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The Holy Man BD review, reviewer says the image looks too clean and too scrubbed[/url]

The grabs don't look that bad. Will be interesting to see how these behave in motion.

Grabs look nice to me. I am going to import this now along with Nayak. I can't wait for these two. Criterion might take two more years again before they decide to release next batch of Ray films. Looking at the grabs again, it does feel like the "soap opera effect" was on.

manicsounds wrote:The Holy Man BD review, reviewer says the image looks too clean and too scrubbed[/url]

It is not true.

The new restos from RDB Entertainments are excellent. The transfers are done in 2K on ARRISCANs, which are known for their ultra-refined grain management.

There are contrast and clarity fluctuations on all of the Ray films that have been released thus far, but they are byproducts of various inherited issues, such as fading and serious warping. Some of the restos are also reconstructions (they use footage from different sources).

The teams that worked on the restos very clearly tried to rebalance what they had as best as possible. Noise was also removed. However, neither of these releases are "DNR jobs", and there is no such smearing as claimed above.

Another example of a terrific release that uses a top 2K transfer done on an ARRISCAN is ITV's resto of A Night to Remember, which was done at Deluxe in London.

You can see how smooth (but not that kind of "smooth") and beautiful it looks:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/screensho ... position=4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And see how it compares to The Big City:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/screensho ... position=4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...and in The Coward:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/screensho ... position=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ray's films have never looked this good before, and the ones that have been released on Blu-ray by Criterion and Artificial Eye so far look terrific.

This is getting me into collecting Ray's films. DVD left them in such a sorry state that I could only bear to collect a few. But the blu-rays I'm buying now like a reflex action.

The caps look pretty gorgeous to me. Thanks pro-bassoonist for going into detail on the subject!

Calvin wrote:Querelle - September 23rd

According to Amazon it's been put back to December 30th.

Does anyone know why the Querelle bluray has been delayed? The release date has been put back to January 13th 2014.

Two out this week, from DVD review copies:

The Sweet Hereafter has a short, "Open House", as the only extra. This is also the only one of AE's Egoyan discs to have a 5.1 soundtrack, as everything else was either mono or analogue Dolby Stereo in cinemas.

Stories We Tell - only extra is the trailer.

Both films are English-language, so no subtitles inevitably.

The AE BDs of the Egoyan films have been pretty great so far. But, for the difference in extras alone, anybody in region A or who's region free should stick with the Canadian discs for Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter.

Clio Barnard's The Selfish Giant looks as if it is being distributed under the Artificial Eye, rather than the Curzon Film World, banner so maybe the AE brand isn't quite dead yet.

Checkdiscs of three DVD-only November releases received today.

Gorbaciof - Italian-language, fixed subtitles, just a DD2.0 soundtrack. The only extra is the trailer.

Mystery - Mandarin-language, fixed subtitles, DD5.1 and DD2.0. No extras.

Foxfire - English-language, no subtitles. DD5.1 and DD2.0. Extras: 20-minute director interview (which does have fixed subtitles), trailer.

ARTIFICIAL EYE
13th Jan - Mister John (Released on DVD only)
13th Jan - The Great Beauty (DVD & Blu-ray)
AE's lineup for early 2014

13th Jan - Querelle (DVD & Blu-ray)
27th Jan - The Selfish Giant (DVD & Blu-ray)
10th Mar - Fill the Void (DVD & Blu-ray)
17th Mar - Blue is The Warmest Colour (DVD & Blu-ray)

CURZON FILM WORLD
6th Jan - What Maisie Knew (DVD & Blu-ray)
10th Feb - Le Week-end (DVD & Blu-ray)
10th Feb - Scatter My Ashes At Bergdorf's (Released on DVD only)

CHELSEA FILMS
24th Feb - Days of Grace (Released on DVD only)
24th Mar - Age of Uprising: The Revenge of Michael Kohlhaas (Released on DVD only)
24th Mar - Just Like a Woman (Released on DVD only)

One thing I have noticed is that only a few years ago AE DVDs were mostly region-free, but nowadays they are invariably locked to Region 2, or at least the ones I have seen have been. I was reminded of this when I renewed my Curzon cinema membership this month and was sent a free DVD, of Lourdes, released three years ago...and region-free.

Breaking the Waves and The Secret of the Grain in March 2014.

For those that are unaware, the Bressons got pushed back again apparently, to March now.

Anyone know which version of 'Blue is the Warmest Colour' is coming out in March? Will it be the director's cut (40 mins longer than cinema version)?

Nymphomaniac will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD on May 5th followed by Leos Carax's Boy Meets Girl and The Night Is Young on May 19th.

Is it safe to assume that Nymphomaniac will be the 4-hour theatrical cut?

Carax on Blu, oh me oh my.

Nymphomaniac is listed as "Nymphomaniac Vol I. & Vol II. (2 Disc Blu-ray)"

But, that doesn't mean it's going to be Von Trier's director's cut. The version Magnolia is releasing in theaters in the U.S. is the 4-hour cut, albeit in two separate volumes. (My guess is that the Artificial Eye release will be the same.)

If the uncut version has explicit sex, then it's highly unlikely it would get past the BBFC without an R18 certificate, meaning it could only be sold in brown bag shops. Artificial Eye would never release that.

mistakaninja wrote:If the uncut version has explicit sex, then it's highly unlikely it would get past the BBFC without an R18 certificate, meaning it could only be sold in brown bag shops. Artificial Eye would never release that.

I think it would be quite likely to get an 18 rather than a R18, given that the BBFC will most likely consider it not a "sex work". They've passed "strong real sex" at 18 before. Having said that, I'm not the BBFC, and they haven't yet passed Nymphomaniac for its UK cinema release (22 February). Release windows are getting shorter - AE/Curzon Film World releases have up to now come out on disc four or five months after the cinema releases, and this one is two and a half months.

Quick turnaround to get it out before Cannes? Can't help but picture it as a way for Lars to thumb his nose (same for the Sundance screening).

GaryC wrote:

mistakaninja wrote:If the uncut version has explicit sex, then it's highly unlikely it would get past the BBFC without an R18 certificate, meaning it could only be sold in brown bag shops. Artificial Eye would never release that.

I think it would be quite likely to get an 18 rather than a R18, given that the BBFC will most likely consider it not a "sex work". They've passed "strong real sex" at 18 before. Having said that, I'm not the BBFC, and they haven't yet passed Nymphomaniac for its UK cinema release (22 February).

...and they rejected Radley Metzger's uncut Score a year ago, despite it not being (I'd argue, anyway) primarily "a sex work" and the contentious footage amounting to only a few minutes.

(By "rejected", I mean "offered Arrow an R18", which amounts to the same thing in terms of commercial viability, although that didn't stop a smugly disingenuous BBFC spokesperson writing to Sight & Sound effectively blaming Arrow for choosing to release the shorter cut.)

MichaelB wrote:

GaryC wrote:

mistakaninja wrote:If the uncut version has explicit sex, then it's highly unlikely it would get past the BBFC without an R18 certificate, meaning it could only be sold in brown bag shops. Artificial Eye would never release that.

I think it would be quite likely to get an 18 rather than a R18, given that the BBFC will most likely consider it not a "sex work". They've passed "strong real sex" at 18 before. Having said that, I'm not the BBFC, and they haven't yet passed Nymphomaniac for its UK cinema release (22 February).

...and they rejected Radley Metzger's uncut Score a year ago, despite it not being (I'd argue, anyway) primarily "a sex work" and the contentious footage amounting to only a few minutes.

(By "rejected", I mean "offered Arrow an R18", which amounts to the same thing in terms of commercial viability, although that didn't stop a smugly disingenuous BBFC spokesperson writing to Sight & Sound effectively blaming Arrow for choosing to release the shorter cut.)

I haven't seen Score but is it any more exolicit than The Erotic Films of Peter de Rome? In that case, though, the BFI sent in all the films and extras as one submission, so you had the contextual justification for individual films which were undoubtedly intended as "sex works" when they were made. If they had submitted the films separately I suspect that they would have been landed with R18 certificates. That happened with 9 Songs - deleted scenes were submitted separately and were given a R18.

I haven't seen Nymphomaniac yet, but even so I would be very surprised if the BBFC pass such a high-profile arthouse release with anything other than an 18.

In my opinion the R18 needs to be revamped or done away with - or at the very least allowed to be sold by mail order - but that's something I've said before in this forum.