Friday, June 1, 2012

Month 29 Status Report

I watched 24 films off the list in May on a goal of 25. Not bad when you consider I also took out three films off a secondary list and added two theatrical reviews. Still, it's a little disappointing and means that I'll be shooting for 26 in June, a goal I will almost certainly miss.

Why? Well, it's the end of a term for me in a couple of weeks, and that means an increased workload. The Demented Podcast is starting up again as well, and that's an extra two movies every two weeks. Throw in a guest spot now and then on the LAMBcast, and suddenly my time to cross off films dwindles down to nothing. I'll get by, though. I always have.

So here's the list of films that I'm finding difficulty in locating through my evidently inferior Google-fu:

0139. The Mortal Storm: No dice.
0247. Europa '51: I have found it, but without subtitles.
0265. Voyage in Italy: I have found it, but without subtitles.
0289. Hill 24 Doesn't Answer: No dice.
0325. Mother India: I have found it, but without subtitles.
0362. The Housemaid: No dice.
0379. Chronicle of a Summer: No dice.
0391. Keeper of Promises: I have found it, but without subtitles.
0399. The Cool World: : No dice.
0429. Black God, White Devil: No dice.
0446. The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short: No dice.
0472. Marketa Lazarov: I have found it, but without subtitles.
0475. Earth Entranced: I have found it, but without subtitles.
0493. Lucia: I have found it, but without subtitles.
0508. Tristana: I have found it, but without subtitles.
0513. The Spider's Strategem: No dice.
0532. Red Psalm: I have found it, but without subtitles.
0552. Fat City: No dice.
0572. Turkish Delight: No dice.
0594. The Wall: I have found it, but without subtitles.
0600. Manila in the Claws of Brightness: I have found it, but without subtitles.
0627. Ceddo: No dice.
0628. The American Friend: No dice.
0666. Loulou: No dice.
0678. Too Early, Too Late: No dice.
0699. The Last Battle: No dice.
0701. Utu: No dice.
0703. The Fourth Man: No dice.
0752. Peking Opera Blues: No dice.
0756. The Horse Thief: No dice.
0771. Red Sorghum: No dice.
0797. Drowning by Numbers: No dice.
0812. A City of Sadness: No dice.
0813. No Fear, No Die: No dice.
0856. The Actress: No dice.
0885. Through the Olive Trees: No dice.
0891. Deseret: No dice (I've been alerted to a version of this, but can't make it work)
0896. Safe: No dice.
0902. The White Balloon: No dice.
0933. Mother and Son: I have found it, but without subtitles.
0945. The Idiots: No dice.
0977. Signs and Wonders: No dice.

40 comments:

  1. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but since you've posted this list of yours a few months back, I've made it a point of mine to try and knock off as many of these films as I can find, and I've had some luck in finding some of the harder ones; check my site to see if I've got a review up for any of these and you can ask me where I found it.

    If you're not adverse to potentially having to buy the films yourself, if all other options have been exhausted, I've found a number of them on Amazon.com, so there's a potential resource if you have the money to buy the films.

    The Mortal Storm airs on TCM occasionally (it just aired in the past week), and is available in their online shop as well.

    I located a copy of Deseret on the IMDb forum for the film, topic found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131356/board/thread/171238988. If this is the one you "can't make work", I recommend downloading VLC Player, which can damn near make any video file work, and did for me in this case. Well worth the download.

    Safe, I was fortunate enough to find a copy in one of my local libraries, so I don't know how to help you there, aside from buying it on Amazon for the low low price of 45 dollars.

    The Actress is better known under the English title Center Stage; that might help with your Google searching.

    The two I'm having real trouble locating (that I've at least tried to) are Utu and Too Early, Too Late; I'll keep on that and let you know if I get any leads. There's a VHS copy of Utu on Amazon, if that's worth anything.

    What might be a good idea is to have one post on your site specifically for anyone to share some of the harder to find films with the rest of us; maybe even this one, if we all bookmarked it or a specific link was posted somewhere on the site alerting users to the purpose of it. There's a Listology post that somewhat serves this purpose, but I've pretty much picked it clean already, and am looking for something a little more current in this regard.

    Tell me what you think, and if any of this helps, you're welcome.

    -Adol

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  2. The Mortal Storm played on TCM about 5 days ago. I had already seen it a couple of years ago through TCM. They might show it again, but it could be another year and a half before they do.

    Also, Through the Olive Trees is on the YouTube...not that I condone watching movies that way, but it might be the only place you can access it right now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do YouTube now and then.

      As for TCM, I have no cable or satellite. I have cut the television teat off at the source, which does make this project a little more interesting sometimes.

      Delete
  3. Okay, I had a big comment up here, but I think it got deleted, so...

    If you're not adverse to buying the DVDs should all other attempts at finding the films run dry, many can be found on Amazon.com, including The Mortal Storm (which can also be found at the TCM online shop). Some, including Safe, may be a bit pricey due to their rareness, but there may be no other option. There's also a VHS copy of Utu there (and a DVD, but its almost 200 dollars).

    Deseret I found on the IMDb forum for the film, topic here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131356/board/thread/171238988. If this is the one you "can't make work", I recommend downloading VLC Player, which will play damn near any video file you can find; well worth the download.

    Any other ones, I'll let you know if I come across them. There should be a specialized post somewhere on this site for people to share hard to come by films; maybe we can use this one.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Unfortunately, those Deseret files have been removed.

      Delete
    2. Damn. Is that why you keep deleting my comments? :)

      I held onto my copy of the film just in case it did go down; want me to see if I can upload it anywhere?

      Delete
    3. I've only ever deleted one comment--and it was spam. Evidently, Blogger has an issue with where you're posting from.

      Dead serious--I have no explanation.

      I'm not sure on the uploading. I have a moral issue with torrenting films, so I'll have to think about it.

      Delete
    4. @Adolytsi - I don't do torrents, but if you can place it anywhere else (i.e. Rapidshare, Mediafire, etc.) I would be most grateful.

      Delete
    5. @Steve - If Adolytsi is unable to get Deseret uploaded somewhere, I just ran across a possibility. It's a site named Mubi. It seems to have almost every film Benning did, including Deseret. The top of the site says watch as many movies as you want for $6.99. Here's the best part - they say they have a 14 day free trial. In theory, a person could sign up for the site, watch Deseret, and then if the site does not have any other movies of interest to you then you can cancel the membership before you start getting charged. I haven't gone as far as starting to sign up, though, so I don't know if there are some catches. Here is the link to the Deseret page - http://mubi.com/films/deseret

      Delete
    6. Sadly, Mubi appears to be something of a come-on. Deseret is unavailable. They have something like 20,000 films listed in their database, but only have about 20% of that available. I imagine it will be much the same with a lot of other films from The List on that site.

      Delete
    7. And there's the catch. Too bad. Thanks for checking it out. I was watching the Game of Thrones season finale, which I wanted to see as soon as possible.

      Delete
  4. I had to split this in two because it was more than 4,096 characters.

    Part 1:

    First, several of the movies I found did not have English subtitles, but I combined the subtitle files I got from one of two sites with them. You can find those sites here:

    http://en.podnapisi.net/en/ppodnapisi/search?sK=europa+51
    http://subscene.com/search.aspx

    Please note that I originally found a 2 CD version of Europa '51, but could not find any 2CD English subtitle files, so I eventually went with a single file version of the film to combine with one of these subtitle files.

    Now, on to the movies (files ending in ".001", etc need HJSplit to join them, while files ending in ".rar" need Winrar. ".7z" files can also be handled by Winrar; you don't need to use 7zip.)

    The Mortal Storm - http://www.filestube.com/8Se78kHpfUm66BAt49FQic/The-Mortal-Storm-1940-avi-001.html

    Hill 24 Doesn't Answer - http://filetram.com/rapidshare/hill24doesntanswer-avi-5801172434
    note - this copy isn't the greatest for picture quality

    The Housemaid - http://scalisto.blogspot.com/2009/08/ki-young-kim-hanyo-1960.html

    Chronicle of a Summer - http://www.filestube.com/bB7mzn80Q3AAIwdEgymEus/Chronique-d-un-ete.html

    The Cool World - http://www.rsmoviedownloads.com/RS-com-The-Cool-World-1964_7902547.html

    Black God, White Devil - http://www.divxturka.net/download/125867-black-god-white-devil-1964-a.html

    The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short - it looks like I didn't save a link for this. I'll have to get back to you on it.

    ************************************************
    Lucia - I need this one. Where did you find it?
    ************************************************

    The Spider's Stratagem - http://scalisto.blogspot.com/2011/11/bernardo-bertolucci-strategia-del-ragno.html

    Fat City - it looks like this is another I didn't save the link for. I'll have to get back to you.

    Turkish Delight - http://www.filestube.com/81e7ae53adc3f32303e9,g/Tureckie-naslagdeniya-1973-DVDRip.html

    The Wall - I'll have to get back to you.

    Ceddo - http://scalisto.blogspot.com/2009/11/ousmane-sembene-ceddo-1977.html

    The American Friend - http://www.filestube.com/6hy4qiXHK5NBLO2ExDmvvE/Der-Amerikanische-Freund-1977.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Part 2:

      Loulou - http://www.divxturka.net/download/898046-loulou-1980-french-maurice-pialat-isabele-hupert.html

      Too Early, Too Late - I also can't find this, other than one which requires purchasing a premium Filepost membership

      The Last Battle (note - no subtitles needed apparently because the characters can't talk) - damn, another one where I didn't save the link. Sometimes as I found them I just started saving the movies immediately and completed them so I never ended up saving the page link. This was one of the harder ones to find, too.

      Utu - this might have been the hardest one, of the ones I found - CD1: http://www.general-files.com/download/gs21fe55dh5ai0/utu.geoff.murphy.1983.cd1.avi.html CD2: http://www.general-files.com/download/gs21fe55fh5ai0/utu.geoff.murphy.1983.cd2.avi.html

      The Fourth Man - http://www.divxturka.net/download/87402-fourth-man-1983-a.html

      Peking Opera Blues - http://www.divxturka.net/download/29505-peking-opera-blues-1986-a.html

      The Horse Thief - http://www.divxturka.net/download/117240-horse-thief-1986-a.html

      Red Sorghum - http://avaxhome.ws/video/language/asian_languages/rsorghum_by_yimou.html

      Drowning By Numbers - http://www.divxturka.net/download/87842-drowning-numbers-1988-a.html

      A City of Sadness - http://www.divxturka.net/download/199587-city-sadness-1989-a.html

      No Fear, No Die - I'll have to get back to you

      The Actress (Center Stage) - http://www.divxturka.net/download/154943-center-stage-1992-a.html

      Through the Olive Trees - http://www.divxturka.net/download/120951-through-olive-trees-1994-a.html

      **********************************************
      Deseret - I can't find this either. What is the version you have that you can't make work?
      **********************************************

      Safe - http://www.divxturka.net/download/113543-safe-1995-a.html

      The White Balloon - http://www.divxturka.net/download/118465-white-balloon-1995-a.html

      The Idiots - I'll have to get back to you

      Signs and Wonders - is available on DVD via Netflix. I've got it in my queue right now.

      I didn't include links for all the ones you said you only needed subtitles for. If you were referring to Youtube versions and not files, then let me know. Those subtitle files at the links I provided won't work with Youtube streaming videos. You would need to get the movie files to match with the subtitle files.

      Delete
    2. Okay, here are the links I didn't save initially. I'm not positive that all of these are the exact ones I got the movie from, but they all appear to have working links.

      The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short - http://www.filestube.com/ecf5c62b40f854ff03e9,g/The-Man-Who-Had-His-Hair-Cut-Short.html

      Fat City - http://scalisto.blogspot.com/2008/11/john-huston-fat-city-1972.html

      Deewaar (The Wall) - http://www.foreignmoviesddl.org/2009/11/deewaar-wall-1975-yash-chopra.html

      Le dernier combat (The Last Battle) - http://www.filestube.com/ea6b6c6b945ad49e03e9,g/Le-Dernier-Combat.html

      No Fear No Die - http://www.foreignmoviesddl.org/2009/05/sen-fout-la-mort-no-fear-no-die-1990.html

      The Idiots - http://www.divxturka.net/download/293851-idiots-aka-idioterne-1998-dvdripx264-350mb-4-parts.html

      Delete
  5. I am looking at either YouTube or Google videos on those. I also posted the link for Lucia for you on your website, but here it is again.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmzRvZeS0QE

    Signs & Wonders is still listed as unavailable on my queue. The Deseret dead links are in the forums on the IMDB page for the film.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Okay, I will reply to this with links for those films,too. I checked my Netflix queue for Signs and Wonders and mine is the same. I never noticed that. I located some links for Signs and Wonders and am in the process of using them. If it proves to be a valid version of the film I will let you know this link.

      Be aware that none of the links I have listed above are for streaming videos. All of these are links to save the movies in pieces so they can be knit back together by a utility when you have all the pieces. (None are torrents).

      Thanks for the Lucia link. I responded on my blog. So far I haven't found subtitles for it, but I did happen to run across a Worldcat entry for the film. You've probably already tried this, but I punched in my zip code and found a couple of college libraries within an hour or two that supposedly have Lucia on VHS tape. There may be a library near you. Here is the link: http://www.worldcat.org/title/lucia/oclc/003279102

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    2. Here are links for the ones you mentioned you needed subtitles. Like the other movies above you may still need to get English subtitle files from the first two sites I mentioned to match with the files in this links.

      Europa 51 - http://www.filestube.com/f8FnXd50ScykiPdR39qobN/Rossellini-Roberto-Europa-51.html#

      Voyage in Italy - http://scalisto.blogspot.com/2011/09/roberto-rossellini-viaggio-in-italia.html

      Mother India - http://www.moviespack.com/mother-india-1957.html (I don't think this was my source, but it appears to have working links)

      The Given Word (Keeper of Promises) - http://scalisto.blogspot.com/2009/09/anselmo-duarte-o-pagador-de-promessas.html

      Marketa Lazarova - http://scalisto.blogspot.com/2008/11/frantisek-vlcil-marketa-lazarov-1967.html

      Earth Entranced - http://scalisto.blogspot.com/2009/03/glauber-rocha-terra-em-transe-1967.html

      Tristana - http://www.divxturka.net/download/7400-tristana-1970-a.html

      Red Psalm - http://www.filestube.com/asIQG8BqtmhC7jkDHqqkwE/Red-Psalm.html

      Deewaar (The Wall) - I already replied in an earlier comment by mistake.

      The Nail of Brightness (Maynila: Sa mga kuko ng liwanag) - http://rundown-zoo.blogspot.com/2011/01/maynila-sa-kuko-ng-liwanag.html

      Mother and Son - http://avaxhome.ws/video/mat_i_syn_mother_and_son_aleksandr_sokurov.html

      or a Youtube version I found with English subtitles if you want to watch it streaming - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7QyctiEzXE

      note - images in both versions of Mother and Son are warped. Either they came from the same bad source, or the director decided to be "artistic" and warp the image.


      Signs and Wonders (It's a good link.) - http://www.divxturka.net/download/209450-signs-amp-wonders-2000-a.html

      Delete
  6. This is going to be interesting. I'm pretty much a nervous novice when it comes to things like this, so it looks like I might be spending some time with some tech support-y friends for this.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh, and thanks for all of the links. Here's hoping I can get this stuff to work without making my laptop explode.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome. Your hard drive might explode, depending on how much freespace you have. Those movies will be around 100 gig in total.

      In an earlier email where I sent you links for a single movie I advised against paying for a Rapidshare account because the seven pieces could be done one at a time in not that long a wait. With this many movies, and almost all of them Rapidshare links that may or may not disappear, I ended up buying a one month Rapidshare membership for $10. It allows you to do the pieces simultaneously. It ended up taking me 3-4 days to get all the pieces of the movies I found, as opposed to, I'm guesstimating, a month or more doing the pieces one at a time. If you do the same, the key thing is to remember to cancel the Rapidshare account before the end of the month or they will automatically re-up you. By the way, the non-Rapidshare links are very few and accounts do not have to be purchased for them.

      That same earlier email I sent gave you step by step instructions on how to get the Rapidshare pieces and then use HJSplit to knit them back together because those were ".001" files. As I mentioned in an earlier comment here, the ".rar" and ".7z" files can be knit together by Winrar, another free utility you can easily find. Just doubleclick on the part1 .rar file and when it asks what software you want to use for this, choose Winrar from the list. After that it will always pick Winrar for these files. You will be left with either a movie file or a folder containing the movie file and subtitles. You can then delete the individual pieces since they are no longer needed.

      In case you are interested, here are the links I mentioned for Too Early, Too Late and Deseret, which require buying a Filepost membership for a minimum of a month. I didn't do this for two reasons: I didn't consider it worth it for only two movies and I had a small suspicion that it might only tell me if the links were still good AFTER getting the membership, although I'm 95% sure they would be good since the page for the link piece still comes up. I'm letting you know about them just in case we never find any other way to get these two movies.

      Too Early, Too Late - http://www.worldscinema.com/2010/04/daniele-huillet-jean-marie-straub-trop.html

      Deseret - http://www.worldscinema.com/2011/10/james-benning-deseret-1995.html

      Delete
    2. Okay, something weird IS going on with your comments. I made a response to this last night that went into some detail on what you would need to get those pieces in the links and it's not here this morning.

      Delete
    3. I looked. I found a trio of comments in my spam folder. Evidently, Blogger reacts if you post a lot in the same place right away.

      Oh, those posts are now posted again.

      Delete
    4. Just like to throw in my own thank yous to Chip for all those links; even if only half of them are still good, you've definitely saved us a LOT of work.

      In the meantime, I'm uploading a 5-part file of Deseret on MediaFire; not sure how long it'll last or even if I can get it up in the first place, but I'm giving it a try. It's in ".001" filetype, so if you don't know how to combine those into a single file, check ehow.com or any answers site and download 7zip or HJSplit to actually do the job.

      Delete
    5. Alright, here's a link to the 5-part archive: http://www.mediafire.com/?0b18e11nues4o2l,14orjumdf7q6jqi,pqlqmjnukybr5gg,syafmc7i6a00fb7,25pxx0ihzoimpa8

      If it works, and/or doesn't work, just let me know and I'll see what I can do. This was my first time uploading a multi-part archive to share, so I wouldn't be surprised to find something's off, but it should be okay.

      Delete
    6. @Adolytsi - Thanks for posting on my blog, too. I would have seen this eventually here, but I definitely saw it sooner that way. I replied there, but I'll reply here, too.

      That worked perfectly. HJSplit put it to one file then Winrar opened the folder with the movie. Big thanks! Mediafire is great, too, because it allows for simultaneous downloads.

      Are there any movies from the 1,001 list you are still searching for? I had others I needed to track down for myself that Steve didn't need. I see from a comment that now appears that Utu was one of them you needed. I posted links for this movie in a comment above. It was pretty much the last one I found because it was so tough. No Fear No Die is one of the two I can't find, although I did find a link that requires buying a premium membership to the service to download it. I included that above, in case months go by and we still haven't found a better source for it. You didn't mention needing Lucia. Did you find it online or did you find a VHS copy?

      And all the links I posted pages for were good as of no more than a week ago because I used them for myself. One website I found a couple dozen of them on were actually from as far back as 2008, but the links were still good. You mentioned to Steve possibly setting up something here to post links for others. Would the 1,001 Movies blog club be a good place for that, do you think?

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    7. Actually, I had another thought on a consolidated place for the links. I have my Lists from Chip blog where I have the 1,001 Movies list posted, with the ones marked that are not available via Netflix - for the ones I have not seen only, though. I could do the research to update that list for the half that I have seen, then have a separate list of the "unavailable" ones. That could then be the basis for posting potential places to find them until such time they do become available on DVD/BD. What do you folks think?

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    8. I asked Steve for his list a while back, and since then I've run off that list for any hard to find ones; I didn't have any list myself since all the films I'd tried to locate up till then I'd managed to find. Of those on the list Steve gave me, I've tried locating only a few so far, and have had success except for Utu, Too Early Too Late, and Pasazerka. Any others I'm having trouble with, I'll mention either here, or on your consolidated page, which I think is a good idea, as long as people know that's the place to go to for help with the hard to find ones on the list.

      Btw, I started on your links today, and already found parts 5 and 6 of Hill 24 Doesn't Answer are down. The file can still be somewhat put together for a partial file of the movie, but obviously I'd rather have the whole thing, and I don't think a partial viewing would really count, per se. Any other broken ones, I'll reply here, or again on your page if you include the links there.

      Delete
    9. Yep--I found the same thing.

      I'd love to have a page set up for this--we can pass some information back and forth.

      Another possibility is to talk to Squish, who runs the 1001 Blog Club. I'm sure there are films he can't find, either, and having a sort of clearing house for all of us might be helpful to everyone pursuing this.

      Delete
    10. Ooo, how bout a wiki? Easy to set up, easy to add links and remove dead ones, and we can treat it like a public forum anyway.

      Delete
    11. That's a really good idea.

      I'm getting about one a month through WorldCat--I don't want to overload my librarian with requests, so I keep it to a minimum, and my local public library won't do WorldCat requests for me.

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    12. 1001movies.wikia.com is taken; wanna start a new one (under which name?), or just commandeer that one? The way I figured, we could add some info and maybe even links to reviews on each of the films; obviously not all at once, it would take time, but that's what a wiki is for, and this way it won't just be nothing but links to downloads.

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    13. I'm open for either. 1001films.wikia.com is available, as are 1001moviehelp.wikia.com and all1001.wikia.com.

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    14. Alright, I picked 1001films, just to get the site set up; I wanted something a little more easily found by anyone potentially searching for a wiki of the book, and to this end I was considering just using the existing 1001movies wiki, but oh well; I'd rather personally be in charge of it than worry about the owner finding out and deleting the entire thing.

      Wiki can be found here: http://1001films.wikia.com

      Any links to working copies of rare films, please add them to The Compendium; let's make it a one-stop shop for info. And spread the word to other 1001 blogs if you can. That means everyone. :)

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    15. @Adolytsi Thank you so much, it took ages to try and find Deseret and I am so grateful. Will try to make a torrent out of this

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  8. Oh,I did not know you have such heavy burden this month,Steve,otherwise I wouldn't pass the blogathon baton to you to add something extra,I hope you can handle it!!

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  9. Finally I found each movie except Kippur. Do you guys have any ideas where Kippur can be found? If you still looking for some movies let me know.

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  10. Mother India is current available on Vudu - a pay as you go service avaialble through the PS3. I believe the cost for the rental is only $2. I also have a once viewed copy of Vogage in Italy - the film was actually filmed in English however the version I have does include Korean subtitles.

    I am working through knocking out as many of the "Not Available on Netflix" titles as I can within the next month so I will keep you informed of what I find. Chip's 1001 wiki post has been a great help as well.

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    Replies
    1. The wiki has been great. You might want to talk to Chip about getting rights on it to help keep it updated. I make a couple of changes there a month, especially when I find something new.

      Delete