Artificial Eye / Curzon Film World

[repeat]

Is Mystery the Lou Ye film? Also, has anyone had a chance to see Foxfire..?

[Zot!]

Anyone else out there like me that prefers Funny Games US to the original?

Yes, I think I do. I was REALLY impressed with Naomi Watts in this. Unfortunately neither is my favorite Haneke movie by quite a stretch. So this is a re-release? Because AE had already released Funny Games US once before.

[peerpee]

FUNNY GAMES US was (famously) the film that broke Tartan UK. The 2008 UK Blu-ray was issued by Tartan, and AE have not released it before. Somebody called Kaleidoscope Entertainment appears to have released it in the UK on DVD in 2010, but I don't know who they are/what the deal is there.

[Matt]

FUNNY GAMES US was (famously) the film that broke Tartan UK.

I think it's also blamed for/credited with shutting down Warner Independent (though they did put out a nearly three-year unbroken string of flops before FG).

[GaryC]

Is Mystery the Lou Ye film? Also, has anyone had a chance to see Foxfire..?

UK cinemas 9 August. I am particularly interested in this as I'm a huge fan of Joyce Carol Oates, upon whose novel it is based. I read the novel from beginning to end on an eight-hour ferry journey back in 1995.

In fact this is the second film version of the novel, the first being in 1986, an early lead role for Angelina Jolie. I haven't seen it: it went straight to VHS in the UK and hasn't had a UK DVD, though there is a Region 1 DVD.

[manicsounds]

FUNNY GAMES US was (famously) the film that broke Tartan UK. The 2008 UK Blu-ray was issued by Tartan, and AE have not released it before. Somebody called Kaleidoscope Entertainment appears to have released it in the UK on DVD in 2010, but I don't know who they are/what the deal is there.

Tartan didn't release "Funny Games" on video. I have the original UK DVD and it was put out by "Halcyon Pictures", no Tartan logo, although the packaging and design looks very Tartan-like.

[peerpee]

You're right. Amazon says "Tartan" for the distributor, but I've just looked at my Blu-ray of it, and it is indeed "Halcyon", which looks like some kind of Hamish McAlpine shell company forged out of the immediate wreckage of Tartan?

[Zot!]

Artificial Eye will also try to bring a Blu-ray version of it in 2014 after high-definition transfers are available for all films.

(regarding Haneke set)
This is pretty non-commital, but would be a pretty big deal I think. Too bad about the fixed subtitle concerns.

[accatone]

In a more recent Haneke book (2012/13) he says most of his DVDs are shit (image and sound wise) and that he will update them soon to the new standards. I found it quite interesting to hear that he cares about the video quality of his films...

[GaryC]

The Curzon Film World release of A Late Quartet (DVD checkdisc received) has optional English subtitles for this English-language film and also an audio-descriptive soundtrack.

The only extra is a trailer.

[antnield]

Au Hasard Balthazar and Mouchette will be DVD-only releases this month (Aug 26th). Blu-rays of both will appear on December 9th.

[eerik]

Nobody buys the DVDs because they are waiting for Blu-rays and then the Blu-ray versions are cancelled because nobody bought the DVDs, right?

[MichaelB]

Nobody buys the DVDs because they are waiting for Blu-rays and then the Blu-ray versions are cancelled because nobody bought the DVDs, right?

The DVD market is still considerably bigger than the Blu-ray market!

[Calvin]

Artificial Eye will also try to bring a Blu-ray version of it in 2014 after high-definition transfers are available for all films.

(regarding Haneke set)
This is pretty non-commital, but would be a pretty big deal I think.

Wasn't something similar said about the Tarkovsky set when that was released?

[acf171072]

Au Hasard Balthazar and Mouchette will be DVD-only releases this month (Aug 26th). Blu-rays of both will appear on December 9th.

If this is true - still saying August on amazon - then this has gone beyond ridiculous to the land of plain insulting. This is as bad as the umpiring in the current Ashes series. Already sold my Nouveaux DVDs last year after first announcement. Come on Criterion, pull your socks up so we don't have to rely on this never gonna happen release.

[med]

Come down from the ledge, acf171072. They announced a release date for the Blus before anyone has had a chance to buy the DVDs. This isn't like Olive releasing HD editions of SD titles they put out the year before.

Yeah, same street date for both would be nice, but this isn't the worst thing in the world. (I have no idea what the current Ashes series is, so you may be bang-on about the umpiring for that!)

[A man stayed-put]

If this is true - still saying August on amazon - then this has gone beyond ridiculous to the land of plain insulting. This is as bad as the umpiring in the current Ashes series.

I imagine a video referral will overturn that Amazon release date.

[MichaelB]

It may well be a similar situation to the one that affected the BFI's Privilege, whereby the initial HD master was deemed good enough for a DVD but not good enough for a Blu-ray. So the DVD was released on the planned release date, while the BD emerged a few months later after the master had been redone - although the BFI also announced upfront that it was coming, so there was little danger of buying the DVD by mistake.

I daresay this wouldn't happen now, since BFI releases are invariably dual-format.

[acf171072]

It may well be a similar situation to the one that affected the BFI's Privilege, whereby the initial HD master was deemed good enough for a DVD but not good enough for a Blu-ray. So the DVD was released on the planned release date, while the BD emerged a few months later after the master had been redone - although the BFI also announced upfront that it was coming, so there was little danger of buying the DVD by mistake.

I daresay this wouldn't happen now, since BFI releases are invariably dual-format.

Possible, but this baby has been announced for over a year and delayed more times than we can count. You'd have thought they'd have realised that straight away mid late 2012 and got working to ensure it was sorted. To then still only release a DVD suggests it still isn't good enough.

[chatterjees]

It is truly a massacre. What on earth made Artificial eye to change all the cover arts for the upcoming 5 Satyajit Ray BDs! I think these are surely heading to be "coasters" now!!! Sorry, I couldn't find any link for the images to insert here, but go to amazon.co.uk and check those out!!! ](*,)

[zedz]

Yeah, they're ugly, but to be honest I don't think they're any worse than the previous ones that used that depressing grey Artificial Eye template. And I realise somebody told them that English titles would be more commercial, and in most cases that's correct, but when you've got a film with the reputation of Charulata (which has just screened at Cannes under that name, no less), you're shooting yourself in the foot downplaying the title everybody knows it by.

[domino harvey]

I think these are surely heading to be "coasters" now!!!

Adding this to the list

[bdlover]

The DVD market is still considerably bigger than the Blu-ray market!

Michael, it's no longer that simple, especially within the classic and arthouse niche (eg. Masters of Cinema's recent list of Top 10 best sellers including two blu-ray-only titles on the list). When it comes to these two Bresson films, there will be significantly more demand for a blu-ray than a DVD considering that these titles have already been released on DVD both in the UK and by Criterion in the US. The blu-rays, by contrast, would be English language firsts and would be popular with customers both in the UK and abroad.

[GaryC]

I had heard (admittedly not from the horse's mouth) that the films themselves were ready to go, but the issue was with sourcing extras.

That said, Artificial Eye haven't had a problem with releasing four Atom Egoyan films, so far, on Blu-ray and DVD with no extras at all.

[shaky]

Svet Atanasov's blu-ray.com review of AE's edition of CHARULATA:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Charulata ... 38/#Review" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;