The Apartment

[DRW.mov]

I was pissed when they cancelled my pre-order (which was supposed to be a present for my roommate), but I was just able to score a copy for £20 on Amazon UK along with the now OOP Noir Box for £40. Despite the frustration I think I came out on top. Plus was able to use the $5 credit to buy more last minute gifts.

[John Shade]

One of those eBay copies is currently going for $157, while a few others are also quite high

[domino harvey]

Too high for me to purchase at that price-- how much to lease?

[swo17]

Or what if I just drop in every now and then when the need arises?

[criterionsnob]

Blu-ray.com. This looks stunning.

[KirkG]

After Amazon cancelled my order and I read the posts here, I decided to try ordering direct from Arrow, and they have just confirmed that my order has been dispatched. I’m trusting that it will actually turn out to be region free.

[Drucker]

FWIW I ordered Amazon UK as well as Arrow direct the day after this debacle happened and both have shipped (Arrow today, Amazon almost immediately).

[domino harvey]

After Amazon cancelled my order and I read the posts here, I decided to try ordering direct from Arrow, and they have just confirmed that my order has been dispatched. I’m trusting that it will actually turn out to be region free.

It is the exact same disc in either region

[swo17]

Yeah, only difference at all is the rating logo on the packaging of the UK edition.

[domino harvey]

DeepDiscount just canceled and refunded my order, so this is pretty clearly OOP in the states as suspected

[Forrest Taft]

Yeah, only difference at all is the rating logo on the packaging of the UK edition.

The cover only has a region B logo, but I guess it's a misprint, as it would make little sense to region lock it. The cover also lists the PAL running time - 120 minutes. I can confirm that that's a misprint, at least. Lovely package, btw, I hope all of you manage to snag a UK copy before it sells out.

Edit: I double-checked, and switched my player to region A, and the disc still plays. So it is regionfree.

[domino harvey]

The UK edition is now out of stock on Amazon.co.uk

[Apperson]

Arrow on January 2nd:

[domino harvey]

Pretty much! The take away lesson here surely must be: don't release your biggest title of the year when you're away on vacation. You'd think someone from the label would pop in somewhere to address the kerfuffle at least, but here we are...

[FrauBlucher]

This from Glen Erickson AKA DVD Savant... not sure if he knows something and is just playing coy.

Hello!
I was wrapping up my review for Arrow’s revisit of Billy Wilder’s The Apartment when emails began pouring in that Amazon wasn’t accepting new orders, and had even cancelled some pre-orders. The thought is that the limited edition’s 3,000 unit run had sold out, with third party sellers already cashing in. Well, if that’s true all-region capable customers still have the UK edition. I also wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a glitch in the system — when Arrow comes back after New Year’s it might have some good news on the subject. Note for those buying the UK copy — the extras appear to be a little different.

[phoenix474]

This from Glen Erickson AKA DVD Savant... not sure if he knows something and is just playing coy.

Hello!
I was wrapping up my review for Arrow’s revisit of Billy Wilder’s The Apartment when emails began pouring in that Amazon wasn’t accepting new orders, and had even cancelled some pre-orders. The thought is that the limited edition’s 3,000 unit run had sold out, with third party sellers already cashing in. Well, if that’s true all-region capable customers still have the UK edition. I also wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a glitch in the system — when Arrow comes back after New Year’s it might have some good news on the subject. Note for those buying the UK copy — the extras appear to be a little different.

Aren't the extras exactly the same though?

[Drucker]

Pretty much! The take away lesson here surely must be: don't release your biggest title of the year when you're away on vacation. You'd think someone from the label would pop in somewhere to address the kerfuffle at least, but here we are...

Even if someone from Arrow popped up, surely distribution, supply, and other contact offices could be closed right now.

[chatterjees]

The UK edition is now out of stock on Amazon.co.uk

Surprisingly, arrow webstore still has it in stock. Also, I placed my order at amazon (UK) two days ago and the message reigning over my order status is -

delivery estimate: We need a little more time to provide you with a good estimate. We'll notify you via e-mail as soon as we have an estimated delivery date.

Lets hope it goes through.

[What A Disgrace]

Thank goodness, I got shipping confirmation on my Apartment yesterday afternoon from Amazon UK.

[TMDaines]

On one hand, I can see why people are keen to get their hands on this, as I watched the old Blu-ray tonight and that transfer sure is underwhelming, but that book sounds more filler than killer and I’ll happily have a Blu-ray in a keep case for £7.50 down the line.

[Apperson]

It's another case of reading the fine print when it comes to Arrow booklets; here's the quote from the special features:

• Collector’s 150-page hardcover book featuring new writing by Neil Sinyard, Kat Ellinger, Travis Crawford and Heather Hyche, generously illustrated with rare stills and behind-the-scenes imagery

What is a bit iffy is that the Travis Crawford and Heather Hyche contribution is a collaboration, which brings the total number of essays in the book to 3.

I don't have the Jacques Rivette set, but from what I gather the number of advertised pages to the amount of written content is similar to this release.

[swo17]

Don't bother with the movie either--there are many moments where no one is speaking at all!

[tenia]

Arguably, such a hefty book is expected to take a long time to read, but with so many pictures (many actually only being movie stills, not BTS pictures), it actually feel much quicker to read than this. Especially, the font is quite large.
There's about only 40% of text (60 pages out of 150) and while I have seen far worse than this (30 pages of text out of 200), I understand how some would have liked more written material.
However, it does mean each essay amounts to about 20 pages each, which is neat.

You can compare with the Film Noir set booklet, which is about 65% text (IIRC) written in a small font.

[JAP]

On one hand, I can see why people are keen to get their hands on this, as I watched the old Blu-ray tonight and that transfer sure is underwhelming, but that book sounds more filler than killer and I’ll happily have a Blu-ray in a keep case for £7.50 down the line.

Hear, hear! And a big thank you to all the collectors and “printed extra” fans that are making the limited edition a fast seller.

[MichaelB]

You can compare with the Film Noir set booklet, which is about 65% text (IIRC) written in a small font.

I oversaw that booklet, and I massively over-delivered on expected word count (I wasn’t expecting to find as many juicy production stories and contemporary interviews). One of the essays was also double the requested length, which pushed the word count up even more.

In fact, I suggested to Arrow that they might want to increase the page count (not logistically possible by then) or trim back some of the archival material, but in the end they went with the full text.