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BFI (British Film Institute)

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:36 pm
by peerpee
I saw the finished sleeves for the three bfi Tati being released in December. Disappointing to see zero extras apart from an interview with Richard Lester on LES VACANCES DE M. HULOT.

(they have optional English subs and trailers, but they don't really count as extras, especially when the same three trailers are on all three discs).

There's not even inside cover liner notes - just chapter headings and a screengrab. Maybe there's a booklet?

The JOUR DE FETE disc is ONLY the colour version.

There are definitely booklets in the Tati releases. JOUR DE FETE doesn't look like it's had a new transfer. It looks very much like it did when I saw it on BBC TV 6 years ago. A new HD transfer from Criterion would be most welcome (oh, as well as the b+w version).

Rossellini's War Trilogy

Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2004 2:04 pm
by ellipsis7
E-mail from the BFI
We would love to release Rossellini's War Trilogy but we are currently looking for better quality materials to master from, as the present ones on our archive are not up to standard.
ROME OPEN CITY
PAISA
GERMANY YEAR ZERO

BFI & Tartan R2 DVDs vs. Criterion

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2004 1:01 am
by daniel p
BFI & Tartan R2 DVDs vs. Criterion

Can anyone tell me which disc is better?

Third Man CC vs BFI
Autumn Sonata CC vs Tartan
Cries & Whispers CC vs Tartan

I'm mainly concerned with transfers, as I know all CC versions have better extras.

Thanks.

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2004 2:41 am
by Subbuteo
daniel p wrote:Can anyone tell me which disc is better?

Third Man CC vs BFI
Autumn Sonata CC vs Tartan
Cries & Whispers CC vs Tartan

I'm mainly concerned with transfers, as I know all CC versions have better extras.

Thanks.
I would personally stick with the Criterions. Check out DVD Beaver as there may be direct comparisons for these titles.

The Bergman Tartan discs are usually good quality but with limited extras.

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2004 7:54 am
by The Digital McGuffin
Subbuteo wrote:
daniel p wrote:Can anyone tell me which disc is better?

Third Man CC vs BFI
Autumn Sonata CC vs Tartan
Cries & Whispers CC vs Tartan

I'm mainly concerned with transfers, as I know all CC versions have better extras.

Thanks.
I would personally stick with the Criterions. Check out DVD Beaver as there may be direct comparisons for these titles.

The Bergman Tartan discs are usually good quality but with limited extras.
I presume you mean the Warner R2 of The Third Man? It's a bit lackluster image wise and definitely no match for the Criterion edition.

See here

Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2004 8:33 pm
by daniel p
The Digital McGuffin wrote:
Subbuteo wrote:
daniel p wrote:Can anyone tell me which disc is better?

Third Man CC vs BFI
Autumn Sonata CC vs Tartan
Cries & Whispers CC vs Tartan

I'm mainly concerned with transfers, as I know all CC versions have better extras.

Thanks.
I would personally stick with the Criterions. Check out DVD Beaver as there may be direct comparisons for these titles.

The Bergman Tartan discs are usually good quality but with limited extras.
I presume you mean the Warner R2 of The Third Man? It's a bit lackluster image wise and definitely no match for the Criterion edition.

See here
Yeah, sorry, meant the Warner disc.

I've checked out dvdbeaver, and couldn't find anything. All that I could find on all of them was that dvdtimes review of Third Man.

I'm assuming the Criterions would be better, but just wanted any info I could find before ordering. Everything I've heard points towards CC.

Off to order I go...thanks for your help :wink:

PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE

Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 3:45 pm
by ellipsis7
Just to say, I would recommend Renoir's PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE DVD from the bfi... Nice transfer, good commentary from Philip Kemp, and interesting extras - a sizeable selection discarded takes and screen tests from the Cinematheque Francais...

PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE

Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 5:18 pm
by Subbuteo
ellipsis7 wrote:Just to say, I would reccomend Renoir's PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE DVD from the bfi... Nice transfer, good commentary from Philip Kemp, and interesting extras - a sizeable selection discarded takes and screen tests from the Cinematheque Francais...
I would second this recommendation - this is a sterling disc from the BFI

PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 7:14 pm
by mingus
Subbuteo wrote:this is a sterling disc from the BFI
and in that partly responsible for this film becoming my most watched and most beloved work of Jean Renoir. I really love it.

PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE

Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 9:23 pm
by artfilmfan
ellipsis7 wrote:Just to say, I would recommend Renoir's PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE DVD from the bfi... Nice transfer, good commentary from Philip Kemp, and interesting extras - a sizeable selection discarded takes and screen tests from the Cinematheque Francais...
This is a film to love and a DVD to cherish. It's so beautiful, much like the paintings of Jean Renoir's father.

PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:23 am
by peerpee
I concur with all the love for the PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE disc. THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (Powell) is a particularly stunning disc also.

Cloud-Capped Star

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:48 am
by Steven H
The Cloud Hidden Star... incredible film, and respectable DVD. I think it's one of the last films I would expect a major DVD company releasing... very obscure, do you agree?

harri intended to write "Cloud-capped Star" but at some point became confused about words and was soon corrected

Cloud-Capped Star

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 6:24 pm
by Miguel
Steven H wrote:The Cloud Hidden Star... incredible film, and respectable DVD. I think it's one of the last films I would expect a major DVD company releasing... very obscure, do you agree?
BFI just released a 2-disc edition, with both the French and German versions.

The Cloud-Capped Star

Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 5:11 am
by htdm
Has anyone actually seen this disc and can comment on the quality (especially of the French version)? I imagine Janus still holds the rights to this in the US, no? Hopefully, a criterion version is in our future?

The Cloud-Capped Star

Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 3:07 pm
by milk114
There're no extras or essays with the BFI disc? For shame. this is a film that definitely needs to be placed in context within German cinema of the time, Brecht's body of work, and especially the troubles of making the film.

I love this play and looked forward to seeing the film but it was such a crappy vhs copy that it was almost unbearable to watch. I want to see a great Criterion two-disc set loadedd to the gills and with as clean as possible print.

I don't really understand why Pabst made the changes he made between the play and the film, cutting songs left and right. Does anyone have a clue?

UPCOMING TITLES

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 2:21 pm
by ellipsis7
Coming in 2005 from the BFI...
New DVDs for 2005
Here is a taste of just some of the titles we will be releasing this year:

Tristana
France-Italy-Spain 1970 / Directed by Luis Bunuel
A deliciously black comedy set in Twenties Toledo starring Fernando Rey, who plays an aging, hypocritical aristocrat who becomes the guardian and then lover of a young girl (Catherine Deneuve).

Looking for Langston
UK 1989 / Directed by Isaac Julien
A poetic, visually stunning fantasy of the life of black poet Langston Hughes, shot in beautiful monochrome.

From Akira Kurosawa, the master of Japanese cinema: High and Low, I Live in Fear, The Bad Sleep Well, Men Who Tred on Tiger's Tail, No Regrets for our Youth, One Wonderful Sunday, Sanshiro Sugata and The Most Beautiful. We will also be releasing two classic 50s cult films from Ishir� Honda; Godzilla (1954) and The Mysterians (1957).

Jacques Tati Shorts
In the earlier of these three short films, Jacques Tati began to flesh out his greatest comic creations - M. Hulot and Francois the postman. Includes Soigne ton gauche (Watch Your Left!) (1936), L'Ecole des facteurs (School for Postmen) (1947) and Cours du soir (Evening Classes) (1967).

Il Bidone
Italy 1955 / Directed by Federico Fellini
A richly dark and poetic film, this is a stark portrait of three small time crooks who aim to cheat the poor out of their life savings for a fictitious treasure that an obscure saint supposedly buried on their land.

Baadassss!
USA 2003 / Directed by Mario van Peebles
Mario van Peebles directs and stars in this chronicling of his father Melvin's struggle to make the groundbreaking neo-blaxploitation epic Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song (1971). Baadassss! relives the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the making of Melvin's pioneering piece of black independent cinema
It's good to sse IL BIDONE coming to DVD...

Borzage's Seventh Heaven, Lucky Star, and Street Angel?

Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 2:25 am
by htdm
Does anyone know if a release date has been announced for the upcoming BFI releases of Frank Borzage's Seventh Heaven, Lucky Star, and Street Angel?
Their website doesn't have much information.

Borzage's Seventh Heaven, Lucky Star, and Street Angel?

Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 2:59 am
by htdm
I believe this was posted here around October before the great crash of '04. I don't recall who originally posted it, but the information was said to have come from the Autumn 2004 BFI catalog.

Re: Borzage's Seventh Heaven, Lucky Star, and Street Angel?

Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 8:30 am
by peerpee
htdm wrote:I believe this was posted here around October before the great crash of '04. I don't recall who originally posted it, but the information was said to have come from the Autumn 2004 BFI catalog.
Yup, mentioned in the Autumn 2004 bfi catalogue. I hear they're going to be Summer 2005 at the earliest.

Re: Borzage's Seventh Heaven, Lucky Star, and Street Angel?

Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 5:28 pm
by htdm
My understanding is that it will be three separate discs.

Actually, Seventh Heaven did get released on Laserdisc (and is currently available on DVD) in Japan in the mid-90s. Their print came from the Southwest Film/Video Classic Film Collection and was pretty ragged. The musical accompaniment was a hodgepodge of classical music indiscriminately added. But, it was the only laser release of this film. Lucky Star and Street Angel to my knowledge were never released on laser, but Street Angel was released on VHS by Critics Choice.

Still, even if the BFI flubs this (eg. Stray Dog) the quality would still be better than the Japanese release.

I saw The River at UCLA in 2003 and while it wasn't complete, it wasn't what I would call a fragment. I believe it ran over an hour. I really wish someone would put this title out on DVD.

Threepenny Opera

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 3:35 pm
by iangj
Anyone else seen the BFI's two-disc Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper/L'opera de quatr' sous)? I think it's great, myself. Admittedly, more Brecht/Weill songs from the original would have been nice, but what you've got (especially in the German version) is great (Lotte Lenya!!). The sound is a bit early-thirties primitive, but Pabst's visuals are superb, a direct carry-over from his silent film work, and the French version, while not essential viewing, is interesting (a lot lighter in effect than the German one). The only drawback - the BFI should really have added some kind of documentary examining the original sources (The Beggar's Opera, the original stage work) and the Brecht/Weill lawsuit. Still, thoroughly recommended.

UPCOMING TITLES

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 7:36 am
by Pinback
From the BFI DVD Newsletter:
bfi Video - DVD Top Ten 2004

These are our Top Ten best-selling DVDs of 2004

1. Seven Samurai
2. The Leopard
3. Yojimbo
4. Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma
5. Throne of Blood
6. Les Vacances de M. Hulot
7. The Charge of the Light Brigade
8. Playtime
9. Mon Oncle
10. Jour de fête

UPCOMING TITLES

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:59 am
by peerpee
(and their SEVEN SAMURAI has been out on DVD for SIX YEARS!)

UPCOMING TITLES

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:07 pm
by Pinback
peerpee wrote:(and their SEVEN SAMURAI has been out on DVD for SIX YEARS!)
Not only that, but it's a shorter (and incomplete) version of the film.

UPCOMING TITLES

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 9:21 pm
by peerpee
SIXTH HAPPINESS
I LIVE IN FEAR
HIGH & LOW

seem to be their March titles.