Artificial Eye / Curzon Film World

[Black Hat]

On top of the obvious the additional frustration is all the varying opinions of every edition of his films. I'd love to replace my old Kino copy of Zerkalo but there just doesn't appear to be one worth doing so for yet.

[Duncan Hopper]

Kleber Mendonça Filho's Neighbouring Sounds - June 24th

This is a great film. I'm way more excited for this than for the Egoyans.

I'll second this. It's certainly one of the better debuts in recent years, feels very PTA, Tarrantino, Altman etc, in structure and style a, but Filho has more than enough style and ideas of his own to take the film in interesting directions.

[Calvin]

According to Blu-Ray.com, Ray's Charulata, Mahapurush and Kapurush along with Assayas' Something in the Air and Egoyan's Calendar and Exotica will all be released on Blu-Ray in August.

[chatterjees]

Great news regarding Kapurush and Mahapurush! Mahapurush is a must have, if you haven't watched it yet.

[GaryC]

Following the recent discussion about fixed subtitles on foreign-language AE releases, I now have a Blu-ray checkdisc of Lore. I can confirm that the English subtitles on it are optional.

[Lowry_Sam]

According to Blu-Ray.com, Ray's Charulata, Mahapurush and Kapurush along with Assayas' Something in the Air and Egoyan's Calendar and Exotica will all be released on Blu-Ray in August.

I picked up the Region A of Exotica, which isn't bad, but doesn't have any extras.

[warren oates]

According to Blu-Ray.com, Ray's Charulata, Mahapurush and Kapurush along with Assayas' Something in the Air and Egoyan's Calendar and Exotica will all be released on Blu-Ray in August.

I picked up the Region A of Exotica, which isn't bad, but doesn't have any extras.

So in your world a newly recorded audio commentary featuring the director and his composer doesn't count as an extra?

[manicsounds]

DVDBeaver compares "Baron Blood"

[RossyG]

DVDBeaver compares "Baron Blood"

And Artificial Eye have announced that they intend to follow it up with Kill Baby Kill and Dr Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, as well as the latest films from Kiorastami and Sally Potter.

[Calvin]

Au Hasard Balthazar and Mouchette have been delayed (again!) to June 24th. Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, Claude Miller's Thérèse Desqueyroux and another pair of Satyajit Ray films - Nayak and Mahanagar - have been dated for September 9th.


Pre-orders are now up for:

Mahapurush - August 12th
Kapurush - August 12th
Something in the Air - August 26th
Exotica - August 26th
Calendar - August 26th

[neilist]

'Mahapurush' and 'Kapurush' are each little over an hour long and were originally released together as a double bill, so it would have been nice of AE to put them together as a single release, rather than two separate blu-rays. I know they were on separate DVD discs in AE's 'Satyajit Collection Vol. 2', but at least then they were released together in the same boxset.

They're good films, but unless there's some decent extras they're not going to be outstanding in terms of the amount of content.

[TMDaines]

Another heads up about Artificial Eye's subtitles; I've just gone to play Corpo celeste that was released last year and the subtitles are burnt-in. Not even merely fixed, as a couple of reviews have commented. Sigh...

[Kauno]

New Hal Hartley releases - The Unbelievable Truth and Amateur - carry no subtitles at all.

[acf171072]

Bressons delayed AGAIN!!! End of August. ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) I think a ffs is in order.

[ellipsis7]

Bizarre...

In the meantime a rare gem with Eng subs, right here...

[Robert de la Cheyniest]

It's too bad too, I saw Four Nights at BAM last year and the print was in pretty great shape, it's quite beautiful.

[fatboyslim142]

Does the newer DVD release of The Dardenne Brother's 'The Child' (grey DVD cover) have the extras from the original DVD release or not?

[GaryC]

Following the discussion about fixed vs. optional English subtitles, based on the checkdisc I'll be reviewing it from, the documentary Michael H. Profession: Director (German and French soundtrack) has fixed subtitles.

[TMDaines]

It was good to know you, AE.

[AidanKing]

Following the discussion about fixed vs. optional English subtitles, based on the checkdisc I'll be reviewing it from, the documentary Michael H. Profession: Director (German and French soundtrack) has fixed subtitles.

Oh, dear, that does seem very unfortunate. Also following the previous discussion, I can't see any reason why AE wouldn't have been able to negotiate removable subtitles on this one.

[RossyG]

If this affects the release disc itself then people need to write and complain.

[GaryC]

And another one - based on the Blu-ray checkdisc, the Romanian-language Beyond the Hills also has fixed subtitles.

As has been said before, I suspect this is a licensor's stipulation rather than AE policy. Their release of the German-language Lore has optional subtitles.

I haven't yet received a checkdisc for Simple Men, which was released yesterday, but as the previous two Hartleys had no English subtitles I suspect this one won't either. I wouldn't be surprised if the forthcoming Egoyan releases were subtitle-free as well. (Chunks of Calendar are in Armenian, but they are intentionally left unsubtitled because of Arsinée Khanjian's role as an interpreter, at least on the Madman Region 4 DVD I saw it on.)

[TMDaines]

We've discussed this before at great length, but I find it incredibly hard to believe that this wasn't something that AE couldn't have negotiated around.

Can I ask whether it was a regularly request or not, and whether it ever proved to be such a sticking point that you felt that you had no alternative but not to release a particular film?

The more successful a label gets, the more that other labels in other territories start moaning about this and that to the licensor. So, yes, we did start getting asked quite regularly to force subs. It just appeared in contracts suddenly, and I had to fight each one and get it removed from the contract. Oftentimes threatening to pull out of the deal if it wasn't allowed.

It's easier to *not fight*, and I would guess that's what has happened with Artificial Eye.

I demolished the licensor's argument each time by: i.) Highlighting that ex-pat French/German/Japanese/Italians living in the UK have the right to view the film as the director intended (ie. without ingrained/forced English subtitles), ii.) We've never, ever done it before, so we're not doing it now, and iii.) Criterion have never done it either.

This sort of shit needs constantly fighting against, and I did constantly fight and win.

As said previously, there's plenty of top tier labels out there that have never had to fix their subtitles, as Nick pointed out, and it's something that should have been fought against. Half of AE's appeal is that they do the basics well for a low price - now they're not even doing that. They'll likely be losing my business on many of these films.

[MichaelB]

Yes, it is very much starting to look like either a deliberate policy on their part.

Frankly, I fear for the Bressons - forced subs will be a deal-breaker for me on those, as I know the films well enough not to need them.

[otis]

Just got hold of the new Simple Men disc - no subs.