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Jonathan S wrote:

tojoed wrote:I would do anything to support Kino, but they don't ship to the UK, so I have always bought their stuff from other places.

I've bought many DVDs, and previously VHS tapes, direct from Kino, thought not for a year or two (Amazon Marketplace now usually beats even Kino's discounts). Unless they've changed their overall policy since then, it's only the licensed titles that are "Not for sale to customers outside US and Canada" which they won't ship to the UK. Of course, there are a lot of such titles now - a few years ago they were very much the exceptions.

One advantage of ordering direct from them is that, in my experience, they are customs-friendly.
I also got one parcel from them on which they wrote on the customs declaration "NON-PORNO" though I expect that made our dedicated customs officers more suspicious!

Thanks Jonathan. I'll certainly give it a try.

Too bad to hear that Kino seem to be in trouble. I've often been unkind to them in my early days at the forum, but I have increasingly realised that despite their occasional shortcomings (mostly because of the intertitle situation) their work and their guts are indispensable. And a thumbs up for them releasing all the films from their box sets individually, normally! I hope that the new Murnaus are not the last we see from them (we really need "Acker" and "Gang"), and that they find ways to continue their good work. So many great German and Scandinavian silents out there that they should give us at some point.

About the Tarkovskys: if you're region free, at least don't worry about "The Sacrifice". The Swedish edition from SFI is top-notch and English friendly, and the new German edition (also with English subs) seems to be a clone of that one. But we really need a good version of "Mirror", and, oh dear... "Nostalgia".

What's all this about Kino going under? As far as I can tell they are still going as strong as they were before. Now that better elements are available they are able to revisit their earlier releases for people. Also, the Tartuffe in the box set appears to be restored if you zoom in on the second cover at the amazon page here

Nobody said anything about them "going under." I said:

Matt wrote:they are really struggling right now. They are laying off employees, in one case someone who has been with them for 18 years and who is, in my opinion, not expendable.

Just because they're still managing to release DVDs doesn't mean that their employees aren't losing their jobs.

Tommaso wrote:[...]

About the Tarkovskys: if you're region free, at least don't worry about "The Sacrifice". The Swedish edition from SFI is top-notch and English friendly, and the new German edition (also with English subs) seems to be a clone of that one. But we really need a good version of "Mirror", and, oh dear... "Nostalgia".

Apropos: Nostalghia is coming to DVD 2009 by Alamode-Film. I will wait and see how their transfer will look like. (Nostalghia is the only film by Tarkovsky I have hesitated to buy because of the poor transfers out there). But I guess this info is pertinent only for German speakers since I don't think there will be English subs on the disc anyhow.

Matt wrote:Nobody said anything about them "going under." I said:

Matt wrote:they are really struggling right now. They are laying off employees, in one case someone who has been with them for 18 years and who is, in my opinion, not expendable.

Just because they're still managing to release DVDs doesn't mean that their employees aren't losing their jobs.

Does Jessica Rosner still work there?

sir karl wrote:Apropos: Nostalghia is coming to DVD 2009 by Alamode-Film. I will wait and see how their transfer will look like. (Nostalghia is the only film by Tarkovsky I have hesitated to buy because of the poor transfers out there). But I guess this info is pertinent only for German speakers since I don't think there will be English subs on the disc anyhow.

I suppose so, too. Still, it's potentially good news for me. Where did you read that? I couldn't find anything on their page; any release date yet? (Sorry for going off-topic, folks).

Tommaso wrote:

sir karl wrote:Apropos: Nostalghia is coming to DVD 2009 by Alamode-Film. I will wait and see how their transfer will look like. (Nostalghia is the only film by Tarkovsky I have hesitated to buy because of the poor transfers out there). But I guess this info is pertinent only for German speakers since I don't think there will be English subs on the disc anyhow.

I suppose so, too. Still, it's potentially good news for me. Where did you read that? I couldn't find anything on their page; any release date yet? (Sorry for going off-topic, folks).

It's announced in their booklet which came along with the Achternbusch-Set. Their DVD Programm Vorschau für 2009 is also announcing a Jean Cocteu Box (L'Aigle à deux têtes, Orphée & Les Enfants terribles) and Jean Becker's Les Enfants du Marais amongst others. Sorry, no exact date is given.

Thanks, Sir Karl.

You just made my day again with this:

sir karl wrote: (L'Aigle à deux têtes, Orphée & Les Enfants terribles)

If the "Enfants" transfer is anywhere near the new CC, I'll finally ditch my old BFI, double-dip on "Orphée" and will be more than happy to finally get a subbed (and hopefully restored) version of "L'aigle". I assume there's little hope for these films to be released on their own, but it's still splendid news!

On the other hand (and to come back to the topic), Kino might due the world a service to release "L'aigle" together with the new French resto of "L'eternel retour". Oh, and we need the even less known "Les parents terribles", too.

Tommaso wrote:Thanks, Sir Karl.

You just made my day again with this:

sir karl wrote: (L'Aigle à deux têtes, Orphée & Les Enfants terribles)

If the "Enfants" transfer is anywhere near the new CC, I'll finally ditch my old BFI, double-dip on "Orphée" and will be more than happy to finally get a subbed (and hopefully restored) version of "L'aigle". I assume there's little hope for these films to be released on their own, but it's still splendid news!

On the other hand (and to come back to the topic), Kino might due the world a service to release "L'aigle" together with the new French resto of "L'eternel retour". Oh, and we need the even less known "Les parents terribles", too.

Ah, mea culpa - the Jean Cocteau DVD-Box will indeed include Les parents terribles ('Schreckliche Eltern') and not Les Enfants terribles. Sorry for the mix-up! But 'tis good news actually.

GREAT!!

Anyhow Kino never released Nostalghia.. the previous iffy disc was from plox lorber.

Does Jessica Rosner still work there?

I understand she was laid off this week.

Matt wrote: I assumed all of the Chabrols were as bad. I blame Kimstim and not Kino, though. I think Kino is just the distributor for these titles.

I wasn't very impressed with Kimstim's presentation of Jan Svankmajer's shorts either - PAL-to-NTSC conversion and stop-motion really don't mix!

The Kimstim Resnais, Ruiz, and Akerman titles are all decent. And I need to recheck the Chabrols, but I seem to remember both Cop au Vin and Colors of Lies being in good shape as well, but I was watching them on a regular tube television so I may have missed many of the problems.

By the way, who is Kimstim?

justeleblanc wrote:By the way, who is Kimstim?

From what I could gather, KimStim are an independant Distribution company formed in Brooklyn who have formed an alliance with Kino. The name comes from the combination of the two founders names (or part there of); Mika Kimoto and Ian Stimler.

I just found this, which actually sums it up much better than I have.

I'd also throw a slightly hesitant reccomendation in for Jafar Panahi's The Mirror on the KimStim selection, which, despite some flaws (non-anamorphic, slightly soft / hazy, barebones save for a bio on Panahi - If I remember correctly, it's been a long time since I saw it), is certainly watchable, and the flaws don't detract from the sweet nature and often very clever qualities the film carries.

Does anyone know if the DVDs in Kino's American Film Theatre collection have
English subtitles? I suspect not; but would be great if someone could confirm.

zone_resident wrote:Does anyone know if the DVDs in Kino's American Film Theatre collection have
English subtitles? I suspect not; but would be great if someone could confirm.

I only have The Iceman Cometh and A Delicate Balance, but they don't.

I only made it about ten minutes into my rental copy of Iceman because not only was the picture quality abysmal (Frankly one of the most unwatchable transfers I've ever seen on my HD TV), but I couldn't understand half of what was being said due to the dialog being mixed low and sludgy. Kudos to anyone who could have lasted through four hours of that

Rich Malloy wrote:There was also a little something about a "METROPOLIS" BD release in 2009.

Wasn't that announcement made before the news of the happy discovery in Argentina? I would have thought that was a pretty good reason for any delay in itself.

It appears that the Svankmajer's "Conspirators of Pleasure" and "Faust" have just been discontinued, just when I was going on a Svankmajer kick. #-o

MichaelB wrote:

Rich Malloy wrote:There was also a little something about a "METROPOLIS" BD release in 2009.

Wasn't that announcement made before the news of the happy discovery in Argentina? I would have thought that was a pretty good reason for any delay in itself.

Yeah, they said they were holding it until FWMS finishes the restoration. Should be worth the wait.

Gregory wrote:Those wanting points of entry into the best stuff Kino has released, and at a good value, should go for some of the box sets they've done, which include many of the titles HerrSchreck mentioned.
The two Film Noir sets, German Experssionism Collection, American Silent Horror, and Glamour Girls (which features Love Me Tonight, The Good Fairy, and Sirk's Lured, but only the English version of Blue Angel, frustratingly). They've done other good box sets, of course (most of which Schreck has listed), but these are the slim-case repackages that are such a fine value that they're a little frustrating to those of us who bought the standalone releases. But they're a great boon to everyone else -- very little dead wood in them, too.

That's a baffling decision to only release the English 'Blue Angel'. ](*,)

I'd have thought it'd be more effort than its worth to redo it as a single disc.

Tolmides wrote:That's a baffling decision to only release the English 'Blue Angel'. I'd have thought it'd be more effort than its worth to redo it as a single disc.

The original Kino release is two discs: one with the German version, one with the English.

Matt wrote:

Tolmides wrote:That's a baffling decision to only release the English 'Blue Angel'. I'd have thought it'd be more effort than its worth to redo it as a single disc.

The original Kino release is two discs: one with the German version, one with the English.

That's what I was getting at, the original was two discs, but they redid it for the box set, which is just extra work and more customer dissatisfaction for them. :-k