Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema

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MichaelB · #1 Post by **MichaelB** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:04 pm

Full specs announced:

Kim Newman’s Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
A DVD sampler, released 25 January exclusively in HMV RRP £1.99

If you’re a fan of classic and cult British films – from Alfie to Performance, from The Devils to Withnail and I – then this indispensable guide to a previously uncharted, alternative history of British cinema is for you...

In an all-new documentary, produced exclusively for the BFI, the UK's most knowledgeable and well-respected cult film critic, Kim Newman, explores such questions as how the director of Help! and Superman II came to make one of the world's greatest, but little-known, black comedies, and lifts the lid on which previously unseen British film features Helen Mirren in her debut role.

Along with a selection of original trailers and short films – including one that is exclusive to this release* – this is your passport to the exciting and surprising world of The Flipside. All titles can now be seen on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time ever, in the BFI Flipside collection. The sampler includes:

- Carousella (1966, 25 mins): originally banned by the BBFC, this controversial dramatised documentary on the lives of a group of striptease artistes was directed by celebrated Hollywood filmmaker John Irvin (Hamburger Hill, Raw Deal)
- The Spy's Wife (1972, 27 mins): directed by Gerry O'Hara (All the Right Noises, The Bitch), this little-seen short film stars the inimitable Tom Bell (The L-Shaped Room, Prime Suspect) and Ann Lynn (Screamtime, Separation) in a modish tale of intrigue and extra-marital relations
- Tomorrow Night in London*: a vibrant and fast-paced tourist board short made in the 1960s extolling the virtues, and fashions, of London's swinging scene
- Flipside trailer reel
- Illustrated booklet with essays and film credits

#2 Post by **zedz** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 7:03 pm

Brilliant! This is like The Faust Tapes of the 00s.

whaleallright · #3 Post by **whaleallright** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 3:06 am

Brilliant! This is like The Faust Tapes of the 00s.

If that's the case then we can except to see many copies of this in used shops in years to come.

Yojimbo · #4 Post by **Yojimbo** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 4:29 am

Hopefully somebody will remind me of this closer to the release date so I can keep an eye out for it in my local HMV

antnield · #5 Post by **antnield** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:09 pm

Now up for pre-order...

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDet ... sku=306015

reaky · #6 Post by **reaky** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 1:04 pm

Hmm - a 50% price increase for the privilege of not having to set foot inside an HMV store. Tempting...

MichaelB · #7 Post by **MichaelB** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:23 pm

reaky wrote:Hmm - a 50% price increase for the privilege of not having to set foot inside an HMV store. Tempting...

Newcomers to this thread might be a tad baffled - but that's because HMV initally and erroneously listed the online price as £2.99, but it's since been corrected.

tajmahal · #8 Post by **tajmahal** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:55 pm

reaky wrote:Hmm - a 50% price increase for the privilege of not having to set foot inside an HMV store. Tempting...

Visiting the store would be faster than waiting for the page to open. The HMV website is so slow.

antnield · #9 Post by **antnield** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:50 pm

Cover art:

MichaelB · #10 Post by **MichaelB** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:52 pm

Blimey, Kim's changed a lot since I last saw him.

He looked more like this earlier, but I daresay it's an old photo.

Cash Flagg · #11 Post by **Cash Flagg** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 3:01 am

Is there any possibility of Amazon UK eventually carrying this, for the US buyer?

The Elegant Dandy Fop · Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:25 am

Cash Flagg wrote:Is there any possibility of Amazon UK eventually carrying this, for the US buyer?

Some thing I'm wondering. Are there any friendly folks from the UK who would buy and ship me a copy? I have a pretty good seller/buyer score and would definitely reimburse you for shipping and the cost of the disc.

Private message me if you're this kind soul.

arsonfilms · #13 Post by **arsonfilms** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:38 am

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:
Cash Flagg wrote:Is there any possibility of Amazon UK eventually carrying this, for the US buyer?
Some thing I'm wondering. Are there any friendly folks from the UK who would buy and ship me a copy? I have a pretty good seller/buyer score and would definitely reimburse you for shipping and the cost of the disc.

Private message me if you're this kind soul.

I'd very much like the same, although I suppose most people here would. How likely is this to stop being an HMV exclusive at some point?

MichaelB · #14 Post by **MichaelB** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:54 am

arsonfilms wrote:How likely is this to stop being an HMV exclusive at some point?

The disc will also be available from the BFI Filmstore as of launch date, and then from Amazon (and presumably other retailers) from March once the HMV exclusive window ends.

antnield · #15 Post by **antnield** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:36 pm

The blurb on the HMV website - see link above - now mentions that the central Newman doc will be 40 minutes in length (and that the exclusive Tomorrow Night in London has a 5min duration).

MichaelB · #16 Post by **MichaelB** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:53 pm

The running times are as follows:

Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema - 36:34
Tomorrow Night in London - 4:55
Carousella - 25:16
The Spy's Wife - 26:56

plus trailers (all of which are well worth watching in their own right):

The Bed-Sitting Room - 3:05
London in the Raw - 1:47
Primitive London - 1:52
Man of Violence - 2:51
The Big Switch - 2:56
Privilege - 2:45
Permissive - 2:03

...which adds up to a nice round 111 minutes. In other words, just under a pound an hour - which is about as big a bargain as you'll find anywhere.

The Kim Newman documentary is great fun: it's as no-frills as the RRP would suggest (it's basically him talking us title by title through the Flipside catalogue plus spin-offs like the Jane Arden/Jack Bond titles), though there are loads of clips and more than enough intelligent commentary to keep me watching - and bear in mind I've already seen most of the films. The 16-page booklet is skimpier than the usual Flipside efforts, but includes full notes and credits for all the supporting shorts.

antnield · #17 Post by **antnield** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:59 pm

...and the HMV pre-orders were posted today. Or at least mine was.

antnield · #18 Post by **antnield** » Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:24 pm

My copy arrived today. Just to add what Michael has added, it's packaged in an Amaray case as per all previous Flipside titles and gets the Flipside number of 000. The notes for the three shorts are all by Vic Pratt - those for Carousella and The Spy's Wife previously having appeared, respectively, in the DVD booklets for Primitive London and All the Right Noises. (Incidentally, the Newman doc was produced by Nucleus Films [Marc Morris and Jake West] who've also put together DVD extras for the likes of Anchor Bay's Pete Walker and Norman J Warren boxed sets, and the cult Brummie horror-comedy I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle, amongst others.)

antnield · #19 Post by **antnield** » Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:13 am

DVD Times

MichaelB · #20 Post by **MichaelB** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:20 pm

Beaver - not entirely sure why he needed more than one grab of Kim!

bamwc2 · #21 Post by **bamwc2** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:31 pm

MichaelB wrote:Beaver - not entirely sure why he needed more than one grab of Kim!

I'll put it this way, sometimes when you're done getting captures, you have more good ones than you know what to do with and sometimes you don't.

reaky · #22 Post by **reaky** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 12:54 pm

For interested UK members with proximity to a FOPP, I saw this for sale in there yesterday for £2, notwithstanding its HMV-Exclusive status (HMV own Fopp these days).

HarryLong · #23 Post by **HarryLong** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:52 pm

MichaelB wrote:Beaver - not entirely sure why he needed more than one grab of Kim!

Kim finally got a new vest.

MichaelB · #24 Post by **MichaelB** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 10:41 pm

Wild Tyme

MichaelB · #25 Post by **MichaelB** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:36 am

Irish Times - "the greatest DVD bargain of all time."

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