More

[antnield]

Recently re-classified by the BBFC and with all previous cuts waived (which had related to instructional drug use). Hopefully the HD trailer included on The Valley Blu hints that this will also be HD.

[MichaelB]

That's good news - I may be misremembering this, but I think this is only one of two BFI DVD releases that got BBFC-snipped.

I suspect Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song might be more of a challenge to get reassessed, given that it unarguably infringes the Protection of Children Act in its uncut form.

[antnield]

There was Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist as well - it later had its cuts waived for a potential Tartan DVD that never surfaced.

[antnield]

19th September 2010.

[antnield]

MORE

A film by Barbet Schroeder

Barbet Schroeder's (Single White Female, The Valley) dark tale, based on a true story, follows the naive Stefan (Klaus Grunberg) in his pursuit of offbeat American Estelle (Mimsy Farmer) to the island paradise of Ibiza. He leads a seemingly idyllic life with her by the sea - where the scenic beauties and delights of LSD and nude sunbathing are fully revealed by Nestor Almendros' stunning photography - before succumbing to the destructive trappings of heroin addiction.

The film is famous for its subdued, moody Pink Floyd soundtrack, featuring some of the band's most spontaneous and eclectic work - including Green is the Colour, Cymbaline and The Nile Song.

Extra Features:

- Dual Format Edition: includes both the Blu-ray and the DVD of the film and the extras.
- Original trailer
- Trailers for The Valley and Maîtresse
- Interview with Barbet Schroeder
- Fully illustrated booklet

[MichaelB]

Confirmed as region-free.

[nolanoe]

OH MY... :O

[perkizitore]

How come this isn't part of the Flipside series?Is it considered a foreign production?

[antnield]

How come this isn't part of the Flipside series?Is it considered a foreign production?

It is a foreign production, a co-production in fact between France, West Germany and Luxembourg.

[MichaelB]

The basic rules for Flipside consideration (at least as far as the label is concerned, not necessarily the Southbank screening slot) are:

1. It must be British - at least culturally if not literally (so the US-German Deep End, written and directed by Poles, qualifies because of its setting, characters and language).

2. It must have previously been very very hard, ideally impossible, to get hold of in a decent version.

More doesn't qualify on either count - in fact, the old BFI DVD is still in print!

On the other hand, this new release will be a substantial improvement. As confirmed above, it's now fully uncut, and no longer features the curious audio dropout which effectively censored the information imparted during the drug concoction sequence (which was previously considered to be instructional). It's also being sourced from a brand new HD telecine, created in Paris under Barbet Schroeder's supervision at the same time as the already-released La Vallée.

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

More
A film by Barbet Schroeder
 
Barbet Schroeder (Single White Female, Maîtresse, The Valley) created a sensation when his controversial first feature More opened in 1969 and it quickly became a cult classic.
 
Coming to Blu-ray for the first time, More is released by the BFI on 19 September in a Dual Format Edition (DVD and Blu-ray discs together) which also contains a newly commissioned documentary on the story behind it.
 
With his exams a distant memory, German student Stefan (Klaus Grünberg) burns his bridges and hitchhikes across Europe in pursuit of adventure and the warm southern sun. Seduced by the offbeat crowd he encounters in Paris – among them the shyly seductive Estelle (Mimsy Farmer) – Stefan is soon flying dangerously close to disaster.
 
The film is famous for its subdued, moody Pink Floyd soundtrack, featuring some of the band's most spontaneous and eclectic work – including 'Green is the Colour', 'Cymbaline' and 'The Nile Song'.

Special Features

- Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition;
- Director approved High Definition transfer from original film elements;
- Making More (2011, 17 mins, DVD only): newly commissioned documentary on the story behind More;
- Theatrical trailers for Schroeder's More, The Valley (1972) and Maîtresse (1976);
- Illustrated booklet with new essays, biographies and notes on the soundtrack.

Release date: 19 September 2011
RRP: £19.99 / Cat.no. BFIB1040 / Cert 18
France / 1969 / colour / English, some German and Spanish (optional English translation and hard-of-hearing subtitles) / 116 minutes / Original aspect ratio 1.66:1 / Region 0
Disc 1: BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / PCM mono audio (48k/16-bit)
Disc 2: DVD9 / PAL / Dolby Digital mono audio (320kbps)

[McCrutchy]

Nice to see that the film will be presented uncut this time.

And not that I want to rile Michael up again , but it is a shame to see more brand new material from the BFI being encoded in PAL and put on the DVD only, especially as the BFI are using a BD-50 for this release of a 116 minute film.

Surely there would be ample space for an 11-minute documentary in HD?

I don't know why it bugs me since I could watch it either way. but it does.

[RossyG]

Perhaps they do it so someone with a BD player doesn't team up with someone with just a DVD player and pay halfers for one disc each.

[MichaelB]

Perhaps they do it so someone with a BD player doesn't team up with someone with just a DVD player and pay halfers for one disc each.

You're not the first to make that suggestion, but there are plenty of BFI dual-format releases where the Blu-ray and DVD have identical content. I'd have thought that if this was BFI policy, it would make more sense to apply it to ultra-niche releases like Requiem for a Village and Lunch Hour!

I can't answer McCrutchy's complaint because I don't know who made the documentary. On the other hand, now that I've seen the Before the Revolution extras, it's obvious why they were restricted to the DVD.

[Peacock]

Sorry to carry this on MichaelB, but I'm still confused why BFI don't put SD content on Blu-ray disks. Criterion, MoC, Sony and others manage it; I doubt they are all ignoring extras with PAL masters; surely you just simply encode the files in question differently so it'll work on US players.. upscale them or interlace them or whatever other companies do....

[MichaelB]

To present SD PAL material on a Blu-ray disc, you essentially have three choices.

1. Present it as is, i.e. in 576p - which will be incompatible with the vast majority of non-European players;
2. Upscale it to 1080p (or 720p);
3. Downscale it to 480p (i.e. NTSC) - which will be compatible with any player, but will inevitably introduce conversion artefacts and produce an inferior picture to the original.

I can see why options (1) and (3) are considered unattractive - MoC rejected option (1) from the start, went along with option (3) for a while, but now seems to favour option (2). As for why the BFI doesn't go for option (2), you'll have to ask them.

[MichaelB]

Mondo Digital:

The Blu-Ray in particular easily blows away past versions, looking incredibly filmic and detailed throughout but really coming to life once the action shifts to Ibiza. The vivid blue skies and richly detailed rocky landscapes look terrific in HD, and the print damage that plagued prior versions is minimized here to almost nothing.

[ellipsis7]

Yes, watching it, the BR image is positively tactile. doing justice at last to Nestor Almendros' viscerally handsome cinematography...

[broadwayrock]

blu-raydefinition.com

rockshockpop.com - to view the screencaps at their full resolution you'll have to remove the [/IMG] tag and replace the '2' in the filename with '1'.

[antnield]

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