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tenia wrote: Wed Dec 23, 2020 10:31 am I'm bothered on how blurry the film grain looks overall. I indeed wonder if the film scanner could have been (ie is it actually possible for such a thing to happen) slightly out of focus, but as Svet suggests, it could also be that Kino used an intermediate element that wasn't perfectly produced (something I think is a bit more likely), while maybe Universal used a sharper element but vastly filtered it.

Doesn't this kind of look reminiscent of the issue Arrow had with The Far Country?

domino harvey wrote: Wed Dec 23, 2020 4:06 pmBelmondo starred in a lot of late period policiers and action movies that are far more in line with KL’s tastes, so don’t get your hopes up

Sure, but this is also the label that put Prénom Carmen, Détective, and Hélas pour moi on Blu, and except for Notre musique these are also films we know Canal has HD masters for.

Does KL typically put their more "commercial" French library titles out under the Studio Classics label or Kino Classics? Just trying to get a sense of how many of those eight Kino Classics titles might be, say, Renoir or Godard as opposed to Lautner or de Broca.

If some are speculating their two existing SC Chabrol DVD titles are part of this Blu-Ray group, the Belmondos could include A double tour, but KL Insider said a year or two ago that they still had the rights, so I don’t think it’d be considered part of a new deal?

Drucker wrote:

tenia wrote: Wed Dec 23, 2020 10:31 am I'm bothered on how blurry the film grain looks overall. I indeed wonder if the film scanner could have been (ie is it actually possible for such a thing to happen) slightly out of focus, but as Svet suggests, it could also be that Kino used an intermediate element that wasn't perfectly produced (something I think is a bit more likely), while maybe Universal used a sharper element but vastly filtered it.

Doesn't this kind of look reminiscent of the issue Arrow had with The Far Country?

The Far Country looks like 85% of the movie shots are dissolve, this looks rather like a not-very-sharp intermediate element.
But in the end yes, they're bot lacking sharpness and looking kind of blurry.

Yes, there’s not a lot you can do about films with loads of dissolves. Or situations like The Crimson Kimono, where Sam Fuller dissolved extremely long takes together, with the result that long stretches lasting several minutes at a time are dupes - and he also liked to create artificial zooms and close-ups in the optical printer.

I have no doubt that the Blu-rays reflect precisely what the film has always looked like, and without the original elements (presumably junked sixty years ago) that’s the best we’re going to get.

In the case of The Far Country, it's supposedly from the OCN, which should theoretically be the best element ever, but even if it has tons of dissolve, a dupey aspect doesn't look smooth like The Far Country looks, which is why I keep wondering what happened on this one that definitely doesnt look like anything 4k OCN I've seen.

For The Beguiled, the issue is that below the layers of EE, the Universal disc looks sharper than the new Kino, as if sourced from a better element. Except if it has been lost or destroyed between when their master was prepared and when Kino's one was done, it thus does look like there was something possibly better to scan.

domino harvey wrote: Wed Dec 23, 2020 9:35 pm If some are speculating their two existing SC Chabrol DVD titles are part of this Blu-Ray group, the Belmondos could include A double tour, but KL Insider said a year or two ago that they still had the rights, so I don’t think it’d be considered part of a new deal?

Fingers crossed for Les Bonnes Femmes

Code Red announced Guyana Cult of the Dammed, the first of the four Universal titles they're working on with Kino.

Apologies if this has already been talked about, but KL Studio Classics just tweeted that Sternberg's Thunderbolt is coming soon! No release date or special features mentioned yet but still exciting nonetheless.

Glowingwabbit wrote: Fri Jan 01, 2021 4:06 pm Apologies if this has already been talked about, but KL Studio Classics just tweeted that Sternberg's Thunderbolt is coming soon! No release date or special features mentioned yet but still exciting nonetheless.

YES, finally, I can trash my crappy TCM broadcast copy.

That is real exciting. What else from Sternberg is still MIA?

knives wrote: Sun Jan 03, 2021 8:04 pm That is real exciting. What else from Sternberg is still MIA?

Last month I asked the Kino Insider about An American Tragedy and he replied it doesn't have an HD transfer.

Speakeasy wrote:

knives wrote: Sun Jan 03, 2021 8:04 pm That is real exciting. What else from Sternberg is still MIA?

Last month I asked the Kino Insider about An American Tragedy and he replied it doesn't have an HD transfer.

I'm always surprised when they say this, as they so regularly do their own 2K/4K masters (probably the majority of their announcements?) that it feels like it should be a non-issue for them

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

Cyborg 2087 (1966) (DVD Still Available)
The Dirt Bike Kid (1985) (DVD) (Scorpion) (BD had also previously gone OOP)
Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966)
The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) (DVD Still Available)
Hester Street (1975) (Scorpion) (DVD Still Available)
Invisible Ghost (1941) (DVD Still Available)
Madhouse (1974) (DVD Still Available)
Meteor (1979) (DVD Still Available)
Shadows in an Empty Room (1976) (DVD Still Available)
Thieves Like Us (1974) (DVD Still Available)
Truck Turner (1974) (DVD Still Available)
The Wicked Lady (1983) (DVD) (BD had also previously gone OOP)

The following BDs just had a brief return after some copies were found, but are once again OOP:

Mulholland Falls (1996) (DVD Still Available)
River's Edge (1986) (DVD Still Available)
Still of the Night (1982)

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

It's the Old Army Game (1926) (DVD Still Available)

One of the Belmondo titles is revealed to be Philippe de Broca's Cartouche

The Hot Spot

Coming May 4th!

The Hot Spot (1990)
• Brand New 2K Master – Color Graded & Approved by DP Ueli Steiger
• NEW Interview with Star Virginia Madsen
• NEW Interview with Actor William Sadler
• NEW Audio Commentary by Entertainment Journalist Bryan Reesman
• Theatrical Trailer

Drucker wrote: Tue Jan 12, 2021 9:18 pm The Hot Spot

Coming May 4th!

The Hot Spot (1990)
• Brand New 2K Master – Color Graded & Approved by DP Ueli Steiger
• NEW Interview with Star Virginia Madsen
• NEW Interview with Actor William Sadler
• NEW Audio Commentary by Entertainment Journalist Bryan Reesman
• Theatrical Trailer

I need to revisit this. Before I ever knew anything about Miles Davis or John Lee Hooker, I caught a chunk of it on TV and have no memory of the music. It's pretty astonishing to me now that Hopper presumably got Davis and Hooker into the recording studio together - two massive giants of their respective fields.

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

Foxes (1980) (DVD) (BD had also previously gone OOP)

Unless they're morons, this is just marketing and they'll release both cuts and say "Due to overwhelming demand from fans of both, we've decided to include both!"

Only doing one of the cuts in 4K seems to be a budget restraint.

You would think that this would be one title that they would not want to be hindered by budget constraints but whoever runs the page on Facebook says they'd have to charge $80 if they included two 4K discs.

Kino Insider broke down the Universal titles by year for the decades of 30s and 40s

Here's the 30s and 40s:

1930 - 0
1931 - 0
1932 - 3
1933 - 3
1934 - 6
1935 - 6
1936 - 3
1937 - 1
1938 - 0
1939 - 2
1940 - 3
1941 - 2
1942 - 0
1943 - 1
1944 - 0
1945 - 0
1946 - 3
1947 - 2
1948 - 4
1949 - 2

Kino’s approach is always what costs the least amount of money - hence why they’re also not paying for an HDR pass. This is in response to many people complaining that only the extended was getting the UHD treatment, it’s them making an opportunity for that choice to be up to their fans. I really can’t be bothered to care either way as I still feel it seems likely Arrow have UHD rights to these in the UK and will do right by them.