Arrow Films

[Drucker]

The Blu-Ray.com review was particularly unkind to The Conformist, is it misguided? This is the main reason I held off buying it and stuck with my Paramount DVD...

[TMDaines]

I'd say so. It's a big improvement on the DVD regardless.

[Adam X]

I never bought their release of The Conformist based on the screen caps I saw at the time looking too bright, especially for the final scene.
Though my judgement is based solely on seeing the film on VHS and DVD, so I don't really have a true notion of what's correct here. Plus, I've been waiting to see how the CC rumours would pan out, for a comparison at the very least.

[MichaelB]

The Blu-Ray.com review was particularly unkind to The Conformist, is it misguided?

Here's the review - he actually gave it 3/5 for video, so it's not a wholesale slagging-off. I suspect it's not so much the review that's the issue as the accompanying tsunami of misinformation and blatant guesswork that was being circulated elsewhere at the time - some people were even claiming that it was an upscale from SD, a completely ridiculous suggestion. So I later relayed some info from James White (who supervised the preparation at Arrow's end, but from an existing Italian HD master) to Matt Shingleton, author of the Digital Fix review to try to set the factual record straight. Although if you read both reviews in detail, they both give a reasonably similar account of what it's like watching the film.

As far as I'm concerned, I see no reason to disagree with claims that it was originally telecined from the original camera negative (there are small but telltale "jumps" around a number of cuts, which happens as a by-product of telecineing film that's been physically spliced), but clearly some kind of processing happened at the Italian end prior to the master being shipped to Arrow, even if it wasn't the wholesale DNR going-over that the Raro Blu-ray received. But at less than a tenner, I agree with TMDaines - even if it was only on DVD, it would be worth buying just for the Forgacs commentary (which is by no means the only extra: I recall the booklet being rather impressive as well).

If Criterion pick it up, they're likely to source their materials via Paramount (who don't have the European rights), so it may well be a wholly different situation.

[Graham]

I concur with the above about the The Conformist and the blu-ray is still worth picking up even though I suspect a superior transfer will surface elsewhere sooner or later.

[hearthesilence]

I only had the Paramount DVD (now OOP) and the Arrow BD, and it was an obvious purchase. I've seen the film projected in 35mm twice within a few months of each other, but it was probably full year before the BD came out so I couldn't go home and do a fresh comparison like I've done with, say, Playtime or Do the Right Thing. I'm pretty sure the BD could be better, but there's no way I'd call it an up-res of the SD, that's absolutely ridiculous. Unless you watched it on a CRT TV set or a very tiny TV set, it should be obvious that such a claim is utter bullshit. I sold the Paramount DVD for an easy $20+ here in the U.S., and with the Arrow BD costing less than 10 GBP (and just something I threw in with some other discs I wanted from the UK), I basically made a small profit in upgrading.

(Also, it's worth noting that upgrades like these eventually make-up for the cost of buying a hack for your BD player. There's been quite a number of DVD titles that I was able to sell for a decent amount of money here in the U.S. (particularly OOP titles) and then replace with relatively inexpensive Region B Blu-Rays from the U.K.)

[pro-bassoonist]

The Blu-Ray.com review was particularly unkind to The Conformist, is it misguided?

Here's the review - he actually gave it 3/5 for video, so it's not a wholesale slagging-off. I suspect it's not so much the review that's the issue as the accompanying tsunami of misinformation and blatant guesswork that was being circulated elsewhere at the time - some people were even claiming that it was an upscale from SD, a completely ridiculous suggestion. So I later relayed some info from James White (who supervised the preparation at Arrow's end, but from an existing Italian HD master) to Matt Shingleton, author of the Digital Fix review to try to set the factual record straight. Although if you read both reviews in detail, they both give a reasonably similar account of what it's like watching the film.

Just to make it clear here: There is no misinformation in the Blu-ray.com review. Elsewhere - perhaps, I would say.

There is plenty of information starting at page 24 of this thread which clarifies what speculations and guesswork were done at the time when this release arrived on the market (for example, the claim that the Blu-ray.com review links an old Paramount master to Arrow's release). But this is an old story, and all the interesting info on this release is actually in this thread.

On the other hand, if there were people claiming that this release is an SD upscale, well, they are clearly wrong. Also wrong are those who initially speculated that Arrow's release uses as a foundation the Cineteca di Bologna restoration of the film that was promoted for the 64th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

The Blu-ray release certainly represents an upgrade in quality over the old R1 DVD release Paramount Pictures issued in 2006, but the upgrade has more to do with the fact that the old DVD release is extremely problematic (even for a DVD release).

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that a new Blu-ray release with an unmolested high-definition transfer using as a foundation the Cineteca di Bologna restoration will produce very different results.

[antnield]

Postcard for Donald Cammell's White of the Eye has been appearing inside copies of Baron Blood.

[Feego]

Beaver on Black Sabbath

[MichaelB]

...and Blu-ray.com on Baron Blood.

Arrow haven't put a foot wrong with this year's Bava releases.

[EddieLarkin]

It looks like Arrow is releasing De Palma's The Fury. Now, I feel like a chump for buying the overpriced Twilight Time release.

Elsewhere on that forum, it's confirmed there are two other films on that card that are unannounced: The Phantom of Paradise and Sisters. Unfortunately, no Body Double, a future release from Twilight Time. It'd be nice to know things like this in advance of spending £25 on a "Limited Edition"! Not to mention the possibility of Arrow's release being stacked (TTs The Fury is practically bare bones).

I wonder how Arrow's The Fury will be region coded. The TT release was region free, so it would be a big dick move for them to have Fox insist on a Region B lock. Then again, perhaps they don't care; they've already sold nearly three-quarters of their Fury stock.

[Calvin]

From Facebook:

The Arrow team is back from Cannes and very pleased to have picked up two films in Competition; Jia's A TOUCH OF SIN and Kore-eda's LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON as well as other films to be released theatrically and on Arrow Video / Arrow Academy. More info coming soon!

I wonder if they picked up Carax's Boy Meets Girl and Mauvais Sang for Academy. They already have 1/3 of the 'Alex Trilogy' on DVD.

[AidanKing]

Interesting that Arrow have picked up Jia's A Touch of Sin: I wonder whether they outbid Artificial Eye and New Wave. I suppose this one sounds potentially more box-office friendly.

[manicsounds]

DVDBeaver on Foxy Brown

[tojoed]

Thanks for that info, Michael. Arrow are doing a marvellous job
on these films, and I'll be happy to have them all.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Interesting that Arrow have picked up Jia's A Touch of Sin: I wonder whether they outbid Artificial Eye and New Wave. I suppose this one sounds potentially more box-office friendly.

AE hasn't released a Jia film since Unknown Pleasures, and they passed on Still Life because "we thought it wasn't a very good film." It's safe to guess they passed on The World and I Wish I Knew as well, given that The World didn't get a UK release until the MoC Blu and I Wish I Knew still hasn't been picked up. Maybe A Touch of Sin brought them back around and they really were outbid by Arrow, but I doubt it.

(This is going off on a tangent, but one of the depressing things about AE is how they've basically become another Criterion where Asia is concerned--i.e. not much interest in anything except Japan, Wong Kar-wai and Satyajit Ray, as opposed to a decade ago when they were distributing not only Jia but also Suzhou River, Shanghai Dreams, Last Life in the Universe, and Springtime in a Small Town. It seems like they wouldn't give any of those a second glance today.)

[MichaelB]

(This is going off on a tangent, but one of the depressing things about AE is how they've basically become another Criterion where Asia is concerned--i.e. not much interest in anything except Japan, Wong Kar-wai and Satyajit Ray, as opposed to a decade ago when they were distributing not only Jia but also Suzhou River, Shanghai Dreams, Last Life in the Universe, and Springtime in a Small Town. It seems like they wouldn't give any of those a second glance today.)

A decade ago, Artificial Eye was still run by the original team - founder Andi Engel had sadly passed away, but Pam Engel and Robert Beeson were still calling the shots. But Pam and Robert are now New Wave Films, and I don't know if there's any continuity at all between the old and new Artificial Eye, apart from the name.

This sort of thing can be crucial - I think there's just one person at BFI DVD Publishing who was there in a similar capacity a decade ago, and the injection of former Tartan staffers in the two senior positions in 2008 made a huge and demonstrable difference: the label moved noticeably from primarily handling middlebrow European/Japanese arthouse to something far more UK-oriented and much more adventurous. (The Flipside strand would have been pretty much unimaginable under the pre-2008 regime).

In fact, getting back on topic, something similar may be true of Arrow - I'm much less familiar with the staff there (I've only met two face to face, and one of them's a freelancer), but I know that many of the present team weren't there three or four years ago (their regular technical supervisor James White definitely wasn't, as he was still with the BFI pre-2011), and their stuff is hard to recognise compared with their output even two or three years ago - noticeably more adventurous and technically markedly superior. Put it like this: if someone had told me back in 2010 that Arrow would soon become one of the outstanding UK labels, I'd have laughed like the proverbial drain. But look at them now!

[manicsounds]

Just a quick update: We no longer hold the rights to the films of Russ Meyer, we have stopped supplying the trade so whatever is with retailers is all that is available.

[zedz]

(This is going off on a tangent, but one of the depressing things about AE is how they've basically become another Criterion where Asia is concerned--i.e. not much interest in anything except Japan, Wong Kar-wai and Satyajit Ray

Getting way off-topic now, but I just had to comment on how hilarious I find the fact that we now have people complaining that Criterion releases too much Satyajit Ray!

When Paris nous appartient finally slips out in 2023 (we'll still be waiting for Out 1 and everything else), stand by for the "too much Rivette" posts six months later.

[knives]

I can't wait until that day. Hell I want too much Suzuki to come back.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I'm not complaining about too much Ray and I don't know how you could've taken that from my post. I'm complaining that it's 2013 and the number of non-Japanese Asian filmmakers in the collection can be counted on two hands, and that's reaching all the way back to the laserdisc era. Just five (Ray, Kiarostami, Edward Yang, Lee Chang-dong, Ang Lee) have been "inducted" in the subsequent fourteen years. Of course this has been endlessly debated/discussed elsewhere--often with "Eastern Europe" or "South America" or "Africa" substituted for "Asia"--so I don't see much reason to elaborate further. At least with Criterion their Asian selection is becoming a bit more adventurous whereas AE has moved backwards.

[knives]

I don't think Kiarostami can be considered Asian at least in how I understand the term.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Well, the Middle East is traditionally an "Asian" territory, and if I'm going to criticize a company I generally admire, I figure I ought to show at least a little generosity. Likewise I'm a bit conflicted about including Ang Lee on the basis of two Hollywood productions, but I wrote "Asian filmmakers" and not "Asian films," so...

[hearthesilence]

Anybody have Arrow's Blu-Ray disc of The Bicycle Thieves?

At 15:34 (min:sec), when the kid walks into the background to get a scarf that's draping over the bed, the picture breaks up a bit. By that, I mean a section of the screen *almost* turns into a series of black & white bars for a small fraction of a second. (Hard to describe, you'd have to see it.) Does this happen for anybody else?

It doesn't feel like disc a defect, I think it may be the way it's mastered. It doesn't ruin the movie or anything, but still, it should be fixed.

[Ozu Teapot]

Anybody have Arrow's Blu-Ray disc of The Bicycle Thieves?

At 15:34 (min:sec), when the kid walks into the background to get a scarf that's draping over the bed, the picture breaks up a bit. By that, I mean a section of the screen *almost* turns into a series of black & white bars for a small fraction of a second. (Hard to describe, you'd have to see it.) Does this happen for anybody else?

It doesn't feel like disc a defect, I think it may be the way it's mastered. It doesn't ruin the movie or anything, but still, it should be fixed.

I just checked and unfortunately yes, I have the same thing with my disc. I have to be honest and say I'd never noticed it before. It is only for a split second, and as you say doesn't ruin the film.

Anyway I managed to pause it on the afflicted moment and take a pic (although with a mobile phone, so any poor image quality aside from the "blockiness" is the phone's fault!)