criterionforum.org

Ordet review up at DVD Beaver.

Just dropped the BFI a quick e-mail to ask if there were any plans to give their old VHS "History of the Avant Garde" release of Dreams That Money Can Buy a new life on DVD and a quick response came through - yes there are! They're working on it currently and hope to have it on the shelves at the end of Summer.

'Free Cinema' review at DVD Times

DVD Times review for 'Ordet'

The BFI have recently submitted this to the BBFC for DVD classification, so hopefully we can expect something sooner rather than later. Oh, and the info on the BBFC's site lists the film as being the "extended" version...

The Digital McGuffin wrote:BFI will release Hans Richter's Dreams That Money Can Buy on DVD at the end of Summer.

Oh, BRILLIANT! Are the 3-strip Technicolor elements still in good shape? Was the film restored recently?

Well done to whichever tosser at the BFI decided to start off the Ordet cover blurb with:

Spoiler

One of Carl Theodor Dreyer's most liked and admired films, Ordet is a tale of miraculous resurrection brought about by human love...

Gordon McMurphy wrote:Dreams That Money Can Buy ... Oh, BRILLIANT! Are the 3-strip Technicolor elements still in good shape? Was the film restored recently?

I tried e-mailing them back to ask, but haven't heard from them. The BFI VHS I was watching was made in 1999 and looked pretty good as far as film artifacts were concerned. The colours seemed a bit washed out though - not the full vivid glory you'd hope for from Technicolor film. I guess we'll have to see what arrives later on in the year.

Looks like the Kitchen Sinkers Long Distance Runner, Saturday Night and Taste of Honey have gone OOP after that sell-off the BFI had online. A shame really since some people will have a taste for 'em after watching the new Free Cinema box.

Ah - if the MGM licenses have expired, then expect the four Pasolinis to go the same way.

July DVD releases from bfi...

Woman of the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara / Japan / 1964) - 31 July
Dreams that Money can Buy (Hans Richter / US / 1946) - 31 July
The River (Jean Renoir / France, US, India / 1951) - 31 July

May give up hope waiting for a premium R1 and grab WOMAN OF THE DUNES.

Oh, come to daddy!

Given I'm straight I'd at least ask for feathered boa & blue mascara & bitch pumps on you Gordy...

August bfi DVD releases..

Silent Dickens (Frank Lloyd / US / 1922)
Before the Nickelodeon (Charles Musser / US / 1982)
Unseen Cinema (Various / US / 1894-1941)

davidhare wrote:Compared to some BFI discs with serious cropping problems like Partie de Campagne and Les Enfants Terribles, Voyage is almost pristine.

I'm not trying to dispute what you say but I'm curious how you know these have serious cropping problems. I don't have them but am considering buying them. The compositions evident in the caps at DVDBeaver look fine. Has there been a comparison of either of these?

Got email from BFI confirming "A Cottage on Dartmoor" Anthony Asquith 1930 on dvd possibly 2007 =D>

Matango wrote:Looks like the Kitchen Sinkers Long Distance Runner, Saturday Night and Taste of Honey have gone OOP after that sell-off the BFI had online. A shame really since some people will have a taste for 'em after watching the new Free Cinema box.

I looked for several of these titles, as well as the Pasolini titles and some others, but found few internet stores still carrying them. Presumably these have gone out of print then, as mentioned in this quote? Are these the best available offerings on DVD of these titles? Any reason to believe that new editions will surface very soon?

I don't know about the Pasolinis, but the Loneliness, Saturday Night and Taste of Honey discs are all good. Each has a reasonable commentary and some other useful extras. BFI's Cathy Come Home belongs on the shelf with these three, too.

Don't know if any of them will resurface any time soon. But Taste of Honey is still available at CD-Wow, and Runner and Saturday Night are still available via Amazon.co.uk's marketplace sellers. You'll want to hurry and pick these up soon, as the prices are likely to go up quite suddenly as soon as stock dwindles and people begin to realize that they're OOP.

And clearly they are already becoming scarce... not many UK retailers carry the titles. I found them at DVD.co.uk at £11 for TASTE OF HONEY, and £12 for each of SATURDAY NIGHT and LONELINESS.

How about the Pasolini "literary classics" titles... does anyone own the BFI releases? Comments...

Scharphedin2 wrote:How about the Pasolini "literary classics" titles... does anyone own the BFI releases? Comments...

The Pasolini's...GREAT films, very enjoyable, humourous, although the picture quality is FAR from stellar. In fact, it does leave a bit to be desired in hoping that if these get rereleased its from a restored print. I'm speculating that the lackluster quality in the BFI discs are from subpar prints.

I had real problems with I Racconti di Canterbury because of the Italian dubbing (the cast is largely British).

Now before anyone gets heated, I know that post-dubbing was common in Italian films, but it bothered me much more here than in other films (for example - loved MEDEA). This is a fact that the BFI acknowledge "The apparently poor lip-synching can be hard going [...]"

I have heard of a Finnish version which is English language - though I think that it has merely been re-dubbed back into English.

The dubbing in a lot of Pasolini's films is very rough, even when he's using Italian actors. It may even have been a conscious aspect of his aesthetic - the soundtracks are anti-naturalistic in other respects as well. I haven't seen Canterbury Tales for a long time, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the worst offender: the film apparently had a rather troubled production and had to be finished on the fly. I don't think the resulting weakness of it can be entirely attributed to those circumstances, though.

Benonsworld has the following listed as extras for the upcoming Hans Richter's 'Dreams That Money Can Buy' DVD:

Bonus Alternative Soundtrack
Interview With The Band
3 Short Films By Hans Richter
Booklet

The short films are exactly what I was hoping for and are as much a reason to buy this dvd as the main film. I wonder which of his shorts they will be - they're all good though.

But as for the ‘bonus alternative soundtrack' what the hell is this about. This is not a silent film and it already has a soundtrack - the one created by Hans Richter and the other artists involved in the film (and featuring John Cage). After a bit of searching on google it turns out that a group called The Real Tuesday Weld have decided to compose a new soundtrack including their own narration. Their website can be found here http://www.tuesdayweld.com/home.html and more information can be found about it at the tate gallery website here http://www.tate.org.uk/

I really can't stand this type of thing. It reminds me of the way members of Sonic Youth decided to put on shows performing music along with Stan Brakhage films even though they knew that Brakhage had expressly stated that his films should always be silent and that the lack of sound was a very important part of his artistic philosophy. This film does not need a new soundtrack and I think we owe it to the artists to present the film the way they intended it rather than defacing it with someone else's interpretation. - I find this to be disrespectful to the artists. From the clips I've found online it sounds dreadful too. It seems a real shame if some people's first exposure to this classic film was by watching this compromised version live - at least on the dvd it can be ignored. I think including this soundtrack is a very bad move by the BFI. I'd be interested to hear what others think about this or if anyone has seen the live performances of the film with the new soundtrack. Maybe people will think I'm making an issue out of nothing but I have very strong opinions about respecting works of art and the intentions of their creators.

It's bad enough that silent films are desecrated with appalling and incompetent modern scores (Donald parp parp Sosin!!! ) but now sound films as well? I should just say that I'm still very happy this is getting released on dvd and applaud the bfi for that. This is my first post - everyone's going to think I'm a right grumpy git.

vogler wrote:I think including this soundtrack is a very bad move by the BFI. I'd be interested to hear what others think about this or if anyone has seen the live performances of the film with the new soundtrack. Maybe people will think I'm making an issue out of nothing but I have very strong opinions about respecting works of art and the intentions of their creators.

It's bad enough that silent films are desecrated with appalling and incompetent modern scores (Donald parp parp Sosin!!! ) but now sound films as well?

I haven't seen Dreams, but agree with your general argument. This seems to have been a real growth area in recent years, the phenomenon of 'specially commissioned new scores' by musicians/composers with no obvious artistic credentials other than networking with the right Arts Council officials. Tickets for the 'live experience' can then be sold for two or three times the price of a straight cinema ticket.

Mediocre, tepid electronica is a popular choice for silent films, but another conspicuous offender is Michael Nyman. While I think Nyman's soundtracks for Greenaway's 80s films fitted perfectly within Greenaway's artistic vision, his efforts since about 1991 (including the godawful Piano) have lazily recycled the same tired themes, exposing the ultimate poverty of his musical imagination.

Anyway, a few years ago he churned out a bland hack-work for Vertov's 'Man with a Movie Camera', which is sacrilegious enough in itself. But the BFI actually went to the trouble of re-releasing the film on DVD and entitling it 'Michael Nyman's Man with a Movie Camera', as if he were doing Vertov some great favour. I suppose the moral of the story is to press the mute button, but you're right that the BFI would do well not to waste time on such 'bonuses'. Adding them to sound films is even more absurd.

P.S. I hope the decision to release the Richter heralds the re-release of their whole 'History of the Avant-Garde' series on DVD (Britain in the Thirties etc.).

Gropius wrote: Anyway, a few years ago he churned out a bland hack-work for Vertov's 'Man with a Movie Camera', which is sacrilegious enough in itself. But the BFI actually went to the trouble of re-releasing the film on DVD and entitling it 'Michael Nyman's Man with a Movie Camera', as if he were doing Vertov some great favour.

If I had to make a list of my top 10 films of all time Man With a Movie Camera would definitely be one of them. After reading all the reviews I could find I went for the Image dvd which I am quite happy with. I heard that the image quality was awful on the first BFI dvd and I have heard a lot of terrible things about the Michael Nyman score. I may have to rent it to find out just how bad it is. Entitling the dvd 'Michael Nyman's man with a Movie Camera' is disgraceful. Is he really that important?

Gropius wrote: P.S. I hope the decision to release the Richter heralds the re-release of their whole 'History of the Avant-Garde' series on DVD (Britain in the Thirties etc.).

I couldn't agree more and I have a feeling that they will. The BFI are releasing a lot of avant-garde films lately - Chien Andalou/L'Age d'Or, Decasia, Temenos, the British Artists Films series with William Raban and Chris Welsby, the upcoming Richter dvd and they are also going to be releasing the Unseen Cinema box set which was released by Image in America. I may be complaining about them a bit but the BFI are actually one of my very favourite dvd labels - not many others are releasing this kind of stuff.