Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

[Paupau]

Seeing this is part of a Rene Clement collection, they'll probably realease Gervaise and Purple Noon also.

[tenia]

Unlike the French monstrosity, the UK cover of Forbidden Games uses the original poster and it looks great.

The worst with the French release is that not only you get a pink-purple slip-cover with the hideous picture, but they chose a black Amaray to put in it (the cover replicate the slipcover so pink-purple cover too, but without the top purple Blu Ray part).

[antnield]

Seeing this is part of a Rene Clement collection, they'll probably realease Gervaise and Purple Noon also.

The BBFC have just classified Gervaise today. Same goes for La course du lièvre à travers les champs too.

[Calvin]

The BBFC have just classified Gervaise today. Same goes for La course du lièvre à travers les champs too.

They're out on the same day as Forbidden Games, but they are DVD-only.

[RossyG]

For the Fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who, SC will be releasing the two Peter Cushing Dalek films on Blu-ray next year.

[Dr Amicus]

According to the latest Doctor Who Magazine, these are fully restored and will have "exclusive" extras. Given my avatar it should be no surprise that these are likely to be early purchases for me, the first being glorious kitsch whilst the second has some of the best sfx in sixties British cinema. And the genius that is Bernard Cribbins. Which reminds me, I keep meaning to post a few British sf recommendations in the sixties list...

[peerpee]

The new UK StudioCanal Blu-ray of CASQUE D'OR is very, very good. Tremendous looking. No digital manipulation, natural grain, extremely thrilling.

[Drucker]

Man In The White Suit review...can anyone confirm the disc looks as good as the review mentions it is?

[peerpee]

I agree with David. THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT is a nice Blu-ray. Very pleased not to be able to see any digital intrusion of any kind.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Thirded One of Dougie Slocombe's finest moments. Shame It only rains isn't up to the same standard elements wise

[manicsounds]

bluraydefinition reviews 'the man with the white suit'

[peerpee]

Thirded One of Dougie Slocombe's finest moments. Shame It only rains isn't up to the same standard elements wise

The majority of IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY is in amazing condition, and I think these parts look consistently better than anything in THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT. They look stunning. Unfortunately, the consistency just isn't there on IT ALWAYS RAINS. I noticed that every single shot that's got a transition at the start or end is a lesser, dupey quality *for the entire shot* (not just the transition), and I have no idea why this may be, but because the rest of the film looks so good, it really pulled me out of it. Also, these dupey bits (only 5% of the film?) have quite a bit of DVNR (unlike the ace looking bits), so it's a mixed bag, but worth getting I'd say because it's a magnificent film.

THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT is much more consistent, with no visible digital work.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Yes, I found the weaker elements similarly quite jarring but as you say no reason to deny it space on every discerning shelf .

[zedz]

Unfortunately, the consistency just isn't there on IT ALWAYS RAINS. I noticed that every single shot that's got a transition at the start or end is a lesser, dupey quality *for the entire shot* (not just the transition), and I have no idea why this may be, but because the rest of the film looks so good, it really pulled me out of it. Also, these dupey bits (only 5% of the film?) have quite a bit of DVNR (unlike the ace looking bits), so it's a mixed bag, but worth getting I'd say because it's a magnificent film.

I always understood that this was an original production decision. Sometimes the lost generations of a dissolve were confined to just the transition (so you could see a 'pop' in the continuous shot just as the dissolve began); sometimes the whole shot in question was affected (presumably to avoid the 'pop', but at the cost of lost generations for the entirety of the shots). I know that when I'm watching old movies, sometimes you can tell when a dissolve is coming because the quality of the shot changes, even if the transition only occurs at the end of quite a long shot. In other cases, it's just crisp shot one / -pop- / less crisp dissolve / -pop- / crisp shot two. I guess that would have just been a matter of taste on original release, depending on whether the director / editor was more annoyed by the distracting 'pop' or by the compromising of the entirety of the constituent shots, but subsequent duping would have made the difference between those passages and the rest of the film even more noticeable.

Maybe that's the case with this film, or maybe the restorers had great material for the basic edited footage but needed to get the optically processed passages off a release print? (I don't know how that would work.) The DVNR was probably applied to conceal the joins, but - as is often the case with DVNR - just added a different, distracting problem to the mix.

[peerpee]

It's the first time I've seen it on a Blu-ray, so it's not very common. I've been trying to find out more about it.

[peerpee]

StudioCanal's HD interview extras on recent titles like IT ALWAYS RAINS and THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT are technically problematic. Unnecessarily so.

They've shot new interview footage in HD at 25p (instead of 24p) and then struggled putting clips from the films in (because the films are 24p). On the IT ALWAYS RAINS extra, the framerate of the film clips is fudged from 24 to 25 by adding an extra frame every second and it's very noticeable, jerky, looks shit. For THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, they've just uprezzed an old PAL digibeta (25fps) which bears no resemblance to the encode of the main feature (and this is for an HD 1080p extra!).

If your interview footage is 25p, just slow it down to 24p and then put your 24p clips from the film in there. Film clips more important than your interview footage. Piece of piss. Better still, just shoot your interview footage at 24p in the first place.

Also, you don't have to illustrate every single point an interviewer makes by showing the relevant clip from the film immediately after. Really annoying.

[manicsounds]

It Always Rains On Sunday BD review at BlurayDefinition

[MichaelB]

FWIW I think this is the best It Only Rains will ever look unless someone comes up with an original 35mm O-Neg or fine grain Pos. Certainly I would like to see one - it's my favorite single Hamer.

Given that the BFI restoration team presumably had access to everything that was available in either their own or Studio Canal's vaults (and realistically, where else would this material be?), I fear this might be a forlorn hope.

I suspect this tragic event from a couple of decades ago might be relevant here, though I don't know if It Only Rains on Sunday was one of the affected titles.

[peerpee]

Holy shit – that kind of thing was still happening as recently as 1993? Mental.

[MichaelB]

Holy shit – that kind of thing was still happening as recently as 1993? Mental.

The last really big one I can recall was in 2005, though I daresay there've been more recent ones.

[Matt]

There was the Universal fire in 2008, but I don't think they lost any originals, just prints.

[Kauno]

Sorry. I made this question at bluray.com but no nolla null dice.

I just watched Coppala's The Conversation, but there was no access to subtitles. I need those subs. Can anyone check his or hers disc and tell me is it just my BD-player that is not working right. And my question is about UK release.

[manicsounds]

The subtitle button brings up nothing?

[Kauno]

The subtitle button brings up nothing?

No, nothing happens. My player is a hacked Panasonic DMP-BD60. At the beginning there is an option for UK or Deutschland, but after that there is no solution. I just cannot get the subtitles on.

[peerpee]

While the feature is playing, can you get up the Panasonic's own submenu, and see where you toggle audio and stuff? Usually, the subtitles are togglable there.

I had an older hacked Panasonic player for a few years (BD-25 or 30), and it didn't have a SUBTITLE button on the remote, so I had to get this sort of player-generated submenu up (definitely not a disc-generated menu) in order to toggle audio and subtitle options.

[Thankfully, my new Sony multiregion player is much faster and has a SUBTITLE button on the remote.]