The Loves of Pharaoh (Ernst Lubitsch, 1922)

[matrixschmatrix]

Alpha-Omega's latest restoration project, the 1922 silent film The Loves of Pharaoh (Das Weib des Pharao) by the famous director Ernst Lubitsch will have its US premiere at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd, October 18th 2011. The theater is excited about this project and has scheduled it for their birthday event this year.

Full story below the reviews for the 12th here

Does anyone know anything about this movie? Evidently it was thought lost for years, which always makes me hope it's an unknown masterpiece.

[Tommaso]

Lubitsch's most ambitious and expensive German film. Haven't seen it either, but for those in Europe: arte TV will show the new resto on September 26, 2011.

[YnEoS]

I remember learning about this from some documentary (either Cinema Europe or Lubitsch in Berlin, I forget which) and remember being extremely excited to see it, only to be disappointed that it was only available in fragments. Really thrilled that a restored version is finally coming out!

[lady wakasa]

I saw this at Film Forum when they did their Lubitschfest around 2003 (in fact, my notes say 23 June 2003...). Didn't know it was incomplete, though...

In fact, here's the Film Forum link.

[sjostrom]

A pre-resto was presented on Pordenone a few years ago. Spectacular, but I didn't liked it too much.

[Ann Harding]

The restored film is going to be broadcast on Arte TV on September 26th. Lubitsch's German comedies are wonderful, but I have never liked his big German dramas. I find them ponderous (and I am a great Lubitsch lover!).

[Pharaoh]

Dear Lubitsch fans,

The release of the DVD and BluRay edition has been postponed from the fall of 2011 to early 2012. The reason for this is that we are confronted with extraordinarily high production costs. This is partly due to the complexity of the project and partly due to the established production methods and distribution channels, which make an independent release in limited edition difficult to finance and hardly profitable. Nevertheless, we don’t want to make concessions and relinquish planned content or the high-quality packaging design. We look forward to the release of the BluRay and DVD edition in the New Year and we’ll keep you posted.

Upon release the DVD and BluRay can be purchased on the ALPHA-OMEGA website.

Your ALPHA-OMEGA digital team wishes you a wonderful holiday and a great start into the New Year.

[TMDaines]

Das Weib des Pharao Blu-ray. This looks awesome. If only more releases could be friendly to such a wide range of languages.

I'm presuming it will be available through all the usual outlets though as I'm not likely going to fork out €41!

[McCrutchy]

Das Weib des Pharao Blu-ray. This looks awesome. If only more releases could be friendly to such a wide range of languages.

I'm presuming it will be available through all the usual outlets though as I'm not likely going to fork out €41!

Firstly, perhaps I am wrong, but I don't think this release will be likely to be sold anywhere else firsthand, though I'm sure you'll be able to purchase copies from sellers in various places after it comes out.

Secondly, posts like this make me sad for film. €41 (shipped) is an expensive price, but hardly an exorbitant one, and considering the level of time and money spent on this release, it's certainly worth buying at that price, if only to ensure that you get more silent classics restored and on Blu-ray. Notice that the market for silents, which is already small, is even smaller for silents on Blu-ray, and smaller still for silents on Blu-ray outside the USA. Outside of Metropolis, a couple MoC releases in the UK, and some Borzage titles from Carlotta in France--which I believe had poor sales--the market for silents on non-US Blu-ray is almost non-existent. If it takes €41 to get a silent film release in a high-quality version that I can comprehend, along with some awfully exciting extras, then I have no problem with it. I don't have a lot of money and I find myself buying less and less because of that, but this is an important Blu-ray release and I want to ensure that these kinds of releases remain financially viable enough to continue.

[TMDaines]

Secondly, posts like this make me sad for film. €41 (shipped) is an expensive price, but hardly an exorbitant one, and considering the level of time and money spent on this release, it's certainly worth buying at that price, if only to ensure that you get more silent classics restored and on Blu-ray. Notice that the market for silents, which is already small, is even smaller for silents on Blu-ray, and smaller still for silents on Blu-ray outside the USA. Outside of Metropolis, a couple MoC releases in the UK, and some Borzage titles from Carlotta in France--which I believe had poor sales--the market for silents on non-US Blu-ray is almost non-existent. If it takes €41 to get a silent film release in a high-quality version that I can comprehend, along with some awfully exciting extras, then I have no problem with it. I don't have a lot of money and I find myself buying less and less because of that, but this is an important Blu-ray release and I want to ensure that these kinds of releases remain financially viable enough to continue.

Obviously I can't tell someone else that they're wrong for thinking something is worth a certain amount of money but this is awfully expensive. When there is an HD rip floating around on the net and many of the people interested in this release will be involved in the rare film sharing communities online anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people find themselves being priced out or just don't see the point in "upgrading" to the DVD/Blu. Needless to say, shortly after release, this release will be pirated also and soon be available online, giving people another "option" in how to acquire it.

I can't believe anyone can justify this price. It's another leap over Edition Filmmuseum titles and compare it to the Blu-rays of other labels and it is poor value. Hopefully the price will come down drammatically otherwise I'll be passing. I'd rather have four or five DVD titles on my wishlist that I don't currently have.

Of course if you go to all the effort of restoring a silent yourself and then only distributing it through your unknown website, instead of acquiring proper distribution, thus making it available through all the usual stores, and also acquiring the rights to overseas areas, for which your product is already language-friendly, and then distributing it abroad too, then of course you will find yourself having to sell at silly prices to even try and break even.

It's for this reason that I'm pretty sure that this title will be on the likes of Amazon and jpc soon also. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever to put all this effort into a release and then not make your market as big as possible. Their other titles were widely distributed in Germany too.

[matrixschmatrix]

Yeah, how dare they charge so much when people can simply steal their work for free?

[zedz]

And people wonder why more silent films aren't properly restored and released on BluRay.

[TMDaines]

Yeah, how dare they charge so much when people can simply steal their work for free?

That wasn't really my point. Maybe I'm the only one who finds 35-40 euros for a Blu-ray too much. Congratulations on being an arse and mocking someone's post with a one line response though.

I just think that asking for that much money isn't the best move - we're talking close to double what the likes of the German M and Metropolis went for or two, or even three, Criterions/MoCs - when a lot of people who already interested in the title will have watched or downloaded theaa HD TV recording. Personally I don't have this recording and I don't download any films I want that either have had a release or are upcoming worldwide - in otherwords I'm not one of these people. This has been mentioned many times in the past with the silents shown on Arte TV for years though so it is hardly a new revelation. Why it's broadcast and then (only sometimes) released on DVD has always been strange.

This is all pretty moot if the title will be distributed normally though.

[knives]

Something like the Lang's isn't really a comparable situation considering how better known they are than this relatively obscure early silent. I'm not sure if there's an exactly comparable situation, but maybe the previous Lubitsch silent releases would be better to look at.

[TMDaines]

Something like the Lang's isn't really a comparable situation considering how better known they are than this relatively obscure early silent. I'm not sure if there's an exactly comparable situation, but maybe the previous Lubitsch silent releases would be better to look at.

Yeh, but it´s still a big restoration of a work by one of the "big three" silent German directors (Lang, Murnau, Lubitsch). Compare it to something like Coeur fidele if you prefer. I know the German DVD market for classic German cinema is pretty dire in comparison to other countries but even so, 40 odd euros strikes me as abnormal.

[triodelover]

Something like the Lang's isn't really a comparable situation considering how better known they are than this relatively obscure early silent. I'm not sure if there's an exactly comparable situation, but maybe the previous Lubitsch silent releases would be better to look at.

Yeh, but it´s still a big restoration of a work by one of the "big three" silent German directors (Lang, Murnau, Lubitsch). Compare it to something like Coeur fidele if you prefer. I know the German DVD market for classic German cinema is pretty dire in comparison to other countries but even so, 40 odd euros strikes me as abnormal.

MoC are subsidized by Eureka Entertainment, a fairly large operation. Criterion have over 600 titles in their DVD/BD catlaog. As far as I am able to tell from their website, Alpha-Omega are primarily a restoration house in conjunction with several partners, none of whom appear to be in the DVD/BD authoring or distribution business. The Loves of Pharoah appears to be the only such effort they are currently undertaking, and it may be the only BD/DVD they've issued to date. It's not barebones, but includes a 20 page booklet, a restoration documentary and a filmed 100-minute performance of the score. (Whether any of those are of value to you is another matter, but they do cost to produce.)

While I agree the price is high, considering all of the circumstances it's not exorbitant for a BD of a 90-year-old German silent when one considers the extensive restoration and the very limited market. Plus it seems only fair to state that the actual price is €34.90 plus shipping since you are comparing to MoC and Criterion prices not including shipping. Finally, even direct it's likely to be less to customers outside the EU since that MSRP likely includes VAT. By the time this is released and considering the current state of the Eurozone, who knows how strong Sterling and the dollar will be against the Euro?

[Tommaso]

The price for the dvd is 24,90 euros, and given the length of the extra materials, it's hard to imagine that they wouldn't make this a 2-disc edition. And if so, the price would be about the same or lower than what Edition Filmmuseum charges for their 2-dvd-sets (they haven't done any blus yet). So no reason for complaints, though the blu price seems indeed exorbitant to me.

But still, TMDaines raises some points that are surely not pleasant, but in fact only address reality. There's no way around acknowledging the fact that the film will be 'made available', and probably in its original filesize, rather sooner than later in certain places. And we're not talking about a release from a great studio, or some rip-off like Warner Archive, but surely about an exciting new company who does deserve all the support they can get to ensure further releases. This is surely unfortunate, but well, mentioning this is only saying how these things are.

And Alpha/Omega did certainly go the right way by including all those different intertitle options in a way that I dream Kino would do. The problem is, as has been mentioned: many of the hardcore silent fans in Europe will already have a recording of the excellent arte broadcast, and they will ask themselves whether they want to shell out a considerable sum for those (interesting) extras, especially if they (like me) should find the film itself good, but not THAT exciting. It's really a dilemma for which I have no easy answer. I think the best way for the company would be to try to persist, continue with further great releases like this one even if this should not become a big money maker, and slowly build a reputation a la Filmmuseum and MoC with other films that have not had a decent TV showing yet.

[zedz]

Isn't that an unrealistic expectation, considering that the fees paid for those TV screenings are probably major components of the funding of the restoration in the first place?

From my point of view, if you want to support marginal film restoration and release projects and encourage more of them, you have to support them financially. I refuse to download any film that's commercially available, and if I happen to err, or discover that a film I've 'stolen' has obtained a physical release, I feel duty bound to purchase it. Unless you put your money where your mouth is, the well will dry up.

[Tommaso]

Sure, but what about the case that I mentioned: the existence of my own perfectly legal off-TV dvd recording? I bought the Filmmuseum Asta Nielsen "Hamlet" the day it came out even though I had the arte broadcast for a long time, because I think that that film is a great masterpiece. But I'm simply not that excited about "Pharao", so I'll personally have to consider a purchase or not. Of course this doesn't go for people overseas or anyone who missed the broadcast in Europe, so your point is certainly valid. As I said, I was only speaking about my own dilemma in this special case. And I feel certainly duty bound to buy that Epstein box as soon as it comes....

[matrixschmatrix]

I'm broadly not too much against downloading things, but if you have a situation where downloading becomes direct competition for a marginal and hard pressed company without which the damn thing wouldn't be available in the first place, that's pretty awful. It certainly seems cruel to expect a company to set their prices with the expectation that people will just bypass the 'actually buying things' stage altogether- and honestly, I imagine that the hassles of ordering from a specialty website in another country would push anyone who would consider torrenting a reasonable option into doing so before the high price even came into consideration.

Picking up a TV-rip is a different matter, but in that case it seems more fair to compare it to the DVD price, as I imagine the PQ would be more comparable there.

[Tommaso]

Yes, being bluless I had the dvd version in mind, and indeed the difference to the broadcast will be more marginal there than with the blu.

I only had good experiences with ordering from specialty websites in other countries so far, btw. I hope this 'obscure site' doesn't stop anyone who is interested in the film from ordering it. And I'm also pretty sure that the release will show up at amazon and jpc, too, even if it's not mentioned anywhere yet. These e-tailers carry practically everything.

[TMDaines]

MoC are subsidized by Eureka Entertainment, a fairly large operation. Criterion have over 600 titles in their DVD/BD catlaog. As far as I am able to tell from their website, Alpha-Omega are primarily a restoration house in conjunction with several partners, none of whom appear to be in the DVD/BD authoring or distribution business.

That may well all be true but it doesn't really matter in terms of the end product I receive. I don't really mean to be a dick about it but a Blu-ray is a Blu-ray. Whether it comes from a multinational company or a small independent label of two guys and two PCs, it doesn't really matter. The labels I like purchasing from the most are those who put the most care into their releases, in terms of: audiovisual presentation of the original film, extras and packaging, and release them at a fair price, hence pretty much all the usual suspects that get discussed here. To get me to pay double or triple the market price of alternatives is surprisingly a tough ask. I'm pretty much target market for this release: it's my area of interest and I'm fairly close to owning all the German silents (with original intertitles) out there, and have a growing selection of avi files for the ones that have never been released. It's just too dear for me when I can get lots of other releases that offer better value, for me personally, and the other two Lubitsch epics I've watched both sent me to sleep.

If them being a small tiny independent label with no real contacts means things are going to be extremely pricey then that is an out and out negative sadly. I'm really struggling to believe that this website wil be the only place to buy this though as it does look a great package, just not 35 euros worth for me, and it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to only sell it through your own website that virtually no-one knows about.

Plus it seems only fair to state that the actual price is €34.90 plus shipping since you are comparing to MoC and Criterion prices not including shipping.

That's true (although MoC do give free shipping). I just couldn't remember the exact figure or easily check as I was using my iPod at the time.

[triodelover]

I don't really mean to be a dick about it but a Blu-ray is a Blu-ray.

Are you really this clueless? So much the academic that you have no idea of how these things happen in the real world? What you're really saying is "I'm young, impecunious and I think I should have this film in the highest possible quality at the price I'm willing to pay regardless of what it costs to produce it and the available market." Your sense of entitlement amazes me. And I'm a life-long socialist.

[zedz]

Sure, but what about the case that I mentioned: the existence of my own perfectly legal off-TV dvd recording? I bought the Filmmuseum Asta Nielsen "Hamlet" the day it came out even though I had the arte broadcast for a long time, because I think that that film is a great masterpiece. But I'm simply not that excited about "Pharao", so I'll personally have to consider a purchase or not. Of course this doesn't go for people overseas or anyone who missed the broadcast in Europe, so your point is certainly valid. As I said, I was only speaking about my own dilemma in this special case. And I feel certainly duty bound to buy that Epstein box as soon as it comes....

Yeah, I think it's a different case if you've picked up a legit broadcast in your region (since presumably you're already contributing, however indirectly, to the financial profile / catchment of the broadcasting station). My dilemma would be if I had downloaded a copy of the Lubitsch broadcast, here on the other side of the world. I'd then feel obliged to buy the disc, even if I was no fan of the film. Consequently, I only bother downloading things that I would happily blind-buy (and that aren't actually available to blind-buy, naturally). It's not as if I don't have more than enough physical discs to keep me busy for the foreseeable future.

[TMDaines]

I don't really mean to be a dick about it but a Blu-ray is a Blu-ray.

Are you really this clueless? So much the academic that you have no idea of how these things happen in the real world? What you're really saying is "I'm young, impecunious and I think I should have this film in the highest possible quality at the price I'm willing to pay regardless of what it costs to produce it and the available market." Your sense of entitlement amazes me. And I'm a life-long socialist.

Eh? I mean in the sense of the Blu-ray could be from Warner, MoC, RHV or Alpha/Omega and it wouldn't make any difference for me. There's no bonus for a wacky C being on the front of the case. I'm indifferent to the label: it's the end product that matters.

You get amazingly worked up and emotional from the extrapolations you make from my posts. Trust me, I go out of my way and buy enough releases, probably more than I should in fact, from different labels around the world to comfortably roll my eyes at your conjectures about my shopping habits and about what I deem fair value. I don't see what the problem is in demanding better value where you feel it is lacking.

My dilemma would be if I had downloaded a copy of the Lubitsch broadcast, here on the other side of the world. I'd then feel obliged to buy the disc, even if I was no fan of the film. Consequently, I only bother downloading things that I would happily blind-buy (and that aren't actually available to blind-buy, naturally). It's not as if I don't have more than enough physical discs to keep me busy for the foreseeable future.

I'm pretty much the same. I'm downloading stuff that I'm desperate to watch and would happily buy if there was the option but there's simply no alternative right now. That includes downloading OOP things, but I always buy if it is available even if it isn't English friendly. If I notice something is a DVDrip then I make the effort to find out where it has come from.