Eclipse Series 8: Lubitsch Musicals

[hearthesilence]

It's a good film, and often cited as the first truly successful talkie in Japanese cinema, but it also came two years later than The Love Parade - quite a few advances were made in the interim. (Fritz Lang's M had premiered months before Gosho's film.)

[Michael Kerpan]

Yes -- but Japan was starting "from scratch" -- with no internal industry expertise as how to do things -- and yet Gosho's sound use was WAY more sophisticated than the contemporaneous Little Caesar from Hollywood.

[hearthesilence]

I won't argue with that - I'm not much of a fan of Little Caesar. I don't want to turn this into an argument over which important innovator was greater though, the bigger point I wanted to make was that Lubitsch's film coming in 1929 seemed like he was writing a wonderful new guide book for filmmakers under the new rule of sound. If Gosho could independently do the same, that wouldn't be surprising. (Gosho was a huge Lubitsch fan though - I'd have to revisit his work, but it would be interesting if he caught Lubitsch's early talkies and actually reverse-engineered what he saw in his films without the aid of any technical counsel from Hollywood.)

[Michael Kerpan]

Having musicians hiding behind trees (and moving as needed) as they play the score -- while a character moves from his own house to the house next door -- was a pretty good trick by Gosho and his team. Not sure that Lubitsch had to do anything quite that demanding.

But I agree that the whole early 30s Shochiku directorial brain trust seemed quite taken by the work of Lubitsch.

[domino harvey]

As per the recent update, this will be getting a Blu-ray upgrade while remaining in the Eclipse line

[denti alligator]

Nice upgrade. I'm assuming this means it sold fairly well to begin with. It's a fine set of films that I'm thrilled to have in HD.

[andyli]

FYI One Hour with You just had a 4K restoration premiered in this year’s Ritrovato.

[Marwood]

The Eclipse getting a blu-ray upgrade is cool and all, but am I the only one thinking that these four films would make a great Indicator release ala Dietrich and Mae West? [-o<

[Matt]

Blu-ray upgrade coming February 17, 2026. 4K restorations of The Love Parade and One Hour with You, 2K restoration of The Smiling Lieutenant. 2 discs with no special features for $79.95 which is, frankly, insane. Then again, list price for the DVD set 17 (!) years ago was $59.95, which is about $90 in 2025 dollars.

[domino harvey]

And that was back when the best we could hope for was 35% off preorders stacked with $5 off $60/$10 off $120 promotions at DVDPlanet

[andyli]

Day one! Two 4K and one 2K restorations is a refreshing surprise.

[TMDaines]

Blu-ray upgrade coming February 17, 2026. 4K restorations of The Love Parade and One Hour with You, 2K restoration of The Smiling Lieutenant. 2 discs with no special features for $79.95 which is, frankly, insane. Then again, list price for the DVD set 17 (!) years ago was $59.95, which is about $90 in 2025 dollars.

Insane good or insane bad? If these were listed as a two-fers for $40 each with a booklet essay, we'd be happy, no?

[CSM126]

80 bucks feels steep for a no-frills two disc set. Did Universal rake them over the coals that badly for those 4K restorations or is it just the case that supplements cost them nothing so a box can be high priced regardless of whether it has any or not.

Oh who am I kidding. With extras they’d charge like 150.

[Matt]

By contrast, the Kiarostami Eclipse has 3 discs and it’s priced at $10 less. I think if these Lubitsch films were released as individual two-film discs with no special features at $40 each, we’d still be rightly puzzled.

[TMDaines]

I guess I am gonna pay $10 + film, plus get 10% cashback from Criterion. Doesn't feel too bad, but this is generally why'd you prefer Kino ti release a title if minimum effort is going to be put in and why Eclipse in 2025 doesn't seem that an exciting prospect, if films could otherwise be potentially be released by other labels.

[therewillbeblus]

I think I plowed through this set too fast a while back, and I don't remember any of the films so I'm treating each viewing as a first watch. The Smiling Lieutenant starts off very sweet and funny, and then maneuvers itself to unexpected places as misunderstandings introduce new characters, creating opportunities for dead space and sporadic laughs. There's a wonderful scene at the end between Miriam Hopkins and Claudette Colbert that's at once devastating, hilarious, touching, and sensual. I hardly know what to make of it, and Colbert's exit to make room for the lighthearted code-pushing ending is felt even when Maurice Chevalier is trying to goof it up. She's afforded no catharsis, and that absence makes an ostensibly sublime tone taste bittersweet

[Stefan Andersson]

Upcoming: a restoration of the silent version of Monte Carlo, according to Robert A. Harris:
"the silent version is on our restoration schedule. 4k scan of original camera negative elements."
See post 5 here:
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... ew.388310/

[Michael Kerpan]

How much of a visual upgrade is there? Still living with our antique plasma TV, so I expect next to none I would notice....

[BrianInAtlanta]

Watched most of the new blu-ray of Lubitsch Touch set. Looks like they went back to the Universal-owned masters for it. It leads me to a question.

Monte Carlo looks a little rough in an odd way, as if certain parts have two negatives out-of-line. But why would that be for a black-and-white movie? Could it be possible that it was shot in 2-strip Technicolor, then Paramount changed its mind and released it in black-and-white?

[onedimension]

How much of a visual upgrade is there? Still living with our antique plasma TV, so I expect next to none I would notice....

Can we crowdfund you a TV? How many of us aren't watching in UHD?

[Michael Kerpan]

onedimension -- 30+ years ago, the previous owners replaced the downstairs radiators with floorboard heaters -- and miscalculated. So in winter the heaters can't keep up -- so the plasma TV provides extra warmth -- like a space heater.

[BrianInAtlanta]

I don’t see it in the notices above but ONE HOUR WITH YOU uses the restored tinted print that wasn’t used in the original Eclipse set.

[pistolwink]

I had thought plasma TVs (which IIRC they no longer make) were still the gold standard, at least for HD displays.

[Roger Ryan]

I had thought plasma TVs (which IIRC they no longer make) were still the gold standard, at least for HD displays.

I have one of the last ones Panasonic made (2012 65" Viera) and the color range and deep blacks still look so good that I'm hesitant to just chuck it in favor of UHD. That being said, I've been consistently buying UHD/Blu-ray combo releases when available for the past few years so when the plasma goes kaput, I'll already have some titles to watch in full 4K .

Speaking of which, why are we quibbling about UHD in this thread since Eclipse Series 8: Lubitsch Musicals is strictly a Standard HD Blu-ray release?!

[Maltic]

Watched most of the new blu-ray of Lubitsch Touch set. Looks like they went back to the Universal-owned masters for it. It leads me to a question.

Wait what, I thought Universal releases used to look bad?

Are these appreciable upgrades or no?