BFI (British Film Institute)

[MichaelB]

BFI DVD Publishing has announced its plans for the next few months:

7 June

Kurosawa Samurai Collection (1954-1962)
This 5-disc DVD box-set brings together Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, Sanjuro and one of the BFI’s all-time best-selling titles, Seven Samurai.

21 June

The Adelphi Collection: Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary (1953) & My Wife’s Lodger (1952)
The Adelphi Collection showcases long-neglected works produced by this family-run British film studio. This second release is a double-bill of rare, early Diana Dors comedies. Also starring Sid James. Dual Format Edition

Black Jack (Ken Loach, 1979)
DVD premiere of this visually stunning feature film from one of Britain’s most celebrated filmmakers, adapted from Leon Garfield’s children’s novel, set in 1750s York.

19 July

The COI Collection Volume 3: They Stand Ready (1946-76)
To help paint a positive picture of life in the Services, the Central Office of Information produced these morale-boosting documentaries, propaganda items and recruitment films. DVD

Secrets of Nature (1922-1933)
Launched in 1922, this series pioneered ground-breaking techniques of slow-motion, time-lapse and microscopic photography in films exploring the wondrous worlds of animal, plant and insect life. DVD

The films of Yasujiro Ozu – an extensive new BFI DVD project launching in Dual Format Editions
- Tokyo Story (1953) & Brothers and Sister of the Toda Family
- Late Spring (1949) & The Only Son
- Early Summer (1951) & What did the Lady Forget?

23 August

Loving Memory (Tony Scott, 1970) Now one of Hollywood's most bankable UK ex-pats (The Hunger, Top Gun, True Romance, Enemy of the State and many more), the then 26 year-old Tony Scott's first feature is set on the Yorkshire moors and follows the story of a brother and sister living alone with their memories and a macabre secret. Dual Format Edition

A Zed & Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway, 1985)
This extraordinary tale of obsession, scored by Michael Nyman, is provocative, funny and stylish. Blu-ray

The Edge of the World (Michael Powell, 1937)
A Blu-ray debut for the film which established the daring techniques and experimentation that would become familiar hallmarks of Michael Powell’s esteemed career

The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961)
Deborah Kerr gives the performance of her career in one of the greatest of all ghost stories on film – an intensely unsettling experience. Blu-ray

13 September
BFI Flipside 012 & 013 released on Dual Format Editions:

Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (Clive Donner, 1968)
A long-awaited release for this lively comedy following the sexual exploits of the irrepressible teenager Jamie (Barry Evans), full of adolescent energy and angst in 1960s Stevenage

Bronco Bullfrog (Barney Platts-Mills, 1969)
This leading cult film of the late 1960s is one of the finest records of Mod culture in British cinema

Prostitute (Tony Garnett, 1980)
Gritty and ground-breaking film about sex-workers in the Midlands. Dual Format Edition

Enid Blyton’s Famous Five
Volume 1: Five on a Treasure Island (1957) – Close to the spirit of the perennially popular first Famous Five novel, this eight part series is full of adventure, mystery and lashings of ginger beer.
Volume 2: Five Have a Mystery to Solve (1964) – This second series follows Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog on an adventure to Whispering Island. DVD

Stating the obvious, everything above is subject to change.

[Gregory]

Has Danger - Love at Work gone out of print? It's currently unavailable on Amazon UK and I can't find any trace of it in the BFI DVD store.

[Jonathan S]

Yes, I believe that title and quite a few other Fox-licenced releases (e.g. Margin for Error/A Royal Scandal, Cry of the City) have recently gone OOP. There are still cheap sealed copies of some titles including Danger on eBay and Amazon Marketplace, though if you're outside the UK it may be more difficult/expensive to buy from these sources.

[tojoed]

I've seen copies of "Danger" recently in my local Fopp for £3, so if anyone wants one I can probably get it.

[monks19]

hi, does anybody knows if BFI is going o finaly release the pal dvd of the Photoplay edition of the Phantom of the opera (1925) ? beacause it's announced for years that it was going to be released, according to photoplay website.

thanks to answer

[Gregory]

I've seen copies of "Danger" recently in my local Fopp for £3, so if anyone wants one I can probably get it.

I ordered it from Amazon UK for that price, apparently on clearance, and they ran out of stock before shipping my order. Surprisingly, though, they were able to obtain another one so that my order would be fulfilled. Thanks for the offer just the same.

[What A Disgrace]

Since BFI has such good working relations with Fox (well, they have a working relation!), I wonder what the possibilities are of a Blu-ray of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, or The Girl Can't Help It?

[Zazou dans le Metro]

With one hand dithering over my Amazon shopping basket for Criterion Ozu's I'm wondering when we can expect info on the next BFI batch.

[MichaelB]

An interview with Sam Dunn, head of BFI DVD Publishing.

[Awesome Welles]

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet but

a new blu-ray edition of 'Seven Samurai' in October - the first in a series of Kurosawa blu-rays

[MichaelB]

The BFI National Archive website has just had a major revamp.

And the Archive's BFI Most Wanted site, highlighting 75 missing British films that the BFI is trying to track down, has also just been launched. Each film gets its own page that tries to reconstruct the film as much as is possible based on contemporary accounts, reviews, memoirs, stills, pressbooks and other memorabilia.

This is a successor to the Missing Believed Lost initiative from 1992, which managed to turn up around sixteen previously-missing films, so here's hoping this one bears fruit too - even though Hitchcock's The Mountain Eagle is probably too much to hope for.

[Tommaso]

"Where is Parsifal" (1983): Heavens, how can a film from the 1980s, which even had a public showing, be lost?

Otherwise this list makes me very melancholic, of course. "Two crowded hours: Michael Powell's first film, a very good little murder drama"... And so many others. Ah well...

[Awesome Welles]

"Where is Parsifal" (1983): Heavens, how can a film from the 1980s, which even had a public showing, be lost?

I thought the same thing. I also liked Kim Newman's review "an hour and a half of unmitigated shit" intriguing to say the least!

[eerik]

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet but

a new blu-ray edition of 'Seven Samurai' in October - the first in a series of Kurosawa blu-rays

So what other Kurosawa films can we expect to see on Blu-ray?

[knives]

Couldn't figure were else to put this so, are all of the BFI blus in the dual release or is it only IB and the Ozus?

[MichaelB]

I think The Edge of the World is Blu-ray only, as are The Innocents and A Zed and Two Noughts, because they've already come out on DVD.

But if a title is new to BFI DVD as well (as with Institute Benjamenta, the Ozus and the Flipside titles), it'll be Dual Format.

Obviously, that's not necessarily a hard and fast rule, but it's standing up for now.

[perkizitore]

It would be great if you could re-release older blu-ray titles like Herostratus in the dual-format.

[MichaelB]

And just to avoid any further confusion, Dual Format releases date from May 2010 - so anything that came out before then (i.e. Herostratus) is out in separate Blu-ray and DVD editions.

Dual Format releases to date are:

Institute Benjamenta
The Party's Over
The Pleasure Girls
Early Summer/What Did The Lady Forget?
Late Spring/The Only Son
Tokyo Story/Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family

...with Loving Memory, Bronco Bullfrog and Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush coming out in the next couple of months.

[MichaelB]

It would be great if you could re-release older blu-ray titles like Herostratus in the dual-format.

It would be, but I suspect it isn't commercially viable. At the very least, the first printing would have to sell out.

[antnield]

One for UK users of this forum: a few weeks back the BFI put a number of their films (ie, those in which they had a hand in the production of) onto LoveFilm for free streaming to those with subscriptions. This probably isn't a complete list (and I'm mentioning only those which haven't been issued on disc) but includes plenty of interesting titles, both shorts and features...

Above Us the Earth, Ascendancy, Baby, Beachcombers, A Bit of Scarlet, A Bunny Girl's Tale, Caught Looking, Coping With Cupid, Don't Get Me Started, Elenya, Eros Erosion, Flames of Passion, Flight to Berlin, Friendship's Death, High Fidelity, I'm British But..., Lap, Lay of the Land, The Love Child, The Loved, Maeve, Melancholia, Miss Queencake, Out of Order, The Peaches, Random Acts of Intimacy, Rapunzel Let Down Your Hair, Salvation Guaranteed, Silent Scream, Speak Like a Child, Spindrift, 3 Steps to Heaven, Traveller, Wasn't She There, White Bits

Quite a list, with the Wollen and Petit titles particularly welcome, though the majority are of interest (Above Us the Earth makes for an interesting counterpoint to the Portrait of a Miner DVD set) and fingers crossed there'll be more to come...

[zedz]

I heartily recommend Friendship's Death. Considering how big a name Tilda Swinton has become, it's surprising that the film with her first starring role (as The Woman Who Fell to Earth, no less) hasn't come out on DVD yet.

[nolanoe]

The DVD-label-branch of the BFI has become my favorite DVD label VERY fast. Their restorations are outstanding (especially regarded from the pov from somebody who's grateful for every 30+ year old film that in 10 years time still will look as if it shot yesterday), the films itself essential and the extras informative and interesting.

However, I was wondering about earlier releases who weren't on par with the newer ones, like More or Céline et Julie vont en bateau. Will these titles be re-released eventually in a "better" restoration/quality? Are any known plans underway for titles?

[Tommaso]

Seconded. There are now new Italian discs of Visconti's "Ossessione" and "La terra trema", for instance. While I haven't seen the first, "La terra trema" surely blows away the old BFI disc in every respect. Should be a very strong candidate for a re-issue.

And what also came to my mind recently is how underrepresented (if represented at all) Erich von Stroheim is in the UK market. Any chance for getting out "The Merry Widow" and "The Wedding March", or even only "Foolish Wives" and "Queen Kelly" (though for these two the Kino discs are fine)?

[Dr Amicus]

With the Flicker Alley edition of the Keystone Chaplins on its way, what are the chances of seeing the long promised BFI edition before the end of the year?

[antnield]

This pre-order at Play.com (for the 6th December) may hold the answer...