Filling the gap(s). The new British labels.

So, if Artificial Eye and Tartan genuinely are facing problems and a possible decline in the quality of films they distribute, who's filling their shoes?

The newest of these companies is Mr Bongo Films, a music label that has branched into film. They describe their ethos as 'digging up lost classics from across the world.' Sounds nice and ambitious and their initial releases are exactly that. Filling the gaps is precisely what they are doing, with each release so far having a big auteur name to sell it.


Available now are The Adversary (Satyajit Ray), Story of a Love Affair (Antonioni) and I Am Cuba (Kalatazov). The films announced are equally pedigreed; Identification of a Woman, L'Avventura (Antonioni), Saragosa Manuscript (Has) and Black God White Devil (Rocha). Where labels like Artificial Eye and Tartan have largely shied away from canonical releases recently, focusing on contemporary films, it is pleasing to have a label so intent on plugging the holes that desperately need to be plugged. Considering the severe lack of Ray, Antonioni and Cinema Novo in the UK, releases like these are gratefully received.

www.mrbongo.com


Another ambitious world-cinema label that has emerged is Soda pictures. Soda seem to be concerned primarily with contemporary cinema (big name auteurs again) and thank God, because nobody was picking up these films before they came along. Recent releases include Close-Up, which was previously only available from Facets in one of the worst transfers ever produced (Facets really are Satanic, they go out of their way to make their films look like shit). There is also the R2 debut of Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Other recent releases include the extremely welcome Klimt, After Life (Koreeda), and Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9, giving those of us who don't live near a major art gallery a chance to see some of his much talked about work. Another example of a label releasing films from under-represented filmmakers. The fact that Ruiz doesn't have more films available is mind-boggling and it's infuriating to think that if a label like this didn't exist, Klimt would probably go unreleased for a stupid lenght of time.

www.sodapictures.com