Unauthorized Releases & Bootlegs

[Adam X]

Their first two Blu-Ray’s (Der Samurai & Horsehead) were BD-R’s. They subsequently rereleased them as pressed discs due to complaints, though never did a recall. They continued with this for a while, though more recently appear to’ve reverted to using BD-R’s for some, if not all of their titles.

PLEASE NOTE: The Blu-ray release of THE TREATMENT is duplicated rather than replicated and limited to 500 copies. Due to customer demand we will be replicating future Blu-ray releases.

I’d get in touch, see if you can’t get a replacement.

[Boosmahn]

Thanks. I figured it could be something like that, but it's nice to have confirmation.

Are BD-Rs of particularly bad quality? Or are they more susceptible to disc rot?

[domino harvey]

BD-Rs are unstable. Releases that utilize them are literally not allowed to use the Blu-Ray logo on their packaging

[Boosmahn]

Thanks for your help, Domino and Adam. I reached out to Artsploitation and eventually shipped The Treatment for a replacement disc... but there was never a "duplicated" Blu-ray, only a "replicated" one.

Well, after going through records of a few years ago it seems that the guy here who placed the order placed a REPLICTED instead of DUPLICATED. So all this time all the Blu-rays were just REPLICATED.

...So he's just going to send it back to me. But I can pick two titles as collateral for all the trouble, so it's a success in my books.

[Rublev's Ghost]

Has anyone heard of a bootleg called, "Scorsese Assembled: Collected Works"?

It includes "Martin Scorsese Directs" - a British 60-minute documentary made in 1990 when he was shooting Goodfellas, and "In Search of Kundun with Martin Scorsese" - an 85min. documentary made in 1998. The set is a two disc that also includes American Boy, which I'm dying to see. I know bootlegs are by no means stadardized, but someone apparently got all of this in one set. Anyone? Thanks.

Sorry for this blast from the past but can anyone tell me if these documentaries were released anywhere else. I have the "In Search of Kundun" on the Blu-ray release.

I've never traced American Boy. "Martin Scorsese Directs" is partly on YouTube but missing part 3 (I've tried to message the uploader but no response) . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4TpIKBqc9k

If any of these are extras on official releases could you let me know?

[GoodOldNeon]

American Boy is on this DVD: https://www.madman.co.nz/catalogue/view ... hort-films

It is listed as out of stock, but I was able to buy it on Amazon UK not too long ago.

The only Scorsese which I am still looking for is "Street Scenes," which does not seem to be available anywhere.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Scorsese supposedly has the only print of Street Scenes and won't make it available to anyone, not even to researchers. Marc Raymond's Hollywood's New Yorker: The Making of Martin Scorsese has a lengthy section on the film with descriptions of its content and some speculation on why Scorsese buried it (ultimately boiling down to conflicts between Scorsese and the rest of the collective behind the project).

[Big Ben]

Scorsese supposedly has the only print of Street Scenes and won't make it available to anyone, not even to researchers. Marc Raymond's Hollywood's New Yorker: The Making of Martin Scorsese has a lengthy section on the film with descriptions of its content and some speculation on why Scorsese buried it (ultimately boiling down to conflicts between Scorsese and the rest of the collective behind the project).

A version of Street Scenes is out and about on Youtube as at least one site has reported on it although I'm unsure about how long it'll be out and about though. And this is all you're getting out of me due to advice I was given about the matter.

[Oedipax]

Wow, thanks for the tip-off, Big Ben. I just pulled a copy down to my hard drive since, as you mention, it might not be around on YouTube forever.

[domino harvey]

For those who don't need subtitles, here's Contre l'oubli, a 1991 portmanteau film from Amnesty International without any commercial release featuring contributions from a murderers row of French cinema, including Godard & Mieville, Resnais, Deville, Denis, Costa-Gavras, Akerman, Tavernier, and many more...

[senseabove]

A VHS-quality rip of Kelly Reichardt's Ode with burned-in German subs has found its way to vimeo, password 'benjamin': https://vimeo.com/333837341

Found via Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/klipp/film/ode/

[Aunt Peg]

I suppose this is as good as any thread to post this on. A couple of rarities have turned up on YouTube:

Birds Do It, Bees Do It (1974) taken from a VHS master by the looks of it;

My Son, My Son (1940);

The Memory of Justice (1976) clearly the recent 4K restoration that looks sensational. Hopefully a physical media release will be forthcoming.

[barryconvex]

Actually, Movie Detective is loaded with hard to find foreign language films. The quality of about 90% is very good (all are DVD-R) and come in plastic slips, though some titles look like VHS masters. Whenever any titles gets proper release in the U.S. it is promptly removed from the site.

I just placed an order from this site for Ce Soir ou Jamais and L'invention de Morel as I attempt to see every movie Anna Karina made in roughly the first 15 years of her career. The 1974 version of L'invention de Morel-which co-stars Karina- is a title I stumbled upon years ago through back channels (it now has a legitimate dvd release) and I'm looking forward to this earlier attempt. The title refers to a tide activated device discovered by a fugitive run aground on a desert island that brings to life the island's former inhabitants. It's the best blind bootleg buy (along with Dead Man's Letters) I ever made and I heartily recommend it if anyone's curious.

[Orson Kane]

Wow, thanks for the tip-off, Big Ben. I just pulled a copy down to my hard drive since, as you mention, it might not be around on YouTube forever.

Does anyone know if this is available on a Mirror site anywhere as YouTube has taken it down due a copyright claim from a certain M. Scorsese

[domino harvey]

iOffer has suspended all sales

[Dylan]

Wow, thanks for the tip-off, Big Ben. I just pulled a copy down to my hard drive since, as you mention, it might not be around on YouTube forever.

Does anyone know if this is available on a Mirror site anywhere as YouTube has taken it down due a copyright claim from a certain M. Scorsese

It is still available to watch here.

[martin]

Perhaps not the right thread for this as the link seems 100% legit (Swiss TV RTS) but I stumbled across Quartier nègre (1990) - a pretty rare Simenon adaptation - never released on video afaik(?). It's a French/Swiss tv-film directed by Pierre Koralnik (Anna, 1967), set in Panama in 1937. It's downloadable with appropriate browser add-ons and has English subs (burnt in).

Beware though: When the French couple arrives at the port of Cristobal in the opening scene, the posh wife (Fabienne Babe) says: "I only see blacks". While the film isn't racist, there are some racist comments, some silly, some grave, and without the dark humour of a film like Coup de torchon. I somehow find it particularly stupid when some black people are dancing and the white wife says "they look so happy". But it's gritty and bleak in a very Simenon-like way, and I rather like it in spite of the aforementioned shortcomings.

NSFW

[jguitar]

This is a shot in the dark, but I'm hoping to hear of others' experiences. At the end of November, I placed an order with japaneiga.free.fr for some otherwise impossible to find films. I've used them two or three times in the past and I know others on this forum have as well. In any case, my order has yet to show up. The site owner says others in the US have also not received shipments and suspects that it has something to do with increased scrutiny due to tariffs and whatnot. He's offering to send replacements or even provide download links to the films (via Google Drive), so I have no complaints of the site owner. I'm inclined to simply wait for a few more weeks to see if they show up. My main question is: has anyone else experienced shipments of this type not being delivered, either in our current situation or at other times in the past? It seems weird that the shipment would simply be destroyed or whatever happened to it. Any other thoughts you have on this situation would be great to hear.