criterionforum.org

RossyG wrote:I think Studio Canal now own A Taste of Honey and Look Back in Anger. They're about to release Billy Liar on Blu-ray, so they might upgrade them one day. I wouldn't be too surprised, especially with Honey.

This summer the BFI releases the stunning new restoration of Roberto Rossellini’s classic Journey to Italy (1954), out on Blu-ray for the first time as part of a Dual Format Edition. Voted in the Top 50 in Sight & Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time critics’ poll last year, Journey to Italy can be seen in UK cinemas throughout May and will be released alongside a Dual Format Edition of Rossellini’s Stromboli (1950) by the BFI in August.

Other forthcoming releases include the first in a series of daring and controversial films made by French author Alain Robbe-Grillet. Best known in the film world as the writer of Last Year in Marienbad (1961), Robbe-Grillet also directed many features including Trans-Europ Express (1967) and Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974) – both of which will be available in Dual Format Editions in September.

Also released this summer are:

- A London Trilogy: the films of Saint Etienne – three films about the capital by director Paul Kelly, made in collaboration with one of Britain’s best-loved bands.
- Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen’s groundbreaking 1977 experimental film Riddles of the Sphinx made available for the first time
- The Complete Humphrey Jennings Volume Three: A Diary for Timothy – after 2012’s award-winning Volume 2, this third and final volume sees all of Jennings’ films finally available on Blu-ray/DVD.
- Classic vintage kids adventure Emil and the Detectives – includes both the celebrated 1931 Billy Wilder-scripted German version and a rare 1935 British version, on one DVD.
- The Adventures of Prince Achmed – Lotte Reiniger’s beautiful animation on Blu-ray/DVD with a wealth of previously unreleased films as extras
- John Cassavetes’ classic The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), starring the late Ben Gazzara, in a three-disc limited edition presentation, featuring two different cuts of the feature.

Eight new BFI DVD releases with DVD and Blu-ray premieres including the much-wanted BBC TV adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Schalcken the Painter. For younger viewers there will be Bumps in the Night; three scary stories from The Children’s Film Foundation film library.

The screaming starts with M R James’ Classic Ghost Stories (1986), narrated by Robert Powell, which include The Mezzotint and O, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad. Children’s Film Foundation films will bring a creepier note to Hallowe’en with a DVD volume featuring James Hill’s The Man from Nowhere (1975) and John Krish’s Out of the Darkness (1985). Two long-unseen archive TV titles, guaranteed to scare and delight in equal measure are the 1970 Play for Today entry Robin Redbreast and the surviving, terrifying episodes of 1972’s Dead of Night. 18 November sees Rupert Julian’s newly restored silent classic Phantom of the Opera (1925) and the BFI National Archive digital re-mastering of Thorold Dickinson’s Gaslight (1940) come out in Dual Format and the much sought-after 1979 TV adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Schalcken the Painter and the star-studded vintage ghost story series Supernatural (1977), featuring Billie Whitelaw, Denholm Elliott, Jeremy Brett, Ian Hendry and Robert Hardy, return to haunt the screens of anyone daring enough to watch them.

Awarded to BFI Video, for publishing an incredibly wide range of materials that enriches our film heritage, including documentary shorts, sponsored films, experimental works, and amateur films, exemplified by This Working Life: Steel -– A Century of Steelmaking on Film (1901-1987), Roll Out the Barrel: The British Pub on Film (1944-1982), and The Lacey Rituals: Films by Bruce Lacey (1951-1967). We also want to mention the BFI Flipside series, which introduces us to a little-known “parallel history” of British cinema including such releases as Andy Milligan’s Nightbirds (1970).

hearthesilence wrote:I'm not up to speed on the British economy or their political news, but what are presumably the main reasons for this?