BFI (British Film Institute)

[SpiderBaby]

Thank you so much.

[colinr0380]

I've just received a mailer from the BFI listing their upcoming releases for the next few months and in addition to the titles we know of already it also mentions that Volume 5 of the COI series (called "Portrait of a People") is being released on the 18th July, the same day as another title which I'll quote the description of below:

Here's a Health to the Barley Mow, a double-DVD set examining a century of British folk customs and ancient rural games on film, from May Day queens to mummers, from bottle kicking to tar barrel rolling, from sword dancing to Shrove Tuesday football (£19.99)

Oh, and apparently Salo is getting reissued as a Dual Format release (3 discs; £22.99) on 20th June.

[MichaelB]

The BFI's long-gestating Extreme Folk Project finally gets a title! This should be a real jaw-dropper - and the sort of project that only a very large (or very specialised) archive could pull off.

As for Portrait of a People, it's a collection of COI films mainly designed to present images of 'Britishness' to foreigners. In the 1960s, the Foreign Office was by far the biggest sponsor of COI films, but of course these were the ones that very rarely got shown in Britain, being intended strictly for export only.

[Nothing]

There were some great deals on BFI blu-rays on Amazon last month - The Bed Sitting Room, Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and others going for £5-99. Some are still available at that price (eg. The Other Side of Underneath), but most of the titles are now listing as out of print - what's up with that?

[swo17]

See here.

[Nothing]

Ah-ha. The price makes many of these worth picking up now, imho.

[Murdoch]

Has Cluny Brown gone OOP?

[perkizitore]

Why is the BFI re-releasing Salo on DVD

[MichaelB]

As far as I'm aware, it's being released in a Dual Format version for the first time, in common with most of the other separate Blu-ray/DVD releases of 2008-2010 - so it looks like a straightforward listings error on HMV's part.

My understanding is that it'll be a triple-disc release comprising disc one of the Blu-ray package, disc one of the DVD, and the second DVD that was common to both.

[MichaelB]

Official announcement about the Dual Format reissues:

The BFI announces that its best-selling title Salò or The 120 Days of Sodom, previously released in separate Blu-ray and DVD formats, will be released in a Dual Format Edition (DVD and Blu-ray discs in one box) on 23 May.

The new DFE release will be a three-disc set containing one Blu-ray and two DVD discs. It will have an RRP of £22.99, the same price as the original 2-disc DVD. The stand-alone Blu-ray edition was previously priced at £24.99.

All the special features from the original releases will be included. The separate DVD and Blu-ray editions are now deleted.

The BFI launched its Dual Format Edition initiative in May 2010 with the Quay Brothers’ Institute Benjamenta and has rapidly increased the number of titles it releases this way.

The launch of Salò represents the first of several titles that will be deleted in their stand-alone formats and re-issued over the coming months. Other titles include the first nine of the BFI Flipside series as well as The Bill Douglas Trilogy, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

Sam Dunn, Head of BFI Video Publishing, comments:

‘We have been very encouraged by the success of our Dual Format Edition titles over the last year. We led the field in the independent sector in bringing non-mainstream titles to Blu-ray and have subsequently been flattered to see our Dual Format Edition initiative followed by other boutique labels. This format represents great value to the consumer as well as providing flexibility between software and hardware.’

[knives]

It doesn't seem to mention the trilogy of life which likewise appears to be OOP.

[MichaelB]

My understanding is that all the previous separate BD/DVD releases will be merged into Dual Format reissues, apart from last summer's trio of The Innocents, A Zed and Two Noughts and The Edge of the World.

[MichaelB]

BFI statement on the recent double win at the Focal International Awards:

BFI’s restoration of The Great White Silence wins ‘Best Archival Restoration Title’ at the Focal International Awards

The Chaplin Keystone Project, a restoration project by Lobster Films, BFI and Cineteca di Bologna wins 'Best Archival Film Project' award

The BFI National Archive is celebrating its win last night for Best Archive Restoration Title at the Focal International Awards 2011 for the restoration of The Great White Silence (Herbert Ponting, 1924), which follows Captain Scott’s ill-fated Antarctic expedition.

The Best Archival Film Project was awarded to The Chaplin Keystone Project, a venture in which the BFI National Archive partnered with Lobster Films and the Cineteca di Bologna in a truly international collaboration. One of the most ambitious of recent international archival collaborations, the Keystone project was an eight-year hunt to track down and restore the films that Charles Chaplin made at Keystone Studios during 1914. The 34 surviving films resulting from this remarkable endeavour were released by the BFI in a four-disc DVD box set, Chaplin at Keystone, in December 2010.

The news comes with the launch of a new book from BFI’s curator of silent film and curator on both winning projects, Bryony Dixon. Entitled 100 Silent Films, this dedicated introduction to Silent Films will be published by BFI/Palgrave on 24 June 2011.

Heather Stewart, Cultural Programme Director for the BFI said: ‘Winning two awards last night is a hugely important vote of confidence from FOCAL in the work that the BFI National Archive continues to carry out and really helps to position and underline our role both in the UK and internationally.’

About The Great White Silence

More than a hundred years ago the British Antarctic Expedition led by Captain Scott, set out on its ill-fated race to the South Pole. Joining Scott on board the Terra Nova was Herbert Ponting, the expedition’s official photographer and cameraman. The images that he captured have fired imaginations ever since and are one of the greatest records of British polar exploration.

The BFI National Archive – custodian of the expedition negatives – has restored the film using the latest photochemical and digital techniques and reintroduced the film's sophisticated use of colour. The alien beauty of the landscape is brought dramatically to life, showing the world of the expedition in brilliant detail.

The Great White Silence was a much acclaimed highlight of last year’s London Film Festival. It is released in cinemas nationwide on 20 May with a newly commissioned score by leading contemporary composer Simon Fisher Turner. On 20 June it will be released by the BFI on DVD and Blu-ray in a Dual Format Edition.

[MichaelB]

The BFI's third YouTube 'You Ask the Questions' feature is inviting questions about the Hitchcock silent restoration project.

The first was about The Great White Silence restoration, and the second interviewed veteran documentary-maker John Krish - click on the links to see the end result.

[What A Disgrace]

I know BFI is intensely focused on British cinema at this point, but I wonder if we'll see more American films being released. Since they seem to have some relationship with MGM, I'm hoping they might be willing to release Fuller's Park Row...

[nolanoe]

I know BFI is intensely focused on British cinema at this point, but I wonder if we'll see more American films being released. Since they seem to have some relationship with MGM, I'm hoping they might be willing to release Fuller's Park Row...

... not to mention I am still eagerly awaiting decent re-releases of Satyricon and Roma... :-"

[MichaelB]

The BFI's third YouTube 'You Ask the Questions' feature is inviting questions about the Hitchcock silent restoration project.

The first was about The Great White Silence restoration, and the second interviewed veteran documentary-maker John Krish - click on the links to see the end result.

The Hitchcock restoration team has responded - and you can see work-in-progress clips.

[MichaelB]

It's just been confirmed that all nine Hitchcock restorations will be given screenings with live music (and newly-composed scores) next summer as part of the 2012 London Olympic festivities - and will be followed by a complete Hitchcock retrospective at BFI Southbank in the autumn.

I suspect the restorations will also hit Blu-ray and DVD at some point, but this hasn't been confirmed yet.

[MichaelB]

There are some major BFI bargains in Sendit.com's Blu-ray sale, including Red Desert, Magick Lantern Cycle and a batch of early Flipsides.

[perkizitore]

Don't forget that Sendit charges 2 quid per item for shipping, many of these BFI titles are on sale at The Hut as well.

[skuhn8]

really wish they'd push some BFI Ozu's into those parameters :-" .

[YnEoS]

So BFI has their names on the Napoleon trailer. Forthcoming DVD and Blu-Ray in the future?

http://www.silentfilm.org/event-special.php#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MichaelB]

The BFI was heavily involved in the film's restoration, so I wouldn't read anything into that.

Although the (original) Brownlow restoration with the Carl Davis score has been shown twice on television (1983 and 1989), it's never been commercially released thanks to a rights minefield - and although the forthcoming San Francisco premiere of the latest Brownlow restoration with the Davis score suggests that there's been a shift in the right direction, it's by no means a given that this will lead to a domestic video release - especially as Brownlow seems to have categorically denied the possibility.

Obviously, I'll be thrilled if I'm wrong - but it's very much a case of believing it when I see it.

[James8718]

Asquith's UNDERGROUND.
Apart from a showing at the Barbican in October, I hear from the BFI that a Blu-ray and DVD are planned for release next summer.

[Calvin]

Do the BFI have the home video rights to Cría Cuervosor just the theatrical distribution? Looking forward to seeing it at my local soon.