criterionforum.org

Again, it looks great. But I wonder why they're showing off their new 4k restorations in 480p? Seems pretty counterproductive.


Now if only they would include King Hu's "Anger" as a bonus feature on one of these blu rays.

Looks like Carlotta is working on De Palma's Body Double, presumably an Arrow release could be forthcoming as well, with Criterion, too? Considering the relationship between the three labels and the director?

But Twilight Time's license isn't up yet.

Ah, wasn't sure if this had come out from them.

The reason that Arrow haven't already released Body Double is that they can't licence from Sony

I went and ordered the Oshima set. Does anybody have this yet? Can anyone speak to the quality of the release?

tenia wrote:More info from Fabien :

The boxsets will be available in France and in the USA (under Cartlotta US) with English subs. There will also be theatrical showings in both territories.

Pre-order from Carlotta USA is up.

LOL @ the list price being more than the current cost of Arrow's Rivette box

Gotta say I'm relieved that the Arrow boxset went up for sale first. I might have ended up with three (expensive) copies of the damn film.

Covers for OUT 1 up at amazon. And a new price

That's not really the cover is it? Hilariously awful, it looks like a press release

What are you talking about? It's the holy grail of modern French cinema!

This is why you don't let people who design textbooks make your Blu-ray covers

Why are the DVDs and BDs in a different aspect ratio? Is a format thing? That DVDs can only be 1.33?

There's no reason a DVD can't be 1.37:1—just encode it at 4:3 (1.33:1) with very slight letterboxing. But Academy ratio (1.37:1) films are pretty much always cropped to 1.33:1 for DVD so as to use the entire available resolution. Every now and then someone will complain about this, but the variance is less than what you get in a typical theatrical screening, so it doesn't radically affect the framing (because directors and DPs know to frame "loosely" around the edges) and most people would never realize they're looking at a cropped image. But Blu-ray doesn't support 4:3 video (except for SD), so the only way to get a 1.37:1 or 1.33:1 film on BD is with a pillarboxed 16:9 image. In that case the "use the entire available resolution" rationale goes out the window, so with BD there's no reason to favor 1.33:1 over 1.37.

Fascinating (but it still _looks_ weird when you see the info for both side-by-side).

I can confirm that the BD ratio is definitely 1.37:1.

Body Double (Brian De Palma, 1984) - December 2

Body Double will be part of Carlotta's new Ultra Collector line and will be numbered and limited to 3000 units. Each release will feature a new restoration of the film, extensive supplemental features, and a 200-page album with archival photos and writings on the film.

What an exciting color palette.

Trailer for Carlotta's release of Out 1, offering peek at resto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_uy9YbVK8Y" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Blu-ray of The Panic in Needle Park coming next year.

Their first half 2016 releases will be :

Year of the Dragon (March)
Desperate Hours (Cimino) (March)
Jamaica Inn (April)
Heaven Knows What (2014) (June)
Panic In Needle Park (June)

Year of the Dragon will be their #2 Ultra Collector release and Panic in Needle Park is rumored to be their #3 (Body Double being the #1).

I recently purchased the Bodega Blu-ray of Saura's Flamenco, Flamenco. The contrast is much too high, in my opinion. Granted, part of this is inherent to the film itself which uses strongly directional lighting, but I don't remember the contrast being nearly so severe on the Mongrel DVD, which I rented a few times before deciding I wanted my own copy. Maybe I'll rent it again some time and make a proper comparison, but going on memory alone the Mongrel DVD seems preferable to the Blu-ray.