Good news…not that it's what you'd call unexpected: the new Second Run DVD of Frantisek Vlacil's magnificent The Valley of the Bees is as spiffy and beautifully produced as pretty much everything else that the great U.K.-based label puts out. It walks all over the domestic Facets disc, for sure. I get into it more in today's Foreign Region DVD Report, at The Auteurs' Notebook. But you probably knew that.
Why isn’t Vlacil a legend?
Both “Marketa Lazarova” and “Valley of the Bees” are extraordinary – why isn’t he better regarded?
I see Second Sight have another of his films on the release slate, too…