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And this - a really nice portfolio of shots from the set by Bruce Davidson of Magnum... Put Zabriskie Point/Antonioni in the search field and come up with images like...

The sad thing about those three examples is that none of them are featured in the Magnum Cinema book even though they blow most of the pictures that are included out of the water. The few Zabriskie Point shots in there are much less interesting.

I noticed that Xploited Cinema changed the status of Film Prestige's release of Zabriskie Point to "in stock" today. While I'd like to get it, I'm concerned about the item description saying that it's fullscreen (yet the film is, apparently, supposed to have an aspect ratio of 2:35 : 1). Should I avoid this release, or is it a matter of something being better than nothing?

Yeah, that's a full screen version, which should absolutely be avoided as this was Antonioni's only venture into composing for 2.35:1.

At this time, the only way to see a 2.35:1 version of "Zabriskie Point" is through a bootleg copy (sourced from the Warner laserdisc). I'm a great advocate of Antonioni but I still haven't seen it, mostly because I haven't ran into a boot and Warner is still holding out on their release. I do look forward to my first viewing of this, whenever that will be.

There's a torrent available that's of surprisingly good quality, presumably it must have been taken from that laserdisc.

Rsdio wrote:There's a torrent available that's of surprisingly good quality, presumably it must have been taken from that laserdisc.

I have that torrent and yes, indeed it is from the old LD. Surprisingly good picture quality.

Dylan wrote:this was Antonioni's only venture into composing for 2.35:1.

This is being a bit pickym, but Antonioni had experience with scope before, on Nel segno di Roma, a sword and sandal pic from 1959, where he re-shot the action scenes.

I've got a surprisingly decent copy of ZP off satellite from a TCM screening late night without ad breaks, transferred directly from digital hard disc in the Sky Plus decoder then to DVD-R & DVD-RW on a recorder.... There's a bit of cropping of the sides of picture, so it spans a ratio of about 2.1:1... Till a proper release, it'll do for the present...

Person wrote:

Dylan wrote:this was Antonioni's only venture into composing for 2.35:1.

This is being a bit picky, but Antonioni had experience with scope before, on Nel segno di Roma, a sword and sandal pic from 1959, where he re-shot the action scenes.

I had no idea... Meanwhile, if anybody on this board has a decent/good letterboxed DVD rip of "Zabriskie Point" they'd be willing to lend out (I'll pay shipping), I'm deeply interested in seeing it (particularly before the '60s list is due). PM me.

Person wrote:

Dylan wrote:this was Antonioni's only venture into composing for 2.35:1.

This is being a bit picky, but Antonioni had experience with scope before, on Nel segno di Roma, a sword and sandal pic from 1959, where he re-shot the action scenes.

Where did you get this info?.... Not heard it before and have tons of Antonioni reference material...

Dylan wrote:Meanwhile, if anybody on this board has a decent/good letterboxed DVD rip of "Zabriskie Point" they'd be willing to lend out (I'll pay shipping), I'm deeply interested in seeing it (particularly before the '60s list is due). PM me.

Well, it would technically be for the 70s list, since the imdb listing.

Cold Bishop wrote:

Dylan wrote:Meanwhile, if anybody on this board has a decent/good letterboxed DVD rip of "Zabriskie Point" they'd be willing to lend out (I'll pay shipping), I'm deeply interested in seeing it (particularly before the '60s list is due). PM me.

Well, it would technically be for the 70s list, since the imdb listing.

I thought for sure it was 1969, but I guess I was off by a few months. People make the same mistake for Il Conformista, I believe.

subterranean cinema claims to have a letterboxed version on dvd-r.

stereo wrote:subterranean cinema claims to have a letterboxed version on dvd-r.

Isn't this just a rip of the letterboxed vhs?

May be a rip of the LD, in which case it could be pretty good.

Any chance that the Pink Floyd boys are holding this up somehow?

tavernier wrote:Any chance that the Pink Floyd boys are holding this up somehow?

They're insisting the film come housed in a concrete block and that the "Z" in the title light up with LEDs.

Other than Oberwald, this is the only Antonioni feature that hasn't received an official DVD release anywhere. Seems likely that it's due to music issues. But it could be the Rolling Stones...

It was at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC a few weeks ago and it's airing on TCM March 17 at 2:15am ET. Maybe hope for a DVD isn't completely lost?

souvenir wrote:It was at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC a few weeks ago and it's airing on TCM in March. Maybe hope for a DVD isn't completely lost?

It screened on TCM last summer or spring, no? I remember being absolutely livid at myself for not looking at the schedule one week because of it. And it has been revived for just as long if I recall.

Zabriskie Point Die besten Filme aller Zeiten

Complete Media Services GmbH are about to release ZABRISKI POINT. Release date is supposed to be 17. April. Looks like its part of a greatest film edition of the German weekly newspaper FOCUS…

I find it quite unbelievable that no one seems to be interested in this release!? JPC has it now for preorder as well

I'll probably order at that price... However there's no definite confirmation that it is a widescreen anamorphic transfer, and it retains the original english soundtrack with removable German subs...

Correction: I now see it's widescreen, although doesn't say if subs are removable...

Zabriskie Point announced for German release April 2008

Info found thru this German-language DVD site/forum, updated very slowly, has some good DVD screencaps of various films.

souvenir wrote:it's airing on TCM March 17 at 2:15am ET

Not any more....Alice's Restaurant is in that slot now.

Here's the Amazon listing for German DVD.

How can it be that a third party are releasing a film that is owned worldwide by Warner?