Arrow Films

About time they had their own thread. They have a very exciting catalogue which they, sadly, seem determined to mess up.

Upcoming DVDs include 'Mon Oncle d'Amerique' (all ready released adequately by MK2) and 'Padre Padrone' and 'Il Ladro di Bambini' (supposedly non anamorphic - MOC where are you???) All this and no extras in sight!

Their transfer of Ashes and Diamonds is superb (I think I heard they licensed it from Criterion), but the disc is otherwise barebones.

The Italian disc of "Bambini" is also non-anamorphic, but it has 100 minutes of extras, including interviews and deleted scenes, along with an Amelio commentary (but only the movie has English subs, natch).

Yes, I saw it when I was last in Milan and didn't buy it because I thought the upcoming R2 was bound to be better

I am desperate to buy Fiorile (which for some reason includes extras...) but the only review I could find was pretty apathetic.

If only MK2 put bloody subs on their Taviani box...

Oh and I've just found a review of Padre Padrone, suffice to say I'm not best pleased...

(To be fair the MK2 DVD is far from perfect but at least they have made an effort...)

I wish MK2 were English sub friendly I would have loved that Taviani box.

As I said somewhere else I didn't hold much hope for Padre Padrone. Another typical Arrow release no doubt (I haven't read the review, need I?)

Thanks for that - I had no idea MK2 had produced some Taviani discs.

And since Italian with French subs holds no linguistic terrors for me, I'm going to order them.

Bizarrely, though, Alapage's prices make it cheaper to buy the three DVDs individually (at €14.99 apiece versus €55 the set). I can't see anything else you get for your extra ten euros aside from presumably a cardboard box - unless it actually contains four discs (i.e. plus MK2's La notte de San Lorenzo) instead of the advertised three - but MK2's site says it doesn't.

Not an especially big issue for me, as I only really want Kaos, but I thought I'd mention it.

In August... Histoires Extraordinaires (Spirits of the Dead) (1968). I wonder if it will contain Terence Stamp original English voice?

It may be worth the while as it's worse than I imagined. If you read French it's worth comparing it to a review of the MK2 DVD.

It's far from perfect but that DVD was produced in 2004. I'd have hoped that three years later Arrow could have matched or improved on that.

Interestingly, there's a review of a Danish DVD from 2007 that seems to suggest (I know not word of the language but can discern the word 'restored' amongst all that) that the pic quality is very good:

Maybe Scharphedin2 can translate for us but either way, no English subs! Shame they didn't port the transfer...

Even the Italian version of Toby Dammit has Tel doing his own English dialogue, so there's something seriously wrong if it doesn't.

Claude Chabrol Collection Vol. 2 in August.


DVD Times review of Mon Oncle d'Amérique.

DVD Times review of Claude Chabrol Collection Vol. 2.

It appears Arrow are releasing much more (17, including their already released discs) Fassbinder, possibly a cheap way to pick up a lot of his films though without knowing what sort of quality it does seem a bit of a risk.

wow, nice extras on the fassbinder release.

Reading the DVD Times reviews and thinking on the Wellspring vesions [including their extras here mostly repeated] I would assume the source prints are the same as those of R1. The advantage with the R2 is that the subs are in white and not the dreafully oversaturated yellow used by Wellspring.

Regarding 'mostly repeated' extras, are there any notable additions or omissions you noticed? I'm on the verge of picking these up (I'll have an overlap with the films Criterion released that are also included in the volume 2 set, but I don't mind that for the chance to pick up the other six relatively cheaply!)

I know the Merchant of Four Seasons had a commentary track in R1 that is absent from the R2 set.

There is also a sporadic commentary on the R1 PETRA VON KANT apparently missing from R2. The MERCHANT commentary is by Wim Wenders. This is the usual case. Most R1 commentaries are not put on R2 discs for legal reasons probably. I bought the R2 ALFREDO GARCIA and was dissapointed to find the commentary track [from R1] missing.

As to extras I would say: go for the R2 release. It has everything from the R1 discs mentioned above sans the commentaries and it is cheaper and it has white subs!!!!

I never managed to move on those OOP Wellspring titles so the first set appeals greatly to me, put my pre-order in last nite.

Can anyone confirm the above?

Yeah, what are the difference between the various versions of this film again?

Various retail sites list the Arrow Spirits of the Dead as having the French soundtrack, so it looks like you'll be deprived the pleasure of Terry's dulcet tones. Toby Dammit is regularly shown on late-night TV in Italy, and although it's been a while since I saw it, I'm sure that in that version he speaks/rants/declaims in English throughout while all around him speak Italian. There's an Italian DVD available (Tre passi nel delirio), but I haven't seen it.

Arrow have just re-released Olmi's The Tree of Wooden Clogs, and I'm wondering whether they have polished up the transfer on the previous UK release (from Nouveaux). Has anyone picked it up, perchance?

there still doesn't seem to be a definitive answer to this question.

is there anyone who owns this DVD who can confirm whether the english dialogue is used for the toby dammit segment?

cheers!

Arrow Films are set to release Europa Europa on July 21st in the UK.

The release features a recently recorded audio commentary with director Agnieszka Holland.