The Narrator Returns wrote:I have the third set in my hands now, and can at least say that Richard Ayoade's piece in the book "about" Crimes and Misdemeanors is a hoot. If nothing else, I will never look at Vilmos Zsigmond the same way again after reading Ayoade's description of him.
Do you mean Sven Nykvist? And just curious, can you elaborate at all on what Ayoade says of the cinematographer?
The piece (which is entirely comedic) is told as a "letter" from Ayoade to Allen reminding him of the time they met on the set of Cassandra's Dream (his only talk in it about Crimes and Misdemeanors comes from Ayoade asking Allen fawning questions about it in the second half of the piece). This is the part I was referring to.
When you said "Will you please go now?", was there not the faint glisten of a tear in your eye? Though it could have been allergies. I seem to attract pollen. Or maybe Zsigmond had swung a lamp the wrong way. I don't care how adept he is with muted palettes, that crazy Hungarian sure can be clumsy!
Is there any chance in the world that Academy licensed the Annie Hall and Manhattan’s 4k restos and might be prepping UHDs? Kino said someone has licensed them several years ago and it’d make sense if it was Arrow (esp. bc they could do US + UK) but I’m curious if “the zeitgeist” has just stopped remastered BDs from coming from whoever it was altogether seeing as it’s been quite a long time since we heard they had been licensed.
Arrow (and now Shout) seem zeitgeist proof based on their releases, so I wouldn’t think they’d hold back for that reason. That they can’t throw in a bunch of extras and tchotchkes to justify charging a stupid amount for their UHD seems to me to be the bigger hurdle
I mean, seeing as they’re leaning into “very expensive book” as their latest premiere extra and that’s the one extra Allen is okay with, I kind of think the stars seem aligned for success? Just have, like, a whole monograph on each. A duograph?
Those are the only two classic Allen titles I didn't track down a few weeks ago when Twilight Time shuttered (on the theory that they were the two most likely not to completely disappear from home video availability) so I would be very much in the market for releases of this kind.
IIRC, the new 4K restorations were already available when Arrow was prepping their boxsets but something/someone preventing them to use them and force them instead to use the older pre-existing HD masters.
It wasn't just being forced to use the pre-existing masters but having to use MGM's already-released discs, which prevented them from correcting the subtitles on Annie Hall. I think the logical conclusion at the time was that MGM were preparing to release the new restorations of Annie Hall and Manhattan themselves, but the noise around Allen in recent years has perhaps made them change their plans.
Arrow would probably be influenced by the sales figures on these sets more than any controversy. In theory, with them now licensing some titles from Sony and the old Kaleidoscope DVDs going OOP, the rest of Allen's 90s output could be available to them to put together another set.
tenia wrote: Sun Jun 21, 2020 10:39 am
IIRC, the new 4K restorations were already available when Arrow was prepping their boxsets but something/someone preventing them to use them and force them instead to use the older pre-existing HD masters.
I don’t think this is right - if memory serves the new restorations only became “released” and did brief runs in Fall of 2017 for Annie Hall (Manhattan was a little later) (these sets began in 2016). MGM just didn’t want Arrow putting out a “superior” release that would cut into their existant SKU or something like that.
What I recall is during the spring of 2018 Kino Insider said someone other than themselves had gotten the license for the new restorations but I was just wondering why they appear to... not be appearing.
Annie Hall's 4K restoration played at the 2017 Berlinale in Feb 2017 and played in the UK and the US in April and May 2017. The Arrow set with Manhattan and Annie Hall was released in Dec 2016. That's why I suppose that, if made available to Arrow, the set could have used them from a chronological point of view though of course, I might be wrong and the restorations were actually finished in Jan 17 or later.
Which is what I meant : the current zeitgeist isn't the only reason why there hasn't been a remastered BD yet. It might be the main reason now, though, but there most likely was a window for it in late 2016 - early 2017.
What's the best Match Point Blu-ray to get if you need something English friendly? I'm looking for something affordable, but I want to avoid non-removable subtitles (reportedly seen on the French release) and any anomalies like a different and inferior encode.
