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Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:04 pm
by MichaelB
Full specs announced:
Kim Newman’s Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
A DVD sampler, released 25 January exclusively in HMV RRP £1.99
If you’re a fan of classic and cult British films – from Alfie to Performance, from The Devils to Withnail and I – then this indispensable guide to a previously uncharted, alternative history of British cinema is for you...
In an all-new documentary, produced exclusively for the BFI, the UK's most knowledgeable and well-respected cult film critic, Kim Newman, explores such questions as how the director of Help! and Superman II came to make one of the world's greatest, but little-known, black comedies, and lifts the lid on which previously unseen British film features Helen Mirren in her debut role.
Along with a selection of original trailers and short films – including one that is exclusive to this release* – this is your passport to the exciting and surprising world of The Flipside. All titles can now be seen on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time ever, in the BFI Flipside collection. The sampler includes:
- Carousella (1966, 25 mins): originally banned by the BBFC, this controversial dramatised documentary on the lives of a group of striptease artistes was directed by celebrated Hollywood filmmaker John Irvin (Hamburger Hill, Raw Deal)
- The Spy's Wife (1972, 27 mins): directed by Gerry O'Hara (All the Right Noises, The Bitch), this little-seen short film stars the inimitable Tom Bell (The L-Shaped Room, Prime Suspect) and Ann Lynn (Screamtime, Separation) in a modish tale of intrigue and extra-marital relations
- Tomorrow Night in London*: a vibrant and fast-paced tourist board short made in the 1960s extolling the virtues, and fashions, of London's swinging scene
- Flipside trailer reel
- Illustrated booklet with essays and film credits
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2009 7:03 pm
by zedz
Brilliant! This is like The Faust Tapes of the 00s.
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 3:06 am
by whaleallright
Brilliant! This is like The Faust Tapes of the 00s.
If that's the case then we can except to see many copies of this in used shops in years to come.
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 4:29 am
by Yojimbo
Hopefully somebody will remind me of this closer to the release date so I can keep an eye out for it in my local HMV
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:09 pm
by antnield
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 1:04 pm
by reaky
Hmm - a 50% price increase for the privilege of not having to set foot inside an HMV store. Tempting...
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:23 pm
by MichaelB
reaky wrote:Hmm - a 50% price increase for the privilege of not having to set foot inside an HMV store. Tempting...
Newcomers to this thread might be a tad baffled - but that's because HMV initally and erroneously listed the online price as £2.99, but it's since been corrected.
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:55 pm
by tajmahal
reaky wrote:Hmm - a 50% price increase for the privilege of not having to set foot inside an HMV store. Tempting...
Visiting the store would be faster than waiting for the page to open. The HMV website is so slow.
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:50 pm
by antnield
Cover art:
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:52 pm
by MichaelB
Blimey, Kim's changed a lot since I last saw him.
He looked more like this earlier, but I daresay it's an old photo.
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 3:01 am
by Cash Flagg
Is there any possibility of Amazon UK eventually carrying this, for the US buyer?
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:25 am
by The Elegant Dandy Fop
Cash Flagg wrote:Is there any possibility of Amazon UK eventually carrying this, for the US buyer?
Some thing I'm wondering. Are there any friendly folks from the UK who would buy and ship me a copy? I have a pretty good seller/buyer score and would definitely reimburse you for shipping and the cost of the disc.
Private message me if you're this kind soul.
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:38 am
by arsonfilms
The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:Cash Flagg wrote:Is there any possibility of Amazon UK eventually carrying this, for the US buyer?
Some thing I'm wondering. Are there any friendly folks from the UK who would buy and ship me a copy? I have a pretty good seller/buyer score and would definitely reimburse you for shipping and the cost of the disc.
Private message me if you're this kind soul.
I'd very much like the same, although I suppose most people here would. How likely is this to stop being an HMV exclusive at some point?
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:54 am
by MichaelB
arsonfilms wrote:How likely is this to stop being an HMV exclusive at some point?
The disc will also be available from the BFI Filmstore as of launch date, and then from Amazon (and presumably other retailers) from March once the HMV exclusive window ends.
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:36 pm
by antnield
The blurb on the HMV website - see link above - now mentions that the central Newman doc will be 40 minutes in length (and that the exclusive Tomorrow Night in London has a 5min duration).
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:53 pm
by MichaelB
The running times are as follows:
Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema - 36:34
Tomorrow Night in London - 4:55
Carousella - 25:16
The Spy's Wife - 26:56
plus trailers (all of which are well worth watching in their own right):
The Bed-Sitting Room - 3:05
London in the Raw - 1:47
Primitive London - 1:52
Man of Violence - 2:51
The Big Switch - 2:56
Privilege - 2:45
Permissive - 2:03
...which adds up to a nice round 111 minutes. In other words, just under a pound an hour - which is about as big a bargain as you'll find anywhere.
The Kim Newman documentary is great fun: it's as no-frills as the RRP would suggest (it's basically him talking us title by title through the Flipside catalogue plus spin-offs like the Jane Arden/Jack Bond titles), though there are loads of clips and more than enough intelligent commentary to keep me watching - and bear in mind I've already seen most of the films. The 16-page booklet is skimpier than the usual Flipside efforts, but includes full notes and credits for all the supporting shorts.
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:59 pm
by antnield
...and the HMV pre-orders were posted today. Or at least mine was.
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:24 pm
by antnield
My copy arrived today. Just to add what Michael has added, it's packaged in an Amaray case as per all previous Flipside titles and gets the Flipside number of 000. The notes for the three shorts are all by Vic Pratt - those for
Carousella and
The Spy's Wife previously having appeared, respectively, in the DVD booklets for
Primitive London and
All the Right Noises. (Incidentally, the Newman doc was produced by
Nucleus Films [Marc Morris and Jake West] who've also put together DVD extras for the likes of Anchor Bay's Pete Walker and Norman J Warren boxed sets, and the cult Brummie horror-comedy
I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle, amongst others.)
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:13 am
by antnield
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:20 pm
by MichaelB
Beaver - not entirely sure why he needed more than one grab of Kim!
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:31 pm
by bamwc2
MichaelB wrote:Beaver - not entirely sure why he needed more than one grab of Kim!
I'll put it this way, sometimes when you're done getting captures, you have more good ones than you know what to do with and sometimes you don't.
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 12:54 pm
by reaky
For interested UK members with proximity to a FOPP, I saw this for sale in there yesterday for £2, notwithstanding its HMV-Exclusive status (HMV own Fopp these days).
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:52 pm
by HarryLong
MichaelB wrote:Beaver - not entirely sure why he needed more than one grab of Kim!
Kim finally got a new vest.
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 10:41 pm
by MichaelB
Re: Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema
Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:36 am
by MichaelB
Irish Times - "the greatest DVD bargain of all time."