criterionforum.org

Forced subtitles discussion moved here (to join the previous pages-long discussion of the exact same topic from three months ago).

Neighbouring Sounds, DVD-only release out on 24 June - Brazilian Portuguese audio (according to IMDB English and Mandarin as well, but I've not watched it yet), optional English subs, as per the checkdisc received today.

As long as the subs aren't literally burned in, there are plenty of modded BD players out there that let you override forced priorities on a disc. This function is also constantly useful for skipping past warnings, logos, trailers, etc (+ of course region-switching).

david hare wrote:And for christ's sake cancel your Bressons just to let them know.

Do you have confirmation that the Bressons have fixed subs?

As this is a recent problem, I doubt it can be blamed solely on the new regime at AE: it's a long time since Robert Beeson and Pam Engel were at the company.

Considering the films affected, it looks increasingly as if it's something to do with French production companies as Beyond the Hills is also a French co-production. I suspect that the idea behind not wanting AE to have optional subtitles on the Haneke and Carax is to prevent French consumers from importing from the UK, where prices are cheaper. Why the Mungiu has also been drawn into this unfortunate situation is anyone's guess.

Clearly, we'll never know whether AE tried to negotiate over the subtitles issue or whether they just accepted fixed subtitles. Based on their track record (and the fact that the subtitles on Neighbouring Sounds appear to be optional), I imagine they'd have tried to negotiate and decided to accept when told it was fixed subtitles or another distributor would be found, but maybe that's being overly optimistic.

Another Satyajit Ray film, Nayak (The Hero), expected 9 September.

neilist wrote:Another Satyajit Ray film, Nayak (The Hero), expected 9 September.

Please don't think its a ghost story from that cover art!!! Geez, AE couldn't come up with a better still for the cover??? BTW, in my opinion, its Ray's one of the best films and among my top 3. Its sad that CC couldn't get this one out first...

They had to use the short dream scene? As awesome as it was, it shouldn't be the cover. If Criterion puts it out, there'd better be a train on the cover.

That almost certainly won't be the final cover, the old grey AE template is only used as placeholder art now.

Michael Haneke - Porträt eines Film-Handwerkers DVD review

Again, non removable English subtitles.

For the curious, I picked up Atom Egoyan's Next of Kin and, whilst it looks very nice indeed, I can confirm it is bare-bones and offers no subs. I'm surprised none of the shorts from the Zeitgeist Egoyan set have made their way onto the disc. I haven't picked up Family Viewing yet, though nothing is listed on their website in regard to extras and given that Next of Kin has a run time of 70 minutes, even a light peppering of extras - if there were any on offer - would have been most appropriate here. Still, it's a marked improvement in PQ. But for those interested, hold on to the Zeitgeist set for the extras, at least for now.

It's Artificial Eye you shouldn't be surprised it has no extras.
Sometimes I think this company hates supplemental features. It's either nothing or a trailer and some mediocre 9min interview.

Stories We Tell BD coming from sister label Curzon Film World in the autumn

bigP wrote:For the curious, I picked up Atom Egoyan's Next of Kin and, whilst it looks very nice indeed, I can confirm it is bare-bones and offers no subs. I'm surprised none of the shorts from the Zeitgeist Egoyan set have made their way onto the disc. I haven't picked up Family Viewing yet, though nothing is listed on their website in regard to extras and given that Next of Kin has a run time of 70 minutes, even a light peppering of extras - if there were any on offer - would have been most appropriate here. Still, it's a marked improvement in PQ. But for those interested, hold on to the Zeitgeist set for the extras, at least for now.

I have BD checkdiscs of Next of Kin, Family Viewing and Speaking Parts and can confirm no extras on any of them. Nor subtitles, like the Hartley discs, but that's not unexpected with these English-language films. Also, Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks - the first Blus I've seen which don't have LPCM and/or DTS-HD MA tracks. The transfers are 1.37:1 for the first two (I believe both shot in 16mm) and 1.78:1 for the latter (35mm).

Bürgermeister wrote:It's Artificial Eye you shouldn't be surprised it has no extras.
Sometimes I think this company hates supplemental features. It's either nothing or a trailer and some mediocre 9min interview.

It's certainly a business model that they've never really altered. I guess, financially, it suits and their customers are used to their releases being basic but trustworthy. They certainly still surprise and delight with their roster and, of late, consistency with their discs (non-removable subs issues aside). I think, given that some effort was put into the Hartley releases (albeit, not far off the mark of their staple special features that you pointed out) , I was just hoping a few of the shorts from the Zeitgeist set would have made their way over, or that EgoArts may have even had some direct involvement.

GaryC wrote:I have BD checkdiscs of Next of Kin, Family Viewing and Speaking Parts and can confirm no extras on any of them. Nor subtitles, like the Hartley discs, but that's not unexpected with these English-language films. Also, Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks - the first Blus I've seen which don't have LPCM and/or DTS-HD MA tracks. The transfers are 1.37:1 for the first two (I believe both shot in 16mm) and 1.78:1 for the latter (35mm).

Thanks for this Gary. I'll certainly pick these up, but might hold off until the drop in price or I pick up a discount if they're 'just the shows'.

Bürgermeister wrote:It's Artificial Eye you shouldn't be surprised it has no extras.
Sometimes I think this company hates supplemental features. It's either nothing or a trailer and some mediocre 9min interview.

It's a shame the AE Neighbouring Sounds didn't include the same short films as the Cinema Guild release.

Me and You, released 8 July, Blu checkdisc received. Optional subs (Italian dialogue). The extras are a 47-minute making-of and the trailer.

ETA: Aspect ratio 1.85:1

GaryC wrote:I have BD checkdiscs of Next of Kin, Family Viewing and Speaking Parts and can confirm no extras on any of them. Nor subtitles, like the Hartley discs, but that's not unexpected with these English-language films. Also, Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks - the first Blus I've seen which don't have LPCM and/or DTS-HD MA tracks. The transfers are 1.37:1 for the first two (I believe both shot in 16mm) and 1.78:1 for the latter (35mm).

This sudden lossy Dolby Digital business is very bizarre--I hope we're not seeing a dangerous precedent being set.

Maybe they're just low tech sound recordings from no-budget films that don't benefit from LPCM.

RossyG wrote:Maybe they're just low tech sound recordings from no-budget films that don't benefit from LPCM.

They're all mono soundtracks, which isn't too surprising even for Speaking Parts, a 35mm film released in 1989. But they didn't sound too lo-fi to these ears, now that I've watched all three. So I don't know why they couldn't have had LPCM 2.0 soundtracks.

I doubt that it's a trend. Me and You, referred to above, has DTS-HD MA 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks to go with its optional subtitles.

Egoyan's Speaking Parts and The Adjuster reviewed. It looks like they both received brand new scans, but did not resist the teal invasion...

EDIT: ...and Family Viewing.

Via Blu-Ray.com:

October
28th Oct - Call Girl (Released on DVD only)
28th Oct - Funny Games US (Released on DVD & Blu-ray)
28th Oct - The Definitive Michael Haneke (Released on DVD only). This 13-DVD box set will include Funny Games US, Amour and Michael H: Profession Director. Artificial Eye will also try to bring a Blu-ray version of it in 2014 after high-definition transfers are available for all films.

November
11th Nov - Foxfire (Released on DVD only)
11th Nov - Mystery (Released on DVD only)
25th Nov - The Great Beauty (Released on DVD & Blu-ray)

December
9th December - Mister John (Released on DVD only)

Anyone else out there like me that prefers Funny Games US to the original?