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Amazon has this weird glitch whereby if a release is postponed indefinitely, they just make up a release date. I encountered this with the Quay Brothers DVD project - for various reasons it was delayed three weeks, but for a few days Amazon claimed that the release date was something like a year away.

MichaelB wrote:Amazon has this weird glitch whereby if a release is postponed indefinitely, they just make up a release date. I encountered this with the Quay Brothers DVD project - for various reasons it was delayed three weeks, but for a few days Amazon claimed that the release date was something like a year away.

Ah, okay. So, for the time being, I'll assume this is the case. Hopefully its release isn't too far away; I was really looking forward to checking those films out.

The pessimist in me says that they might have encountered unexpected and/or expensive third-party rights issues - there's quite a bit of third-party footage in these programmes (for instance, the Vaughan Williams documentary illustrates the seventh symphony with clips from Scott of the Antarctic), and I'd be very surprised if the South Bank Show had cleared them for retail use at the time.

peerpee wrote:Vote with your wallet.

If you're in the UK it's pretty rare you'll be buying at Amazon anyway if you're after the cheapest deal. Cashback swings it in the other sites' favour nearly every time.

I love the way they're stressing the score this time round. Especially given that their last DVD release was completely silent.

Don't you think it's rather weak for a three-disc set though? I was hoping for some juicy extras for this title. Instead, I'm getting two coasters.

The US Fox disc is still the one to go for if you want extras.

I've written a five-star review for Amazon UK pointing out that the This Happy Breed blu-ray has perfect sound synch, unlike the old DVD. Hopefully this will redress the balance a little.

The five stars are justified, by the way. It's a fabulous release.

Is this part of the new BBC Hitchcock silents restorations? I had assumed those weren't too far off. Wouldn't waiting for them be the wisest move?

It's using the new BFI restoration.

Great! So where are the rest? (Apologies if this is known ... I've been away from the forum for a while.)

As far as I know, only The Lodger has been announced so far.

And why isn't the BFI handling the Blu-ray release?

The BFI doesn't have the home video rights, they just carried out the restoration. I think the home video rights vary between Network and Studio Canal.

Calvin wrote:The BFI doesn't have the home video rights, they just carried out the restoration. I think the home video rights vary between Network and Studio Canal.

I'm not sure about Easy Virtue, but that's certainly true of the others.

Network: The Pleasure Garden, The Lodger, Downhill, and presumably The Mountain Eagle if it ever resurfaces.

Studio Canal: The Ring, Champagne, The Farmer’s Wife, The Manxman, Blackmail

That's a shame, I was hoping for a nice BFI box of all the restored silents.

BrokenFace wrote:That's a shame, I was hoping for a nice BFI box of all the restored silents.

Same here. I'm sure Network and Studio Canal will do good by the material, but a BFI set would have been a real treat.

Some extremely distressing news about The Lodger's score, from Blu-ray.com's thread on the film:

If you're not keen on the artwork just wait 'til you hear the new score. It left my audience divided, with the songs (yes, there are songs, with lyrics) irking pretty much everyone. Thankfully the restoration itself is magnificent, it's just a shame about the score.

Cash Flagg wrote:Some extremely distressing news about The Lodger's score, from Blu-ray.com's thread on the film:

If you're not keen on the artwork just wait 'til you hear the new score. It left my audience divided, with the songs (yes, there are songs, with lyrics) irking pretty much everyone. Thankfully the restoration itself is magnificent, it's just a shame about the score.

Adam comments on it more in the final paragraph here. I'm really dreading it now.

I was fearing this, I really didn't much like his score for Prapancha Pash (Throw of the Dice) It was far too busy and distracting.

So, I assume this is the only music option on the disc?

You can always hit mute and throw on your own music.

Blu-ray.com on The Lodger.

knives wrote:You can always hit mute and throw on your own music.

Which Erasure album goes best with Hitchcock?