Kino Lorber Studio Classics

[Peacock]

Fabulous news about the Ford! I didn’t realise they had it. Should look beautiful in UHD or Blu with the vibrant colours of the film.

[domino harvey]

They also have rights to and will be releasing Rambling Rose, Plenty, and Cross Creek and a new Universal deal will be 70+ movies and one TV series

[beamish14]

They also have rights to and will be releasing Rambling Rose, Plenty, and Cross Creek and a new Universal deal will be 70+ movies and one TV series

WOW. Plenty is unquestionably my favorite Meryl Streep film. Incredible script by David Hare

[FrauBlucher]

Here is more from the podcast as per SanCarolina59 from bluray.com

Here's what was said on the podcast:

Career Opportunities will be getting a 4K from KL!

Tarzi announces John Ford's Donovan's Reef with John Wayne and Lee Marvin for Blu-ray release, may or may not get the 4K rights (but most likely will).

Rambling Rose, Plenty, Cross Creek will be coming from the StudioCanal deal.

Riders On The Rain will likely get a 4K, but there are difficulties with the different cuts (the U.S. cut has different takes, and does not have a 4K master)

The fifth Universal deal is about to be signed soon (70-80 films, plus 1 TV series).

Frank Tarzi talks about how KL was the first boutique label to go 4K.

Physical media business is declining every year, and you would think that it would be bad, but if you do it right, per Tarzi, then you can still make a good profit and do good.

Talks about taking chances on obscure films (the Anna May Wong collection, random 1930s films, silent films). Those aren't necessarily profitable releases, but KL does them out of the love of cinema and to save them from obscurity (although these wouldn't be possible without bigger films selling well and "protecting" the smaller films they take chances on). In Tarzi's opinion, you need to take chances like this to do well in this business.

Tarzi talks on his favorite films (Man With No Name trilogy, To Live And Die In L.A., Silence Of The Lambs).

Biggest surprises in the past 10 years? - there have been films that surprised Tarzi in how well they did. Career Opportunities has done so well it will be getting a 4K at some point from KL.

Some surprised in how bad they did - Cry Freedom for example. Some B-Movies that played endlessly on TV that bombed theatrically have rebounded so much they are the bigger sellers compared to films that did well in theaters.

Why is physical media more important than ever? With physical media, you can get the best transfers, usually the streaming version is an older transfer.

Actual restoration - many films that KL's restored have never looked as good as they did now.

Another big aspect of physical media is that they've been able to rescue films that aren't out on streaming, and may never will. You also have extras on the discs, filmmakers talking on their own films, historians, critics, etc...

Talks on lots of major filmmakers (Tarantino, Nolan, Del Toro, etc...) endorsing and promoting the importance of physical media.

Tarzi mentions how you absolutely cannot rely only on your personal tastes when making decisions on what to release.

Future of physical media and KL? Tarzi says he hopes to crack open the vaults of some studios (you know who they are, he doesn't need to name them) - there are at least a thousand films he'd like to release.

Any TV series coming up? One in the upcoming Universal deal, there were plans for two but the 2nd was dropped. Tarzi's always looking to do TV series in addition to films, but they can be tough to do so they need to be more selective with TV series vs. films.

Lost In Translation 4K release when? Waiting for Sofia Coppola's approval. Tarzi understands there's been a wait for this, but they need to wait for her to get back to them (alongside Guy Ritchie and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels).

Disney deal? No, recent box office losses will not move the needle on whether they will do a deal. The money they'd get from it is too small to make up the losses they've made. He's hopeful they could do more from them, but they're closed for now.

What will move the needle with Disney? The right person sometimes, many situational things that could or could not happen. For the most part, they only care about the top 100 films, and it's sad, but what can you do.

More Bronson on 4K? - Tarzi loves Bronson, and in a potential deal with MGM next year, he has a few Bronson films he'd upgrade to 4K, and some he plans to do new restorations on.

How much competition do all the labels have with each other - not too much, it's not personal with anybody. All of them help each other out, and even if they do come into competition, it's nothing too serious and nobody takes it personally. Tarzi may actually bring people from other labels on this podcast as guests.

"Smaller" films on 4K? - dependent on pre-extant masters. Narrow Margin and The Score had 4K masters, so they did them. They've been taking more chances with 4K as of recent, so hopefully more to come.

Commentary tracks, who decides who takes the track etc... - the commentators reach out to Kino usually to do the commentaries. Tarzi talks on the late Lee Gambin and how much he loved his commentaries, taking a chance on him early on and Gambin's first commentary (which was for a KL), his great work for KL and other labels. Some more commentaries with Gambin are coming up and KL plans to include a memorial card on each of those releases in memory of him.

Who chooses the commentator, do you need special credentials? - someone has to take a chance sometimes. He does want to vary up who does the commentaries (they're looking for people to do more action film or horror commentaries).

KL Studio Classics films on Kino's streaming service? - Yes, they plan to. Right now Tarzi is curating packages of films for the service with StudioCanal films and independent acquisitions. He's hopeful he can work out a deal with MGM, Universal, etc with putting stuff from them on the channel.

More Italian films? Yes, if the right package becomes available, but many are not available to them at this point.

MGM/Amazon newer films/series and KL? - Tarzi hopes to license newer films and series from MGM (Bottoms is somewhat of a test as to if they'll be doing more of them).

Frank's advice to new collectors? - collect what you want, don't feel like you need to get everything. Don't say things are guilty pleasure, if you like it, what does it matter what anyone else thinks.

1930s/1940s rarities in the Universal deal? Some pre-codes, some film set collections (a 1930s crime boxset, a 1940s comedy boxset) with 3-4 each, some double features, a pre-code actor double feature. These are some of the riskier "love of cinema" releases like Tarzi mentioned earlier. The 4th and 5th Audie Murphy boxsets will also be in this new deal as well.

Has film noir run it's course? Some hidden gems left, they plan to continue the Film Noir series as long as they can. There so many hidden gems he'd like to release should he get access to the studios that have them (WB for example).

Plugging the Kubrick gaps? - if they had access to the studios that had them, 100% yes, but they don't.

Regularly working on new deals, hope to keep things going.

[FrauBlucher]

[domino harvey]

UHD discussion discussion moved here

[captveg]

Haven't done an OOP update since early May, so not exactly sure when the following sold out in the last 6-7 weeks.

More OOP based on previously being in the "While Supplies Last" sale and now no longer appearing on the website:

3 Bad Men (1926)
23 Paces to Baker Street (1956)
The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)
Boy on a Dolphin (1957)
Daisy Kenyon (1947)
David and Bathsheba (1951)
A Farewell to Arms (1957)
Fixed Bayonets! (1951)
The House on 92nd Street (1945)
I, the Jury (1982)
Night People (1954)
No Highway in the Sky (1951)
Rawhide (1951)
Tristan + Isolde (2006)
Trouble Man (1972)
Western Union (1941)
Yellow Sky (1948)

[Grand Wazoo]

Summer Sale is on.

Can anyone put in a good word for the Mario Ruspoli collection? I know nothing of his films but they sound intriguing.

[therewillbeblus]

Looks like no UHDs on sale (likely because of the recent B&N one) and next to nothing on my wishlist is, though I did promise to buy like 5+ copies of Starting Over if a label released it on blu...

[domino harvey]

Godard Cinema, which includes his last film, is part of the sale

[PfR73]

I count 38 UHDs included in the sale.

[therewillbeblus]

I count 38 UHDs included in the sale.

I see none on sale

[yoloswegmaster]

Are you able to see it now?

[therewillbeblus]

Yes, thanks - odd, when I checked earlier, every one was $26+.. That's quite the flip!

[domino harvey]

Tu dors Nicole is only $6.49 and the Jansco set is $17.99 - anyone who doesn’t already have these would be insane to pass those deals up

[Yakushima]

Hard to be a God Blu-ray is down to $9.99, in case you don't have it yet. And Monk seasons, first through sixth, are just $19.99!

[brundlefly]

Milestone's recent release of Nancy Savoca's Household Saints and Metrograph's Djibril Diop Mambéty films are included.

[dwk]

Today's Studio Classic announcement
Best Defense (1984)

Coming Soon on Blu-ray!
Brand New HD Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative
Best Defense (1984) Starring Dudley Moore, Eddie Murphy, Kate Capshaw, George Dzundza, Helen Shaver, Tom Noonan & David Rasche – Shot by Donald Peterman (Point Break) – Music by Patrick Williams (Cry-Baby) – Screenplay by Gloria Katz (Radioland Murders) & Willard Huyck (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) – Directed by Willard Huyck (Messiah of Evil, Howard the Duck).

[crimlaw]

Finally scrapping the bottom of the Paramount deal.

[jsteffe]

So, I have a story about Best Defense. I saw the film on the big screen when I worked in a movie theater as a teenager, and it was a total bomb. But I remembered its badness. Just this past week I came across it in our library's laserdisc collection while trying to identify DVD/Blu-ray versions to match our holdings because laserdisc is an obsolete format. We have a broad representation of popular 1980s films in the collection, including low-budget exploitation, because the owner of huge laserdisc store in our area donated one of everything in his stock to us. So I came across this laserdisc and thought to myself, this is a terrible comedy, but it does say a lot about ideology in US society of the 1980s. I purchased a DVD of the film and absolutely would purchase it on Blu-ray. In fact, I'm going to ask the library to order it.

[hearthesilence]

So, I have a story about Best Defense. I saw the film on the big screen when I worked in a movie theater as a teenager, and it was a total bomb. But I remembered its badness. Just this past week I came across it in our library's laserdisc collection while trying to identify DVD/Blu-ray versions to match our holdings because laserdisc is an obsolete format. We have a broad representation of popular 1980s films in the collection, including low-budget exploitation, because the owner of huge laserdisc store in our area donated one of everything in his stock to us. So I came across this laserdisc and thought to myself, this is a terrible comedy, but it does say a lot about ideology in US society of the 1980s. I purchased a DVD of the film and absolutely would purchase it on Blu-ray. In fact, I'm going to ask the library to order it.

I saw this as a kid as well, though I think I was a bit younger - for whatever reason, a friend of mine rented a stack of Eddie Murphy's less-popular movies and this was one of them. It stuck because I never saw anything that had a concept like it, where it's two movies and one keeps changing based on how the other one (taking place in the past) is progressing. When it first happens it seemed bizarre and interesting, but by the end, it didn't really make a whole lot of sense or feel necessary, just an empty gimmick that wasn't even executed all that well. Then there's the usual sexual humor that probably filled in some of the details sex ed wouldn't touch. (Mostly in the opening scene where they crosscut two different sexual experiences. IIRC the ending of Murphy's had the woman putting on a veil, and I remember my friend explaining how that was meant to be startling. I could be misremembering, but regardless at that time none of us knew anything about Muslim culture outside of Hollywood movies like this - we were far from alone in that regard, sadly.)

Many years later I found out it tested poorly and I guess they hired Eddie Murphy and shoehorned in all his scenes - sounded like the most half-assed way of making a movie, and it's the type of thing that comes to mind when I hear arguments that the 1980s were by far the worse decade of Hollywood studio filmmaking compared to the decades before it.

[dwk]

Graveyard Shift UHD

Coming Soon on 4KUHD!
Brand New HDR/DV Master – From a 4K Scan of the OCN

Graveyard Shift (1990) David Andrews, Kelly Wolf, Stephen Macht & Brad Dourif – Shot by Peter Stein – Screenplay by John Esposito – Based on a Short Story by Stephen King – Directed by Ralph S. Singleton

[therewillbeblus]

Coming Soon on Blu-ray!
Brand New HD Master – From 6K Scans of the 35mm OCN

The Lonely Man (1957) Jack Palance, Anthony Perkins, Neville Brand, Elisha Cook Jr., Claude Akins & Lee Van Cleef – Shot by Lionel Lindon (The Manchurian Candidate) – Directed by Henry Levin (Convicted).

This was a good and interesting western! It starts out having a surprising amount in common with board-favorite The Gunfighter, in terms of both its themes and thematic ambition, attending gently but firmly to assessing the value of a gunfighter's lore and the consequences of their rep. Palance has rarely been better than here, selling his internal struggle well with restraint much like Peck did. Its broader aims dilute this a bit - there's a more expansive look at the effects of adjusting to makeshift family dynamics, as well as more attention to the other side of criminals after Palance - but that just makes the movie more distinct in its first half. The narrative shifts into more familiar terrain in the second half, but never without this irreparable trauma embedded into its tone. It's not as rich a film as King's, but how many are? This is a strong, handsomely-made western that isn't afraid to slow down to give us different forms of 'action. Well-worth picking up, if only to witness the inspired casting of Palance and Peck's relationship dynamic!

[dwk]

A couple unannounced titles on Kino's September release date list the posted at the Home Theater Forum:
Two Weeks in September (1967) 4K Restoration
Les Femmes (1969)
Naughty Girl (Mam'zelle Pigalle)(1956)
and UHD of the previously released Blu-rays: The Antichrist, Link, and Zoltan

[domino harvey]

A couple unannounced titles on Kino's September release date list the posted at the Home Theater Forum:
Two Weeks in September (1967) 4K Restoration
Les Femmes (1969)
Naughty Girl (Mam'zelle Pigalle)(1956)

Sadly, all three of these are dogs, even if you are a BB fanatic. I hope the next round of French shadow drops are better after these and the Lecontes