102 Ministry of Fear

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MichaelB
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102 Ministry of Fear

#1 Post by MichaelB » Thu Jun 07, 2018 5:11 am

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MINISTRY OF FEAR
(Fritz Lang, 1944)
Release date: 20 August 2018
Limited Blu-ray Edition (UK Blu-ray premiere)

Set during Blitz-torn wartime England, Ray Milland (Dial M for Murder, The Lost Weekend) stars as a man just released from a sanatorium who stumbles into an elaborate and murderous Nazi plot. Reminiscent of Lang's early expressionist films (The Spiders, Dr Mabuse the Gambler, M) and full of bravura set pieces and hallucinatory visuals, Ministry of Fear is one of Lang’s finest films – a mature and beautifully crafted thriller, and a vivid adaptation of Graham Greene’s celebrated novel.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES:
• 2K restoration
• Original mono audio
• The BFI Interview with Fritz Lang (1962, 80 mins): archival audio recording of the celebrated filmmaker in conversation with Stanley Reed at London’s National Film Theatre
• Selected scenes commentary with author and film historian Neil Sinyard
• Between Two Worlds (2018, 21 mins): a newly filmed appreciation and analysis by film historian Tony Rayns
• Creative Allies (2018, 25 mins): Adrian Wootton, OBE, author of The Films of Graham Greene and CEO of Film London, considers the contributions of the people who shaped the film
• Original theatrical trailer
• Image gallery: promotional photography and publicity material
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Samm Deighan, Graham Greene on Lang and Ministry of Fear, recollections by Fritz Lang, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
• UK premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited Edition of 3,000 copies

#PHILTD102
BBFC cert: PG
REGION B
EAN: 5037899071564

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domino harvey
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Re: 102 Ministry of Fear

#2 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:57 am

Great cover and nice set of extras. Shame I'm not wild about the film

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rapta
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Re: 102 Ministry of Fear

#3 Post by rapta » Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:21 am

First real clash with Criterion's catalogue here. Well done Powerhouse!

Will definitely be pre-ordering this. Lang, Milland, Greene, and Rayns on the extras. Sounds good to me...

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DarkImbecile
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Re: 102 Ministry of Fear

#4 Post by DarkImbecile » Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:29 am

Damn! I actually liked this enough to have to seriously consider double-dipping to improve on the bare bones Criterion.

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domino harvey
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Re: 102 Ministry of Fear

#5 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:35 am

I mean, you could recoup at least 2/3 of the Indicator cost by reselling your Criterion

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Lowry_Sam
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Re: 102 Ministry of Fear

#6 Post by Lowry_Sam » Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:26 pm

I love Lang, but for me this was one of his biggest disappointments. With the subject matter, the actors involved & Lang's ability to create suspense & atmosphere, this had such potential & yet the end product falls so very far short of what it could have been.

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whaleallright
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Re: 102 Ministry of Fear

#7 Post by whaleallright » Sat Jun 09, 2018 9:16 pm

when does Tony Rayns sleep?

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MichaelB
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102 Ministry of Fear

#8 Post by MichaelB » Sun Jun 10, 2018 4:46 am

Tony is one of those people like Kim Newman who can just turn up and reel off a word-perfect piece in a single take. A talent like that is beyond price for a Blu-ray producer, which is why Tony and Kim keep getting these gigs (and it’s also why Kat Ellinger’s recent rise has been so meteoric).

That lengthy piece about Audition on the Arrow edition? He rattled that off in the same session as recording the commentary for A Touch of Zen for Eureka - I don’t imagine he intended it to be as long as it turned out, as he did it at very short notice, but that’s what happened.

(See also horror musicologist extraordinaire David Huckvale, who recently recorded enough material for multiple pieces across two labels in a single day - I’m editing three of them for Indicator, but I know he covered something for Anolis in the same session.)

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MichaelB
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Re: 102 Ministry of Fear

#9 Post by MichaelB » Fri Aug 03, 2018 5:07 am

Final specs announced:

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bugsy_pal
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Re: 102 Ministry of Fear

#10 Post by bugsy_pal » Sun Aug 05, 2018 9:01 pm

I saw this relatively recently (on the Criterion BD), and actually liked it quite a bit. It's kinda 'silly' for Lang but still has plenty of atmosphere and lovely cinematography. I think I'll have to double-dip.

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Florinaldo
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Re: 102 Ministry of Fear

#11 Post by Florinaldo » Sat Aug 25, 2018 4:31 pm

bugsy_pal wrote:
Sun Aug 05, 2018 9:01 pm
It's kinda 'silly' for Lang but still has plenty of atmosphere and lovely cinematography. I think I'll have to double-dip.
Minor Lang certainly, but it has some nice moments for example the blind man getting on the train, the tell-tale visual aftermath of a gun shot through a door or Dan Duryea casually carrying those humongous tailor's shears; plus some callbacks to the first Mabuse, like characters jumping away from a bomb explosion in a room or the séance.

It's a good thing that it gets a worthwhile treatment on BD, after the somewhat disappointing Criterion.

Will publishers now turn their attention to even more neglected Lang movies? House by the River comes to mind, although there is a Wild Side edition with a nice set of extras, but with burnt-in French subtitles and a copy that would benefit from some cleaning up. There's also Liliom (it's available as an extra on Carousel but it has not gotten a good edition on its own). One can also dream big and wish for You and Me to surface on video; with Lang and Weil, plus Sylvia Sydney in her last outing with the director, it's probably worth seeing at least for the curiosity factor.

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Drucker
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Re: 102 Ministry of Fear

#12 Post by Drucker » Sat Aug 25, 2018 7:42 pm

You And Me is available on a TCM disc.

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Florinaldo
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Re: 102 Ministry of Fear

#13 Post by Florinaldo » Sat Aug 25, 2018 9:18 pm

Drucker wrote:
Sat Aug 25, 2018 7:42 pm
You And Me is available on a TCM disc.
Quite, but it is a bare bones edition as I recall; I should have made it clearer that I was wishing for a more elaborate treatment of this film, perhaps detailing the Brechtian borrowings in storytelling techniques, and even a BD if there would be any benefit to it.

There's also a German DVD of the film.

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MichaelB
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Re: 102 Ministry of Fear

#14 Post by MichaelB » Sun Sep 09, 2018 3:25 pm

A quick round-up of reviews:

CineOutsider
DVD Beaver
• Mondo Digital

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