dvd / blu-ray thread (criterion, m.o.c., bfi)

[Bob511]

By "they" I meant like gods or fate and by "somehow" I meant like by killing him or stranding him on a magic moon-island far away from any sort of digital color correction that seems to get him so excited.

[emotional fascism]

Yeah, that's why I'm keeping my 30th Anniversary DVD; well, and the documentary is one of the greatest DVD extras ever. I'm real nervous about the Exorcist blu-ray

[Kevin McCallister]

What was Friedkin's role in The Exorcist re-release?
(I'm trying to figure out why all the Friedkin hate.)

The 1973 cut of The Exorcist has been out of print for a while now, with exception of the box set.
Which is a damn shame letmetellyou.

[Buddy Glass]

(I'm trying to figure out why all the Friedkin hate.)

I think it's more about what he did with the bluray transfer of The French Connection (horrible new blue color timing).

[Bob511]

An intentional digital diffusion of the chroma layer, which really affects a lot more than just blue in the color timing. For instance,

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1127075

[Buddy Glass]

Yuck. The reds look awful in that shot

[Kevin McCallister]

Oof. I understand your concerns.

[Buddy Glass]

On the other hand, To Live and Die in L.A. looks great, but maybe Friedkin didn't supervise that one

At any rate, I could give a shit about another release of The Exorcist while Sorcerer is still only available in awful pan-and-scan

[Kevin McCallister]

Odd, I was staring at The Sorcerer for a while today before tossing it in a box to be returned to the distributor. Yeah, looks like a very crummy DVD.

[super gas]

The Sorcerer is a great film, but yeah the DVD is a bit low-rent.

[unpredictable landlord]

we have heard rumor of a North American release in the future. Those prudent can wait - but for the less patient and adventurous - we recommend.

[belgavin]

Samson & Delilah got a blu-ray release about a month ago. Aussie region-free disc. I heartily recommend it

[manierisme]

ooh wee...

Woah, I only just read that this includes The Traveler, a great movie in it's own right as an "extra," awesome.

I really hope someone puts out a good quality Life And Nothing More one day, it's my favorite

[unpredictable landlord]

Samson & Delilah got a blu-ray release about a month ago. Aussie region-free disc. I heartily recommend it

yeah, i mentioned it about a month ago. supposedly a u.k. release is coming in june. as long as everything checks out okay, i'm guessing that'll be the preferred edition, since it'll probably be cheaper to get.

[unpredictable landlord]

StudioCanal Blu-ray Titles in September

On its Facebook page, Optimum Home Entertainment has revealed that it will release six titles on Blu-ray in September as part of the StudioCanal Collection: Le cercle rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970); Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, 1991), The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967), Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001), The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002) and The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949).

Edition details are still unknown, other than they will be presented in Blu-ray books.

Additionally, the studio has confirmed that Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (À bout de souffle), which only had been released in France and Germany in February, will also be available in the UK in September.

other than breathless, it sounds like they'll all be available in the u.s. as region a releases.

[Bob511]

it sounds like they'll all be available in the u.s. as region a releases.

Have they said anything to this effect?

Delicatessen certainly makes sense, since Lionsgate had the most recent R1 DVD, but only three of the previous StudioCanal BDs have made it over here so far, right?

[Ampersand]

really digging the third man/mullholland drive cover art. snazzy.

[unpredictable landlord]

ddd house has dropped the price of their kam & ronson bruce lee discs (the big boss, fist of fury, way of the dragon) by nearly $15 to 18.97 each. quality-wise, folks haven't exactly been doing cartwheels over these discs, but they seem to be a fairly sizeable upgrade over previous sd editions.

[unpredictable landlord]

it sounds like they'll all be available in the u.s. as region a releases.

Have they said anything to this effect?

no. it was just an assumption on my part based upon my recollection that, when making their previous announcements, they've made it pretty clear what would be showing up where. therefore, when this announcement came without specifics re: which titles were going where (except for the thing about breathless finally getting its uk release), i took that to mean that they'd be going out to all their territories.

[unpredictable landlord]

oh shjit...



from the blu-ray.com thread:

Russian giant Mosfilm has released Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev [sic] (Russian: Андрей Рублев) on Blu-ray as of April 2010. English subtitles are provided and the disc is Region ABC.

Note that this is the 186-minute domestic U.S.S.R. version and not the 205-minute version that is available on DVD in the USA from Criterion.

I found a Russian vendor that should ship Andrei Rublev to the USA:

http://www.kniga.ru/dvd/595811

I used Google Translate and created an account. Kinga.ru has three shipping options for international orders: Ground (2-3 weeks), Airmail (14 days) and EMS (Express Mail Service) (7 days). EMS, however costs 2088 RUR/71 USD so I chose Airmail, which is only 163 RUR/6 USD.

The total with Airmail to the USA was about 21.00 USD.

I had a tough time getting the payment processor (secure-assist.ru) web page to show up in Firefox, and I had to re-do the order about four times, creating four different orders in the process. but once I got in, the payment was verified (I was brave and used a Visa card), and it has even showed up unflagged on my online banking statement. I only paid for the one order, and I got an e-mail confirmation confirming that, so hopefully the other three will be removed from my Order History on Kinga.ru.

I have never ordered from anywhere in Russia before, and I have no idea what to expect from this transaction, so please realize that you order at your own risk.

This being said, hopefully I will receive my copy in two weeks or so and be able to post an update in triumph.

Shortest version is the best one according to Andrei Tarkovsky:
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=2609
"Nobody has ever cut anything from Andrei Rublov. Nobody except me. I made some cuts myself. In the first version the film was 3 hours 20 minutes long (192:00 PAL). In the second — 3 hours 15 minutes (187:12 PAL). I shortened the final version to 3 hours 6 minutes (178:34 PAL). I am convinced the latest version is the best, the most successful. And I only cut certain overly long scenes. The viewer doesn't even notice their absence. The cuts have in no way changed neither the subject matter nor what was for us important in the film. In other words, we removed overly long scenes which had no significance."

Screenshorts:
http://www.vobzor.com/datas/users/1/...125f38c900.png
http://www.vobzor.com/datas/users/1/...f6c5e2c1d6.png
http://www.vobzor.com/datas/users/1/...20062fb782.png
http://www.vobzor.com/datas/users/1/...82bbbde312.png

Discussion (in Russian):
http://www.vobzor.com/page.php?id=575

[ifear]

Marvellous news, though I personally will be waiting for an edition with native English subtitles; I can't imagine it'll be more than a couple of years down the line.

[OKterrific]

Red Circle is one of my favorites and I would double dip for it but the quality of the Criterion release combined with upscaling, I can actually live with it. pending a review of the Studio Canal thing of course.

[unpredictable landlord]

Marvellous news, though I personally will be waiting for an edition with native English subtitles; I can't imagine it'll be more than a couple of years down the line.

during the tarkovsky series at lacma, the guy who put together the program mentioned that the agreement for theatrical distribution w/ mosfilm was close to coming to an end, and that the future theatrical availability of tarkovsky's films was very much up in the air. i have no idea whether there's any correlation between this and the availability of his films on home video, though.

[ifear]

Hmm. Well, fingers crossed all round, then.

As an aside, it'd be nice to have an edition of Kin Dza Dza released in the West. I'm not hopeful, though.

[unpredictable landlord]

"from the horse's mouth" confirmation by kino that they're releasing steamboat bill, jr. on blu-ray:

Two Steamboat Bills (scene comparison) http://www.youtube.com/kinointernational Part of Kino's upcoming Buster Keaton DVD & Blu-ray

[unpredictable landlord]

Presenting his 4-hour reconstruction at a screening last night in Montreal, Schmidlin mentioned that TCM were "talking about" a December DVD release for his edit of Stroheim's "Greed." ... Schmidlin did seem to indicate it was just talks at this point and was nothing concrete, but let's hope TCM moves forward.

[Buddy Glass]

$21 shipped for Andrei Rublev seems like a great deal, and the rip I've got looks very nice. If that guy on CF.org successfully receives his copy from that etailer I'll probably order one.

[kylie minogue]

was waiting forever for a new batch of studiocanal blu-rays

will buy the third man yet again on another format

[emotional fascism]

that's a nice set of Studio Canal titles. I'll definitely get Red Circle, Delicatessen, and Mulholland Dr. (provided it's not a port of the horribly PAL HD DVD with the sound pitch issue).

[unpredictable landlord]

Q: Will Mulholland Drive also have a new transfer?

SC: Any release within the StudioCanal Collection will have a new transfer, as the maxim is to provide best picture and sound quality. The webpage will be updated in June/July. Until than we wont be able to name/ entitle the exact, final specs.