criterionforum.org

drdoros wrote:Sorry, but there's no plans to release I AM CUBA in another version. It took four years to produce and we like it the way it is. And frankly, there's just too much work involved to go back and produce another release when we can be doing another film that's been "lost" and needs attention. We're a good deal smaller than most other companies around and I do a lot of non-profit volunteering in the archival world as well (see http://www.amianet.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).

Sorry if my post came off as harsh. I was not not looking for another release requiring (what I deem as) a lot of production. I thought it might be cheaper to just put it out as a simple jewel case with the dvds and insert as opposed to a box with extra trinkets. I would certainly be willing to pay the same, but space is at a premium in my place. If I really want it I guess I will need to buckle down and buy what exists.

drdoros wrote:We might do THE TRIAL again if we get better material. But that deleted scene was cut by Orson himself and I don't think it exists outside of the couple seconds in the trailer. The disheartening thing of course and I've just mentioned it recently on this forum, is that with PD titles, one can spend a great deal of money on them and then bootlegs come out at Walmart and shown on Youtube.

I remember seeing a breakdown of the deleted scene on Wellesnet so I figured it existed in complete form (though apparently without sound. This scene is supposedly available on the French release.

Thanks for your replies.

I'm not sure what you're getting at, telamonides, but I bought the Soy Cuba cigar box a few months ago, and all that is in it is three slim-case DVDs (Soy Cuba, The Siberian Mammoth, and A Film About Mikhail Kalatozov); these could easily be removed and shelved and the cigar box ashcanned if one desires. There's no cigars or any other "trinkets" involved. Or were you thinking of the second and third discs as "trinkets?" (Or was the package more involved earlier in its release life--or perhaps I am forgetting something?)

fiddlesticks wrote: ...(Or was the package more involved earlier in its release life--or perhaps I am forgetting something?)

No the I Am Cuba Ultimate Edition only ever had the three discs and the booklet in the box.
By the way, newer members may not have seen this but there was a lot of discussion of the packaging of the Burnett and I am Cuba sets in their own threads at time of release, and Dennis already took the time to address just about every single concern.

I meant to say 'cigar box' not 'cigar'. I was under the impression that there was more in the box than just the discs and the booklet. I may have been thinking of similar box sets that have little 'toys', like the 'Casablanca' set with its passports, etc. I apologize for my mistake.

I believe Dennis released five limited edition boxes released anonymously into the stores (to look like every other cigar box) secured by five lucky buyers that had

-a Fidel Castro Troll Doll,
-a Cohiba candy cigar,
-a replica FBI CoIntelPro Mail Interception Data Sheet (complete with redacted info), and
-coupons for an inground swimming pool at imperialpools.com.

HerrSchreck wrote:I believe Dennis released five limited edition boxes released anonymously into the stores (to look like every other cigar box) secured by five lucky buyers that had

-a Fidel Castro Troll Doll,
-a Cohiba candy cigar,
-a replica FBI CoIntelPro Mail Interception Data Sheet (complete with redacted info), and
-coupons for an inground swimming pool at imperialpools.com.

Don't forget the miniature plastic figurine of Sergei Urusevsky complete with elaborate camera rig.

MichaelB wrote:complete with elaborate camera rig.

A flying crane?

Jonathan S wrote:

MichaelB wrote:complete with elaborate camera rig.

A flying crane?

That's truly inspired - but does it still work in Russian?

The only thing I regret not seeing soon enough to put on the DVD set:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfO6okjs0cg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and of course, Lego IS filing charges against another distributor for putting something similar on so I'm not second guessing.

I also thought about civil disobedience and putting in a real Cuban cigar in the box, but we had gotten in trouble with the government for wiring money to LVT in New York with the memo stating "subtitles, I AM CUBA" and had the bank cancel our corporate checking account. Between that and releasing WINTER SOLDIER we thought we had done enough for CD at the time.

And I'm sorry, but I feel like I'm in the middle of the Big Bang Theory show for cinephiles. Castro trolls and Urusevsky action figures with flying cranes, yet no one has suggested a Maria doll.

drdoros wrote:The only thing I regret not seeing soon enough to put on the DVD set:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfO6okjs0cg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and of course, Lego IS filing charges against another distributor for putting something similar on so I'm not second guessing.

I TRULY did not expect the camera to dip underwater!

Seeing those Lego figures floating motionlessly in the little pool was strangely eerie for some reason. Pretty funny stuff.

If you ever do print a Cuban Cigar Edition, please don't use Cohibas (they're for rubes)-- go for a primo Hoyo de Monterrey Habana churchilll... best cigar on the face of the earth. Used to smoke em all the time (when I could get em.. wealthy uncle usedta send them to me, yadda yadda). The Honduran "Excaliber" churchill isn't bad, but the Cuban Hoyo is a thing of intense beauty.

Romeo y Julietta Habana Churchill as first runner up.

This reminds me of a publisher who thought it would be an inspired idea to produce an edition of Compton Mackenzie's Whisky Galore! (i.e. the original novel) complete with a small bottle of whisky hidden smuggler-style within its pages.

Unfortunately, the end result was virtually impossible to sell in conventional bookshops unless they had a licensed bar on the premises (i.e. hardly any of them), so I think they ended up having to sell it in pubs.

HerrSchreck wrote:

drdoros wrote:The only thing I regret not seeing soon enough to put on the DVD set:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfO6okjs0cg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and of course, Lego IS filing charges against another distributor for putting something similar on so I'm not second guessing.

I TRULY did not expect the camera to dip underwater!

Seeing those Lego figures floating motionlessly in the little pool was strangely eerie for some reason. Pretty funny stuff.

If you ever do print a Cuban Cigar Edition, please don't use Cohibas (they're for rubes)-- go for a primo Hoyo de Monterrey Habana churchilll... best cigar on the face of the earth. Used to smoke em all the time (when I could get em.. wealthy uncle usedta send them to me, yadda yadda). The Honduran "Excaliber" churchill isn't bad, but the Cuban Hoyo is a thing of intense beauty.

Romeo y Julietta Habana Churchill as first runner up.

Though I've never smoked a cigar, I did sell them starting at the age of twelve through the age of 24 and I did love the walk-in humidor. Cubans, however, were not involved since the embargo had already started. There are some incredible books on the history of Cuban cigars which I did become addicted to while helping our designer out on the boxes.

My Exiles is shipping soon from DVDPacific. =D>

So I received a copy of The Exiles today, a good two weeks early thanks to DVDPacific, and I have to say I'm a little disappointed, as my copy displays a clearly nonprogressive transfer with very noticeable combing throughout. I can't find any evidence of this being noticed by others; the reviews never mention it, and after the luminous transfers of Killer of Sheep, My Brother's Wedding, I Am Cuba and Bodhi Dharma, this is a bit disarming.

What A Disgrace, that's very odd - what is your playback equipment? I've also just received the set from DVD Pacific and I popped it in to see if I could spot any combing. It looks perfectly progressive to me, and rather stunning to boot! This is on Apple's DVD Player app with de-interlacing turned off. My DVD player and TV usually deinterlace things reasonably okay but if a disc has combing I can always tell right away on the computer, and it looks great to me - no artifacts on movement at all. Can't wait to watch the film.

The equipment I checked the disc on isn't very hot I admit; my house's oldest DVD player on a standard TV, and the DVD player on my computer. I haven't yet checked my Momitsu BR on my 32 inch hi-def set. But both of those displayed an undoubtedly nonprogressive image. The player on my computer displayed noticable combing even with the de-interlacing turned on. I'll check it out on my superior set-up later.

What A Disgrace wrote:The equipment I checked the disc on isn't very hot I admit; my house's oldest DVD player on a standard TV, and the DVD player on my computer. I haven't yet checked my Momitsu BR on my 32 inch hi-def set. But both of those displayed an undoubtedly nonprogressive image. The player on my computer displayed noticable combing even with the de-interlacing turned on. I'll check it out on my superior set-up later.

I asked the authoring house for progressive and I've just emailed to make sure it was. However, I checked the DVDs when the first came in on my system and there was no combing.

Wait, you saw non-progressive combing on a CRT TV?

Well, not combing, but intense jaggies and noticable motion blur in playback.

drdoros wrote:

What A Disgrace wrote:The equipment I checked the disc on isn't very hot I admit; my house's oldest DVD player on a standard TV, and the DVD player on my computer. I haven't yet checked my Momitsu BR on my 32 inch hi-def set. But both of those displayed an undoubtedly nonprogressive image. The player on my computer displayed noticable combing even with the de-interlacing turned on. I'll check it out on my superior set-up later.

I asked the authoring house for progressive and I've just emailed to make sure it was. However, I checked the DVDs when the first came in on my system and there was no combing.

This is very odd...perhaps I have a faulty disc or something? I checked the disc again on my more high-tech players, and this one is definitely not a progressive image. My capturing abilities aren't the best; I'm using WinDVD 5 on my computer after all, but here's a still of the film, captured in four different video modes, all of which display a very not progressive image.

In Auto Mode - http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/ff33 ... utopng.jpg

In Forced Weave mode - http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/ff33 ... dWeave.jpg

In Forced Bob mode - http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/ff33 ... cedBob.jpg

In Advanced Mode - http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/ff33 ... vanced.jpg

Okay, to make it official, the authoring/compression house says that the Exiles release was indeed interlace BUT I did not have any combing or any problems on my system. It's still the best thing we ever did and it still looks fantastic on DVD. Gary gave it a very fair review today:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDRevie ... exiles.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

here's some more reviews while I'm at it...
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/40322/exiles-the/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.dvdtown.com/review/exiles-the/dvd/7534" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.tcm.com/movienews/index/?cid=276232" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and there's a ton more to look at.

Perhaps we'll do a Blu-Ray one day but not in the near future and it's a B&W, 1:33 film. It's still gorgeous.

Well, if that's that, then I'll watch my DVD without any complaints. I'm still very much looking forward to seeing this film. Thank you for responding to the issue, and for all the hard work you surely went through to get the film out there.

The Exiles looks indeed very good on Beaver.. Sadly, apparently there are no English subtitles (or closed captions) and I'll have to order the upcoming BFI R2.

zone_resident wrote:The Exiles looks indeed very good on Beaver.. Sadly, apparently there are no English subtitles (or closed captions) and I'll have to order the upcoming BFI R2.

If it's the same with this release i am getting it too. Killer of Sheep and Soy Cuba on R2 were missing several extras though.

Well, I'm pretty happy today...

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/re ... vies_brody" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.moviehabit.com/review.php?story=exi_ki09" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.dailyfilmdose.com/2009/11/exiles.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=71823" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.ifc.com/news/2009/11/out-of-exile.php?page=2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie ... viewer=382" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dennis
Milestone Film & Video