Artificial Eye

Rich Malloy · **Posted:** Thu Jan 29, 2009 6:01 pm

Otis, next month Kino is releasing what appear to be new transfers and special editions for "HAPPY TOGETHER" and "FALLEN ANGELS".

I can't find it at the moment, but I swear I recall Kino announcing that "FALLEN ANGELS" would be its first blu-ray release. Now it appears that only an SD version of "FA" is being released (along with the SD "HAPPY TOGETHER"). Does anyone else recall the blu-ray announcement? Still in the offing?

As for "CHUNGKING EXPRESS", it's my understanding that AE has released it on blu-ray this week - reported as all-region by AsianBlu-RayGuide.com - but I've yet to see any reviews. I'd be interested to know how it rates against Criterion's.

otis · **Joined:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 11:43 am

Thanks, Michael and Rich. Guess I'll wait a while and see what transpires...

Particle Zoo · **Posted:** Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:14 am

I watched the Blu Ray of 'Ashes of Time' last night, I've never seen it before, so I have nothing to compare it too.
I was confused by the plot, but captivated by the sometimes beautiful, sometimes downright odd images.
It's not the best transfer, by any means, but it looks as though it's steller compared to the old DVD releases.

peerpee · **Joined:** Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm

Technically, I thought the AE Blu-ray of ASHES OF TIME REDUX looked surprisingly great. There are some extremely beautiful detailed moving shots of reflections/light which really shine on this format.

carax09 · **Posted:** Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:57 am

I'm with you, peerpee. I found the blu-ray image to be very lovely--almost painterly. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that my unmodified Region-A Samsung BD-P1500 played the special features without a hitch.

What A Disgrace · **Joined:** Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:34 pm

They seem to be re-releasing Damnation and Werckmeister Harmonies; as well as The Man From London, as well as a Bela Tarr Collection which will probably contain all three films, on April 6. I hope the other titles will be remastered.

Bela Tarr Collection

Awesome Welles · **Joined:** Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:02 am **Location:** London

I emailed them a while back about whether they might look at making Mihaly Vig's music available as a CD special feature and they said it was something they were looking at for a future Tarr release, something I thought might eventually appear in this boxset but with only 3 discs it isn't looking hopeful. A real shame.

miless · **Joined:** Sat Apr 01, 2006 9:45 pm

If they're re-releasing Werckmeister and Damnation, does that mean a new transfer of Werckmeister? I would love that film in an anamorphic 1.66.

manicsounds · **Posted:** Tue Feb 03, 2009 10:05 pm

DVD Times has a review of the new "Happy Together", which has the Buenos Aires documentary, but no new extras, but a significant upgrade in picture quality.

Now if we can get news on Chungking Express, I might have to go for the boxset....

Rich Malloy · **Posted:** Wed Feb 04, 2009 9:59 am

manicsounds wrote:

DVD Times has a review of the new "Happy Together", which has the Buenos Aires documentary, but no new extras, but a significant upgrade in picture quality.

Is it simple arithmetic to conclude that Kino's upcoming "HAPPY TOGETHER" release will be their usual, improperly preconverted PAL>NTSC, stair-stepping ghost-fest, or have they suddenly gotten their scat together?

The Kino release is at least a month away, and I'd hate to put off finally seeing a decent presentation of this film simply to confirm a foregone conclusion.

MichaelB · **Joined:** Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm **Location:** Worthing

Rich Malloy wrote:

Is it simple arithmetic to conclude that Kino's upcoming "HAPPY TOGETHER" release will be their usual, improperly preconverted PAL>NTSC, stair-stepping ghost-fest, or have they suddenly gotten their scat together?

Depends on the source - if the master was HD (which is highly probable given when the new transfer was made), it should convert directly to NTSC without any side-effects. But I doubt there's any way of getting reliable information about this prior to the release itself.

Cash Flagg · **Joined:** Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:15 pm

From DVD Times:

Quote:

Continuing in its tradition for releasing the very best of world cinema, Artificial Eye is pleased to announce the acquisition of several classic titles to enhance its home entertainment offering.

To coincide with the theatrical release of the remarkable The Beaches of Agnes, Artificial Eye has acquired the Films of Agnes Varda DVD Collection including: Cléo From 5 To 7, Vagabond, and Jacquot de Nantes .

To celebrate Michael Haneke’s eagerly awaited new film, The White Ribbon, Artificial Eye has added to its already impressive Haneke catalogue with Funny Games, Benny’s Video, The Seventh Continent and 71 Fragments Of A Chronology of Chance.

Also acquired for DVD is the Early Masterpieces by Ingmar Bergman collection, including: Dreams, The Naked Light (Sawdust and Tinsel), A Ship Bound for India, So Close To Life, It Rains On Our Love and the documentaries The Women and Bergman, and The Men and Bergman.

Together with these sought after collections, rights have also been acquired for Nicolas Philibert’s acclaimed documentaries Être et Avoir and Return To Normandy, and René Allio’s unique and original I, Pierre Rivierre.

The company is also delighted to announce the UK theatrical acquisitions of The Beaches of Agnes; the acclaimed Satyajit Ray Award-winning Mid-August Lunch; the vivid and cinematic Birdwatchers; and winner of the FIPRESCI Prize I Am Going To Explode (Voy a Explotar).

domino harvey · **Joined:** Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Quote:

Also acquired for DVD is the Early Masterpieces by Ingmar Bergman collection, including: Dreams, The Naked Light (Sawdust and Tinsel), A Ship Bound for India, So Close To Life, It Rains On Our Love and the documentaries The Women and Bergman, and The Men and Bergman.

WOW, that's like nearly every Bergman film missing from my collection! =D>

Zazou dans le Metro · **Posted:** Fri Feb 06, 2009 4:30 am

domino harvey wrote:

Quote:

Also acquired for DVD is the Early Masterpieces by Ingmar Bergman collection, including: Dreams, The Naked Light (Sawdust and Tinsel), A Ship Bound for India, So Close To Life, It Rains On Our Love and the documentaries The Women and Bergman, and The Men and Bergman.

WOW, that's like nearly every Bergman film missing from my collection! =D>

Let's hope that at long last they also get round to the long version of 'Best Intentions' .

Tommaso · **Joined:** Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am

Great news about the Bergman! I suppose this will be a box-set? Anyway, I'd gladly double-dip on "Sawdust" in this case. But let's hope that they will also do something about "Farö Document" and, of course, "Face to Face".

colinr0380 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 06, 2009 2:44 pm

I'm certainly looking forward to the possibility of Dreams getting a release outside of that enormous Bergman box Tartan brought out!

I'm also excited that I'm Gonna Explode is getting a theatrical release after reading the positive review of it on the Filmbrain blog.

Wittsdream · **Joined:** Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:00 pm **Location:** Chicago

Tommaso wrote:

Great news about the Bergman! I suppose this will be a box-set? Anyway, I'd gladly double-dip on "Sawdust" in this case. But let's hope that they will also do something about "Farö Document" and, of course, "Face to Face".

I'm most looking forward to seeing "Face to Face" and "The Touch" in nice DVD editions. Who has rights to "The Touch?"

manicsounds · **Posted:** Mon Feb 09, 2009 2:25 am

The new Chungking Express comes from a NTSC to PAL transfer.... ugh.... why?

alfons416 · **Joined:** Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:39 am

Wittsdream wrote:

Tommaso wrote:

Great news about the Bergman! I suppose this will be a box-set? Anyway, I'd gladly double-dip on "Sawdust" in this case. But let's hope that they will also do something about "Farö Document" and, of course, "Face to Face".

I'm most looking forward to seeing "Face to Face" and "The Touch" in nice DVD editions. Who has rights to "The Touch?"

The Touch have most the time since the 70's been realy hard to get even a decent screeningcopy of, in the US i know Elliot Gould has a personal copy wich have been screened a few times over the years.

But the Swedish Film Institute have recently restored the movie and in it's original swedish version (with the swedes not talking english to each other), it premiered last year on the ingmar bergman week on fårö and was screensd about a week ago on swedens bigest film festival (Göteborg International Film Festival), where i saw it. it looked pretty so we can hope a dvd-release will be comming in the future. You can find it on VHS in the all english-language version. i've seen that version to and i remeber it a little different from the newly restored version, the soundtrack ofcoarse but also a bit shorter, wich suited the movie better i think.

Cold Bishop · **Posted:** Mon Feb 09, 2009 8:02 pm

alfons416 wrote:

But the Swedish Film Institute have recently restored the movie and in it's original swedish version (with the swedes not talking english to each other), it premiered last year on the ingmar bergman week on fårö and was screensd about a week ago on swedens bigest film festival (Göteborg International Film Festival), where i saw it.

Interesting... I didn't know they even filmed such a version. Considering many people, including Gould, have complained about the way the Swedes spoke in English, this could be a much needed improvement.

Props55 · **Joined:** Wed Jan 09, 2008 11:55 am

I believe THE TOUCH was at partly financed by ABC and distributed stateside by ABC/Cinerama Releasing. It could therefore be a Disney property, at least in R1.

Doug Cummings · **Posted:** Tue Feb 10, 2009 5:16 pm

That's odd--Tartan has already released Philibert's Back to Normandy and I, Pierre Riviere... on DVD in the UK.

foggy eyes · **Joined:** Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:58 am **Location:** Miami

Doug Cummings wrote:

That's odd--Tartan has already released Philibert's Back to Normandy and I, Pierre Riviere... on DVD in the UK.

True, but then they folded (sadly). The rights would have been up for grabs.

MichaelB · **Joined:** Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm **Location:** Worthing

A substantial chunk of Artificial Eye's upcoming slate was sourced from the Tartan back catalogue.

Particle Zoo · **Posted:** Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:08 am

Rich Malloy wrote:

As for "CHUNGKING EXPRESS", it's my understanding that AE has released it on blu-ray this week - reported as all-region by AsianBlu-RayGuide.com - but I've yet to see any reviews. I'd be interested to know how it rates against Criterion's.

I'm really surprised there hasn't been a comparison between Criterion and AE's Blu Rays yet.

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