criterionforum.org

Thank you both very much!

tenia I wish my French was better, although I may still give in and get that set if nothing english friendly appears in the next year, France really releases some amazing dvds.

And bigP I will pick up Sada asap, it'll be interesting to compare it to Oshima's film, which although I liked it alot, I felt was the beginning of his decline - moving away from his angry post-war and slightly off-beat style, to something glossier

tenia wrote:the technical specs aren't the best they could have been in other editors' hands

What's wrong with them?

Sirk still on course for Feb (for whoever asked on the previous page!)

Dr Amicus wrote:Now, add in Chabrol's Dr. M., (again, never seen - but I remember a photo selection from Sight & Sound about 20 years back and it looks... interesting...) and that would be a cracking box.

I love Dr M! Don't go in expecting a Langian masterpiece - the main character is a rather generic rebel cop figure down to designer stubble, an expendable partner and a grumpy boss who threatens to throw him off the force. Alan Bates is good but in a minor role as Mabuse is played as more of a pitiable control freak character, prone to philosophising and seemingly having no greater aim than just wanting to make a holiday villas resort profitable by any possible means (which eventually leads to some very funny cult worship/mass hypnosis scenes!), than a ominpresent supervillain. And Jennifer Beals is, well, Jennifer Beals. Thought of as a Chabrol thriller though it works much better, especially the opening sequence of suicides that does a La Rupture-style kickstart which succeeds in setting the normal world off balance for the much more low key remainder of the film.

Any chance we´ll get a Kalat contribution to the M release?

Peacock wrote:Thank you both very much!

tenia I wish my French was better, although I may still give in and get that set if nothing english friendly appears in the next year, France really releases some amazing dvds.

As I've already said in many different topics here, we also have, like the UK with MoC and the USA with Criterion, some really dedicated editors in France.
Blaq Out is, unfortunately, not the most financially rich, so doing a good job on restoration is not their assets. But they're real dedicated to the movies they released, and planned to releas, these 4 movies included, 12 movies (3x4) + United Red Army (released a couple of days ago, in a nice double-dicer + booklet) from Wakamatsu.

But, yes, unfortunately, the DVDs aren't english friendly, and I don't think the Japaneses DVDs are either.
The only way to have english subs is by fan subs.

tenia wrote:But, yes, unfortunately, the DVDs aren't english friendly, and I don't think the Japaneses DVDs are either. The only way to have english subs is by fan subs.

The Japanese DVDs do not include English subs ...

But as this is a rumour and speculation thread: Wakamatsu movies seem to be touring through the US these days. Here's a link to some Wakamatsu screenings in California which took place last month. I can't remember if the auteurs were involved ...

Looks like there is some hope that some of these films will be released in the coming months with English subs.

Btw, Ecstasy of the Angels and Go go Second Time Virgin had been released in America by HomeVision some years ago. I guess they are oop now ...

The U.S. releases were from American Cinematheque, via Image. They actually looked pretty decent for the era, but Wakamatsu himself said they didn't properly clear the rights (which might be why they're OOP), and both discs were apparently sourced from release prints. Plus the Ecstasy of the Angels disc had about fifteen minutes of scenes in the wrong order, which is how I first viewed it -- it actually made a good deal more sense when I finally saw the original version. And there I thought Wakamatsu was just playing with the chronology

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:The U.S. releases were from American Cinematheque, via Image. ... Plus the Ecstasy of the Angels disc had about fifteen minutes of scenes in the wrong order, which is how I first viewed it -- it actually made a good deal more sense when I finally saw the original version. And there I thought Wakamatsu was just playing with the chronology

Oh, I mixed up those companies. But: I watched "Ecstasy" more than once and I never realized that the scenes were partly arranged in a wrong way. Had I known ... Now I have to watch out for my disc to have a look at it again and check the internet for some more information about that - can you give me some hint where to look at?
Nevertheless, as I haven't attended the screenings of a presumably correct version at the Berlinale some years ago because I thought I could do better things that night than sitting in a cinema watching a film which was already lurking on my shelf I have to start praying for a reissue now ... or doing something else to speed that up.

peerpee wrote:Sirk still on course for Feb (for whoever asked on the previous page!)

Which Sirk title is under discussion here? I'm lost (it must've been discussed on Twitter?)
My fingers are crossed for "THE FIRST LEGION."

George Kaplan wrote:Which Sirk title is under discussion here? I'm lost (it must've been discussed on Twitter?)

There's Always Tomorrow

Wu.Qinghua wrote:Now I have to watch out for my disc to have a look at it again and check the internet for some more information about that - can you give me some hint where to look at?

The rearranged scenes begin at roughly the 31-minute mark and continue to around 43:00. After that it reverts to the correct sequence. The big tipoff something is awry is when a character shows up wearing bandages that were already removed in a previous scene.

reno dakota wrote:

George Kaplan wrote:Which Sirk title is under discussion here? I'm lost (it must've been discussed on Twitter?)

There's Always Tomorrow

Thanks Reno.

Any word on when the specs for M will be announced? I'm eyeing up the discounted Criterion on Amazon.com but naturally if the MoC release will at least match it then I'd rather wait for that.

Hopefully by weekend.

TMDaines wrote:Any word on when the specs for M will be announced? I'm eyeing up the discounted Criterion on Amazon.com but naturally if the MoC release will at least match it then I'd rather wait for that.

Criterion DVD vs MoC Blu Ray? That's gonna have to be some pretty special DVD...

Ben Cheshire wrote:

TMDaines wrote:Any word on when the specs for M will be announced? I'm eyeing up the discounted Criterion on Amazon.com but naturally if the MoC release will at least match it then I'd rather wait for that.

Criterion DVD vs MoC Blu Ray? That's gonna have to be some pretty special DVD...

I'm not Blu yet.

Are spine numbers 94-97 reserved for the Pialat and Costa films?

TMDaines wrote:

Ben Cheshire wrote:

TMDaines wrote:Any word on when the specs for M will be announced? I'm eyeing up the discounted Criterion on Amazon.com but naturally if the MoC release will at least match it then I'd rather wait for that.

Criterion DVD vs MoC Blu Ray? That's gonna have to be some pretty special DVD...

I'm not Blu yet.

Ah, fine, that makes sense... But what better time to turn blue?

perkizitore wrote:Are spine numbers 94-97 reserved for the Pialat and Costa films?

No, they're for Greed, The Crowd and The Big Parade on BD.

perkizitore wrote:

Whoa, perhaps I shouldn't joke about things like that.

Ben Cheshire wrote:Ah, fine, that makes sense... But what better time to turn blue?

Indeed, that is true. However I am a student who will be living in Germany/Italy in six months time for the best part of 15 months, so I am making myself wait until after I return when HDTVs and region-free Blu-ray players are (hopefully) much cheaper.

Ben Cheshire wrote:

perkizitore wrote:Are spine numbers 94-97 reserved for the Pialat and Costa films?

No, they're for Greed, The Crowd and The Big Parade on BD.

Ja, ja.
94-99 is Lubitsch in Berlin box set
101-102 Pedro Costa films

And spine 100 is ...

So 103-104 are the announced Pialat films?
Also, Eureka released Battleship Potemkin 9 years ago, but it seems BFI has the rights now (i thought this was public domain, but maybe BFI has the rights to the restored print)! It's surprising that there isn't a good UK edition of this...