Germany’s Subkultur Entertainment made quite the announcement today – their giving Bloody Friday a 4K restoration using the regular negatives! Eurocrime fans rejoice!
For those completely thrown off by what I’m talking about, here’s a little backstory. Bloody Friday is a German crime film from 1972 based on a true crime. Here’s the details of what happened…
August 4, 1971: Two bank robbers stormed a bank, taking 18 hostages and demanded 2 Million Deutsche Mark in ransom. As word spread, nearly 5,000 bystanders had gathered in front of the bank to catch a glimpse of the savage stand-off. By nightfall, after tense negotiations, police provided the ransom and getaway car. The bandits stormed out of the the bank with a 19-year-old hostage, ready to flee the scene…
This nerve-shattering event marked the first hostage-taking emergency in Germany after World War 2.
And here’s the story behind the film…
Bloody Friday, was released one year after the actual event and was helmed by director Rolf Olsen, (The Last Ride To Santa Cruz, When Night Falls On The Reeperbahn) one of the leading German genre filmmakers of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Bloody Friday is widely considered by Euro-crime cinephiles, as his crowning achievement and one of the greatest Krimi films of its era. This Italian-German co-production stars Raimund Harmstorf, Amadeus August and Gianni Macchia. The soundtrack was composed by Euro-soundtrack fave Francesco De Masi.
So what’s the deal with the Blu-ray release? Well Subkultur launched a Kickstarter back in 2015 to restore Bloody Friday and make it Subkultur’s first release in the American market. The company has been around for the last 5 years or so releasing great work in Germany (check out my Switchblade Sisters review!). With their American debut they wanted to make a huge impression so why not restore Bloody Friday?
The initial plan was a 2k restoration in an attempt to save the film from being lost to time. The original negatives have been known to be in terrible shape so the plan was to use 35mm Kodak positive prints. Despite not being able to use the negative Subkulutr was confident they could deliver on something wonderful. In addition to the restoration the planned release was to be packed with special features including the English dub and the original German language track with English subs. The great Elijah Drenner is producing the release.
All of this was considered great news by many. I certainly considered it great news and have eagerly been awaiting this release, not only for the movie, but because more American physical media lovers need a little Subkultur in their life. Updates on the progress had come to a crawl, however, with the last one being in March of this year, I believe. That all changed this morning when Subkultur made this very exciting announcement…
So this is our last and probably biggest surprise: BLOODY FRIDAY will receive a complete second restoration based on a 4k scan of the original negative!
Woah! There’s a lot more details and you can find them at Subkultur’s Kickstarter page, but the key take away is they have the negatives and they are in rough shape, but they can be restored! The header picture is a sample, although not a 100% finished version, but it still looks damn good!
The plan is for the release to be available December 16, 2016, but that could still change. Whatever the case may be, Subkultur is poised to make an American splash!
