few of them in the past as well, and we've connected just to thank them. I mean, a lot of care goes into Radiance releases. Um, and Deaf Crocodile is the other one that I'm starting to get into. Uh, not too much. I think I have maybe five, six titles somewhere there. Um, but they're becoming increasingly more important for me, uh, particularly for like really niche Eastern European releases. Um, and same points apply there that I just said about radians too, the the booklets, the extras, um, the the way it looks on screen. Um, yeah, they're they're fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

They are, they really are. That's what I found when I did my episode about them that's like this is really, really kind of something like visually. I think I was I was picking up a lot of titles like the the Suzuki and uh Japanese Japan organized crime boss of Nikasaki, which is just visually so interesting. And the the uh Damiani stuff, uh the Cosa Nostra set, which is again the booklet in that one you write, is it's so interesting to like dive into a subject about like not only Damiani but Franco Niro as an actor and like their collaborations together. And um, so really yeah, it's kind of an interesting because I I I'm very in the bag for a lot of like 60s, 70s Italian same films of any kind, but a lot of that was coming in with like neorealism and Antonioni and um even a little branching out of like Elio Petri and some of the fun stuff like divorce Italian style, like the the there's some really fun stuff there, and you throw Fellini in there, and it's just like okay, this is really fun, and the whole you know, Italian crime thing, I know it's a really big deal, but I just hadn't really dove in at all. And that said, the co-sinostor said it was like okay, yeah, like this is for me. Take my money, yeah. Yeah, I agree, and it's I I think the the booklets are a really underrated part of so many of the releases that a lot of them do, because it I I don't know if it's maybe people paid not as much attention to it.

SPEAKER_03

I don't know why though. I mean, right now, for example, um, Philip and I, coincidentally, are working on a podcast episode on Dead Mountaineers Hotel. So that was a deaf crocodile release. And for that one, they had a booklet uh for the deluxe edition. It had three essays, and they were all just packed with so much information that I was floored. I was thinking, I mean, it took must have taken these people weeks upon weeks to write these pieces because I know for me, doing the research for the podcast episode alone has been taking me. Three weeks.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So I also kind of feel like it's the least we can do to read these things and and discover a bit more, you know?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I think it's kind of the underappreciated part of the physical media thing in so many ways. And I I it it makes a lot of sense for, you know, doing I one thing I always notice with with the content I've seen of yours is like it's that deep dive into something is it's a really fun trip to go down there. And I think you know, I I think that's that's a great thing about so much of physical media is it kind of facilitates a lot of that deep diving that you can do into something, whether it's a director or a film or anything like that. Hence your episode about Malpertuite, which you convinced me to go like in on that crazy batshit movie that I've got to do. What did you think? Oh, it's wild. Like I at no point did I really know where anything was going in that film. Like it's it's like the memes where you see a like newspaper headline and it says, you know, nowhere in this headline did I know where the next word was going. I felt like that with Malpertuite. I'm just like, all right, I'm giving myself over.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I I don't want to plug it, but they are similar. I mean not similar, but they're both Dead Mountaineers Hotel is another one I would suggest because they're both kind of person enters an interior and doesn't know what's going on for the like all of the film's runtime. Yeah. Um they're different, but yeah, I that's another one I would recommend for sure.

SPEAKER_01

There you go. Maybe it's the right time to do it with films like Backrooms that are coming out and discussing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I still gotta watch that.

SPEAKER_01

It's very interesting. I I won't say anything more about it, but like they nailed the vibe, which is kind of what you have to do with it.

SPEAKER_02

Exciting.

SPEAKER_01

Um, so Deaf Crocodile being one, and I know with yours coming up with it. Give me, as someone that is like has heard about them but hasn't dove in, give me the elevator pitch on like what where is a great place to start with.

SPEAKER_03

Oh gosh. Um well, I hate to bring up Dead Mountaineers Hotel again. Uh, but I would say there, no, I'm kidding. Uh well, am I kidding? Kind of, not really.

SPEAKER_01

I am already in for Malpertuwe. Maybe that's just a logical jump.

SPEAKER_03

Uh, yeah, that's honestly I would say that for you. If you watched Malpertween and you enjoyed it and want a bit more of that kind of not really a detective story, but kind of just a bit surreal, odd. I would go there. I would also consider, I just talked about this online the other day, Karen Shaknazrov Zero Grod.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

This is incredible. It's uh Kafka-esque. It's it's it's it's just so surreal, so strange. Um, you're also gonna be dealing with themes that are actually similar to Dead Mountain Ears Hotel. Yeah. Um that that's another one that I really enjoy uh by the same filmmaker as well, The Assassin of the Tsar. I would probably do Zero Grad first. Um a bit easier. And then if you wanted a um gosh, what is the name of that one? It is a comedy, it's a detective spoof. It's very funny. It is called Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03

That's the one. And you have um, I think his name is Jan Schwankenmeyer. He was a really famous um uh, I guess sort of they're like puppets, basically. He made this massive puppet for it that represents this kind of creature in the film. I'm not gonna say what it is, but interesting. Um or maybe it's claymation, I don't know, but it's very something.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um that's kind of I think that's like a nice sort of you got a little comedy, you got a got a little surreal adventure, you have Dead Mountaineers Hotel, which is a combination of all these things.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, okay, yeah. No, that sounds interesting. Almost like a made me think of stuff like Carl Zemmon of strange sort of not animatronic, but exactly.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, uh, that's that's a really cool one. It's um also kind of Inspector Gadgety as well.

SPEAKER_01

Well, that's you really throw a curveball in there with that. I like that. Um, yeah, okay. That's I like that. Thank you. That would give me give me some guiding principles when I do get in there. Actually, might make a great episode for uh down the road with this.

SPEAKER_03

Maybe by then I'll have more suggestions to give you. Like I said, I I really did just start, I guess somewhat recently.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, yeah, no, that Philip raved about them too. So it's yeah, I think now I just have to, pretty much. Um, outside of that, and maybe uh the some of the boutique specific stuff for some of that area, um, are you as a collector someone that kind of goes goes deep into like saying, okay, I really want to collect for a very specific director or maybe a specific actor or maybe like an era that you kind of go, oh yeah, I really want to get everything from from somebody's filmography.

SPEAKER_03

You know, I wish I could say yes. I think if I had all the time in the world, um, I would probably do that. I would probably go by filmmaker, I would probably do era. Um, but fortunately, unfortunately, a lot of what I do is fueled by whatever Rewind and Revive needs. Um, so I'm I'm bouncing all over the place. Right. Uh, which is usually not ideal, though I will say if I'm really immersing myself in a project, I will try and buy multiple titles by the same filmmaker or maybe the the same movement or whatever is gonna help me um write a better piece or do a better podcast episode. So it's not really up to me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's fair. And I I mean that's not a honestly, it's not a terrible way to to guide what you're doing, whether it's what you're watching or anything like that. It kind of mirrors mirrors what it is. We can't do everything. We can't watch everything, right? That's sort of how I wish. Yeah. Is there something in there that maybe you wish you did, like, hey, I would really like to to do a bit more diving into something that maybe maybe it isn't a rewind and revive topic? Like more stuff that I would want just in my collection of collection, or even just kind of, oh yeah, I saw this once, and it'd be interesting to go further with this.

SPEAKER_03

Probably uh well, here's a good one. One of my favorite filmmakers is actually Aki Kurz Makim.

SPEAKER_02

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I I love his stuff. Like I'm I genuinely he is my go-to if I'm feeling down, if I'm just kind of feeling out of sorts, I throw on one of his films and it just immediately fixes me. Yes. Um good, but which is kind of strange because it's such dry humor and not something people would always gravitate towards, but it works for me. Um but for a filmmaker that I love that much, I mean I only have one of his films, and that's the other side of hope.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Uh, which is like I like I said, just ridiculous. I should be owning more. Um, so I would love to collect all of his films. I would love if there was a box set. Um, I'm kind of half convinced that Criterion is gonna eventually announce one. So I've been holding out.

SPEAKER_01

I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, they've done a lot of his stuff, and I really I'm waiting for the Leningrad Cowboys eclipse set to come back. Yeah, you can't not have a smile on your face watching a Leningrad is.

SPEAKER_03

I did look on on eBay as I do. Um, there is a uh is it BFI? Maybe not. I'm not sure. There is a box set of all of his films. Okay. Um, I'm not sure if it's BFI or it's something else, but it's somewhere region B.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Um, and I've half a mind to buy that, but I don't know. It's not, it hasn't been updated. Like, um, I don't think Fallen Leaves is on there, which is his most recent one. So I I would like to own something that is up to date, so I'm not having to buy the same thing again in a few years down the line.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, that makes sense. I he's somebody that I've loved everything I've I've seen from it, which it is probably half of what I want to see because what's your fave?

SPEAKER_03

Is it Leningrad Cowboys?

SPEAKER_01

Uh I mean, like just as a it's Leningrad Cowboys is probably the most like rewatchable of any, which is a funny thing for something like that, but uh it's the one I could go back to the most. I think probably the one I I think about the most is is something like La Havre.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I just I love that the relationship that's at the center of that film, which is what he's so great at so much of the time. So yeah, I I mean they they put a box set out of that. I'm probably with you in picking that one up.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

For sure.

SPEAKER_03

I think they will soon. Like I I have a feeling, mark my words in a year's time.

SPEAKER_01

I think so. I feel like a lot of I feel I feel like there's a lot of his stuff on the on the channel there is as well.

SPEAKER_03

So that's how that's how I watched, I think, the majority of it.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah. Okay. Well, it's speaking things into existence, hopefully. That's something we could do. Um, I and it because it's sort of in the yeah on on camera for you right now, and I know with your with your Instagram reveals and stuff, uh, it's always part of the aesthetic, which um kudos to that. But the uh you've got the shelf behind you, obviously, with the movies on the one side and um the other side. I feel like the other side is a little more underappreciated, and I shout you out for the old NES. Like I'm a I'm a retro video game person, so I just love people like, mm, I like that very much. Um, how like your shelf space? Is that sort of what you have as far as shelf space? Do you have more kind of around where you live?

SPEAKER_03

So this is my I'm kind of crazy about it. So I mean, as you can see, some of the titles are facing forward, yeah, which is actually incredibly foolish. Um, because it takes up double the amount of space, sometimes triple. No, more than that. Look at look at how many titles that is compared to it's a lot. Um, but the reason why I do it is because it looks good on camera. Right. Um, so everything that's behind me is stuff that I have watched. Okay. Should probably be organized better right now. It's by um label. Um, so that's what I have watched. Then at my desk, my writing desk, I have just a stack of unwatched films that I go through.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, so those are like my ongoing projects. And then in the living room, I have these like little display things that you can like place a film on or a record or whatever. Um, and there I kind of rotate whatever, like when friends or family come over, they can see and not care most of the time.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it's nothing wrong with doing it for aesthetic reasons. I guess that's that is just as valid as any other part of it. I mean, you can see right above me. I literally, this is like one half of my two-watch pile. Uh yes, also a ton of records. I've been wow, yeah. Yeah, I do I do a lot of I the beside me is my video game shelf as well, which is also physical versions. So and there's CDs in this house somewhere. There's a lot, like I my my poor wife puts up with a lot of me taking up space. The good news is that she also enjoys all of it, and that's why we have a movie podcast together on our own, too, because that we just like doing that. So she puts up with a lot of that and she she does she does crochet and arts and things, so she has her things to take up space, and so do I. But uh yeah, it's it's fun to it's fun to have at least a shelf to sort of display everything.

SPEAKER_03

I'm gonna need more, to be honest, too.

SPEAKER_01

But that is that's also the eternal struggle, I guess. And I'm I always find it really hard to purge. I don't know if you ever do any like collection purging when you've other than when you moved. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Biggest regret ever. I mean, I I lost it wasn't even just um movies, it was also just books, too. Um, I always say, I mean, if you're if you're gonna be a cinephile, like start buying some biographies, start buying some films on movements and stuff. It's so helpful to have. I mean, I go back to these books all the time. So the ones that I lost, I still think about daily.

SPEAKER_01

The ones that got away, and they're never easy to get back either. Oh, yeah, when you get rid of them. Like I I did that once with uh uh Chung King Express with the criterion one that a friend loved it, and I'm like, oh yeah, go ahead. They were they were moving across the country, and it I was like, they loved the film, and I was like, oh yeah, go right ahead. Three months later it goes out of print, and I went, oh no, but I I did eventually find it somewhere locally for a decent price, so I I got it back, but it's yeah, it's it's never the easiest thing, sure. Um I've I kind of when I've been doing these interviews, been asking this of a few people, and I I thought this is kind of a fun question because this gets into our own little like neuroses is maybe the unkind way to phrase it. But the real way. Yeah, I know. So do you have anything you do as far as collecting that's like a little individual quirk that you sort of do that maybe is like I don't know, it's just like this is Marta's way of doing it?

SPEAKER_03

I don't I don't know. I mean, I know you mentioned Dakota's is he hates the blue the blue cases and blu-rays, yeah. What's yours?

SPEAKER_01

Give me some inspiration, maybe um mine has honestly been like the the blue cases don't so much bother me. Um I think the one that I that I really have gotten a little more in for is replacing battered DVD cases. Um because I've had some DVDs for so very long that like I've I had for a while was like okay, I'm gonna go to Staples or somewhere that has the replacement cases that aren't the they're not the flimsy crappy ones, but just like that they look a bit better. That's probably the one most recently that I'm like, I'm sure there's not many people doing this but me.

SPEAKER_03

All these things seem reasonable to me though. Maybe maybe not.

SPEAKER_01

I think it's completely reasonable, but I also like with my records make sure that even when I buy a new record, like that I clean them at home and sleeve them before I put them back. So that is maybe that's my own little neurotic thing about it.

SPEAKER_03

I don't know what mine is. I I really I don't think I I have one. I mean, I guess, hmm, if I if I get a movie um and the it's like an old DVD or something, or maybe it's not in 4K, sometimes I'll upgrade it. Like if if if a new one comes out. But again, that to me is just a normal thing to do.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, that's fair. And I I think the upgrading's an interesting one. Um and maybe that's maybe that's an interesting one to dive into because I like I've I've had a collection for a really long time, and I haven't I haven't had the moment where I've had to purge everything and re-get a lot of it. So there's still some things that I have on DVD or on Blu-ray that are now getting 4K upgrades or other things like that. And I I'm less inclined to do an upgrade on anything and everything that I've got. Um, do you have ones that you're really like, oh, I really want to upgrade this specifically, or do you just kind of want to get the highest quality version of anything that you've got?

SPEAKER_03

I mean, I wouldn't do it for everything. Um something that I care about for sure. Like, for example, his motorbike, her island, that was one eBay snag. Yeah, who knows how long ago. And then was it Cult Epics or what was that? Yeah, it was Call Tepics, another good boutique label, by the way. Um they just restored it, I think maybe end of 2025 or early 2026. So I I needed to have that. Um, so that's that's one example. Um, but you're asking me about other films in my collection that I would like to.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so I that's one that I love. The like, what would you speak into existence if you could to get an upgrade or to even just be available?

SPEAKER_03

Oh, to even be available, okay. Uh that gives me a lot more to work with. Um, I would say, top of my head, drugstore romance.

SPEAKER_01

Um, I'm not familiar with that one. Tell me.

SPEAKER_03

So that's Paul Vecchiali, who shout out Radiance again. I found out about him because they released Rosa La Rose, Feel Bully. Uh, ended up becoming one of my favorite films that they've done, shot up as one of my favorite films of all time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, and then I was writing an essay on him as a filmmaker as a whole, so I was watching his movies wherever I could online just to find them. And Drugstory Romance was one that really stuck out to me. It's, you know, like a cirquian melodrama, but you have that olfels-like camera. Um, okay. Very, very vecchiali. It's about this mechanic in Paris, this younger man who falls in love with this um chemist, and she refuses him, but then something happens, and yada yada yada, don't want to say too much. Um, but just overall, more of Paul Vecchiali's work, he was kind of just like this filmmaker on the margins. He never really fit in comfortably into the French New Wave narrative. Um, but he was always kind of there, like he was working alongside it, he knew all these people, um, and he was obsessed with just communities and chosen families, and treating any sort of taboo at the time is just normal. Um, and he believed in movement over psychology, so his films, just so how it how the film itself feels, um, the theatricality of it, the movement. Uh, like I said, Ophals, you bring in that sort of camera work as well. Yeah. Um, really stunning stuff. And then even within that, he had his own production company, Diagonal. So then you're looking at not just him, but all these other filmmakers who kind of operated under the same ethos, right? Um, all of their films. Like he helped produce uh Jean Dilman, Channel.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so that's what I mean. The more you find out about Vecchiali, you realize he was involved in all these different things. I think you have him to thank as well for um uh the two uh sisters in Solo by Pasolini, who saw one of Vecchiali's films. Pasolini saw one of Vecchiali's films, and he's like, I need those, those too. So anything really by uh Vecchiali or or by the other filmmakers who are involved in Diagonal, that would be that would be a big one for me. Also, maybe some of those films from that Suzuki retrospective I talked about earlier.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

What is what does Suzuki have that isn't available now that you discovered, or maybe, maybe you saw it the retrospective.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, the retrospective, uh, 1966 is Carmen from Kawachi. Uh that one is so cool, and I don't think you can find it with English subtitles. It may have gotten restored in Japan. Um but yet to find anything with English subs. That one is yeah, that one's really, really interesting because on paper it looks like it should be like your regular schmegular exploitation film. Um, it's about this young woman, she she lives in the countryside, uh, she leaves to go to Osaka, um, ends up navigating these increasingly difficult situations, don't want to say too much. Um but what Suzuki's doing is so much more interesting than that because he seems like he's actively critiquing um exploitation cinema while working within it. So you have scenes with like mirrors, reflections, films within films, yeah. Um, even moments where like the film just like pulls back and reveals like the artificiality of everything within it. Um, so something like that, you also just I mean it's very much so a Suzuki vessel. I know you you're a fan, so you know the pulp, the comedy. Um, it's basically just, I guess, my elevator pitch is take on Carmen, the opera, um, but make it Suzuki. There's even like a surf rock version of Habanera.

SPEAKER_01

Um sold.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so that's that's another one right there, immediately.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, there you go. So that's when when Rewind and Revive eventually becomes a boutique label itself.

SPEAKER_02

We think sold in English.

SPEAKER_01

Dakota and I joked about that, but we were all going in on like 90s and 2000s Canadian movies that we both are like, why? Why do we not? So no, that and you know what, that one that sounds fantastic. It's it almost in my head reminds me a bit of um, and by the time this episode comes out, the this other episode that I have in the plan will be out. But I just recently re-watched all that jazz.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm just in my head, I love I love films that do that, like the critiquing a genre while working within it. And like all that jazz is so fun because it not only is it critiquing a genre, but it's critiquing the person. Like it's it is Bob Fosse lampooning himself in a not very flattering light. And I just I love the like how the he plays with the form in that. And I feel it just as you're doing that description, I'm like, I feel like Suzuki could do something with that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

There you go. That's absolutely I like that. That's good. And I it's this perfect because this is like watching some of the the social media stuff I get from you is just more ideas of things where I'm like, never heard of this. Yes, I'm in for it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

The whole world out there.

SPEAKER_01

I know. It's it's wild. Um, is there something that maybe you in in part of your journey through uh discovering stuff or maybe doing something for rewind and revive that you've um uncovered on physical media and that you've maybe not just really enjoyed the film, but like something in the package of the physical media disc itself that you were really wowed by?

SPEAKER_03

Maybe who released? Did you wait? Did you say on the disc or like in the whole entire package?

SPEAKER_01

Like the it could be the whole entire package, just something that like made the physical media release like a real.

SPEAKER_03

Let's see what happens here. Oh, oh, oh, no, we're good. Uh, this is on the silver globe. And this was done by oh, this is MondoVision. Yeah, this is Mondovision. So this one was. I don't think I've ever been more excited um about a physical media release than I was about this. I think I like held my breath when I got it. So you have um your disc, you have the soundtrack, okay, you open this little booklet here, and you have tons of just again essays, interviews, postcards. Oh, um, this was a really, really sp I mean it's just stunning too, as well. Yeah. Um, this was really, really special for me because this is just another title that sat in limbo for so, so, so many years, um, and it finally got the love that it deserved, and they couldn't have done a better job. It's an absolutely beautiful release. Um, everything included on it is just chef's kiss. So that's one. Um, what else? Agitator by Radiance. Okay. That one was really cool. Uh, that's a recent one that's coming to mind because they included the theatrical cut, and then they also included his extended version, um, which has never been seen to us before in the past.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03

And that's like I think an extra hour long. It's pushing four hours.

SPEAKER_01

Getting into Bellatar territory.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Very cool. Yeah, those look the Mondovision one looks great. That's that's very fun. And another one I'm actually not tremendously familiar with, the Mondovision.

SPEAKER_03

Neither am I. This was one where, again, it was for Rewind and Revive. Um, I just wanted to deep dive as much as I could into Zulowski, and yeah, that that was another reason why I got it. I also just love the movie, it's one of my favorite films.

SPEAKER_01

Cool. Yeah, it's nice when you get the van diagram that crosses over with all of that. Um, in terms of, and I mean that kind of you know, when you're doing something like Rewind and Revive, um, and having that as your your guide through things, is there uh something that in in doing the style of like writing that you do that um would perk your interest? Like if you saw something new that was coming out that was a physical media, what what about it might perk your interest to say, oh, this is something I might be interested to talk about?

SPEAKER_03

Oh, like do you mean newer release or just something old that's been made new again? Like a newer one.

SPEAKER_01

Probably something old that's been made new. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, what would perk my interest? That is another really good question. Um, I don't really know. I mean, I it's usually just completely I'll I'll read a log line, I'll I'll see if it's something I'm interested in, or maybe I'll recognize the filmmaker. Um, or maybe it's something that I myself have wanted restored for years. Um, so there really isn't any rhyme or reason to it. It's that that's kind of what I meant at the start, I think, when I said um, or maybe I didn't say it, that it's it's not really up to me what happens. Because even, I mean, again, I keep going back to Dead Mountaineers Hotel, but that's just because I it's what's on the brain.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It's what's on the brain. Um, but that, for example, was supposed to be just a quick write-up. Sometimes I'll do, they're not always going to be essays or podcast episodes. Sometimes they're like little roundups. Um, and I mean I I watched the film and it just blew me away, and I really wanted to dedicate as much time as I could to it. So that's what I mean. It's and you you never know, something will just hook me by chance and off to the race as I go, and then I'm deep in Estonian cinema for three weeks.

SPEAKER_01

So a niche you didn't know you needed.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. With and actually also wanted to ask a question of just your it's specifically, I guess, because the your your Substack, as I mentioned, I I thoroughly enjoy reading it. It's I I have a kind of dip my baby toes into Substack a little bit and would like to keep going a little more with it. Um, just because I don't I I find I don't do as much writing as I used to about some of the creative stuff. So I it's it's a really nice outlook for that. Um for your the the other thing that I think a lot of, as you've said, a lot of people probably see you from is is Martin McFly on Instagram and a lot of the reels and recommendations that you do. Um and I think a lot of them, you know, you do bring up some great recommendations and are able to synthesize thoughts about them really succinctly. And as someone who is very long-winded myself, what's your what do you do when you're when you're putting something into a format like an Instagram reel? Like how what's your process of condensing your thoughts for that?

SPEAKER_03

Oh god.

SPEAKER_01

Is it possible?

SPEAKER_03

It is not possible. So I only started playing nice with the algorithm maybe a few months ago. Before that, I would say, screw it. I am talking for five, six minutes. Um, but unfortunately for short form social media, it's you gotta condense it. Um so I I I mean, I don't really know. I I guess I kind of just look at whatever I always start with the writing, with the writing that is longer formed. So either that is on Rewind and Revive or it's a letterboxed review. Actually, usually everything starts with a letterboxed review. I kind of use that as like my little trial space to put some thoughts down, and then that will usually expand into something on rewind and revive. Um and so usually I'll just take key points from each sort of paragraph, I guess, and and and write a script for social media, and I never go over three minutes. Um, I would say the biggest thing that helps me in this entire process is probably just the notes I take while watching films themselves. Um I will have pages upon pages of notes. They sound completely unhinged if anybody else just ever see them.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Because they're not they're not intelligent. Like sometimes it'll just be, oh my god, this is happening, and yeah, go in the opposite direction. Um but then you you look at all those notes later on, and you I'll usually find a through line or something that I find really fascinating, be it a theme, be it um there's always gonna be something that sticks out or something that I keep returning to.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, and then that those notes can later be used as a basis for an essay or even just a basis for a reel.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um does that kind of answer your question? I don't even know. It does.

SPEAKER_01

And actually, it no, it completely does. And I I find that a lot of the a lot of the stuff I've I've have done with writing throughout my life, whether it's and at different points in my life, I've written album reviews and movie reviews and uh different things like that. I've I've always been the thing I have to remind myself, even with the work I do of like learning and writing curriculum stuff, is like, write, you're long-winded, like cut it down, kill your darlings, remember that as a thing. So I always struggle with that, and I'm like I should ask that question. But the the the thing you said about notes of resonating while like watching a movie, I had I laughed because the so the the podcast my wife and I do. It's we basically will go back and forth watching movies that one or the other of us has not ever seen before.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01

And then whoever hadn't seen the movie and was seeing it the first time basically guides the conversation. And so we've taken into like taking notes as it's going. My wife and I take notes so completely differently that it's hilarious. But she will do the thing, like you said, of like these notes make no sense to anybody but me. But she's taken to like reading some of them almost like they're live tweets in the podcast about just like what are the weird things. Like when we did uh Mad Max Fury Road, she had Oh gods. I'm just like, who are these pasty white fucks that are in this movie? Like, this is the thing she wrote down to say during the podcast. I'm like, then when I write and I just pulled up on my phone because uh the one I just recently did with her that I hadn't seen was Norma Ray, and the first note on it, I'm like, well, this is a Twin Peaks ass opening credits. And then later in the movie, then I put in brackets and Grace Sabrisky's in this. I'm like, nobody else knows what the hell you're talking about.

SPEAKER_03

I just did a Twin Peaks one scribble in mine, too, as well. We're Dead Mountaineers Hotel, coincidentally.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, with that title, it's there's bound to be a Twin Peaks reference in there somewhere.

SPEAKER_03

Of course.

SPEAKER_01

Something like that.

SPEAKER_03

I think I also thought my favorite one was like, oh, we're with it's Clue now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Colonel Mustard at the library.

SPEAKER_01

Colonel Mustard in the Library. That's I love that movie. I actually played Professor Plum on uh in a stage adaptation of Clue when I was in university. I did I used to do dinner theater and and drama stuff when I was teaching, and we had a little dinner theater troupe at uh at the U of A in Edmonton, and I was Professor Plum, the perverted Christopher Lloyd. So yeah, thanks. Thanks for that, Clue. You've been a big help. Uh this was wonderful. Thank you very much, Marta. This was this was absolutely great to sit down and chat the ever-evolving physical media landscape. And of course, we have some things we're gonna speak into existence. I don't want to put any pressure on your recommendations or things you want to see restored. But Dakota, what he wanted was Manhunter, and they just announced that there's the 4K restoration coming of Manhunter. And I know from chatting with Philip and even from listening to the podcast, the two of you have done, you've already spoken some kirastami into the world. So, like, we're gonna just keep this rolling, I guess. This is now a thing. I love it. Uh, but yeah, thank you so much for for coming and chatting. Where can everybody find you for uh for more discovery about what you're doing online?

SPEAKER_03

First of all, thank you for having me. This was delightful. I I think more people should want to talk a longer form about physical media. So thank you. I I love your podcast, I love what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Um as for me, yeah. So Instagram, TikTok, not really kinda, I guess. Uh Marta.mcfly. Uh letterboxed is Marta McFly, no, no, period. Um, and then rewindandrevive.com. Uh that there you can find, yeah, all my essays. Uh, my podcast is there too, but you can also find it directly on Apple, Spotify, the usual suspects. Um, yeah, that's that's kind of me.

SPEAKER_00

So excellent. Well, thank you again. And uh have a good rest of the weekend.

SPEAKER_03

You too. Thanks again.

SPEAKER_01

Take care of the thank you once again to Marta for coming on to the podcast to be uh be the latest collector conversation episode uh on cinema on a shelf. We're uh was very, very, very happy to uh be able to have her on the podcast. I think we had a really fun discussion. And uh definitely make sure that you give her a follow in uh any of the social medias that she was shouting out, um, whether it's her short form content or or long form stuff on on Substack, she she's a great follow out there in the movie and physical media world. Um yeah, it was uh it was really fun to do that. And uh if uh if you want to keep tabs on any more collector conversations or any more episodes of Cinema on a Shelf, I do have a few ways that you can follow along. Um I do have an Instagram account at Cinema on a Shelf, which will be highlighting if uh every new episode that I'm putting out there. Do also have an email, cinema onashelf at gmail.com, if you want to send me a message directly about something related to physical media, something uh just you want to talk movie stuff, you want to give recommendations, um, maybe give me more ideas of people you'd love to hear or uh you know have on have me uh do a little conversation, collector conversation with, like I've done with with Marta and Philip and Dakota already. Uh, would love to get recommendations for that as well. Um if you want to follow along with me on Letterboxd, my Letterbox is at Maddie236, and uh love to give you a follow back there. I do also have my own Substack, although I'm not as frequent a writer as Marta, but uh it's something I'm having fun with, and uh if you want to check that out, it is cinemaonashelf.substack.com. And if you're a movie podcast person and want to check out something a little bit newer, I mentioned um my other podcast with my wife Jess. Uh I can't believe you haven't seen. We have been doing that for over a year now, and most recently just had an episode out about the film Orlando with Tilda Swinton that I had seen had not seen before, and uh really enjoyed that film, so it was a fun discussion to have with uh with Jess on that one. So um until next time, I'm I'm formulating what exactly I'd like my next episode to be, and I think I would like it to be something along the lines of a uh a current topic that is on my mind because uh my wife and I are having to move to a different place to live, and moving with a collection is uh a very interesting, very tenuous, stressful, tedious. There's a lot of words you could potentially use to describe it. And I've actually moved a lot of times in my life with my movie collection and my collection of other things. So I think maybe doing an episode about moving with a collection might be kind of a fun topic to tackle and will maybe be a way for me to vent some of my own frustrations after after we go about our move. So um, yeah, check that out for for the next cinema on a shelf episode. Thank you very much to everyone that listened along. Um you can find our podcast everywhere, and uh, if you do go and and give it a rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or anywhere, uh, would absolutely love that. It helps with engagement. And if you want to leave me a comment on the YouTube version of it as well, we do have audiograms out there for for YouTube, and I love to interact with anybody that comments on there. So um, yes, thank you again for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode. Take care.