Sorry, I didn't mean to say that Beaver is responsible for Criterion's relationship with revisionist film history, nor am I blaming Criterion for this.

But because of Criterion's inadvertent impact in North America, it's very difficult for other companies, who don't have the deep pockets of Criterion, to compete, especially when the core of the market isn't listening. And Beaver continually criticizes the non-Criterion North American companies as if this were an even playing field. Yes, Beaver wants people to go region-free, but its strong bias for this often corrupts fair judgment when reviewing discs.

It just may come down to whether or not you think Criterion takes enough risks and whether you think the risks taken by smaller companies (New Yorker, Kino, Koch Lorber, etc) outweighs their shortcomings.

I'm not getting this. You can only arrive at a fair judgement if you compare a disc with other editions (if there are others) in order to find out what is technically possible with a given film or transfer. And if the BFI discs are superior it should hardly be deemed an unfair judgement if Gary points out that in that special case Zeitgeist may not have done the utmost that is possible. He does the same with Kino or with MoC releases (pointing out, for example, that the new R1 of Ford's "Shark Island" looks superior to the MoC R2). Whether these differences weigh enough for an US costumer to import the BFI discs instead of buying the Zeitgeist discs is a totally different question and is up to everybody's personal decision. Just the same as deciding to remain region-locked or not.

Look at how Beaver slams Koch Lorber for the Joy House DVDs, and ask if that was maybe a little too harsh given the evidence. Yes, the Koch Lorber disc is inferior, but is it really the abomination Beaver says it is? That's what I mean when I say his bias gets in the way of fair criticism.

Well, not every Koch Lorber release gets slammed by DVDBeaver though-- Comedy of Power was given high marks, for instance.

Kick-ass specs:

YES!!! Wonderful news as I'd hoped it'd street late 2008 rather than anytime 2009!

Beaver on Irma Vep.

Slightly disappointed with Zeitgeist - I hoped this release would be definitive. Extras aside, I guess it boils down to interlacing vs. removable subs (which means I'll be picking up the Second Sight disc after all, thanks also to the weak £).

Irma Vep arrived today. My only problem is that the audio essays have no business being put over the film and the Making of Vep extra. It would have been easier to just have it play over a still much as Criterion has done. Otherwise, I'm very happy to finally have this gem! Also, Zeitgeist provided a Z20 booklet that notes that in 2009 they'll be releasing two Philippe Garrel shorts on DVD.

I suspect the Garrel films are Le Revelateur (1968) and Le Dit de la Vierge (1968/69), the two short features that Re:Voir released on DVD recently. They would work quite well together as a set and, in any case, it will be great to have more of Garrel's work available in North America.

Do Re:Voir actually license their transfers? It seems unlikely, and I can't recall them doing it before. It's a stretch to call Le Lit de la vierge 'short' too, so I wonder whether these could actually be new releases?

Re:Voir doesn't usually license their transfers, you're right, so I guess the other possibility is Athanor (1972) and Voyage au jardin des morts (1978), the two Garrel films that are classified loosely as "shorts." I'll be grateful for any of these, of course.

Careful (Remastered and Repressed)

Release Date: March 24/09

SPECIAL FEATURES
- Brand-new master, created from a new Hi-Def transfer
- New feature audio commentary by Guy Maddin and screenwriter George Toles
- Waiting for Twilight (1997, 60 mins): A vintage documentary by Noam Gonick on the early career of Maddin, narrated by Tom Waits
- Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity (1995): Maddin's short film about the great French Symbolist painter
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

I'm curious about the "new" commentary by Maddin and Toles, because the original is one of my favourite DVD commentaries ever - assuming this isn't a mistake, why did they redo it?

On the other hand, that's excellent news about the new transfer, as Careful is the only disappointing one in the Maddin DVD oeuvre and clearly needed redoing - and they seem to have ported over all the extras of the Kino version and thrown in the Odilon Redon short (previously tucked away on the obscure Shorts 3: Dreams).

I just don't understand why they are going back and doing these remasters (Irma Vep, Carefull) and not taking these straight to Blu-ray...

Presumably because Zeitgeist hasn't moved into Blu-ray yet, and niche-market Blu-rays almost certainly have insanely tight margins at present - which is why it's the better-heeled independents like Criterion, the BFI and Artificial Eye who have taken the plunge so far. I suspect they've done their sums and worked out that the cost of going into Blu-ray at present is too high when set against the likely returns.

Anyway, does Careful - a film shot on 16mm and replete with deliberate damage - really need Blu-ray? Criterion's Brand Upon The Brain! looked magnificent, and I really can't see how a hi-def transfer would have improved on it, given the extreme graininess of the source.

Anyone catch the German doc Into Great Silence (the native title is something like Grosse STille or thereabouts)? A doc about the lives and moment to moment existential fabric of monastic monks living high in the mountains. Normally receptive to this kind of stuff (i e the lack of editorialization requiring you to move in and inhabit "blankly presented" material), I found it more tiresome than watching a banana go brown and mushy. By the half hour mark I was so close to charging headfirst into the glass window nearby I hadta shut it off..

By the half hour mark I was asleep

I loved every empty minute of Into Great Silence. The peace overwhelms me, as does the beauty of the setting. To each his own, I guess.

I haven't seen Into Great Silence yet, but Phillip Grôning's previous film, L'Amour, L'argent, L'amour is fantastic. I'm pretty sure it's a lot different, though.

I just checked their online catalogue and the two films are not shorts but the feature length films I Can No Longer Hear The Guitar and Emergency Kisses.

I believe both come from The Front Desk, a Rialto-like distribution company that spawned out of BAM Cinematek.

Matt mentioned this over on the NYer thread, but a question came to mind. Zeitgeist now has Fados by Carlos Saura. They mention that it's part of a trilogy, but they only have this one film. Does anyone know why they couldn't get the rights to the other two films? I'm guessing that it's a rights issue, but they could get the rights to this one somehow. I know that it's a new movie, but I was curious nontheless.

One of the films is Tango, which Sony owns. The other is Flamenco, which is New Yorker and which is probably tied up in the whole library auction business. Apparently, Dan Talbot paid for Fados with his own money, which is why it's not part of the assets seized by Technicolor.