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Okay, I've looked over the board, but have yet to find a straight answer...

Distinction Series release of Tarkovsky's Mirror... Is it an improved transfer than the AE/Ruscico or just a port? And does it have the mono soundtrack? I'm considering getting this, but I keep hearing mix things on it.

Any help would be appreciated....

I have Mirror and it is a direct port from AE/Russico (even the menus are the same). There is no mono soundtrack.

The Russian mono is present, as are caps in the appropriate thread. Never seen the Rusisco, was always disappointed in the Kino, but the Distinction pq to these eyes is super-duper, especially those slow pans around Margarita Terekhova's sublime neck and shoulders.

Well, it was what I suspected. It seems the Artificial Eye is about as good as its going to get anytime soon.

Now the question is whether the AE Nostalghia is worth it, but alas, that is for a different thread.

devlinnn wrote:The Russian mono is present, as are caps in the appropriate thread. Never seen the Rusisco, was always disappointed in the Kino, but the Distinction pq to these eyes is super-duper, especially those slow pans around Margarita Terekhova's sublime neck and shoulders.

My problem with the Ruscico "Mirror" is mainly that it is FAR too bright and over-contrastive. If you've never seen the film in the cinema you won't probably notice it, but the way contrast and colours are rendered in the Ruscico - and thus, all other editions - seems seriously wrong to me and misrepresents Tarkovsky's vision. The folks over at nostalghia.com also mention this problem, although they generally find the image "excellent" (which is beyond me).

Cold Bishop: it seems the AE "Nostalghia" has to be avoided at all costs. Image and sound seems to be vastly inferior to the old out-of-print Lorber release (which is acceptable, but also not exactly great). Of course the AE has that second disc containing his "Tempo di viaggio" documentary, but that will be also included in AE's imminent "Tarkovsky companion" dvd, so no need to buy the "Nostalghia" disc for this.

It makes me sad to say it, but there are few other directors whose work has suffered so much from bad dvd productions than Tarkovsky. Only three of his works, "Ivan's Childhood" (Criterion, forthcoming), "Solaris" (Criterion) and "Sacrifice" (Swedish Film Institute) have gotten good transfers yet, the others are all suffering from problems of various kinds, and it seems no-one (least of all Ruscico) cares to do something about it.

Sorry, I was wrong - Mirror does contain both Russian mono and 5.1.

Distinction Series will be releasing Stalker on July 02, I'm assuming this too will be a port of the AE/Russico edition.

Now if only Criterion would get the rights to Nostalghia and re-release Andrei Rublev....

F*** knows why, but it looks like Umbrella will be throwing on the same Antonioni documentary that they put on La Notte with the upcoming L'Avventura, which was originally found on Madman's The Red Desert.

devlinnn wrote:F*** knows why, but it looks like Umbrella will be throwing on the same Antonioni documentary that they put on La Notte with the upcoming L'Avventura, which was originally found on Madman's The Red Desert.

Not surprising from Umbrella who probably do some of the worst transfers in Australia. They do no digital restoration of their own unlike a couple of other local distributors who put in the effort to improve the quality of their transfers. Umbrella simply dub the master onto a DLT and then send it off to the replication company.

Umbrella have also put the same documentary "Dario Argento: An Eye For Horror" on eight different releases of Argentos films, as well in a collection called "Masters of Horror: The Ultimate Shockumentary Collection".

Warner in August -

* The Ballad of Cable Hogue
* The Cowboys: Deluxe Edition
* Ride The High Country
* Rio Bravo: Special Edition
* Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

I notice that they still won't release MEAN STREETS & PAT GARRETT. Strange policy indeed. Surely CABLE HOGUE (a great film which I bought from the US last year) & WHO'S THAT KNOCKING have less of an audience than the two unreleased films I just mentioned. Is there a copyright issue here or is it just that the Oz WB execs are F-wits?

My copy of the Bergman 'Faith' trilogy arrived today, with good news and bad news.

Good news - I had a quick look at Through A Glass Darkly and the transfer is magnificient. Native PAL, Progressive, etc. and presumably sourced the from the same HD master as the Criterion.

Bad news - There are NO extras. None whatsoever. Each disk's menu just lists "play movie" and "chapter selection"
Given that most online retailers do list the extras (nothing on the case itself, though,) I suppose I could get my money back if I wanted. But, at $15 a movie (Australian) with fine transfers, they're still good value even without the extras.

I notice that they still won't release MEAN STREETS & PAT GARRETT. Strange policy indeed. Surely CABLE HOGUE (a great film which I bought from the US last year) & WHO'S THAT KNOCKING have less of an audience than the two unreleased films I just mentioned. Is there a copyright issue here or is it just that the Oz WB execs are F-wits?

Actually, it's because the Oz UNIVERSAL execs are F-wits. At least in the case of Mean Streets, apparently Warner owns the rights in America, and Universal owns the rights everywere else. They have released a port of the Warner DVD in England, but no sign of it arriving in Australia (I've already bought the American DVD, anyway, and still haven't gotten around to watching that or Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore)

Does this mean that Shock's upcoming ADVENTURES OF DIONEL [4 disc as opposed to the Criterion 5 disc] will be bare bones as well?

The Bergman was Roadshow I understand.

R1 MEAN STREETS is an improvement on the original DVD according to online reviews. I've only seen the new version and it certainly looks good. Come to think of it....what the hell happened to the R4 BLOW-UP?

Warner's Blow-Up was deleted after one pressing, along with Amarcord released at the same time, many moons ago.

Umbrella's Dionel series, I presume, will be just a boxing up of previously released discs.

The Bergman set is Hopscotch, distributed by Roadshow. The rrp seemed to have jumped around two or three times, along with little clarification on what was going to be included, so little wonder it's hard to find anywhere.

A further update; those Bergman films contain atrocious BURNT-IN subtitles.
'Winter Light' isn't too bad (white letters with black outlines,) although individual lines of dialogue are sometimes not translated. But, "Through A Glass Darkly" and "The Silence" ruin some beautiful transfers with the white-subtitles set against thick, black lines (I've read reviews complaining about removable-subtitles which exhibit this phenomenon on some Stand Alone Complex, but when these ugly subtitles are burnt in it becomes inexcusable) Add to that the total absence of the advertised extras, and I've decided to return these DVDs afterall. Emailed JBHiFiOnline a moment ago, so if anyone's curious I'll let you know how they are on the subject of refunds.

Madman's Wenders Road Movies set looks to have been pulled, for the short term at least.

Could any of the Aussie members here comment on the R4 Kieslowski collection (5DVD) by Shock? Aspect ratios, quality transfers, AE-ports?

Thanks in advance!

Pro-B

The R4 Kieslowski Collection seems to be a port of the Kino/AE set; the prints and extras are the same, plus it contains the documentary I'm So-So.
However, Shock have added their own subtitles that are yellow without a black border, thus the subtitles are hard to read on scenes with a bright background.

Thank you for your comments, S!

(Michael, if you see this post I tried emailing you quite some time ago but never heard back from you, did you get my email?)

Pro-B

Warner has listed the following HD/Blu-Ray titles for July - $29.95rrp.

* The Searchers
* The Cowboys
* Rio Bravo
* Dog Day Afternoon
* Bullitt

plus the SD Elvis titles for August -
Charro!
Elvis: That's the Way It Is Special Edition
Girl Happy
Jailhouse Rock: Deluxe Edition
Kissin' Cousins
Live a Little, Love a Little
Stay Away, Joe
This Is Elvis: Special Edition

Just wondering if anyone has seen the R4 edition of Vincent Ward's River Queen. A thorough review is available from DVD Times. I'm dying to see this (despite the bad buzz) and it sounds like the transfer is top notch. Still, it's pretty expensive on the sites I've searched, given the fact that it's a bare bones disc. God knows when this will turn up stateside though so I'm inclined to pick it up regardless.

August releases from Shock:
De Sica collection - The Bicycle Thief, Miracle In Milan, The Roof (I don't think this film is availale on DVD anywhere else)
Fueller Collection - Forty Guns, Naked Kiss, Pickup on South Street, Shock Corridor
Lonely Hearts (Filmmakers Collection) (not sure what film this)
Sorrow and the Pity (Distinction Series)
The Twilight Zone (Original Series) Season One

August Directors Suite Titles:
Beauty and the Beast
The Blue Angel
Orpheus

Solaris wrote:Lonely Hearts (Filmmakers Collection) (not sure what film this)

It's only the finest romantic comedy ever made in Australia, starring dear Mr Kaye, who passed away earlier in the week, opposite a sublime Wendy Hughes. Direction by Paul Cox, who co-wrote with John Clarke.

devlinnn wrote:

Solaris wrote:Lonely Hearts (Filmmakers Collection) (not sure what film this)

It's only the finest romantic comedy ever made in Australia, starring dear Mr Kaye, who passed away earlier in the week, opposite a sublime Wendy Hughes. Direction by Paul Cox, who co-wrote with John Clarke.

Yes and such a tragedy that this gets announced this week, coupled with the sad news of Kaye. My joy has been completely extinguished.

WIM WENDERS ROAD MOVIES has now been moved to October 10, according to Ezy DVD.

By this time, who knows, perhaps KINGS & ALICE will be out [Anchor Bay] in the US and/or the UK.