Coming in from the Cold
One man’s meat is another man’s poison. It’s funny how things have different meanings to different people. Take for example The Saragossa Manuscript. While Potocki’s 1814 novel is renown for being a painful headache for students across Poland, did you know that it is regarded as a pleasurable headache abroad? In fact, the story goes that until recent Wojciech Has’ 1965 feature film Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie was changing hands for over $100 on Amazon US where copies were highly sought after.
Stumbling upon this, UK cult film re-issuers Mr Bongo Films last year snapped up distribution rights and have begun to re-issue and actively promote the film. The results have been amazing, with Saragossa getting into Amazon UK’s top 10 selling foreign films and an official fansite being commissioned. If you don’t believe this, go to The Saragossa Manuscript Fansite. This is not the first time something like this has happened, as exactly the same thing took place a few years back when Polish Jazz records reached astronomical prices abroad, until re-issues came out to satisfy demand. So what’s the conclusion here? Well, it wasn’t Polish art’s fault that it was kept out of circulation in the past and these re-issues can only be great news for Polish art worldwide.
timjimuk
Newzar can be emailed to you directly
I’ve never heard of this. Is it well known? Is it any good?