BFI (British Film Institute)

[Scharphedin2]

I ordere both Killer of Sheep and Cuba from DVDEmpire. They took good care in packing the case, used maybe 5 or 6 styrofoam peanuts more than usual, and the discs (both the circular plastic things you stick in your player and the cardboard packaging that they come in) arrived completely in one piece. I also confess to actually liking the designs of these two releases.

I am impressed with the number of people, who have experienced problems with broken discs and packaging on not only these Milestone releases, but also the Ford Box, and other recent releases. Personally, I very rarely experience real damage to any items I order from any country (I pretty much order everything from abroad, as I live in Sweden). A crushed corner of a box, or a loose disc, yes, but nothing that has impaired the playing of any of the films yet (that I can think of). Just lucky I guess.

EDIT: My copy of Berlin, Alexanderplatz did arrive with the entire inside plastic housing shattered into a thousand little pieces of plastic like a broken windshield. Several of the discs were floating around in the wreckage. A couple had some scratches. Frankly, I have not had the energy to view all of it, but a quick glance through the discs revealed that they actually all played, so I have ammended the box with a couple of paper envelopes for the discs, and... I guess I am just getting old, and do not feel up to the hassle of returning the thing to the States, have the negative communication with the store on replacing the thing, and then waiting for weeks to have the new disc arrive.

[foggy eyes]

Also, it'll have the same master but the BFI dvd will not have MY BROTHER'S WEDDING, the four short films, the commentary or the essay by Armond White. Just wasn't in the deal.

Thanks for revealing that - I was waiting to see whether MBW or the shorts would be ported over. The lack seals the deal on the Milestone!

[MichaelB]

Heads up - MovieMail is having a sale of BFI DVDs.

[Dr Amicus]

Do we have a date yet for the release of Long Day Closes?

I'm hoping it's before 27th May...

[Zazou dans le Metro]

Do we have a date yet for the release of Long Day Closes?

I'm hoping it's before 27th May...

Shouldn't it be issued on June 21st.

[ellipsis7]

Greg Dyke to chair BFI
Xan Brooks and agencies

Greg Dyke, the former director general of the BBC who resigned in the wake of the Hutton inquiry, has been appointed chair of the British Film Institute. He takes over from Anthony Minghella, the Oscar-winning director of The English Patient and Cold Mountain, whose tenure saw the launch of the new BFI Southbank centre in London.
"This is an exciting moment to be joining the BFI," Dyke said in a statement. "Anthony Minghella has done a brilliant job in refocusing the BFI in a new direction. My job is to take the BFI's ambitious strategy to the next level in both the virtual and physical worlds."

Amanda Nevill, the long-standing director of the BFI, welcomed the decision this morning. "We are thrilled that Greg is to take over leadership of the BFI," she said. "He brings with him an incredible track record of leadership in the areas most critical to the BFI's forward vision. We are looking forward with confidence to his guidance through the exciting times ahead."

An experienced broadcaster, Dyke made his reputation by revitalising the struggling TV-am in the early 1980s. He was widely judged to be a popular director general of the BBC between 2000 and 2004 but fell foul of the Blair government due to the corporation's coverage of the run-up to the war in Iraq. Heavily criticised by the Hutton report, which found flaws in BBC reporting while largely exonerating government ministers, Dyke resigned from the BBC in January 2004.

Stewart Till, chairman of the UK Film Council, said: "I am absolutely delighted that Greg has agreed to lead the BFI, not least because of his track record of leading large organisations and his exceptional ability to inspire and motivate the people around him."

More populist than highbrow, and not in any way previously associated with cinema or arthouse fare... Unusual appointment!... But then it is the the Chinese 'Year of the Rat' - Roland Rat, apparently...

[Rsdio]

Strange, I was under the impression that he'd already been appointed to do something there. When I was through at the National Media Museum seeing Blade Runner I saw a flyer (stuck on the door of a toilet cubicle, no less) advertising a talk he was doing with BFI logos emblazoned on it.

[filmyfan]

Is he stalking me ???

1:-He is the Non Exec. Chairman of the football team I support.
2:-He tried and failed to buy out the company I work for.
3:-He becomes Chairman of the BFI, of which I am a member on the day I visit the BFI.

Very odd !

[domino harvey]

Is he stalking me ???

1:-He is the Non Exec. Chairman of the football team I support.
2:-He tried and failed to buy out the company I work for.
3:-He becomes Chairman of the BFI, of which I am a member on the day I visit the BFI.

Very odd !

Quick, switch your MySpace preferences to "Private"!

[Awesome Welles]

Every now and again a little home entertainment industry magazine called RRP turns up in my office, it is usually rubbish, though today I have found an interview with James White (head of technical content for DVD and digital distribution) and (the interview is about his DVD collection) he says that the BFI will be releasing a few of his favourites soon - he mentions Red Desert, Killer of Sheep, silents from Asquith and Borzage. Plenty for everyone to get their teeth into!

[foggy eyes]

he mentions Red Desert, Killer of Sheep, silents from Asquith and Borzage. Plenty for everyone to get their teeth into!

A Cottage on Dartmoor is definitely on the way, but I really hope they dig up Asquith's Underground too - rollicking fun with a compellingly awful performance from Norah Baring and wonderful climax atop Battersea Power Station.

The latest BFI Southbank programme has information on what looks to be an amazing forthcoming British documentary collection:

Land of Promise: The British Documentary Movement

Featuring 40 films over four DVDs, this collection is a major retrospective of documentary film-making in Britain between 1930 and 1950. These films - many being made available here for the first time since original release - capture the spirit and strength, concerns and resolve of Britain and its people before, during and after WW2. Extras include new interviews with some of the directors, John Grierson's 1959 address to the NFT, and a booklet containing essays, biographies and film notes by leading scholars in the field.

Four-disc set. £29.99.

[MichaelB]

I'm delighted this news is finally out in the open, as I've been sitting on it for months!

I won't post a list of titles just yet, as my copy dates from last September and may not be 100% accurate, but I was peripherally involved with the project (mostly writing booklet notes), and I can't imagine anyone being disappointed.

The 40 titles include loads of obvious ones (there's plenty of Humphrey Jennings, for instance, and major Jennings at that), but they're interleaved with far less well known work that's been unfairly neglected - for instance, Ken Annakin's Fenlands (1945), an enthralling portrait of the daily lives of the East Anglian watermen whose job is a constant battle with nature: the region has plenty of high-quality farmland, but much of it is below sea level.

[htdm]

I hope this means we'll finally get a decent copy of Song of Ceylon!

[Subbuteo]

Ken Annakin's Fenlands (1945), an enthralling portrait of the daily lives of the East Anglian watermen whose job is a constant battle with nature: the region has plenty of high-quality farmland, but much of it is below sea level.

I am delighted by this news, having spent many a year in my teens working in the region at a place called Hickling Broad, a beautiful landscape with the original dyke system built by the forefathers of the documented fens men.
The system they built is still in full working order but now (thank god) nature conservation is the main form of land management...this thankfully has enabled the continuation of reed production for thatching and the preservation of this unique landscape heritage. One wonders how much longer we can protect it from sea level rises!
Annakin's film is indeed a beautiful documentary, pure nostalgia for me.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

This more than compensates for the rather lacklustre start by Criterion to 2008. I hope this series expands to include comprehensive Jennings sets as well as Len Lye who surely is screaming out for a 'complete works' style set. What are the Len Lye Foundation up to anyway?

Given that they have done a Painleve set is there any chance that the BFI might one day bring out an equivalent set of French docs from the 30's/40's with names such as Gremillon,Carne,Franju,Epstein and Bellon still to be collected at all ?? We can but hope.

[meanwhile]

Annakin's Fenlands is one of six fascinating films in 'The Pattern of Britain' series, made between 1944 and 1947. The other films in the series are The Grassy Shires, Cornish Valley, Downlands, Crofters (with a commentary written by Laurie Lee) and North East Corner. They are available on the Panamint collections 'The Pattern of Britain' and 'The Glen is Ours', and I think (for once) the prints on these dvds are very good. They are very interesting little films indeed; on the one hand they serve to reclaim the land and the country's regional differences for its inhabitants after years of war, though any nostalgia is balanced by a hard-headed practicality about how the countryside has to adapt to meet new requirements.

Oh, and yes, Len Lye, as much as possible please - 'ziggle-zag-splutter scratches', 'orbital whippy rhythm whips' and all.

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

Our friends at the BFI will also be releasing a collection of Ozon shorts in March including Action Verite, La Petite Mort, Une Robe d'ete, Scenes de Lit, X2000, and Un Lever de Rideau. I imagine it'll be the same as sets released in Oz and the US...

[Awesome Welles]

The BFIwill release more Preminger - Margin for Error and A Royal Scandal in a 2 disc set in March. Plus 5 by Kiarostami.

[Person]

Margin for Error is a poor choice. One of Otto's worst. The Moon Is Blue would have been a better choice if an Otto comedy was desired. It's owned by the Preminger Estate, so the BFI could probably get it with little trouble. There's a French DVD of it.

The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell needs a better transfer than the R1. Terrific film.

A Royal Scandal is pretty good, though - Tallulah's in it and that is always more than you ever need in a movie.

[What A Disgrace]

Can anyone attest to the picture quality of Ghattak's A River Called Titas? I own their Cloud Capped Star, and despite some obvious flaws, its perfectly acceptable to me.

[MichaelB]

Can anyone attest to the picture quality of Ghattak's A River Called Titas? I own their Cloud Capped Star, and despite some obvious flaws, its perfectly acceptable to me.

Going from the DVD Times review, it sounds very similar.

[lazier than a toad]

Can anyone attest to the picture quality of Ghattak's A River Called Titas? I own their Cloud Capped Star, and despite some obvious flaws, its perfectly acceptable to me.

I've got Titas and the image isn't great - about the same as that on the Cloud Capped Star disc, maybe a touch worse with a slightly overblown contrast, but I still think its worth. After all, what other choices are there?

[MichaelB]

DVD Times on Five - 9/10 in every category.

And although I can scarcely claim to be a disinterested party (I wrote some of the booklet notes), I can pretty much unreservedly recommend the Land of Promise DVD collection, which is one of those wonderful anthologies whose real gems lie in the little-known titles - though it's obviously great to have major work like Jennings' A Diary for Timothy getting a decent DVD transfer too.

There's such a vast amount of social and cultural history buried in a film like Ordinary People - a film about Londoners' unflappability under German bombing raids, made when the Blitz was still very much an ongoing event - that it becomes as rich an experience as the most symbol-laden arthouse film: in fact, I've been spending the last few nights alternating three or four of the films in the collection with Miklós Jancsó's back catalogue.

Terrific transfers, too, given the (understandably) variable source materials - and optional subtitles throughout.

[foggy eyes]

DVD Times on Five - 9/10 in every category.

Looks definitive, as unlike the Mk2 and Kino releases this one is progressive (glad to see that the BFI have included Around Five, as it really would have been a major oversight if they didn't). Geoff Andrew's piece in the booklet will probably be very similar to his thoughts on the film in his monograph on Ten, and Romney has already written about the film twice in Sight & Sound (in the article De Rigueur Digital in July 2004 and his feature review in June 2005).

[What A Disgrace]

Lubitsch's Cluny Brown is coming May 26.