87 Transport from Paradise

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antnield
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87 Transport from Paradise

#1 Post by antnield » Tue Dec 17, 2013 1:47 pm

From the latest newsletter...
...we will also be presenting, early in 2014, Zbyněk Brynych's powerful Transport from Paradise (Transport z ráje).


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antnield
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Re: Transport from Paradise

#3 Post by antnield » Fri Jan 24, 2014 7:39 am

From the press release...
Zbyněk Brynych's award-winning film presents a vivid and realistic picture of the infamous Terezín Ghetto under Nazi control during World War II. The Ghetto was an international marshaling community in Czechoslovakia where thousands of Jews from around Europe were held before being told they were being simply transferred to other towns - when they were in fact being sent to their deaths in the concentration camps.

Beneath the serene facade of everyday life in the Ghetto, the film slowly gathers a sense of the cold grip of terror in the Nazi's purposeful, grotesque preparations for genocide. Shot on location in Terezín and based on the personal experiences of author Arnošt Lustig, this haunting feature is presented for the first time ever in the UK.

"One of the most brilliant works of both the Czech New Wave and Holocaust cinema" Dennis Grunes, A Short Chronology of World Cinema
"A grim, sad reminder of an unforgettable human ordeal... reveals the savagery that can exist behind a mask of humanity" TV Guide

DVD Special features:

• Booklet featuring an essay by author and playwright Roy Kift
• New digital transfer with restored picture and sound
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• Optimal quality dual-layer disc
• Released in its complete and original version for the first time in the English-speaking world.

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antnield
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Re: Transport from Paradise

#4 Post by antnield » Fri Jan 24, 2014 12:37 pm

...and the tremendous artwork:

Image

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MichaelB
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Re: Transport from Paradise

#5 Post by MichaelB » Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:45 pm

It's probably worth mentioning that Arnošt Lustig was also the literary (and autobiographical) source of Jan Němec's Diamonds of the Night.

I haven't seen Transport from Paradise yet, but I was very impressed with the two Zbyněk Brynych films that I have caught - a spy thriller whose name escapes me for the moment, and the famous The Fifth Horseman is Fear.

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MichaelB
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Re: Transport from Paradise

#6 Post by MichaelB » Thu Feb 06, 2014 8:32 am

I have now seen it, and it's an extraordinary film - I can readily see why Second Run decided to go ahead and release it even though the existing master isn't exactly dazzling: it's obviously an analogue videotape telecine of a decidedly unrestored print. But it's hardly going to be at the front of the queue for restoration with so many better-known Czech titles needing a going-over, so how long would we have had to wait otherwise for an English-friendly edition?

If you've seen Brynych's The Fifth Horseman is Fear (and, to a lesser extent, Diamonds of the Night - it's stylistically very different, but the common source in Arnošt Lustig's memories creates a certain continuity, especially in both films' eye for the chillingly absurd), you'll have some idea of what to expect - Transport from Paradise has a similarly clammy and oppressive quality. But it's the fact that the entire film is set in the Terezín (Theresienstadt) ghetto that gives it its unique potency, because - as the booklet essay explains in detail - there was nowhere else in Nazi-occupied Europe quite like it.

Unlike the ghettoes of Poland, it was treated as a kind of Nazi showpiece, a "model city" that was the subject of documentary films (cast with Jewish extras bussed in from elsewhere) and which the Red Cross was openly encouraged to inspect. Naturally, since the behind-the-scenes reality was very different from the "paradise" claimed by the propaganda, there's a constant tension at play there - exacerbated by the fact that the more clued-up resistance activists have no idea whether people going along with the Nazi construction are doing so because they genuinely believe it or because they think it's better than the alternative. Obviously, the meaning of the title is clear - as emphasised by the DVD artwork - and further tension is created by the fact that in a completely closed environment like Terezín, nobody living there is completely clear about where the trains are going to. There are rumours of gas chambers and/or similar fates, but no actual evidence, and those caught spreading them rapidly disappear (or "are disappeared") and swiftly replaced by yes-men.

The booklet is one of Second Run's very best efforts. Sensibly, they went outside the world of film criticism and hired playwright Roy Kift, two of whose plays were set in the Terezín ghetto - and who offers an enthrallingly detailed account of its history, its bizarre social and artistic culture (with examples of the poems and songs that were produced there), and the way that much of the film is drawn from fact, the occasional dramatically justified reshuffling and embellishment notwithstanding. I'm a huge fan of getting experts in fields other than film to contribute to extras, and this is one of the finest examples I've seen recently. In fact, although I didn't do this myself, for once there might be a strong case for reading the essay before watching the film.

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Bikey
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Re: Transport from Paradise

#7 Post by Bikey » Tue Feb 11, 2014 5:37 am

"There have been several distinguished films about life in Nazi-controlled central European ghettoes during World War II - Schindler’s List, The Pianist, Jakob the Liar - but none are quite like Zbyněk Brynych’s extraordinary evocation of Terezín "
Review at MovieMail by Michael Brooke

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Re: Transport from Paradise

#8 Post by admira » Tue Feb 11, 2014 11:56 am

http://www.jewishmuseum.cz/en/apravda_lez.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Transport from Paradise

#9 Post by admira » Mon Feb 17, 2014 2:01 pm

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res ... 838C679EDE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Bikey
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Re: Transport from Paradise

#10 Post by Bikey » Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:35 am

Full details on this release now up at our website

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MichaelB
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Re: Transport from Paradise

#11 Post by MichaelB » Tue Mar 04, 2014 9:02 am


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antnield
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Re: Transport from Paradise

#12 Post by antnield » Wed Mar 05, 2014 6:58 pm


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Bikey
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Re: Transport from Paradise

#13 Post by Bikey » Mon Mar 10, 2014 6:52 am


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Re: Transport from Paradise

#14 Post by Bikey » Mon Mar 10, 2014 10:23 am

TRANSPORT FROM PARADISE reviewed in the latest Sight & Sound

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Re: Transport from Paradise

#15 Post by Bikey » Tue Mar 11, 2014 6:26 am

Close-Up Film review the "quietly devastating" TRANSPORT FROM PARADISE

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Re: Transport from Paradise

#16 Post by Bikey » Wed Mar 12, 2014 6:09 am


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Re: Transport from Paradise

#17 Post by Bikey » Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:53 am

"Another terrific discovery making its English-subtitled DVD debut courtesy of UK label Second Run. Their astonishing track record with Eastern European cinema already speaks for itself, and this is another jewel in their digital crown"
Mondo Digital

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Re: Transport from Paradise

#18 Post by charal » Sun Mar 23, 2014 10:15 pm

No doubt this transfer is the same one Criterion would use on its proposed (???) Eclipse box set. A comparison between the SR & Eclipse versions of PARTY & GUESTS & DAISIES reveals them to be identical. Since Criterion were planning to include THE CRY, COURAGE FOR EVERYDAY & SOMETHING DIFFERENT in the aforementioned set does this release of TRANSPORT imply that SECOND RUN also have the rights to these three films? If so then how about a new CZECH box set with these three gems Bikey? A tribute to Vera perhaps?

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Bikey
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Re: Transport from Paradise

#19 Post by Bikey » Fri Mar 28, 2014 4:37 pm


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Re: Transport from Paradise

#20 Post by Bikey » Mon Mar 31, 2014 5:28 am

"This brilliant, spine-chilling 1962 film... a superb contribution to Holocaust cinema. Highly moving"
Songlines

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Re: Transport from Paradise

#21 Post by Bikey » Mon Apr 07, 2014 9:34 am


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knives
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Re: Transport from Paradise

#22 Post by knives » Thu Apr 24, 2014 9:19 pm

I just want to thank SR for releasing this enormous film. I'll probably never watch it again, but I appreciate this lone viewing a lot. The film hints at something a little weirder with the plot of the documentary, but I think it was the right decision of everybody to play the material straight. It doesn't avoid the weird way masks work in this world, but the cinematic interplay, maybe this isn't the best analogy, here reminds me more of the Slavic films I've seen from this era rather than the Czech though that could be a bias produced by what's available. Michael's right about the closed off feeling the film has with some tight mis-en-scene which constantly reinforces the idea of the ghetto as a cage particularly with its wall of luggage. That said for me the most effective element is how the film completely dehumanizes the process of living for everyone featured without dehumanizing the individual characters. It becomes the pain of seeing the emotions of people forced to do something against their will. Even the Nazis seem more villainous than usual by how they show anger and smiles through their bureaucracy. It's such a cold film with such a hard outline.

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Bikey
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Re: Transport from Paradise

#23 Post by Bikey » Mon Oct 06, 2014 8:22 am

Reviewed by Leonard Quart in 'Staff Recommendations' from the latest Cineaste

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Re: 87 Transport from Paradise

#24 Post by admira » Fri Jun 29, 2018 3:49 am

Great film! Would be great to See a BD, so far This is only Blue Brynych http://www.bildstoerung.tv/blog/filme/die-weibchen-2/

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