The Party and the Guests Blu-ray

Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. Your generosity touches me deeply. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance has become essential.

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

1) Our weekly Newsletter sent to your Inbox every Monday morning!
2) Patron-only Silent Auctions - so far over 30 Out-of-Print titles have moved to deserved, appreciative, hands!
3) Access to over 20,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. Thank you very much.

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka 'A Report on the Party and the Guests' or 'The Party and the Guests')

Directed by Jan Nemec
Czechoslovakia 1966

A group of friends on an afternoon picnic are accosted by mysterious authority figures and compelled to join a lavish banquet in the woods. Jan Nemec’s surreal and sinister fable is a barbed satire of authoritarianism and conformity, as each of the ‘guests’ find their place among the revellers, succumbing to the will of their menacing hosts.

Distinguished by being ‘banned forever’ by Czech authorities, Nemec’s disquieting film was considered the most politically dangerous film made during the short flowering of Czechoslovak cinema in the 1960's.

Our edition of The Party and the Guests also contains Jirí Trnka's renowned animated short film The Hand (1965), another surreal and savage indictment of totalitarianism (again banned by Czech authorities), making its world premiere on Blu-ray.

***

In Jan Nmecs surreal fable, a picnic is rudely transformed into a lesson in political hierarchy when a handful of mysterious authority figures show up. This allegory about oppression and conformity was banned in its home country but became an international success after it premiered at the New York Film Festival.

Posters

Theatrical Release: December 30th, 1966

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Second Run - Region 0 - PAL vs. Second Run - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover
		Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Second Run - Region 0 - PAL	Second Run - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:07:34 (4% PAL Speedup)	1:10:51.708
Video	1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.63 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1.37:1 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 24,896,693,891 bytes Feature: 21,065,048,064 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.95 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate DVD:
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	Czech (Dolby Digital mono)	LPCM Audio Czech 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit Commentaries: Dolby Digital Audio English 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps / DN -27dB Dolby Digital Audio English 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps / DN -27dB
Subtitles	English, None	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Second Run DVD Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Featurette: An Appreciation by Peter Hames (12:09) • Image Gallery • 20-page liner notes booklet with photos and essay by Michael Brooke DVD Release Date: March 5th, 2007 Transparent Keep Case Chapters: 10	Release Information: Studio: Second Run 1.37:1 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 24,896,693,891 bytes Feature: 21,065,048,064 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.95 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • The Hand (Ruka, 1965): Jirí Trnka's renowned animated film presented from a new HD restoration and for the first time ever on Blu-ray. (18:35) • Audio commentary by author Jonathan Owen. • Projection Booth audio commentary with film historians Mike White, Samm Deighan and Kat Ellinger. • A filmed appreciation by Peter Hames (12:41) • 24-page booklet featuring Michael Brooke's substantial essay on the film. Blu-ray Release Date: January 31st, 2022 Transparent Blu-ray Case Chapters 12

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Second Run Blu-ray (January 2022): Second Run have transferred Jan Nemec's The Party and the Guests to Blu-ray. It is cited - "The Party and the Guests (O slavnosti a hostech, 1966) presented from an HD transfer of the new 4K restoration by the Czech National Film Archive." It is stated that "Digital restoration of this film funded from the donation of Mrs. Milada Kuaerova and Mr. Eduard Kudera was carried out by Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in collaboration with the Nlarodnf filmovy archiv, Prague and the Czech Film Fund in UPP and Soundsquare. The sources for the digitization were the original image negative and the sound negative. Film materials are preserved by the Narodni filmovy archly, Prague. The restoration was done in 2021".

This is a significant bump over Second Run's own 2007 PAL DVD transfer. This 2021 restoration looks very appealing. Contrast and detail advance - the image is brighter and may lose a sliver of information off the right edge of the frame but is in the proper 1.37:1 aspect ratio. The matched captures should give you a good idea of the HD presentation's superiority.

NOTE: We have added 28 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Second Run use a linear PCM mono track (16-bit) in the original Czech language. The Party and the Guests has few aggressive moments but a wonderful score by Karel Mares (Black Peter, The Firemen's Ball), with light waltz music with a jazzy feel - sounding crisper than the DVD's lossy audio with more consistent audible dialogue in the uncompressed transfer. Second Run offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Second Run Blu-ray offers a two commentaries. The first by Jonathan Owen (author of Avant-garde to New Wave: Czechoslovak Cinema, Surrealism and the Sixties.) He discusses how The Party and the Guests is the most provocative and controversial film of the Czech New Wave and the early impressionist sensibilities as found in Jean Renoir's 1936 Day in the Country. He is very thorough. The second commentary is by the 'Projection Booth' with film historians Mike White, Samm Deighan and Kat Ellinger and they cover a range of topics associated with the film including it being banned in 1973. Both are excellent with Owen's being more formal and academic. Also included is Jirí Trnka's renowned 18-minute animated film The Hand (Ruka, 1965) described on IMDb as "A delicate and secluded ceramist sees his orderly life turn upside down, when a gigantic hand in a white glove invades his space, demanding that a sculpture of itself is made. When will the hand's obstinate demands stop?". Also included are the dozen-minute filmed appreciation by Peter Hames and a 24-page booklet featuring Michael Brooke's substantial essay on the film - both found on their 2007 DVD.

Jan Nemec's The Party and the Guests is a great film to embrace. Second Run have treated us to another masterpiece of the Czech New Wave in 1080P with this astute political satire on Communism/Socialism. There are also elements defining the human condition with some surrealistic curiosities. A very unique, Buñuel-ian, film that we strongly recommend. Second Run's Blu-ray from the 2021 restoration is a huge update in a/v and has valuable extras including two commentaries and more. Absolutely recommended!