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The Blu Angel

I'd buy a "Blu" Angel in an instant too.

Yeah, where is that Lubtisch title

Never heard of this Lubtisch fella.. O:)

Give us recent Asian cinema, please! Tsai, Kurosawa, Koreeda, Tsukamoto, Shiota... so many valid directors out there and no Western editions at all (or OoP).

I'm wondering how the sales of the "double packs" of Muranu, Mizoguchi and Franju did and whether they were a good venture for releasing multiple "lesser" films by a director. I'd love to see you do similar for some other early Muranu and Lang films, and Lubitch and Pabst also have some films that would be suitable for a release like this. I've recently discovered the Arte TV restorations and I'd love to see some of these "lesser" films on DVD from the likes of yourselves (or Edition Filmmuseum).

There aren't really any other early Murnau films available, apart from "Gang in die Nacht" and "Der Brennende Acker". "Gang" is not in very good condition, but I believe "Acker" has been restored and would make a wonderful MoC. It isn't "minor" either, as anyone who has seen it will tell you.

tojoed wrote:There aren't really any other early Murnau films available, apart from "Gang in die Nacht" and "Der Brennende Acker". "Gang" is not in very good condition, but I believe "Acker" has been restored and would make a wonderful MoC. It isn't "minor" either, as anyone who has seen it will tell you.

I knew someone would pick up on my use of "lesser" or "minor". I didn't mean to use it disparagingly. I was just using it to refer to films that aren't the Sunrises, Metropolises and Mabuses of the world. There's Schloß Vogeloed that could be released too. Has that had a proper release yet with German intertitles? I'm not buying Kino-fied stuff.

The only copy of Acker I can find is one with German intertitles and fixed French subtitles. I'm guessing it is from a VHS.

DanV wrote:Give us recent Asian cinema, please! Tsai, Kurosawa, Koreeda, Tsukamoto, Shiota... so many valid directors out there and no Western editions at all (or OoP).

We're currently working on THE WORLD by Jia. As you probably already know, To's & Wai's MAD DETECTIVE and Kurosawa's TOKYO SONATA were released on BD in the recent past.

We'd love to release everything by a few of the directors you cite, and then some, but our schedule's already very packed. Aside from that, you must understand that many of these films have not yet migrated to an HD master. Which is problematic to say the least. But it's a process that we do our best to help accelerate as we're able.

ck.

TMDaines wrote: There's Schloß Vogeloed that could be released too. Has that had a proper release yet with German intertitles? I'm not buying Kino-fied stuff.

If MoC were doing "Vogelod", I should have thought they would have released it when Kino did. So, I'll stick with the Kino for now. I don't think it has been released by anyone else, except Alpha, which doesn't count.

"Vogelöd" has an excellent release from the Spanish company Divisa, a double-layered disc with German intertitles and a Berriatua-doc on top of it. Imagewise, I doubt it can be bettered by anyone, even MoC. Its only shortcoming is that is has no English subs. But if you can read German, definitely the one to pick up.
Some thoughts and screencaps in the Silent Film Thread, October 1, 2008 entry.

Tommaso wrote:"Vogelöd" has an excellent release from the Spanish company Divisa, a double-layered disc with German intertitles and a Berriatua-doc on top of it. Imagewise, I doubt it can be bettered by anyone, even MoC. Its only shortcoming is that is has no English subs. But if you can read German, definitely the one to pick up.
Some thoughts and screencaps in the Silent Film Thread, October 1, 2008 entry.

Thanks. Do you have a recommendation for an online retailer?

Try Starscafé, I hear nothing but good things about them, though I haven't used them myself yet. Alternatively, http://www.dvdgo.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is very fast and reliable, but their shipping costs are pretty horrendous, at least if you order just one disc. But you may always throw in Lang's "Das wandernde Bild", which has it's only release worldwide in Spain from Divisa, too. Same for Lubitsch's "Madame Dubarry", though I'm not a big fan of either of these films.

I was completely unaware Madame Dubarry had a proper release. I downloaded an .avi of the Arte broadcast a few days ago, which I haven't got round to watching yet. I see there's quite a few silents this label have that I don't think are widely available. So Madame Dubarry, Das wandernde Bild, Schloß Vogeloed and Geheimnisse einer Seele all have German intertitles? There's Le congrès s'amuse that looks interesting too.

Hmm I'll have to make an order down the line.

Yes, all the silents from Divisa have original intertitles with optional Spanish subs (or optional Spanish titles via seamless branching).

Interesting about "Le congres s'amuse". This seems to be the French language version; the original German version is out on a German disc from Universum and should be the one to choose first. An absolutely glorious film with an absolutely glorious Lilian Harvey. One of my all-time favourites, showing that Lubitsch had some rivals if it came to sound film operettas/musicals.

http://www.starscafe.com/en/movie/el-co ... ma-origins

I presume the cast listed here is different than the one on IMDB as the French and German versions used different casts?

Oh, hang on! I see from your link that it indeed seems to be the German version that divisa released; so naming Jean Boyer as director and a different cast probably comes from them using imdb, too, and getting the versions wrong. I was surprised they would release the French version and not the German original in the first place, anyway. So no reason not to order it (assuming the subs are removable, but I would be surprised if they weren't), although the German disc is slightly cheaper and has some 20 minute-long bonus video appreciation, which I remember as quite informative.

RT @HeyRusty: Finally completed my Murnau @mastersofcinema collection. http://img138.yfrog.com/img138/3790/jg0x.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Geil!
about 9 hours ago via web

Don't let his collection of MoC Murnaus end there!

Tommaso wrote:Oh, hang on! I see from your link that it indeed seems to be the German version that divisa released; so naming Jean Boyer as director and a different cast probably comes from them using imdb, too, and getting the versions wrong. I was surprised they would release the French version and not the German original in the first place, anyway. So no reason not to order it (assuming the subs are removable, but I would be surprised if they weren't), although the German disc is slightly cheaper and has some 20 minute-long bonus video appreciation, which I remember as quite informative.

Cool, thanks. I hadn't heard too many good things about Universum but I'll pick this disk up eventually.

You're right, the image certainly isn't great, but the materials are in pretty bad shape in the first place. They cleaned up a few scratches compared to the version that was earlier released on VHS and in DeAgostini's "Die großen deutschen Film-Klassiker"-series, but it still looks pretty dupey. But films from that period are rarely in good shape, unless someone does a full-scale resto like with some of the silents.

Tommaso wrote:You're right, the image certainly isn't great, but the materials are in pretty bad shape in the first place. They cleaned up a few scratches compared to the version that was earlier released on VHS and in DeAgostini's "Die großen deutschen Film-Klassiker"-series, but it still looks pretty dupey. But films from that period are rarely in good shape, unless someone does a full-scale resto like with some of the silents.

Have you got any other recommendations for German language silents outside of the labels such as MoC, Criterion, Edition Filmmuseum, Arthaus etc? I have the Raro Czinner and am aware of the ones by FAA (DER ROSENKAVALIER, CAFE ELEKTRIK and SODOM UND GOMORRHA). I think I know of nearly eveything worth having now. I'm hoping I've overlooked a couple of gems though.

No, you haven't, as far as I can see. Outside of those labels you mentioned, I can't think of anything else being available on dvd available It's a shame, and the situation for early sound films like "Kongress" is even worse.

From another thread:

triodelover wrote:As long as you're going forward from the '60s output, I'd add the two AnimEigo discs - Ballad of Narayama and Black Rain.

Is there any chance for Narayama? Amazon is selling the R1 for $11.99, but then again I would rather wait for a better release without distracting yellow subtitle fonts. Black Rain would be nice too.

claude wrote:From another thread:

triodelover wrote:As long as you're going forward from the '60s output, I'd add the two AnimEigo discs - Ballad of Narayama and Black Rain.

Is there any chance for Narayama? Amazon is selling the R1 for $11.99, but then again I would rather wait for a better release without distracting yellow subtitle fonts. Black Rain would be nice too.

Plus the as yet unreleased Eijanaika and The Eel.

There is a decent English-subbed version of Imamura's Black Rain -- released in France (so French subs too).

There are supposedly digitally restored version of Eel and Eejanaika in Japan -- but no subs. There is the subbed HK DVD of Eejanaika -- but this is not, shall we say, state of the art.

The worst thing I can say about the AnimEigo release of Black Rain is that the image is a little soft. Just a tad, though; it's still a very watchable presentation of an essential film. Also, the AnimEigo release has the option of white subs, if yellow is a dealbreaker.