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Jeff wrote:I wonder if this is going to be a trend with former Home Vision releases. Day of the Dolphin is due from Image in February. This new version appears to have the same specs as the original version, but different cover art and an MSRP of $14.95.

I don't know about the original HVE release of Day of the Dolphin...but the Image re-release has a Janus credit, as well as a Studio Canal, trailer right before the Menu.

EDIT: I just took a look at a scan of the back of the original HVE release...it was clearly a Classic Collection/Janus release from the get go. So never mind.

Image will be releasing Sony's The Fisher King and To Die For on Blu-ray on November 8. I still can't figure out why, if they were going to license these anyway, they didn't end up with Criterion. Especially since Criterion has a great commentary waiting in the wings for The Fisher King.

Could be an 8 1/2–style double dip—or triple dip, as they released both films on DVD last year with only trailers and the same cover art.

Part of their Sony deal. Nothing to do with Criterion.

Pretty shocking: Wyler's (pretty good film / pretty terrible adaptation) the Collector is getting the Blu-ray treatment November 8th!

And here's David Cairns on Womanhandled, the Gregory La Cava (My Man Godfrey) film starring Richard Dix (The Ghost Ship), which is one of the features included in the set (not the whole film though - only about 55 minutes out of an original running time of 70 according to imdb).

I wasn't even expecting to buy this set, and yet the final product has me giddy as few DVD releases have made me...and I'm only 2/3 through. I have to wonder what the NFPF's next Treasures set will be a compilation of...silent comedy?* Documentaries? Independent films? More avant garde? The prospects are exciting. It should make many end-of-the-year lists.

*After all, David Kalat did bemoan his inability to make a third American Slapstick collection.

I have no idea what, if anything, is intended next, but a possibility I think would be really strong, in terms of both the scope for inclusion and marketability, is a set arranged by region / city. Each disc or programme dedicated to films that record or celebrate different parts of the US (kind of like all those New York films on the 'Picturing a Metropolis' disc of the Unseen Cinema set). That could include documentaries, home-movie footage, experimental films, narrative features, industrial films, just about everything except animation, and probably a little of that too. Plus it's a great way to highlight the particular strengths of different archives' holdings.

Browsing through these lists provides a lot of good clues about what could be next. I've found it interesting to sort by archive, especially major players like G. Eastman House, Library of Congress, MOMA, and UCLA, wishing more of it could be seen.

zedz wrote:I have no idea what, if anything, is intended next, but a possibility I think would be really strong, in terms of both the scope for inclusion and marketability, is a set arranged by region / city. Each disc or programme dedicated to films that record or celebrate different parts of the US (kind of like all those New York films on the 'Picturing a Metropolis' disc of the Unseen Cinema set). That could include documentaries, home-movie footage, experimental films, narrative features, industrial films, just about everything except animation, and probably a little of that too. Plus it's a great way to highlight the particular strengths of different archives' holdings.

Something similar was planned by the BFI in collaboration with various regional film archives - every UK parliamentary constituency (around 650) was to be represented by at least six films with strong links to the area, the results to be published in full online.

Sadly, the project as a whole was an early victim of the present government's cuts, though some of the research found its way into the BBC/BFI collaboration The Reel History of Britain (whose website includes loads of complete films), and the DVD Here's a Health to the Barley Mow. I suspect there'll be more to come.

A shame that opportunity was lost. It just seems like a no-brainer in terms of turning diverse archival material into easily marketable releases. The prospect of seeing the place they live forty, sixty, one hundred years ago can persuade people to watch the kind of films they'd never watch otherwise (e.g. silent, amateur, experimental). I'm assuming Here's a Health to the Barley Mow, with its very strong regional content, was a big hit as these things go.

Shame it's only two discs, but it sounds like another great set.

The first Avant Garde was also two discs - so at least there's no sign that this is any step back from the previous release.

A silly packaging question--I have the "encore edition" of the first Treasures box, which comes in a thin, wimpy cardboard box unlike the majestic, thicker boxes used for later volumes. If anyone has the original OOP version of the first Treasures box, is its box thick or thin? I've had these sets for a couple years now but this is only now bothering me.

It was originally thicker. I had the original edition and then bought the encore, which has gotten kind of beat-up in the years I've had it.

Thanks.

It's a kind of digibook packaging Image is pushing

Looks amazing. Is that price an error?

Nope, it's on the official Image site's listing as well

Reviews for the Re-Animator (1985) BD @ DVDBeaver and @ Blu-ray.com

Looks "meh"

Not really worth the upgrade from the Anchor Bay disc.