New Australian DVD and BD Releases

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Rufus T. Firefly · Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:04 am

Night of Fear wouldn't have subs as there is no dialogue. I've found reviews for some of these titles and none of them have subs, not even the new Stone set.

luridedith · #927 Post by **luridedith** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:06 am

Lino wrote:Have they got subtitles of any kind?

Are we Australians that hard to understand?

ellipsis7 · #928 Post by **ellipsis7** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:22 am

luridedith wrote:
Lino wrote:Have they got subtitles of any kind?
Are we Australians that hard to understand?

No!... (sorry Sir Les!!)

charal · #929 Post by **charal** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 4:37 am

JIMMIE BLACKSMITH & DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND are up at Ezy for November 3. Both will have audio commentaries.

p.s. for some reason my "solent" login won't work so I am 'coming out' as myself.

tavernier · #930 Post by **tavernier** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:04 am

Finally!!! =D> =P~

menthymenthy · #931 Post by **menthymenthy** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 2:07 pm

Woah, both those covers looks quite amazing. My only problem with Umbrella releases have been that their DVD Covers have looked really awful and amateur. Both those covers look like something Criterion will use.

Well done, Umbrella.

Also, both Devil's Playground and Jimmie Blacksmith have been remastered for some time now. ABC aired both films two years ago within two weeks, and both films were in Widescreen. Both looked quite great, if a little dull. Hopefully this DVD set will look nicer - and I'm sure it will.

I'm starting to like Umbrella even more now. Hopefully in the future they will release more DVDs in this quality. And, yes, subtitles would be nice.

GaryC · #932 Post by **GaryC** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 5:56 pm

If the running time listed by EzyDVD (120 mins) is correct, then Umbrella are releasing the full-length cut of Jimmie Blacksmith, which ran 124 minutes without the PAL speed-up. Schepisi re-edited the film to 112 minutes after its first release.

Both cuts have played in the UK: the longer one in cinemas, the shorter one on pan-and-scan VHS. I've only seen the film on TV, on its second Channel 4 showing in the late 80s, when it was shown letterboxed to approximately 1.66:1, and I can't remember which version I saw. Knowing how well Schepisi uses Scope, I am really looking forward to this DVD.

Tolmides · #933 Post by **Tolmides** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 9:45 am

Apologies if this has been raised on this thread before, but I was wondering if anybody owned either of these two box sets and/or could comment on their quality.

Cheers!

Darth Lavender · #934 Post by **Darth Lavender** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:47 pm

Tolmides wrote:Apologies if this has been raised on this thread before, but I was wondering if anybody owned either of these two box sets and/or could comment on their quality.

Varied. I've rented most of the dvds in those sets;

Volume 1;
All NTSC>PAL conversions (as far as I recall) mostly taken from the older Criterions.
I was going to say "worth considering as a budget way to build a Kurosawa collection" but at $100, I'm just going to say AVOID.

Volume 2;
Rashomon is excellent. The only release there that I actually own. The extras equal the Criterion (mostly identical, except the Criterion has a commentary & booklet, the Madman has a 75 minute documentary) and transfered directly from the same HD master as the Criterion.

Throne of Blood & Red Beard - Again, NTSC>PAL conversions of the Criterions without the extras.

The Fencing Master - Never heard of it (the movie or the DVD) so I can't really comment.

Again, depending on what you're looking for (price vs quality, etc.) Volume 2 with at least one excellent disk (retailing for $25 seperately) might actually be worth considering, especially if you find it cheap.

Tolmides · #935 Post by **Tolmides** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 8:33 am

Thank you Darth.

Apparently the Fencing Master is an obscure late 40s movie which Kurosawa wrote but didn't direct. Not quite sure why they plunked it in a Kurosawa box set when there are other films...but I guess you'd just consider it a bonus.

The Fanciful Norwegian · Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:56 am

Tolmides wrote:Apparently the Fencing Master is an obscure late 40s movie which Kurosawa wrote but didn't direct. Not quite sure why they plunked it in a Kurosawa box set when there are other films...but I guess you'd just consider it a bonus.

The Madman Fencing Master is the color remake from 1962. I agree it's an odd choice, but I'm glad they're using it as the semi-obligatory box set exclusive instead of one of the "proper" Kurosawas.

videozor · #937 Post by **videozor** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 6:45 pm

Is Midnight Cowboy 2-disk CE/SE issued in Australia (R4)?

If so, is it somehow better than the R1 set?

I read Beaver comparison of R1 set. Appears to be interlaced, etc.

Was not able to locate any review on either R2 or R4 on the Internet.

Can somebody advise?

Thanks in advance!

charal · #938 Post by **charal** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 8:21 pm

MAD DOG MORGAN is coming out in January through Shock. Hopefully this will be a decent release unlike the very poor Avenue One version [a longer director's cut but very poor quality]. This version appears to be the shorter 98min cut but deleted scenes are included as well as other extras.

charal · #939 Post by **charal** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 8:58 pm

Yet another in the Madman series of Fassbinder releases.

bigP · #940 Post by **bigP** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 10:33 am

And a 3 disc set of Peter Greenaway's 'The Tulse Luper Suitcases'

GaryC · #941 Post by **GaryC** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 6:53 am

charal wrote:MAD DOG MORGAN is coming out in January through Shock. Hopefully this will be a decent release unlike the very poor Avenue One version [a longer director's cut but very poor quality]. This version appears to be the shorter 98min cut but deleted scenes are included as well as other extras.

I hope so too. The transfer of the previous edition could hardly be worse.

charal · #942 Post by **charal** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:04 am

All other editions currently and recently available are of the 4:3 truncated US release. The Oz version has no titles announcing the dates throughout Morgan's career.

GaryC · #943 Post by **GaryC** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:30 am

charal wrote:All other editions currently and recently available are of the 4:3 truncated US release. The Oz version has no titles announcing the dates throughout Morgan's career.

I have the Australian region-free PAL version from Avenue One, released 2001. A few notes:

Although the packaging calls the film Mad Dog Morgan, the opening credits of this print bear the title Mad Dog.

The ratio of this DVD is 2.1:1 (measured), which is cropped from the OAR of 2.35:1. The cropping appears to be all on the left side of the frame - particularly noticeable during the end credits, where the beginnings of words have disappeared off the edge of the screen. This transfer is non-anamorphic.

I have yet to watch this all the way through, so I can't comment about the lack of date titles.

The running time is 98:39. The original running time is 102 mins (as per David Stratton's book The Last New Wave) - the BBFC says 102:51 on its site, so this DVD time is consistent with the full version given PAL speed-up. The BBFC also record video/DVD classifications in 1990 and 2003 of 93:42 and 94:29 (both under the Mad Dog title), which is presumably the shortened version - I don't know if these are PAL speed-ups or NTSC-to-PAL standards conversions - nor the ratios, though I would be very surprised if the 1990 VHS was anything but 4:3.

The DVD claims to be "digitally remastered from original negative", but it's one of the worst DVD transfers in my entire collection. In addition to the cropping above, it's scratched and faded very badly, not to mention strange artefacts like the blue of a man's shirt becoming separated from the shirt itself.

The DVD does contain the 23-minute making-of documentary "To Kill a Mad Dog" which is apparently going to be on Shock's DVD, along with a Philippe Mora commentary and an interview with Dennis Hopper.

charal · #944 Post by **charal** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:52 pm

You forgot to mention the loud buzzing on the audio. This is especially enjoyable during quiet scenes.

Your 'review' reminds me of this classic: http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Reviews/Re ... iewID=1493

Tolmides · #945 Post by **Tolmides** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:12 am

Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection. Missing Marnie, Topaz and Torn Curtain - anybody know any plausible reason behind that?

Matango · #946 Post by **Matango** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 5:56 am

Going back a few posts to Umbrella subtitles: I just picked up their release of Tati's Parade, which has subtitles, kind of, as long as you don't mind downloading them as a PDF file from the DVD and printing them out. There's nothing on screen, and while they may not be vital to the film, why couldn't Umbrella have just put them on instead of offering a readalong handout, I wonder?

charal · #947 Post by **charal** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:09 pm

The 2 Schepisi films came in yesterday. PLAYGROUND in in 1.77:1 and BLACKSMITH is 2.35:1. Both films look better than I have ever seen them. Only extras are 2 making of featurettes, interviews, trailers and a Q & A session FROM 1978. No subs [no surprise] and region free [despite the fact that the discs are being released in the US]. Many interesting photos have also been included.

And now... on to MAD DOG......

charal · #948 Post by **charal** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:05 am

Correction to my last post: the 1978 featurette is about the two leads and was made on location [10 mins]. The Q & A is from a recent film festival screening of BLACKSMITH. Also I forgot to mention the two schepisi audio commentaries on both sets are intact as advertised.
The interview with Lewis is revealing and very honest.

I picked up the Umbrella Herzog set [SIGNS OF LIFE, KASPAR, STROSZEK, etc..]. I compared the first film to the New Yorker version and can confirm that the print and the subs are identical. All the films are with white subs except for KASPAR HAUSER [dreaded yellow] and all the films are 16:9 apart from the 2 early B & W films. GREEN ANTS has an audio commentary by Herzog in German with subs.

charal · #949 Post by **charal** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:39 am

Yet another Madman Fassbinder coming early next year. This one has THE THIRD GENERATION included, a film I last saw in 1984.

GaryC · #950 Post by **GaryC** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:12 am

charal wrote:Correction to my last post: the 1978 featurette is about the two leads and was made on location [10 mins]. The Q & A is from a recent film festival screening of BLACKSMITH. Also I forgot to mention the two schepisi audio commentaries on both sets are intact as advertised.
The interview with Lewis is revealing and very honest.

My copy arrived today. For the record, this is the original theatrical cut of Jimmie Blacksmith (118 mins with PAL speed-up), and not the shortened version Schepisi cut after the film's release. (The short version, 112 minutes, has been released on British VHS, and probably elsewhere too. I think it was the version I saw on British television some twenty years ago, but I can't be sure of that.)

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