Paganini

Details

This listing is for the standard edition Blu-ray. The limited edition slipcover (designed by Richard Hilliard) was limited to 3,000 units and is sold out. The two versions are identical, aside from the slipcover.

Welcome Vinegar Syndrome Labs (VSL) to the VS Sub-Label family! As with each of our sub-labels we are hoping to expand and defy expectations with the diversity of films we restore and release. As the name implies, VSL will serve as a kind of testing area for releasing genres and eras of film that one might not immediately expect to come from VS. The ultimate objective of VSL will be to see if these types of films will find an audience, and if so, pursue and release more of them…and even if not, still serve as a means of restoring more of the weird, rare, and unusual movies you might not expect from Vinegar Syndrome.

Niccolò Paganini was a legend in his time; a master violinist and renowned composer who brought new depth and complexity to the art of music. But in his private life Paganini was a brute and a womanizer who used his talents to seduce and manipulate beautiful women, driving himself, his young son, and devoted wife to the brink of madness.

A mesmerizing biography of the infamous composer as imagined through the eyes of equally notorious actor and director Klaus Kinski (Aguirre, the Wrath of God), PAGANINI explores the violinist's descent into derangement and carnal mayhem. Moving between the abstract, the beautiful, and the erotic, Kinski distills Paganini's life into a consuming cinematic fever dream as photographed by Pier Luigi Santi (Weapons of Death). Vinegar Syndrome Labs is excited to offer the Blu-ray debut of Kinski's sole feature film directing effort, newly restored in 2K from its 35mm original camera negative and loaded with an abundance of fascinating behind-the-scenes footage along with a selection of new interviews with cast and crew, detailing the untold and often harrowing story of how this unique outlier in Italian genre cinema came to be.

directed by: Klaus Kinski
starring: Klaus Kinski, Debora Caprioglio, Nikolai Kinski, Dalila Di Lazzaro, Marcel Marceau
1989 / 84 min / 1.66:1 / English & Italian DTS-HD Master Audio Mono

Additional info:

• Region Free Blu-ray
• Newly scanned and restored in 2K from its 35mm original camera negative
• Presented in its original Italian language mono soundtrack with newly-translated English subtitles, as well as its English language dub soundtrack
• Brand new commentary track with film historians Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth
• My Life with Kinski (16 min) - an audio interview with actress Debora Caprioglio
• The Devil's Left Hand (30 min) - an interview with music consultant / violinist Salvatore Accardo
• The Voice of Madness (26 min) - an interview with soundman Luciano Muratori
• Aiming at the Director (29 min) - an interview with unit manager Stefano Spadoni
• How to Kill a Producer (30 min) - an interview with film historian Eugenio Ercolani
• Paganini - 95-minute English language director's cut (sourced from tape)
• Behind-the-scenes footage (sourced from tape, partially translated, 52 min)
• Klaus Kinski press conference from Cannes 1988 (5 min) • English theatrical trailer
• English opening titles and end credits
• Reversible sleeve artwork
• Newly-translated English subtitles