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I can't imagine a Blu-Ray Eclipse set. Seems antithetical to why they developed the Eclipse line in the first place.

Re. David Bordwell's book, the rights have reverted to the author as reported in his blog. You can download PDFs of the book, with new and better (and many color) frame grabs, for free here: http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/publica ... dwell.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I imagine the availability of this free online edition would mitigate against a publisher deciding to reprint the book, not to mention the expense of printing such a large book with so many graphics. That said, it'd be great if the BFI took the chance on a reprint or even a new edition altogether.

Finally, I hope the BFI commissions some decent scores for the silents; while I prefer the silence of the Panorama versions to some of the many awful accompaniments that have been inflicted upon silent films, I still prefer a good score to none at all.

This is great. Thank you.

I just had the pleasure of seeing the new BFI restoration of Tokyo Story on the big screen.
One thing however bothered me, a lot of dialogue was left untranslated. Sure we don't need subtitles for hellos and goodbyes, but often during conversation a line would be spoken by a character to which another character would reply, and neither would be translated. We're led to presume these aren't important and don't need translated, but the sheer number of times this happens, and my friend who attended with me said the same, was bothersome - WERE some of the lines important?
I had the same problem with the BFI print of 400 Blows I caught last year which left substantial bits of dialogue out (including much of the conversation between Antoine's mother, and the reform school headmaster.)

The reason I bring all this up, is I hope the upcoming dvd of Tokyo Story won't be using the current theatrical subtitles but will use new more complete ones?

Peacock, you raise a good question about the subtitles. My guess (and hope!) is that the DVD/Blu-ray of TOKYO STORY will have more complete subtitles. At least in the past, theatrical subtitles often left small bits like that untranslated. This may have to do either with the cost of subtitling or the readability of subtitles in projection. I think the more complete subtitles that we've come to expect with DVDs is a relatively recent phenomenon made possible by electronic subtitles and possibly even the subtitle stream feature on DVDs.

As for the subtitles of the new TOKYO STORY print specifically, who knows? Maybe the BFI used a subtitle list that they had on hand from an older release. Were the subtitles burned directly in the print with a laser, or were they optical titles that were combined with the film elements in printing? That might help explain things.

jsteffe - they looked optical, so i'm not too worried.
I dunno, I can understand why things go untranslated where it's clear to an audience a character is saying 'thank you' or 'here try this' for example; but when people are sitting down looking at each other saying things which appear to have no relation to what their doing; this really disappoints me; maybe the subtitler felt it was throwaway dialogue, but others may not.

Excellent Guardian piece on Ozu....

Being a new member on this forum my post is a bit late... I am very exited to read this news! I will maybe not replace much from the two Tartan boxes I have, but rather go for the films I haven't seen. I frankly don't think BFI releases tend to look as good in the bookshelf as the Tartan boxes, and I have to admit it does make a difference for me. But I can only think that this will increase interest for japanese classic films and even japanese films in general. Some people who get hooked on Ozu should then go on and buy Mizoguchi from Masters of Cinema. I know I have! And then hopefully we can one day get more good releases of japanese 60s and 70s films. Today that seems too often to be done by companies who would rather concentrate on any nudity and violence than actually do good transfers.

And I'm not sure that the salarymen are being conservative and trying to save the family in Ozu's films. I think they are observing the traditional family being slowly disintegrated by modern times reaching japan. Women going to work, kids watching tv and so on. But I don't think it's nostalgic.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/live/series/572" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Late Spring Bluray ???

manicsounds wrote:Late Spring Bluray ???

Yup - and there's a fair bit more news on the Ozu front that I'm afraid I'm going to have to keep under wraps for now. But suffice it to say that it's unlikely to go down too badly.

manicsounds wrote:Late Spring Bluray ???

Eaurly Summeron blu-ray too!

MichaelB wrote:...there's a fair bit more news on the Ozu front...

I coudn't even guess what this might be but am suitably intrigued!

I've made it to around half a dozen screenings in the BFI's current Ozu season, and I have a hunch that it has been a big hit. Even relatively obscure silents such as Dragnet Girl and A Mother Should Be Loved seemed to draw a good turn-out. I'm sure this bodes well for this ambitious and exciting project. By the way, the new print of Late Autumn is luminous - just crying out for a Blu release.

Fantastic news viz Late Spring.... please tell me that we're gonna get better subtitles than the atrocious touring print I saw a couple of weeks back at the Filmhouse.

Wonder if this thread will get infected with the oh no not more ozu whingeing. Somehow I doubt it.

razumovsky wrote:I've made it to around half a dozen screenings in the BFI's current Ozu season, and I have a hunch that it has been a big hit. Even relatively obscure silents such as Dragnet Girl and A Mother Should Be Loved seemed to draw a good turn-out. I'm sure this bodes well for this ambitious and exciting project. By the way, the new print of Late Autumn is luminous - just crying out for a Blu release.

Echo these sentiments too. Here in Edinburgh turn out has been pretty good throughout the 5 i've seen so far with lots of appreciative post screening murmuring from a large majority of Ozu newbies. Late Autumn was a digital projection here, was it a print where you saw it?

NABOB - wasn't it a 16mm? I've been attending a few of the Filmhouse screenings, and agree with you regarding some of the subtitling, the framing of I Was Born But was also a bit too low cutting off tops of heads in close ups, but that's probably a projection problem.

Really pleased that more than just Tokyo Story are going Blu, will definitely pick up the other two now

Peacock wrote:NABOB - wasn't it a 16mm? I've been attending a few of the Filmhouse screenings, and agree with you regarding some of the subtitling, the framing of I Was Born But was also a bit too low cutting off tops of heads in close ups, but that's probably a projection problem.

Late Autumn was definitely a digital projection and looked solid and sweet. The others I've seen (not 'I was born') have been New Yorker/ Shochiku prints that probably accounts for the poor subtitling.
Off to see Record of a Tenement Gent, Equinox Flower and Tokyo twilight next

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote: Late Autumn was a digital projection here, was it a print where you saw it?

Sorry - yes it was here, too. It was a real lesson in how magnificently Ozu controls colour. As much as anything in the film I'll remember the recurring motif of the red star on the bottle of Sapporo beer. Not that it means anything necessarily - it's just satisfying, somehow. The print I saw of Early Summer was from Shochiku. It was a bit rough, with poor subtitling and erratic sound, especially at the end. Cracking movie, though.

Whoopsie, it appears Time Out have spilled the beans to me via twitter:

I wrote:to BFI:Wowsers 3 Ozu's on bluray? What other tricks do you have up your sleeve!

Time Out Film wrote:actually, it's six. Each disc has a 'mature' and silent period film.

Will these be region locked?

I don't know yet, though Japanese rightsholders often insist on it. I'll confirm when I know for certain.

aox wrote:Will these be region locked?

I have no idea, but I would expect so, as surely Criterion has HD Ozu plans of their own - though we're not likely to see them drop in our laps a half dozen at a time.

Courtesy of the nice folks at MovieMail I have heard these will apparently be dual format releases - DVD/Blu for the films featured in each package. How they will be paired I don't know yet.

Please, some previously unavailable silents [-o<

perkizitore wrote:Please, some previously unavailable silents [-o<

I'd settle for some of the silents in better transfers than have previously only been available on the Panorama (HK) discs. But if I were a betting man, I'd bet on the contents of the Eclipse box, right down to the scores.