Spiklenci slasti [Conspirators of Pleasure] ◾︎ Jan Švankmajer ◾︎ 1996

Columbia Video

Reviewed by dvdfreak

Last modified on Friday 20th March 2020, 12:19:48 AM

Česká verze / Return to index

Label: Columbia Video (Japan)

Region: 2

RCE protection: No

Copyright protection system: None

Disc type: DVD5 (the data occupy 4.27 GB)

Playback time (hh:mm:ss.frames): 1:26:27.10

Video: NTSC

Aspect ratio: 1.32:1 non-anamorphic

Bitrate (min / avg / max): 5.45 / 6.01 / 6.43 Mbps

Audio:

Czech* Dolby Digital 2.0 / 384 kbps

Subtitles:

None

Menus available in:

Japanese

Special features:

Trailer (1:10)
"Art Animation" trailers
- "Alice" (1:03, in English with burnt-in Japanese subtitles)
- "Anthology of Short Films by Jan Švankmajer" (0:31)
- "Faust" (0:48)
- "Conspirators of Pleasure" (0:52)
- "The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb" (1:43, in English)

Notes:

Not much to say about these two (the second being the below Kino release). This one features progressive transfer, while the Kino version suffers from nasty fieldblending artefacts, so that's 1 point for Columbia. On the other hand, Columbia's opening title sequence has got all the naughty bits obscured (as can be seen in the picture below), so that's 1 point for Kino.

OVERALL: Draw :-D
(Or choose what's important for you.)

*there's no dialogue in this film, however, there are a few places where you can hear e.g. TV news in the background, and these are in Czech

SPI Video

Reviewed by dvdfreak

Last modified on Friday 20th March 2020, 12:19:48 AM

Česká verze / Return to index

Label: SPI Video (Poland)

Region: 2

RCE protection: No

Copyright protection system: None

Disc type: DVD5 (the data occupy 4.37 GB)

Playback time (hh:mm:ss.frames): 1:22:44.01

Video: PAL

Aspect ratio: 1.31:1 non-anamorphic

Bitrate (min / avg / max): 5.96 / 7.00 / 7.96 Mbps

Audio:

Czech* Dolby Surround / 192 kbps

Subtitles:

Polish**

Menus available in:

Polish

Special features:

DVD catalogue (70 pages, in Polish)

*there's no dialogue in this film, however, there are a few places where you can hear e.g. TV news in the background, and these are in Czech
**the subtitle stream's got just one entry - the translation of the film title

Moskwood Media

Reviewed by dvdfreak

Last modified on Friday 20th March 2020, 12:19:48 AM

Česká verze / Return to index

Label: Moskwood Media (The Netherlands)

Region: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6

RCE protection: No

Copyright protection system: None

Disc type: DVD9 (the data occupy 6.03 GB)

Playback time (hh:mm:ss.frames): 1:22:42.00

Video: PAL

Aspect ratio: 1.31:1 non-anamorphic

Bitrate (min / avg / max): 5.25 / 8.91 / 10.00 Mbps

Audio:

Czech* Dolby Digital 2.0 / 224 kbps

Subtitles:

Dutch, German, English, French, Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese, Greek, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Polish,
Slovenian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Hungarian & Maltese**

Menus available in:

English

Special features:

Short film "Žvahlav aneb Šatičky Slaměného Huberta"
("Jabberwocky," 13:20, in Czech & English with optional English subtitles)

*there's no dialogue in this film, however, there are a few places where you can hear e.g. TV news in the background, and these are in Czech
**this sure put a smile on my face:

because, as I already mentioned, there's no dialogue in the film. The following is a sample of the only entry each subtitle stream's got:

Athanor

Reviewed by dvdfreak

Last modified on Friday 20th March 2020, 12:19:47 AM

Česká verze / Return to index

Label: Athanor (Czech Republic)

Region: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8

RCE protection: No

Copyright protection system: None

Disc type: DVD5 (the data occupy 3.46 GB)

Playback time (hh:mm:ss.frames): 1:22:56.15

Video: PAL

Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 non-anamorphic

Bitrate (min / avg / max): 0.24 / 4.99 / 9.37 Mbps

Audio:

Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 / 448 kbps

Subtitles:

English*

Menus available in:

Czech & English

Special features:

Photogallery (0:57, 19 stills)
Poster (0:30)
"New Eroticism" (12 pages, in Czech & English)
Director's introduction (2 pages, in Czech & English)
Theme (3 pages, in Czech & English)
Synopsis (2, resp. 3 pages, in Czech & English)
DVD-ROM features
- Hi-res poster
- "New Eroticism" (PDF, 5, resp. 6 pages, in Czech & English)
- Director's introduction (PDF, 1 page, in Czech & English)
- Theme (PDF, 2 pages, in Czech & English)
- Synopsis (PDF, 1, resp. 2 pages, in Czech & English)

Notes:

Only available in "The Films of Jan Švankmajer" 6-disc set,
together with:

"Něco z Alenky" ("Alice")
"Lekce Faust" ("Faust")
"Otesánek" ("Little Otik")
"Šílení" ("Lunacy")
"Přežít svůj život" ("Surviving Life")

*the subtitles are enabled by default when you choose
the English menu, but contain only two entries:

1
00:00:49,527 --> 00:00:54,078
CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE

2
00:07:36,487 --> 00:07:38,603
Sunday

Athanor / Blu-ray

Reviewed by dvdfreak

Last modified on Friday 20th March 2020, 12:19:47 AM

Česká verze / Return to index

Label: Athanor (Czech Republic)

Region: A, B & C (?)

RCE protection: n/a

Copyright protection system: AACS

Disc type: BD25 (the data occupy 17.84 GB)

Playback time (hh:mm:ss.frames): 1:26:23.23

Video: MPEG-4 AVC, 1080p24/1.001

Aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Bitrate (min / avg / max): 0.00 / 24.92 / 43.92 Mbps

Audio:

Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 / 640 kbps

Subtitles:

English*

Menus available in:

Czech & English

Special features:

Photogallery (0:57, 19 stills)
Poster (0:35)**
"New Eroticism" (12 pages, in Czech & English)
Director's introduction (2 pages, in Czech & English)
Theme (3 pages, in Czech & English)
Synopsis (2 pages, in Czech & English)

(Unless noted otherwise, all extras are MPEG-4 AVC, 1080p24/1.001.)

Notes:

Only available in "The Films of Jan Švankmajer" 7-disc set, together with:

"Něco z Alenky" ("Alice")
"Lekce Faust" ("Faust")
"Otesánek" ("Little Otik")
"Šílení" ("Lunacy")
"Přežít svůj život" ("Surviving Life")
"Hmyz" ("Insect")

This Blu-ray collection was one of the perks for the supporters of Švankmajer's Indiegogo campaign intended for co-financing his ultimate film, "Hmyz" ("Insect"), and it's not commercially available at the time of this writing.

I suspect my impressions of these Blu-rays are going to be somewhat repetitive, meaning PQ excellent, pity about the lossy (but otherwise flawless) audio...

To see the screenshots in glorious

, click here.

*the subtitles are enabled by default when you choose
the English menu, but contain only two entries:

1
00:00:51,385 --> 00:00:56,139
CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE

2
00:07:55,725 --> 00:07:57,936
Sunday

**I failed to locate the hi-res version of the poster advertised in the clip:

Česká verze / Return to index

Mouse over the links to see the other version(s) - requires JavaScript.

Columbia Video | SPI Video | Moskwood Media | Athanor | Athanor / Blu-ray

Columbia Video | SPI Video | Moskwood Media | Athanor | Athanor / Blu-ray

Columbia Video | SPI Video | Moskwood Media | Athanor | Athanor / Blu-ray

Columbia Video | SPI Video | Moskwood Media | Athanor | Athanor / Blu-ray

Columbia Video | SPI Video | Moskwood Media | Athanor | Athanor / Blu-ray

Columbia Video | SPI Video | Moskwood Media | Athanor | Athanor / Blu-ray

Columbia Video | SPI Video | Moskwood Media | Athanor | Athanor / Blu-ray

Columbia Video | SPI Video | Moskwood Media | Athanor | Athanor / Blu-ray

Columbia Video | SPI Video | Moskwood Media | Athanor | Athanor / Blu-ray

Columbia Video | SPI Video | Moskwood Media | Athanor | Athanor / Blu-ray

Columbia Video | SPI Video | Moskwood Media | Athanor | Athanor / Blu-ray