Fritz Lang on DVD/Blu-ray

Discuss North American DVDs and Blu-rays or other DVD and Blu-ray-related topics.
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Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#326 Post by Der Spieler » Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:10 pm

What? You have it already? Where d'you buy it?

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perkizitore
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 3:29 pm
Location: OOP is the only answer

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#327 Post by perkizitore » Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:12 pm

It's a Moviemail exclusive until November.

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Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#328 Post by Der Spieler » Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:27 pm

Oh, thanks. But I don't see myself paying 20$ for this.

Updated checklist if anybody cares.
Der müde Tod (1921) - Image DVD
Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922) - MoC DVD
Die Nibelungen (1924) - Kino DVD (upcoming MoC and Kino Blu-rays)
Metropolis (1927) - MoC and Kino Blu-rays tie for PQ, but MoC has more extras
Spione (1928) - MoC DVD
Woman in the Moon (1929) - MoC DVD
M (1931) - Universum, Criterion and MoC Blu-rays tie
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) - Criterion and MoC DVD tie
Liliom (1934) - Extra on "Carousel" DVD
Fury (1936) - Warner DVD
You Only Live Once (1937) - Studio Canal DVD
You and Me (1938) - Koch Media DVD
The Return of Frank James (1940) - Fox DVD
Western Union (1941) - Optimum DVD
Man Hunt (1941) - Fox DVD
(Moontide) (1942) - Fox DVD
Hangmen Also Die (1943) - e-m-s DVD
Ministry of Fear (1944) - Optimum and Carlotta DVD tie
The Woman in the Window (1945) - MGM DVD
Scarlet Street (1945) - Kino and Odeon DVD tie (same transfer, but the former is not progressive while the latter is)
Cloak and Dagger (1946) - Republic DVD
Secret Beyond the Door... (1948) - Wild Side and Exposure DVD tie
House by the River (1950) - Wild Side DVD
Rancho Notorious (1952) - Warner Archives DVD
Clash by Night (1952) - Warner DVD
The Blue Gardenia (1953) - Arthaus DVD
The Big Heat (1953) - Sony DVD
Human Desire (1954) - Sony DVD
Moonfleet (1955) - Warner France DVD
While the City Sleeps (1956) - Exposure DVD
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) - Warner Archives DVD (proper ratio)
The Indian Epic (1959) - MoC DVD
1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) - MoC DVD

djvaso
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 6:00 am
Location: Serbia&Montenegro

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#329 Post by djvaso » Sat Oct 01, 2011 2:14 pm

You may add these:
- You Only Live Once (Sono innocente) - Eagle Pictures Blu-ray,
- The Return of Frank James (Rache für Jesse James) - Koch Media DVD.

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Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#330 Post by Der Spieler » Sat Oct 01, 2011 3:02 pm

From what I've read the Blu-ray is vertically stretched.

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Erikht
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:31 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#331 Post by Erikht » Sat Oct 01, 2011 5:12 pm

You should add "Die Spinnen"(1919), Image.

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Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#332 Post by Der Spieler » Sun Oct 02, 2011 5:13 pm

Well feel free to add whatever you want. It's not my list.

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swo17
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#333 Post by swo17 » Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:58 am

tojoed wrote:Another version of Hangmen Also Die is soon to be released in Australia.
Does anyone know how this stacks up to the e-m-s release?

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Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#334 Post by Der Spieler » Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:50 am

Has anybody seen reviews for Exposure's Secret Beyond the Door?

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#335 Post by TMDaines » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:18 am

I'd happily review this disk but I got Amazon to send it to my wrong address so I won't have access to it until December. I'm sure someone else preordered it also.
Last edited by TMDaines on Tue Nov 15, 2011 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#336 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Nov 15, 2011 3:58 pm

I did, but as I'm in the US, it hasn't shown up yet.

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antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#337 Post by antnield » Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:06 am

Der Spieler wrote:Has anybody seen reviews for Exposure's Secret Beyond the Door?
The Digital Fix

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#338 Post by TMDaines » Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:11 am

antnield wrote:
Der Spieler wrote:Has anybody seen reviews for Exposure's Secret Beyond the Door?
The Digital Fix
Exposure are doing a real good job with their releases and long may it continue with them hopefully filling even more of the American Lang gaps up. As the review points out they're absolutely putting the major labels to utter shame with the complete shameful rip-offs that are the DVD-R lines. We need more companies like this is who put out releases at a decent standard, who take some care in the presentation of the film and extras and put the release at a very fair price point.

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Der Spieler
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#339 Post by Der Spieler » Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:44 am

Great news! Will be ordering the hell out of this!

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#340 Post by matrixschmatrix » Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:20 pm

TMDaines wrote:Exposure are doing a real good job with their releases and long may it continue with them hopefully filling even more of the American Lang gaps up. As the review points out they're absolutely putting the major labels to utter shame with the complete shameful rip-offs that are the DVD-R lines. We need more companies like this is who put out releases at a decent standard, who take some care in the presentation of the film and extras and put the release at a very fair price point.
As much as I love Exposure (and I've bought two of their three Langs so far) I still bought the Archive version of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt- it's the better print, in the correct aspect ratio. Honestly, I care way more about the movie than I do whether the DVD is burnt or pressed

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#341 Post by TMDaines » Wed Nov 16, 2011 4:01 pm

matrixschmatrix wrote:
TMDaines wrote:Exposure are doing a real good job with their releases and long may it continue with them hopefully filling even more of the American Lang gaps up. As the review points out they're absolutely putting the major labels to utter shame with the complete shameful rip-offs that are the DVD-R lines. We need more companies like this is who put out releases at a decent standard, who take some care in the presentation of the film and extras and put the release at a very fair price point.
As much as I love Exposure (and I've bought two of their three Langs so far) I still bought the Archive version of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt- it's the better print, in the correct aspect ratio. Honestly, I care way more about the movie than I do whether the DVD is burnt or pressed
Didn't people come to the conclusion that the aspect ratio they plumped for wasn't wrong but that there's two ratios which are both arguably correct and, moreover, the academy ratio gives you the option of watching it either way anyway?

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#342 Post by matrixschmatrix » Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:35 pm

What I've read suggests that While the City Sleeps was composed for 1.33 (or 1:66) and cut down to 'Scope for some showings, and it looks it- the 'Scope version has a lot of heads and feet cut off- while Beyond a Reasonable Doubt was composed for 'Scope all along. There a fair number of reasons why an open matte print of a widescreen movie doesn't give you the option of watching it either way- I mean, a.) I'm not a fan of getting out cardboard and a ruler to watch a movie properly, and b.) it's an anamorphic release so you don't wind up wasting a lot of screen space on a widescreen monitor (and it gives you a higher bitrate for the film itself.)

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#343 Post by TMDaines » Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:07 pm

Yeh, true. Fortunately watching on a PC can easily get around these limitations.

Jonathan S
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#344 Post by Jonathan S » Thu Nov 17, 2011 2:56 am

Having seen While the City Sleeps many times in 4:3 over the last 35 years, I experimented with projecting the Exposure disc in 16:9 (zooming in) and the compositions made much more sense to me in widescreen (not quite SuperScope's 2:1 of course). I think there's far too much headroom throughout if viewed in 4:3 and it emphasises the almost TV-style cheapness of the Hughes-era RKO sets (the big multi-media New York news service always looks to me more like a parochial newsroom!) This softened the image of course but then, as Beaver notes, the Warner Archive widescreen transfer is "significantly softer" too.

Expanding the central section of open-matte transfers doesn't usually work as they always seem to have small amounts of picture missing at the sides compared to proper widescreen transfers, resulting in heads being clipped (zooming into the R1 4:3 Dial M for Murder doesn't yield the same satisfying compositions as the 16:9 R2 transfer, for example). But I suspect it works reasonably well with While the City Sleeps because the allowance for 2:1 SuperScope grants a bit more leeway. That said, I'm glad to have the option of watching it in 4:3 too.

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#345 Post by matrixschmatrix » Thu Nov 17, 2011 3:06 am

Yeah, the DVD Savant article suggested that Lang was probably expecting to have City matted to 1:66, so it makes sense that both 1.33 and 2 are off. Obviously, in that situation, having more information is preferable to having less.

PillowRock
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:54 pm

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#346 Post by PillowRock » Thu Nov 17, 2011 2:32 pm

TMDaines wrote:Yeh, true. Fortunately watching on a PC can easily get around these limitations.
Not the part about losing image resolution on the disk compared to what it would be if it were an anamorphic widescreen version.

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Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#347 Post by Der Spieler » Thu Nov 17, 2011 2:37 pm

I didn't know Dial M for Murder had a R2 16:9 counterpart. Is it more accurate than the 4:3 one?

To be honest I always thought the composition looked "odd" on the R1.

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#348 Post by TMDaines » Thu Nov 17, 2011 2:49 pm

PillowRock wrote:
TMDaines wrote:Yeh, true. Fortunately watching on a PC can easily get around these limitations.
Not the part about losing image resolution on the disk compared to what it would be if it were an anamorphic widescreen version.
I'm sure I'll get over it ^^ =;

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#349 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Nov 22, 2011 12:45 pm

If anyone's looking for screenshots or anything from Secret, my copy showed up today.

edit: Glancing at it, it looks a little softer in parts than the Digital Fix review would suggest, but still generally excellent and worth getting. The booklet is neat, too, it's actually pretty good and the essays seem to have been written specifically for this release. Honestly, I'd think this was an MoC release if I didn't know better.

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Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#350 Post by Der Spieler » Tue Nov 22, 2011 2:06 pm

PQ-wise, does it look like the Wild Side release reviewed by Beaver?

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