BD 80 Nashville

[eerik]

Nashville



A milestone in American cinema and of the key films of the 1970s, Robert Altman's Nashville is one of the most influential and dazzling films ever made. Weaving together the stories and interactions of twenty-four major characters with astonishing fluidity, this audacious, epic vision of America circa 1975 has lost none of its freshness or excitement.

Taking place over five days in the nation's music capital Nashville, Tennessee, the film follows two-dozen characters struggling for fulfilment, both personal and professional, amongst a backdrop of country and gospel musicians, outsider political campaigning, and the peripheries of life in between, building from one encounter at a time to create a wide-ranging tapestry of rich drama and human comedy.

Featuring an exhilarating central vein of musical performances (written in character by many of the actors themselves), and a phenomenal cast including Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Shelley Duvall, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Murphy and Lily Tomlin. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this iconic work for the first time ever on home video in the UK.

DUAL FORMAT RELEASE INCLUDING BLU-RAY AND DVD VERSIONS OF THE FILM

• Gorgeous high-definition 1080p presentation on the Blu-ray, progressive encode on the DVD
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Feature-length audio commentary by director Robert Altman, recorded in 2000
• Two archival video interviews with Altman
• Video interview with screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury
• Video interview with actor Michael Murphy
• Original theatrical trailer
• 28-PAGE FULL-COLOUR BOOKLET containing a new essay about the film by critic and scholar Adrian Martin, and rare archival imagery

[Randall Maysin]

Wonder if this release will have the scholarly add-ons that the Criterion is lacking...

[MichaelB]

It'll certainly be much cheaper for the likes of me, so it was very canny of Eureka to announce it now - i.e. just before the Criterion disc is actually released!

[tenia]

It'll certainly be much cheaper for the likes of me, so it was very canny of Eureka to announce it now - i.e. just before the Criterion disc is actually released!

Indeed just in time to cancel my Criterion order. I'll wait for definitive specs and reviews of the MoC, and then will decide which one I buy, which is a choice you don't have very often, actually.

[Perkins Cobb]

The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this iconic work for the first time ever on home video in the UK.

Nashville was never released on VHS or DVD in the UK? That's kind of astounding.

[MichaelB]

Seems to be entirely true - there's no record of a BBFC submission between 1975 and 2013.

[Orlac]

I remember seeing it on UK TV about 10 years ago - never realised it never made it to home video here!

[colinr0380]

It has definitely been on the BBC a few times (ironically despite the rather negative portrayal of the BBC employee in the film itself!), but I don't recall home video either. TV has been the only way I've seen it before the recent Criterion disc.

I wonder if there are many other Altman films haven't been released on home video in the UK?

[tojoed]

But Colin, Opal wasn't really a BBC reporter, she was a fake.

California Split has never been released here on home video. I'm not sure of any others.

[Calvin]

I can't find any record of The Delinquents, That Cold Day in the Park, A Perfect Couple and HealtH being released on home video either. In fact, the only BBFC entry I can find for The Delinquents says it was rejected for a certificate back in 1957.

[colinr0380]

But Colin, Opal wasn't really a BBC reporter, she was a fake.

It's getting more and more difficult to tell the difference these days! But it does explain why I failed to make an impression during my BBC work experience when I tried to use Opal's techniques on the staff there!

[manicsounds]

blu-ray.com press release says:

New 1080p high-definition restoration
Interviews
Audio Commentary with Director Robert Altman
36-page booklet with a new essay, vintage stills, and more!

Would like to know what "Interviews" consists of, and how much overlap or differences there will be from the Criterion

[Graham]

Has this been delayed? Just got an email from Amazon saying I'll now receive it between June 19 and 21.

[MichaelB]

Would like to know what "Interviews" consists of, and how much overlap or differences there will be from the Criterion

They consist of two interviews with Altman (12:25 and 10:15), and interviews with Joan Tewkesbury (24:28) and Michael Murphy (13:17). The earlier Altman interview is from 2000 (and going from Beaver grabs I think it's also on the Criterion), the other three from 2001.

One thing that struck me when watching the checkdisc is that MoC's video bitrate is substantially higher than Criterion's (average 38.9Mbps versus Criterion's 22.95), presumably because there's less video content overall. Indeed, because all the interviews are SD, the main feature takes up a whopping 46 gigabytes, versus Criterion's 34.

(Criterion figures taken from the Beaver review: I don't have that disc myself.)

[David M.]

One thing that struck me when watching the checkdisc is that MoC's video bitrate is substantially higher than Criterion's (average 38.9Mbps versus Criterion's 22.95), presumably because there's less video content overall. Indeed, because all the interviews are SD, the main feature takes up a whopping 46 gigabytes, versus Criterion's 34.

I was just going to mention this if nobody else did

I'm don't remember the average being as high as 38 (the max is 38, but the bitrate is still high). It does also follow my favored strategy of noise reducing any video camera based extras to squash them into a tiny space, to keep more room for the film grain on the feature.

[otis]

Beaver

[manicsounds]

blu-ray.com