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EddieLarkin wrote:Chuck Russell signed copies of The Blob going free with qualifying orders tomorrow, Wed 14th 4pm EST. For this promotion, $150 of TT product is required to qualify, rather than the usual $100.

Well that took at least 8 minutes to sell out. An improvement!

swo17 wrote:

EddieLarkin wrote:Chuck Russell signed copies of The Blob going free with qualifying orders tomorrow, Wed 14th 4pm EST. For this promotion, $150 of TT product is required to qualify, rather than the usual $100.

Well that took at least 8 minutes to sell out. An improvement!

Do they have different quantities of the promotional item each month or are they the same?

I believe it's always 100.

Stormy Weather booklet artwork

swo17 wrote:I believe it's always 100.

I believe the occasional promo has been 150 copies.

February booklet art:

Burnt-in, yellow subtitles for The Bride Work Black

Minor technical verbiage quibble: "Burnt-In" would imply they are on the film print/elements. Those are actually a "Forced Always-On" disc subtitle file for the French audio.

It makes no sense for there 2 be two separate video encodes on this disc for two separate language tracks when there is no difference in the cut of the film.

Now I'm really banking on Eureka or Arrow Academy getting these for the UK.

Lol. The future of Blu-ray publishing, everyone.

PfR73 wrote:It makes no sense for there 2 be two separate video encodes on this disc for two separate language tracks when there is no difference in the cut of the film.

From TT's Facebook page:

On a BD 50, the bitrate is absolutely unaffected. As for the burned in subtitles, MGM/ UA's HD masters of the Truffaut films only come that way. It's either that or they don't get released at all.

It's later clarified that the subtitles ARE burnt into the image, rather than them being simply a non-disabling file. That's all MGM have to offer, and explains why two separate video encodes are needed, and why they're a horrid yellow (and a bit SD looking to boot). Adele H. will be the same. I guess this means Arrow and Eureka probably wouldn't be interested in a licence.

Then again, there is a way to get around it, and it's too bad TT's authoring facility couldn't offer something it took me 5 seconds to figure out. Simply take the French audio and the "English" video, mux them together to create a new clean French version (and fine tune the sync), and then create new white HD subtitles by simply copying the old yellow ones. I'll do that myself with the TT version if nothing else is forthcoming.

Unfortunately, because Adele H. only has a single audio track (and thus will only have the single video file, with burnt in subs), there's no way to fix it short of a whole new transfer. Same probably goes if they have any other MGM Truffaut's, like The Wild Child.

I'm just starting to watch The Bride Wore Black this minute and discovering this depressing fact. Horrible. Is there any reason to hope that at some point the UK could release these films without the burned-in subtitles?

It isn't really an issue to watch the English language track though as they both use Jeanne Moreau's voice - and I presume - both done at the same time by the original sound mixers?

Honestly, I don't think Twilight Time truly understand the issues at hand. If you look at a capture of the French version with "burned-in" subtitles here at DVDBeaver. They are clearly digital subtitles, not something that was optically applied in 1968. They have much too modern a look and are too clean on the image. They are also too high-quality (with no stair-stepping pixels) to be a holdover from the SD era. I've seen many prints of older films, including some Truffaut films in recent months, and the subtitles never look like that. MGM's old DVD did not have burned in subtitles, so they clearly have/had access to subtitle-free materials. If they are truly "burned-in" to the image, then it means MGM provided them a digital file where they subtitles were already digitally applied. So it appears to me that Twilight Time either did not ask or did not know to ask MGM for the right digital materials. Does MGM own this film outright or did they license it from a French company? If MGM owns the film and doesn't have files that can match the French audio with the video without any subtitles on, then MGM is incompetent. If they got the HD materials from someone else, then they should have asked for proper elements. And if MGM could not provide such materials, Twilight Time should have done what EddieLarkin suggested. But the very fact that MGM provided a file of the "English" version without subtitles seems to clearly indicate they have a digital master of the film without subtitles.

Also, Twilight Time's concurrent release of Bandit Queen, licensed from Film4, also has forced subtitles, so I'm doubtful this is purely related to what materials MGM had available. I think someone in the assembly line doesn't have a full understanding of these issues; I am reminded of how Drafthouse Films kept having forced subtitles on their non-English releases up until Why Don't You Play In Hell? (and hopefully going forward)

PfR73 wrote:MGM's old DVD did not have burned in subtitles, so they clearly have/had access to subtitle-free materials.

Right. I have those Truffaut DVD's and they have optional subtitles.

Rayon, does the French version of the film actually have an option in the subtitle menu, that cannot be disabled, or is there no subtitle option at all?

EddieLarkin wrote:Rayon, does the French version of the film actually have an option in the subtitle menu, that cannot be disabled, or is there no subtitle option at all?

On the main menu, when you hit "set up", you get the choice for the audio track (French, commentary, or isolated score - to play the English dubbed version, there's a separate button on the main menu that says "Play English Dubbed Version"), and you get the choice for subtitles between "English SDH (for English Dubbed Version Only)" and "Off". But when you select "Off" and play the movie, the subtitles still appear. And if you push the subtitles button on your remote, nothing happens.

EDIT: When you choose to play the commentary, which I'm doing now, and choose "Off" for the subtitles, again they're still on. (I'm hoping against hope that Criterion will do The Wild Child.)

Rayon Vert wrote:And if you push the subtitles button on your remote, nothing happens.

Which would suggest there is no subtitle file linked to the French version on the disc. When I've dealt with non-disabling subtitles in the past and I've tried to turn them off, there is a subtitle menu that comes up during playback, but when you try to deselect you get a message saying "Operation prohibited by disc". If nothing happens at all with the TT disc, then I imagine that means the subtitles are not a non-disabling file, but rather part of the video encode itself (i.e. burned in).

PfR73 wrote:Honestly, I don't think Twilight Time truly understand the issues at hand. If you look at a capture of the French version with "burned-in" subtitles here at DVDBeaver. They are clearly digital subtitles, not something that was optically applied in 1968. They have much too modern a look and are too clean on the image. They are also too high-quality (with no stair-stepping pixels) to be a holdover from the SD era. I've seen many prints of older films, including some Truffaut films in recent months, and the subtitles never look like that.

That doesn't preclude them being burned in, it merely indicates that they are modern subs that were added to the image later. Perhaps the HD master was made for TV broadcast and MGM figured they'd always need the subtitles to be there, so they may as well burn them in.

PfR73 wrote:MGM's old DVD did not have burned in subtitles, so they clearly have/had access to subtitle-free materials.

But the old DVD may have been a different, SD transfer.

PfR73 wrote:If they are truly "burned-in" to the image, then it means MGM provided them a digital file where they subtitles were already digitally applied. So it appears to me that Twilight Time either did not ask or did not know to ask MGM for the right digital materials. Does MGM own this film outright or did they license it from a French company? If MGM owns the film and doesn't have files that can match the French audio with the video without any subtitles on, then MGM is incompetent. If they got the HD materials from someone else, then they should have asked for proper elements. And if MGM could not provide such materials, Twilight Time should have done what EddieLarkin suggested. But the very fact that MGM provided a file of the "English" version without subtitles seems to clearly indicate they have a digital master of the film without subtitles.

In this case, because they have two video files, it was absolutely possible to create a French version without burned in subs yes. And it's disappointing no one at MGM, TT or TT's authoring facility figured that out beforehand. But with Adele.H. it really seems like there's no choice. Only one video file exists in HD, and it apparently has burnt in subs as well. Personally, I think no label should be accepting such materials, even if it means no release at all. Even if it takes a decade or two, a new transfer will be done one day.

Updated Love and Death cover art:


I think I may prefer the first one.

So apparently the change in cover art was not TT's idea but "the result of a call from Mr. Allen's office".

He hated the old one, I guess.

EddieLarkin wrote:So apparently the change in cover art was not TT's idea but "the result of a call from Mr. Allen's office".

He hated the old one, I guess.

Interesting. I kinda felt like Allen stopped caring about how his films were treated on home video a while ago.

Does anyone have the Blu-Ray of The Purple Rose of Cairo, and if so, could you report on its quality?

I watched it yesterday. It's not as good as "Radio Days" Twilight Time Blu-Ray (which I watched the same day). By the way, I didn't understand why blu-ray.com only gave "Radio Days" a 4/5 note for the picture quality (I would gave to "Radio Days" at lest 4.5/5)

well, so "...Cairo" is slightly less good than "Radio Days". Some "white spots" here and there, it's not like a pristine-fresh-new-transfer.
But there's no trace of DNR at all. Close-ups are gorgeous with great details, but not as much for the outdoor scenes. So I'm a bit disappointed. I expected a lot for this Gordon Willis great photography. It's not bad at all, but it clearly could have been better.

If I rated "Radio Days" picture quality 4.5/5, then I would give to "...Cairo" something like 4/5 at best.

"Crimes and Misdemeanors" is so far the best transfer I've seen for a Woody Allen movie at Twilight Time. The transfer looks "fresh", great HD details, fine grain, and great color transfer (especially those warm color and red which were not easy - even for a blu-ray). Easy a 5/5 for me.

"The Front" (ok it's not a Woody Allen movie) would be 5/5 for me. Great HD details, gorgeous photography by M.Chapman. Grain is there. It's really film-like. Furthermore Andrea Marcovicci is lovely. So is her audio commentary (great audio commentary); one really great bonus.