FSimeoni wrote:I only order stuff that is unreleased (when I can afford it)
Thanks again for posting this. I have had my moral scruples about trading or buying "unofficial" DVDs, even in situations like this, where the majority of the films are otherwise completely unavailable anywhere on DVD. On the other hand, I also feel that the films were meant to be seen, so I have resolved that I can live with purchasing an unofficial DVD in cases where the films are not available to purchase officially. It is also my resolve that if one of these films later becomes available officially, I will purchase the official release, which is a given any way, because I simply enjoy the booklets and "whole packages" of most official releases too much to not purchase the official releases. But more importantly, I want to support the labels that make a commitment and effort to bring these films out.
Looking over this Japanese film site, there were a number of films that I immediately knew I wanted to see, so I made an inquiry, and received a reply within a couple of hours with details on the quality of the specific films, prices, etc. I ordered a number of the films, and will comment when I receive them.
Similarly, I received a number of DVDs from RareDVDs4Sale in the past week, and received very friendly and quick service, so I feel I can safely vouch for this trader, if anyone is considering a purchase.
The quality on the DVDs varied quite a bit depending on the source of the individual film. Needless to say, almost all of these films are recordings of television broadcasts made over quite a significant period of time (I presume). So, some of the older recordings were originally made on VHS, and may even be second generation. In any event, here are a few brief notes on most of the films that I received (bear in mind that I viewed only a few scenes of each film at this point):
The Nakagawa titles (
Mansion of the Ghost Cat,
The Lady Vampire,
Ghosts of Kasane Swamp,
Death Row Woman and
The Ceiling at Utsunomiya) all look great, and definitely come from a digital source. Likewise Teshigahara's
Basara -- The Princess Goh, maybe one notch down from the Nakagawa titles -- think AnimEigo's samurai titles. Mizoguchi's
Gion Festival Music also looks very good, about on par with the FSF releases that I own of several other Mizoguchi films. However, do note that MoC will be releasing this (as far as I remember). Shindo's
Children of Hiroshima again looks good -- it is full frame, and I am not sure that is correct, but the image is otherwise strong.
Rosi's
Cadaveri Eccellenti also looks very good. I assume this is a recent television recording straight to DVD. Subtitles are yellow, but small font. The image may be slightly cropped -- it is hard for me to be certain with my projector, but I would estimate the aspect ratio to be around 1.70:1. Bertolucci's
Spider's Stratagem is a notch down, but still acceptable. The colors are not quite as good as on
Cadaveri Eccellenti, and I belive the image is very slightly cropped. IMDB lists the film at 1.66:1, but on my projector it looked standard ratio, however, the framing did not appear to crop anything in the scenes I sampled.
All of the Fuller films (
Run of the Arrow,
Underworld U.S.A.,
Park Row,
Crimson Kimono,
Verboten!) looked good or better -- again, these are television broadcasts of various dates with
Park Row appearing to be of more recent date, whereas something like Underworld U.S.A. would be of an earlier date and hence not as strong.
Run of the Arrow and
Verboten! had the television logo imprinted in the corner of the frame. Included with
Park Row is a very nice documentary on Fuller entitled
The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera -- the program is from the mid-'90s, and the image quality is very good.
The Devils has been discussed in other threads in the past. The image here is very strong and from a recent broadcast.
Dennis Hopper's
The Last Movie also looks very good. Any lack in vibrancy of the colors surely have as much to do with the condition of the film as with the broadcast.
As one would expect, the rarer titles are often from broadcasts of older date, and the image quality rougher. Of these, Howard Hawks'
Tiger Shark looks very good, as does Lang's
American Guerilla in the Philippines.
The Sniper looks fine after some initial video artifacts -- think of some of Alpha's stronger offerings from the '40s/'50s.
Intruder in the Dust carries the network logo, but is otherwise good.
Run for Cover,
Trail of the Lonesome Pine,
Sign of the Pagan,
Seventh Cavalry and (sadly)
Wind Across the Everglades are the weakest of the batch, of older broadcast date, and possibly second generation VHS to DVD transfer. The ratio is also not correct on some of these. Still, to me it is still a comfort to be able to get an idea of what these films look like, until a real DVD release hopefully some day materialises.
There is a collection of Short Films that includes Kubrick's
Day of the Fight, Lamorisse's
Le ballon rouge, Lelouch's notorious
C'etait un rendezvous and
Return to Glennascaul (complete with an intro by Peter Bogdanovich) + a few others. It is a great, fun collection that made me very happy, as I wanted to see several of these shorts for a long time. the image quality is varying with
Day of the Fight being comparatively strong, and Scorsese's
Big Shave being quite poor. And, finally, there is the wonderful 140 minute documentary on Orson Welles --
Stories of a Life in Film, made for and initially broadcast by BBC in the late '80s. No fan of Welles should be without it! The image quality is late '80s VHS, but who really cares.
I have tried to be objective about the quality of these DVDs. It should be clear that I am overjoyed and very happy with "RareDVDs." I would say that if one is easily disappointed by image quality, and if £2.50/disc is a consideration, then the chance of disappointment is present. If, like me, one is excited at the prospect of being able to see a few handfuls of films not otherwise available, and willing to accept that these are not studio transfers of restored prints, then this will be a real treat.
oh well, got everything that was unique to their site anyway and for free!