26 The Long Good Friday

[Ashirg]

According to Image web site, the only extra is a trailer.

[criterionsnob]

OOP according to Criterion's site.

[Schwartzman]

I recently watched the UK Blu-Ray of this and thought it was great quality. Still holding out on a purchase though, in the hope that Criterion will come through with an upgrade. Anyone know if this might be out of print because a Blu-Ray is on the way from Criterion? I had another look on the website and if you browse to the title via the "Films" section it is still visible even without the "Show Out-of-Print Titles" option ticked. Anyone found other films like that?

[swo17]

He's still alive, but Bob Hoskins has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. My apologies if this is the wrong thread for this sort of thing.

[flyonthewall2983]

Sad news: Bob Hoskins retires from acting after revealing Parkinsons diagnosis.

[knives]

I really wish we had a cure for that one. It seems like something like Polio that should be a disease of the past. A real horrifying prospect.

[Brian C]

I really wish we had a cure for that one. It seems like something like Polio that should be a disease of the past. A real horrifying prospect.

That's an odd link to make - you could have hardly picked two more different diseases to compare. Polio is a viral disease, and Parkinson's doesn't even seem to have one single cause. Parkinson's is much more similar to Alzheimer's, which is just as mysterious and hard to treat.

[knives]

I never said it was a rational connection.

[colinr0380]

Criterion has announced a UHD upgrade for September 2024. It is a little bit of a shame that they couldn't include the 1982 BBC Omnibus documentary in which Barry Norman takes Hoskins on a tour of the London Docklands.

[ryannichols7]

Criterion has announced a UHD upgrade for September 2024. It is a little bit of a shame that they couldn't include the 1982 BBC Omnibus documentary in which Barry Norman takes Hoskins on a tour of the London Docklands.

this would've been an incredible addition, but of course...BBC stuff remains expensive to license it seems

An Accidental Studio (2019), a documentary about the early years of HandMade Films

is this on any of Arrow's HandMade editions? this seems to be why this is a 2 disc release, and also seems to be the only reason I'd really wanna pick this up over the Arrow (unless this ends up having the superior transfer - as usual I will wait)

[MichaelB]

The issue with the BBC is that they have to clear every possible legal aspect before licensing something - and the vast majority of the stuff in their archive was only ever cleared for broadcast. So every underlying agreement essentially has to be renegotiated - for instance, the estates of Barry Norman and Bob Hoskins would need to be contacted for permission, unless they waived all rights upfront at the time of production, but of course that has to be checked and verified by lawyers as well.

So it's not so much a case of them being expensive out of sheer perversity, it's just an unfortunate legacy of how these programmes were originally put together.

As for the HandMade doc, it postdates all of Arrow's HandMade releases, and actually got a brief cinema release a few years ago. And it's 97 minutes, which presumably explains the second disc.

That said, if anyone in the UK wants to watch it without having to import the Criterion disc, there are cheaper options.

As for the main feature, I'm assuming that this is the same 4K master that fuelled the Arrow release (I don't imagine Phil Meheux oversaw two back to back), but I'm also assuming that only one of these releases has a David Mackenzie encode.

[dwk]

The doc is also on the Criterion Channel.

[dwk]

Don't know if these are the same as the Arrow release, but Criterion has added Interviews with Phil Méheux and Barrie Keeffe to the special features.

[MichaelB]

Well, they'd need a Ouija board to shoot a new interview with Barrie Keeffe, so my money's on the Arrow interview.

(Which is excellent, so I wouldn't have a problem with that.)

[dwk]

Well, they'd need a Ouija board to shoot a new interview with Barrie Keeffe, so my money's on the Arrow interview.

(Which is excellent, so I wouldn't have a problem with that.)

Ah, that is right. But it could be some other archival interview.

[MichaelB]

It could be, but I'm not aware of any others - he was oddly ignored when it came to previous releases, as I believe he told his Arrow interviewer at the time.

[flyonthewall2983]

Criterion has announced a UHD upgrade for September 2024. It is a little bit of a shame that they couldn't include the 1982 BBC Omnibus documentary in which Barry Norman takes Hoskins on a tour of the London Docklands.

At least nice it is somewhere to watch. I follow that page a lot and it has some nice pieces that almost feel like time travel in how of the moment they were.

[ryannichols7]

The issue with the BBC is that they have to clear every possible legal aspect before licensing something - and the vast majority of the stuff in their archive was only ever cleared for broadcast. So every underlying agreement essentially has to be renegotiated - for instance, the estates of Barry Norman and Bob Hoskins would need to be contacted for permission, unless they waived all rights upfront at the time of production, but of course that has to be checked and verified by lawyers as well.

So it's not so much a case of them being expensive out of sheer perversity, it's just an unfortunate legacy of how these programmes were originally put together.

As for the HandMade doc, it postdates all of Arrow's HandMade releases, and actually got a brief cinema release a few years ago. And it's 97 minutes, which presumably explains the second disc.

That said, if anyone in the UK wants to watch it without having to import the Criterion disc, there are cheaper options.

As for the main feature, I'm assuming that this is the same 4K master that fuelled the Arrow release (I don't imagine Phil Meheux oversaw two back to back), but I'm also assuming that only one of these releases has a David Mackenzie encode.

I actually didn't know that about the BBC licensing, that actually does explain a lot. a shame, as so many of those (thinking of the Rumer Godden doc on Criterion's DVD of The River that I still hang on to) are amazing and I wish there was a way they could be preserved that isn't as prohibited. it is what it is, at least the doc can be watched

I did go ahead and grab the Criterion disc in the flash sale as I wanted a physical of that doc after Chris' review of it, as HandMade is of some interest to me. I do find it interesting they licensed some of the Arrow extras in the end - haven't watched anything yet but I was really surprised to see Geoff Barrow (Portishead, Beak>), Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), and Alan Palomo (Neon Indian) are all listed in "special thanks", I wonder why. ditto Daniel Bird and Laura Mulvey, neither of whom appeared to contribute to the edition. would be cool if all of them did, and I guess I'll go through the disc soon to potentially find out why

[MichaelB]

Daniel did the Barrie Keeffe interview.