New Australian DVD and BD Releases

[marty]

Not sure when the flood will end either, .

FLOOD? Isn't Australia amid the worst drought in 100 years?

Haw haw haw.

Yes, we are in a drought crisis. Today's newspaper claims that we have enough water in the reserves to last only for the next 18 months! It will take seven years of above average rainfall before we can be at safe levels. Soon, we will not be able to take daily showers and baths and only shave once a week!

[devlinnn]

No one in Fitzroy for years, that's for sure.

Just picked up La Notte - caps up later today (I hope). Oddly enough, it includes the exact same doc. that was on Madman's The Red Desert. Grrrr. Why bother with that and waste precious space on the disc?

[devlinnn]

Box states 1:66:1 (4:3 standard) - dual layered - 115 min - region 4 (odd - Umbrella are usually region 0)

Just throwing disc in now....

White subs.....

On no...fairly soft looking....

What the....

Shit, this looks wider than a Greek nanny....

Noooooooooooooo.....

[devlinnn]

I'd post more caps, but it's too friggin' depressing. It looks like they've cropped the bottom off to better fit the subs. There's just no deep blacks, and it's softer than Jeanette MacDonald's middle drawer. Hopefully I can return this for...god know's what.

[Cinesimilitude]

hmm, suddenly my 10$ R1 copy looks great

hopefully criterion gets this out by the end of oh-seven.

[Cinesimilitude]

If you cant see her nipples at the bottom of the frame it's been raked too high.

A superb criteria, and words to live by. Fortunately the latest xbox 360 upgrade allows 4x3 video to be zoomed (something my tv won't allow with the HD stream) so I am able to view non-anamorphic films the way they should be viewed, although overscan kills 1.66:1.

[marty]

This is not surprising. I have Umbrella's 8 1/2 and it's dreadful and I have never purchased another Umbrella title. They get these great films and then put no effort into authoring and pre-mastering. There is no restorative work done whether it be video or audio. They just get whatever digibeta master or Betacam SP they can source from the sales agents or producers and just give them to a shithouse authoring company who just slap it onto a DLT for replication. If the source material is not up to scratch then they should demand a better one, improve it themselves or just not release the film.

[devlinnn]

Well, the nipple is on show...



and on the CRT the image is just acceptable, especially early on, but it seems to grow softer as the film goes on.

[Solaris]

There really isn't a lot to be desired in the R4 world. I've just returned from Melbourne and only picked three titles.
Both JB and Borders seem to overstocked on Fernando Arrabal Collection, as far as I can tell it is exactly the same as the R1 set.
A title exclusive to Borders, Fellini's The White Sheik actually has superior extras to the Criterion edition, including Giluietta Masina's personal recipes! [/b]

[devlinnn]

...and Madman have shot themselves in the foot with the $10 sale. The 3 Dardenne's are out next week, but at $35 a pop, who would bother? The collection I'm sure will be out before Christmas for $40 - just like the Kitano set due next month.

[marty]

Madman have shot themselves in the foot with the $10 sale. The 3 Dardenne's are out next week, but at $35 a pop, who would bother? The collection I'm sure will be out before Christmas for $40 - just like the Kitano set due next month.

Yeah, I tend to agree about the pricing. Some of Madman's titles are priced like $35 and over. I would buy some of their films like the Godard ones but not for that much. A good price for these titles is around $25 with special limited promotional pricing around $20.

[marty]

Just noticed a couple of releases from Accent - Hou hsiao-Hsien's Millennium Mambo and a French horror film starring Vincent Casell called Sheitan (DVDBeaver recently reviewed Tartan's version of this same film).

Mmmm, me thinks I may have to drop by JB Hi-Fi on the way home tonight.

[Solaris]

The upcoming Essential Bergman set from Hopscotch has had it's retail price drop by $10 to $49.45. It's listed as a 3 disc set containing Ingmar Bergman Makes A Movie as well as other extras from the Criterion set. Interestingly, the OFLC has rated the films R for "moderate themes".

[marty]

The upcoming Essential Bergman set from Hopscotch has had it's retail price drop by $10 to $49.45. It's listed as a 3 disc set containing Ingmar Bergman Makes A Movie as well as other extras from the Criterion set. Interestingly, the OFLC has rated the films R for "moderate themes".

I have the Criterion version and I suspect many others in Australia have as well. I don't think sales for this box-set will be strong and expect the price drop even further.

[Solaris]

I too have the Criterion box, and will not be purchasing the Hopscotch release.
I am curious that Hopscotch are including all the Criterion extras on only three discs, however all previous films in Hopscotch's Bergman line are Criterion titles (although R4 Virgin Spring was released before the Criterion was) and the only extras from Criterion included were audio commentaries.
If these extras are actually inlcluded in the Hopscotch set, then it will be a great buy for those who don't own the Criterion set. The R rating still puzzles me...

[devlinnn]

If these extras are actually inlcluded in the Hopscotch set, then it will be a great buy for those who don't own the Criterion set. The R rating still puzzles me...

It's either the dwarfs, or the fact most on the censorship board would have trouble dealing with female masturbation. Another young man around here would probably have a better memory than me considering he was here at the time - but I think The Silence was originally banned here, then heavily cut for the festival screenings in Sydney and Melbourne, causing the recentlly settled Mr. Strattan to have doubts on why he came here in the first place. I'm also of the feeling that the SBS screening back in the mid-80s was the first time it played here without cuts.

One more for April - restored The Major and the Minor from Madman.

[solent]

I'm glad you mentioned ULYSSES because I can't find an earlier film with the word "fuck" in it. So, for what it's worth, Strick is the first to "get away" with its use in cinematic history. This is pedantic film research of course but Altman did claim that his MASH was first and that seemed strange to me.

[devlinnn]

According to the OFLC website -

Winter Light - PG
Through a Glass Darkly - M
The Silence - ???

Neither The Silence nor Essential Bergman has a listing. Considering Persona was passed with a M rating, I'm guessing Hopscotch appealed against this decision last year, hence the delay in release. As all the artwork looks to be finalised, the OFLC site must be slow to update.

But....if Hopscotch did not appeal they are fools. The R rating would kill 50% of their sales. (Which, when thinking about it, may be the reason the price has dropped to below $50.)

One more for April from Madman,

* Wim Wenders on Film - 3-disc set, Nick's Movie / Lightning over Water : The State of Things : A Trick of the Light

[marty]

But....if Hopscotch did not appeal they are fools. The R rating would kill 50% of their sales. (Which, when thinking about it, may be the reason the price has dropped to below $50.)[/i]

I don't think having a DVD rated R would kill off sales. If anything, rated R films tend to do quite well. Besides, I don't think there would be too many 15 year-olds rushing to buy Bergman's faith trilogy.

[solent]

Someone told me that original theatrical ratings stick to the product despite any desire to change them by later distributors. THE GODFATHER is still sold by Paramount Oz with its 1972 R rating but is surely considered tame by modern standards and would receive a lesser classification.

[devlinnn]

Pretty Baby is released this week with the original M rating.

I always presumed all films had to be re-subimitted when released on DVD, even if they had a previous classification on VHS or film, for the simple reason they needed the correct 'approved' logo.

(These boards must be read more widely than I thought - the ABC announced today Virginia Trioli as Friday host of Lateline. The Tonight Show must be only months away.)

[devlinnn]

It looks like Fox are releasing titles exclusive to BigW (is this practice legal?). Anyone here picked up The Gangs All Here? PQ? Extras?

[Solaris]

I'll have to head over to Big W and check this out. Any other interesting titles?

Also, Distinction Series will release a box set of War and Peace later this year.

[devlinnn]

You're a brave soul Solaris...I've heard they've also released the Laurel and Hardy titles as single releases to Big W from the boxset that was put out a little while ago. All the releases seem to be in generic Fox/BigW cases (classy). As I'm too far away to visit, I'm only going on distant whispers from dear friends (who were obviously too tipsy to even check out the back of the case for details).

[alandau]

Oh my God......Madman is releasing 04/04 Wilder's classic FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO with amazing photography by Seitz and F Tone's best screen performance. Stroheim is brill. too.
An underrated Wilder.