If you're living in North America you can buy DIE HEIMAT for $149.95 or DIE ZWEITE HEIMAT for $249.95 on VHS from Facets video,1517 Fullerton Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60614 . For further information, contact Milos Stehlik or Catherine Foley at 1-800-331-6197 or (312) 281-9075 or e-mail.

Their press-release says:

"Longest Film in History Debuts on Video January 8, 1997

Edgar Reitz's Second Heimat - Chronicle of a Generation -
the longest movie ever produced - is a mesmerizing, 26-hour chronicle of a generation from the director of Heimat. Second Heimat focuses on the experiences of a young classical musician and composer named Hermann Simon who moves from his small village to Munich to find a new life and, a second home.

Second Heimat alternates between black and white and color as it encompasses the turbulence of the 1960's: "Reitz's feeling for period and milieu are so good and his characters so rich and appealing one feels one could climb inside this movie and stay a long, long while" (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader).

Called "ambitious," "mesmerizing," "a grand wallow of a movie experience," "memorable," "heartbreaking," "haunting," and consistently praised as a masterpiece, The Second Heimat "forms, with is predecessor Heimat a magnificent, nearly unprecedented "film novel": a portrait of Germany in the 20th Century with few equals in either film or literature... That Reitz is able to sustain growth and tension, inexorable flow and translucent clarity through the entire vast length, and hold audiences rapt... seems something of a miracle. The Heimat films are epic in scope, but also personal and semi-autobiographical, a formidable mix of intimacy and power... Anyone who sees this great, overflowing film novel will enter into a whole breathing, pulsing world: rich, teeming and unforgettable, the movie experience of a lifetime." (Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune)

Second Heimat is released on 13 cassettes, in a slipcase. Retail price of Second Heimat is $249.95.

Second Heimat joins the Facets Video release of Heimat, Edgar Reitz's 16-hour feature which is a massive chronicle of life in Germany, from 1919 to 1982, as reflected in the varied fortunes of the members of one family. Retail price of Heimat is $149.95."

The two together are not $399.90 but $349.95 plus shipping. You can also rent it from Facets.

Facets wrote us:

"(...) the source material for both Heimat and Second Heimat. The signal on the PAL Betacam original English subtitled German master had unfortunately degenerated and we were unable to make an NTSC conversion. This led to a kind of desperate search for an alternate source; the BBC was very un-helpful and would not lend their archival copy, and finally, as a last resort, WGBH rescued the project. Our masters are copies of the 1 inch NTSC master. The Second Heimat source material is the original German digital D2 PAL master, converted to Betacam SP NTSC..."

In Europe AbsolutMedien released both Die Heimat and Die Zweite Heimat on VHS (without subtitles).
http://www.absolutmedien.de
absolut.medien@snafu.de

Heimat costs DM 199,80
DIE ZWEITE HEIMAT DM 299,80
(taxes excluded)
If you order both it is DM 499,60 and you get the 'Drehort Heimat' book as a bonus. Pay with Amex, Master/Euro, Visa (or German banking methods). Delivery will take probably about a week. It is a PAL release from Digi-Beta to VHS.

HEIMAT - Eine Chronik in Bildern und elf Teilen 5 VHS

1) FERNWEH (1919 - 1928), 119 Min. + DIE MITTE DER WELT (1928 - 1933), 90 Min.
2) WEIHNACHT WIE NOCH NIE (1935), 58 Min. + REICHSH…HENSTRASSE (1938), 58 Min. + AUF UND DAVON UND ZUR†CK (1938 - 1939), 58 Min.
3) HEIMATFRONT (1943), 58 Min. + DIE LIEBE DER SOLDATEN (1944) + DER AMERIKANER (1945 - 1947)
4) HERM€NNCHEN (1955 - 1956), 138 Min. + DIE STOLZEN JAHRE (1967), 82 Min.
5) DAS FEST DER LEBENDEN UND DER TOTEN (1982), 100 Min. + Dokumentation

DIE ZWEITE HEIMAT - Chronik einer Jugend in 13 Filmen 7 VHS

1) DIE ZEIT DER ERSTEN LIEDER (1960), 119 Min. + ZWEI FREMDE AUGEN (1960/61), 115 Min.
2) EIFERSUCHT UND STOLZ (1961), 115 Min. + ANSGARS TOD (1961/62), 100 Min.
3) DAS SPIEL MIT DER FREIHEIT (1962), 119 Min. + KENNEDYS KINDER (1963), 107 Min.
4) WEIHNACHTSW…LFE (1963), 110 Min. + DIE HOCHZEIT (1964), 119 Min.
5) DIE EWIGE TOCHTER (1965), 118 Min. + DAS ENDE DER ZUKUNFT (1966), 132 Min.
6) ZEIT DES SCHWEIGENS (1967/68), 120 Min. + DIE ZEIT DER VIELEN WORTE (1968/69), 121 Min.
7) KUNST ODER LEBEN (1970), 115 Min.

There is a 22 minute long interview with Edgar Reitz on tape 5 of the Heimat serie. Perhaps the same as we can see on-line at http://www.heimat.net in realvideo? (please someone confirm). On the tapecovers there are long content discriptions and a lot of information inside and outside the cover. There is no extra booklet. I have received the covers by mail and they look very good.

Thomas Duncker bought the tapes from Absolut Medien and reports: "Now, after having watched the first DZH tape ("Die Zeit der ersten Lieder" + "Zwei fremde Augen") from Absolutmedien it's clear to me that they obtained their video copy from WDR, because the WDR logo keeps popping up between episodes. What's more, WDR apparently aired each original episode in two parts, and that is how they appear on the tapes too. So about halfway into say "Zwei fremde Augen" (actually while Clarissa sings the song at the first get together at Fuchsbau) the picture freezes and the end titles roll. Then the intro and "2: Zwei fremde Augen" and the episode continues at the same scene. So WDR turned the 13 part series into 26 parts and AbsolutMedien kept this version with no editing whatsoever. Hmmm... Not that I suspect that anything is missing, but you get a lot of unintentional breaks. It puzzles me that AbsolutMedien didn't make sure that the episodes were in the original form before they had all these copies made and packed. It's not such a big deal, but I wasn't expecting it."

About PAL and NTSC
In general you can not watch the PAL tapes (from Europe) with ordinary US equipment. The other way round it is often possible with new equipment. Conversion to a PAL (or NTSC) recording is possible but will be expensive and will give a considerable loss in quality.

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