Have we heard all there is to hear about the raft of London 'celebratory' films coming in 2012? Why I ask, and have tacked it onto the comment from above, is that I have just watched Ken Russell's 'London Moods" and thought it would be ideal for some such compilation in view of the (partial) opening up of the BBC archive.
In a few short minutes our Ken subverts the Pathé style pomp and pageantry of Royalty with parades of sandwich board men and leather boys before switching to a Rudy Burckhardt inspired tour though greasy spoons as niftily as flipping an egg on a griddle. The last act swoons into a Delius? orchestrated Jennings-ode, linking dappled light from willow banked rivers to the silhouetted commuter traffic over London Bridge. Hopefully there will be follow up volumes to the 20's/30's footage of the ' Wonderful London' release to include this.

I don't see a thread on it but I've been really enjoying the BFI's Free Cinema set recently. I don't suppose that they've been restored since that release? It would be lovely to see them on Blu-Ray.

We Are the Lambeth Boys appears in HD on the Saturday Night Sunday Morning Blu-ray; Momma Don't Allow is in HD on the Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner BD.

I also loved Free Cinema, probably my favourite of all the BFI sets. I don't imagine it'd get a full HD re-release, but I'd like to see some of the other films used as extras on future BDs.

I forgot about them! Mazzetti's Together is probably my favourite in the set, it would be great if that got an HD release but I can't think of anything that it could be paired with and I doubt the BFI will release it by itself.

Hello. A quick question:

Forgive me if this has been tackled elsewhere, but I was wondering why it is that the BFI's Dual Format releases tend to have some, if not all, of the special features on the DVD only? After all it can't be that the Blu-ray and not the DVD is stuck for space.

It's never a deal-breaker, of course. It's just slightly annoying.

It's BFI policy to include everything on the DVD but only HD material on the Blu-ray.

Only just seen this so wanted to quickly add that while the BFI aren't working on it just yet, Synapse Films are working on a restoration of it in the US (no release date set yet) with the aid of Melinda McDowell, which will almost certainly go out in a Dual Format release.

Thanks. I thought Synapse had cooled on this release, considering they missed the 35th Anniversary in 2010 (?) I seem to remember asking Don May on Facebook if there were any updates, but no answer - that was 2011...

BBC report on the BFI's silent Hitchcock restoration project (includes video).

The BFI has just extensively revamped its website.

And I've added a second post to the BFI Master Index thread, listing confirmed upcoming releases.

Before plumping for the Kino 'They made me a fugitive' blu any likelihood of this BFI resto turning up sporting a lens flare logo?

Odeon Entertainment currently have this one on release in the UK. DVD only, but they are slowly moving into Blu-ray.

I was just having a look at some of the Mizoguchi releases on Amazon UK, and noticed BFI previously released Tales of the Taira Clan on VHS do BFI still have the rights to this? If so what are the chances of it getting a Blu release?

The most likely scenario is that the licensing period expired several years ago - if the BFI had renewed the rights, they'd probably have done something with it on DVD by now.

Oh that sucks, we need more Mizoguchi on Blu.

Hopefully BFI will join MoC & AE and release afew.

To be honest, I wouldn't hold your breath - the BFI is still heavily immersed in its Ozu project, and as a general rule they're releasing far fewer non-British titles than they used to. Largely because when Connoisseur Video was around, hardy anyone else was catering for that market in the UK - but today, as you yourself acknowledge, there are other arthouse labels with more of a track record of handling Mizoguchi on DVD and Blu-ray.

Does anyone know if the BFI has any plans to release more British early films? There was the nice R.W. Paul set as well as a bit of Shakespeare and Dickens and obviously the Mitchell & Kenyon collection but beyond that we only have the old Early Cinema set, incorporated in The Movies begin. It's a bit frustrating to see the very limited access at http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/index.html and it seems to me an update of the early Cinema discs would be in order, e.g. with a full version of Attack on a Chinese Mission Station or including A Runaway Match. The situation with French films and their equally ultralimited access to http://www.gaumontpathearchives.com/ is equally frustrating, but at least the BFI should be able to handle the British films because legal questions shouldn't be relevant anymore for these old films.

I think there are certainly long-term plans to release more early cinema - the main problem being that these sets are expensive and logistically complex to produce and tend to sell in pitifully small numbers: I doubt I'm betraying any commercial confidences by revealing that the R.W. Paul set didn't exactly fly off the shelves. (In fact, it barely even got reviewed).

As for "legal questions", you'd be surprised - in fact, even many Victorian and Edwardian films are still potentially copyrighted because of current UK and EU-wide legislation that dictates that the copyright in films only expires 70 years after the death of the last significant creative contributor. Which is fine in the case of people like Birt Acres (d. 1918) or James Williamson (d. 1933), and R.W. Paul's copyright expires next year - but the work of heavyweight pioneers like Cecil Hepworth (d. 1953) and G.A. Smith (d. 1959) is still copyrighted. The BFI has generally made blanket agreements with the filmmakers' estates, given that they're uniquely qualified (at least in Britain) to preserve and exploit this material properly - but such agreements obviously have to be respected.

Haven't seen this mentioned elsewhere? But StudioCanal have taken all rights to all Tati films outside of France, so it looks like the BFI (and Criterion) will lose everything shortly?

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118056538

The live stream of The Ring was wondrous for those of us who don't live anywhere near London. I can't really comment on the restoration, because my internet connection forced me to watch at a paltry resolution of 360p, but the new score by Soweto Kinch fits the film perfectly. I hope the BFI does these streaming screenings more often, they could act as a replacement for Moviedrome - the likes of which we'll never see again of TV.

The Gangster Films, Cria Cuervos, Opening Night and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie are all delayed quite significantly. Is there some common reason?

If you're going by the 'new' release dates on Amazon for those titles, Amazon itself often pulls those out of thin air when a release is delayed by any amount of time. The actual delay may end up being quite different and much shorter.

Very excited to see GREED on the big screen in August, slightly surprised there seem to be a good number of tickets still available for what are very rare screenings of a legendary film not available on DVD...

Sight & Sound's long-awaited Digital Archive has gone live.

Looks like you can subscribe digitally or buy single issues. Just downloaded their app from Apple and made the in-app purchase of the 100 greatest films Sept. issue... Looking at it on my non-Retina penultimate generation iPad is pretty easy. The oversized S&S pages require zooming to get good sharpness for reading. But it certainly seems worth it. I cancelled my S&S subscription years ago when things like this forum, review aggregator sites and the IMDb took over many of the functions I'd been using it for. Film Comment is the only movie magazine I still get physical copies of, but the ease of use here certainly makes me more likely to get an occasional digital issue of S&S.