The Future of Home Video

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

That being said, I get the sense a certain contingent of admittedly passionate cinephiles have a democratic/egalitarian attitude and feel one should watch films any which way one can just to educate themselves even if not in ideal A/V conditions, and they probably see the fussing over “New 4K restorations” and UHD Blu-ray releases as “bourgeois” and counterproductive to the radical impulse of an intellectually and pedagogically substantive cinephilia (I.e. the kind of cinephilia one associates with the Godards and Serge Daneys of the world).

I love a good 4K restoration, but the number of films from my own particular critical beat (central/eastern European cinema) that have received one is minuscule, and the number that have subsequently been released on UHD physical media is, as far as I'm aware, currently zero. And if the only way I can get to see a particular film is via a YouTube rip with a Serbian TV station ident burned in... well, that's better than I'd most likely have had access to twenty years ago.

One thing I've had to accept with delving back into Hong Kong films is how many important films are just unavailable in decent releases. While I would love to go to 4K projections of Yim Ho's Homecoming or Ann Hui's The Spooky Bunch the way I could for In the Mood For Love and Bullet in the Head, I'll take semi-visible VHS/VCD rips on youtube and elsewhere if it means I actually get to see them.

I'm the freak in this case as I prefer to see a Hong Kong film on laserdisc and happily watch rare HK films whenever they play on battered 35mm prints in Los Angeles. As happy as I am that major works are getting restored in 4K, it almost feels against the ethos of Hong Kong cinema production with their lack of interest in preserving their history until now and their desire to just keep making films rather than dwell on an individual project.

[Mr Sausage]

I don't think that's freakish. Reminds me of the Scandanavian black metal bands who deliberately recorded their albums badly on mediocre technology to replicate the sound of the underground recordings that spawned the subgenre. For a lot of people, I think the texture and context of the technology itself is essential to the experience.

I have no special preference when it comes to HK films: I watched A Chinese Ghost Story on a battered 35 mm print a few years ago just as readily as I did the 4K restoration last month.

[TechnicolorAcid]

That being said, I get the sense a certain contingent of admittedly passionate cinephiles have a democratic/egalitarian attitude and feel one should watch films any which way one can just to educate themselves even if not in ideal A/V conditions, and they probably see the fussing over “New 4K restorations” and UHD Blu-ray releases as “bourgeois” and counterproductive to the radical impulse of an intellectually and pedagogically substantive cinephilia (I.e. the kind of cinephilia one associates with the Godards and Serge Daneys of the world).

I love a good 4K restoration, but the number of films from my own particular critical beat (central/eastern European cinema) that have received one is minuscule, and the number that have subsequently been released on UHD physical media is, as far as I'm aware, currently zero. And if the only way I can get to see a particular film is via a YouTube rip with a Serbian TV station ident burned in... well, that's better than I'd most likely have had access to twenty years ago.

Werckmeister Harmonies, unless you’re referring specifically to Soviet-era cinema…

Assuming he is talking about Soviet-era cinema then there is some, specifically On the Silver Globe from Mondo Vision, Nostalghia from Kino, on a technicality there’s Soy Cuba, and I think Pharaoh had one in Poland but I think those are the only ones so far. Which is a tremendous shame given the amount of gems that either don’t have quality restorations or do but have very poorly timed subtitles (case in point, the three biggest Ryazanov films).

[rrenault]

I love a good 4K restoration, but the number of films from my own particular critical beat (central/eastern European cinema) that have received one is minuscule, and the number that have subsequently been released on UHD physical media is, as far as I'm aware, currently zero. And if the only way I can get to see a particular film is via a YouTube rip with a Serbian TV station ident burned in... well, that's better than I'd most likely have had access to twenty years ago.

Werckmeister Harmonies, unless you’re referring specifically to Soviet-era cinema…

Assuming he is talking about Soviet-era cinema then there is some, specifically On the Silver Globe from Mondo Vision, Nostalghia from Kino, on a technicality there’s Soy Cuba, and I think Pharaoh had one in Poland but I think those are the only ones so far. Which is a tremendous shame given the amount of gems that either don’t have quality restorations or do but have very poorly timed subtitles (case in point, the three biggest Ryazanov films).

Well I think Nostalghia was technically an Italian production (it’s owned by Rai), although I suppose you could count Soy Cuba if you want to stretch the boundaries of this category.

[MichaelB]

Yes, I definitely wouldn't count Nostalghia or The Sacrifice. But I would count Werckmeister Harmonies, On the Silver Globe and I Am Cuba (the first two of which I even own), so replace "currently zero" with "vanishingly minuscule".

[Zot!]

That being said, I get the sense a certain contingent of admittedly passionate cinephiles have a democratic/egalitarian attitude and feel one should watch films any which way one can just to educate themselves even if not in ideal A/V conditions, and they probably see the fussing over “New 4K restorations” and UHD Blu-ray releases as “bourgeois” and counterproductive to the radical impulse of an intellectually and pedagogically substantive cinephilia (I.e. the kind of cinephilia one associates with the Godards and Serge Daneys of the world).

And I’ll admit my love-hate relationship with the influence UHD home video has had on modern-day cinephilia (which I know I often make clear and obvious on this forum to an admittedly annoying extent) stems partly from sympathizing with the above-mentioned type of cinephilia.

Yes, and growing up in an era of limited reparatory cinemas (especially in suburbia) and middling-to-poor home video presentations, I similarly sympathize with the aforementioned strain of filmgoing. However, I think I caught the bug when those bougie laserdiscs started presenting films in widescreen, and it was hard to go back to odds & sodds P&S VHS presentations with indecipherable white-on-white subtitles. But I will, and I still do as necessary. I don't know what goes on anymore, but I remember when I visited Paris in the late 90's I was absolutely blown away by the amount of daily reparatory presentations. It seemed like one could truly get on as a cinephile in the city without bothering with home video at all...which is the ideal.

[MichaelB]

London was similar, especially in the 1980s. The Scala Cinema was basically my film school, and is a major reason why I never bothered to get any formal qualifications in film.

[colinr0380]

UK television in the 1990s was my big teacher - to just talk about more Eastern European cinema Channel 4 in 1997 or so showed lots of those 'banned by the authorities in the 1960s' Czech/Hungarian films for the first time - Pictures of the Old World, All My Good Countrymen, The Lark, The Joke. Plus films like Parajanov's Ashik Kerib. Kursturica was en vogue during that period and so Time of the Gypsies, Black Cat White Cat and Underground appeared. István Szabó had his trilogy of Colonel Redl, Hanussen and Mephisto shown.

In the BBC's 1995 "Century of Cinema" season we got Ashes and Diamonds and Closely Observed Trains. Plus there was a fair amount of Kieslowski. And the BBC showed Svankmajer's Faust over Christmas 1995!

No Sokuruv appeared during that time (Russian Ark in the early 2000s being his break through in this country) or Bela Tar.

[The Curious Sofa]

If you grew up in the 70s/80s, old/classic movies were prime-time viewing. A Bette Davis double feature in the afternoon, a Hitchcock around 8pm and maybe a Fellini after 10pm. And this was a time when, in Europe at least, you had no more than two main TV channels. So most people were quite film literate and got a comprehensive education in film history by default.

Here in Germany they showed widescreen movies letterboxed. So when VHS came out, it was frustrating having to watch movies panned & scanned and I usually stayed away from those that were too compromised. I progressed through every collector's format, but haven't arrived at UHD/4k yet, though I will finally upgrade my system by the end of this year.

One thing I've certainly never had is "format nostalgia", like revisiting a film on VHS, because that's how I first saw it. But as someone who discovered a lot of films on analogue TV and as battered prints in repertory houses, some discussions about the minutiae of how a movie should look go over my head.

[MichaelB]

But as someone who discovered a lot of films on analogue TV and as battered prints in repertory houses, some discussions about the minutiae of how a movie should look go over my head.

Yes, the sheer anality of some of the discussions is weirdly fascinating for someone who not only grew up with battered 35mm prints but also repertory houses with twin-projector setups (since they could only handle an hour of film at a time) whose bulbs were changed at different times, meaning that the entire colour temperature would change partway through.

Granted, I have to be eagle-eyed in my day job, but I find it much, much easier to tune out this stuff when watching things for pleasure, to the extent that I don't even notice things that are apparently appalling deal-breakers in the eyes of others. But then again, I still watch loads of stuff on DVD, in the absence of a viable alternative - Poland seems to be rapidly phasing out Blu-ray, with even very recent releases only coming out on DVD (if they get a physical-media release at all; many don't), and when I was in Gdynia a fortnight ago I noted that both their branches of Empik no longer had dedicated home video sections, although they still sold CDs, video games, etc. I think it was pre-Covid when I was last able to buy a whole tranche of discs over the counter, and would routinely make space in my suitcase for that specific reason.

[rrenault]

I suppose it’s important to remind oneself, and this applies to me too of course, that the number of people globally who are fastidious to the point they’d refuse to stream a film on the Criterion Channel simply because they know a UHD exists probably numbers in the 4-figures, but even arthouse films ideally seek to reach a significantly larger audience than that if they want to have any sizable cultural relevance.

As a filmmaker, you can’t conceivably be strictly focused on the “No 4K. No sale” crowd in terms of the visibility of your work.

[tenia]

But as someone who discovered a lot of films on analogue TV and as battered prints in repertory houses, some discussions about the minutiae of how a movie should look go over my head.

I discovered a lot of things either on analogue TV, or later on DVD, and also on, ahem, small digital files. At that time, the debate was about home viewing vs theatrical viewing. Now, it's DVD or BD vs UHD. There's always something better, because there's an industry curating this to try and make you buy a new TV on a regular basis, but even back then, there already was a discussion about what is or isn't the adequate way to "reaaaaaaaaaaally watch a movie".
To some extent, we're at a time where any current mean of viewing one will be better than what we knew 25 years ago anyway. So, you know : who cares ? Discovering, I don't know, 2001 A Space Odyssey in 4K on HBO Max still is discovering 2001 A Space Odyssey and will always be better than discovering it on VHS.
The matter, to me, is rather : if a movie I'm interested into is available on a BD or UHD release, and that I can favor this channel rather than a technically inferior one, then yes. And obviously, if I'm going to specifically pay to get that release, I want it not to be burdened by issues (either from the restoration or the disc version of it). Because that's not what I like to get when specifically shelving money out for a movie, and plenty of labels know how to avoid that so could please all releases do so ?

But integrists "no 4K no sale" are crazy to me. They're as crazy as the French consumers who were boycotting Warner releases because their BDs had French dubs in lossy Dolby Digital instead of lossless tracks : I kinda get them, but on the other hand, would they even be able to recognize the difference solely by ear ? I heavily doubt so, but they WANTed lossless tracks just because and lost track of being a tad rational. They forgot it doesn't always make sense, and that it's a mean to a purpose, not the purpose itself.

[Lowry_Sam]

[So much that I was going to respond to in this thread when I had some time to gather my thoughts, however I couldn't resist not mentioning this immediately, as I just discovered the latest in media fetishism.]

It's a nice conversation starter, and you can tell 99% of people think it's a bizarre but charming oddity to know someone that collects physical media.

It's not as if physical media is some ancient outmoded technology. It's still being mass produced by major companies (albeit at a lesser amount
to be sure)... and it's not exactly the same as inviting someone to your house to listen to music and you have to haul out the wind-up Victrola
to do so.

Or find a reel-to-reel player on Ebay so you can play the latest & highest quality vintage audio choice: new reel-to-reel editions of classic albums selling for $300 per album, limited to 500 copies each of course.

[Red Screamer]

Gaspar Noé gave Pope Leo a blu-ray of Vortex

[Matt]

The Pope needs better security.

[hearthesilence]

FWIW, Dennis Lim posted on IG a photo of the letter he received to meet with the Pope. For whatever reason, the Pope is making an effort to reach out to the film community, and not just Hollywood or the mainstream film community.

[Drucker]

It seems like he genuinely values the arts and the spiritual value they provide based on his recent Vatican Meeting. I applaud it!

“Cinema is not just moving pictures; it sets hope in motion,” he said, adding that entering a theatre was “like crossing a threshold” where the imagination widens and even pain can find new meaning.

A culture shaped by constant digital stimuli risks reducing stories to what algorithms predict will succeed, he said.

“The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what works, but art opens up what is possible,” he said, urging filmmakers to defend “slowness, silence and difference” when they serve the story.

The pope also encouraged artists to confront violence, war, poverty and loneliness with honesty, saying good cinema “does not exploit pain; it recognises and explores it”.

[Lowry_Sam]

There was only 4 films mentioned: It's A Wonderful Life, The Sound Of Music, Ordinary People & Life Is Beautiful, about as uncontroversial as a film list gets (except maybe for the fact that the only Italian film isn't a neorealist classic but from the 90s).

When they start having screenings of The Life Of Brian or La Dolce Vita in the Vatican, maybe I'll take greater notice.

[pistolwink]

“The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what works, but art opens up what is possible,” he said, urging filmmakers to defend “slowness, silence and difference” when they serve the story.

This is a very nice quote, I have to say.

Must be strange to be the pope (previously: some guy from the south side of Chicago), and sit around thinking "What thing should I express my opinion on today?" knowing that millions of people will listen to/read it and take it seriously. Up next: architecture.

[Zot!]

There was only 4 films mentioned: It's A Wonderful Life, The Sound Of Music, Ordinary People & Life Is Beautiful, about as uncontroversial as a film list gets (except maybe for the fact that the only Italian film isn't a neorealist classic but from the 90s).

When they start having screenings of The Life Of Brian or La Dolce Vita in the Vatican, maybe I'll take greater notice.

Current Pope is a dilletante (though I appreciate his efforts to maintain the artform), but the JPII era Vatican "top ten" from 1995 is a pretty much excellent viewing list from such an entrenched arbitrative authority like this, and features some borderline scandalous material. No Dolce Vita, but 8 1/2 and La Strada make appearances...not to mention those pesky evolutionary hominids from 2001 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican%27s_list_of_films.

[Lemmy Caution]

Spike Lee gave Pope Leo XIV a Knicks jersey (#14).

More than 100 film industry professionals, actors, directors or producers, were received by the pope inside the Apostolic Palace, including Cate Blanchett, Alison Brie, Judd Apatow and Viggo Mortensen.

"One of cinema’s most valuable contributions is helping audiences consider their own lives, look at the complexity of their experiences with new eyes and examine the world as if for the first time. In doing so, they rediscover a portion of the hope that is essential for humanity to live to the fullest," he said.

the pope called the film professionals "pilgrims of the imagination" and "narrators of hope and heralds of humanity".

[MichaelB]

Current Pope is a dilletante (though I appreciate his efforts to maintain the artform), but the JPII era Vatican "top ten" from 1995 is a pretty much excellent viewing list from such an entrenched arbitrative authority like this, and features some borderline scandalous material. No Dolce Vita, but 8 1/2 and La Strada make appearances...not to mention those pesky evolutionary hominids from 2001 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican%27s_list_of_films.

I mention this in my Viridiana commentary. Unsurprisingly, that isn't on the list, but Buñuel's Nazarín is, and quite rightly—whatever your position vis-à-vis his attitude towards the Catholic faith, no truly honest list of films about spirituality can ignore him entirely.

[Zot!]

Current Pope is a dilletante (though I appreciate his efforts to maintain the artform), but the JPII era Vatican "top ten" from 1995 is a pretty much excellent viewing list from such an entrenched arbitrative authority like this, and features some borderline scandalous material. No Dolce Vita, but 8 1/2 and La Strada make appearances...not to mention those pesky evolutionary hominids from 2001 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican%27s_list_of_films.

I mention this in my Viridiana commentary. Unsurprisingly, that isn't on the list, but Buñuel's Nazarín is, and quite rightly—whatever your position vis-à-vis his attitude towards the Catholic faith, no truly honest list of films about spirituality can ignore him entirely.

Thanks for the reminder, I had missed the Bunuel inclusion, but it speaks to the thoughtful and relatively unguarded curation of the list. I also like the categorization of ART/RELIGION/VALUES.

[dwk]

Alliance Entertainment Inks North American Packaged Media-Distribution Deal With Amazon MGM Studios (Alliance Entertainment is Mill Creek)

[Matt]

I guess that's a vote of confidence in physical media, but I wonder if it might mean a lot of Amazon-exclusive releases in turn.