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Picked up Blu-Rays for Chabrol's The Ceremony and Bresson's Mouchette - pretty cheap discs, they were hard to turn down. Criterion has had HD versions of both up on their Hulu channel for quite some time, but they have yet to issue either on BD (and haven't issued The Ceremony in any physical format), but these are definitely solid alternatives - possibly the same HD transfers given to Criterion as I doubt they were derived from 4k transfers, but again solid, never a moment where I was taken out of the film by disappointing PQ.

With Rivette's passing, does anyone know of any plans to reissue the La belle noiseuse set?

Unfortunately the DVD of the first two Dardennes features has been delayed several months too. It's now got a December 31st date, which sounds more like a holding pattern than a realistic release date.

I have been considering buying the Theo Angelopolous collection and perhaps even some Bela Tarr from AE, can anyone speak about their quality? And if anyone knows if there might be an HD upgrade coming soon. And does anyone know what is going on the Ivan's Childhood? Saw it got pushed back to next month

The Angelopoulos is of acceptable quality. I only have volumes 1 & 2 and have found most of the transfers to be clean and clear. The main exception being DAYS OF 36 which suffers from the occasional wobble, reel marking and fading. No major restoration appears to have been done to these transfers but some minor work appears to have been done to some (e.g. RECONSTRUCTION & TRAVELLING PLAYERS).

Also bear in mind as pointed out in the Angelopoulos on DVD thread that a number of the films appear to have edits within scenes, or brief trims to beginning and ends of shots, though it seems unlikely that they will be revisited any time soon.

Considering I have never watched one of his films does it really matter? I mean I always love watching the full cut when I can, but considering the situation does it make any real difference? And what about the PQ of the Tarrs and the Nuri Bilge Ceylan dvd releases? Sadly I doubt they will ever get a HD transfer

charal wrote:The Angelopoulos is of acceptable quality. I only have volumes 1 & 2 and have found most of the transfers to be clean and clear. The main exception being DAYS OF 36 which suffers from the occasional wobble, reel marking and fading.

I'm also not convinced that Days of 36 is in the right aspect ratio - there's lots of headroom, and at one point a painfully obtrusive microphone.

Still, it clearly hasn't been cropped, so better that way round than the alternative.

With Angelopoulos didn't it turn out that AE's THE HUNTERS was probably a legit alternate cut akin to the situation with Malick's NEW WORLD? I wouldn't let it - or the other more minor issues - put you off getting the most comprehensive collection of his films that ever will be.

I have some of their Tarr releases, all fine. Would love for WERCKMEISTER (as well as Angel's LANDSCAPE IN MIST) to make it to blu-ray one day though.

Well seeing as there is no upcoming HD release I might get this... Eventually (too many LE boxset out right now). Having never watched a Tarr or Angelopolous where should I start? I love me some Tarkovsky would I be fine with exploring them?

For Tarr, Werckmeister Harmonies is definitely the best starting point. Damnation could be a good start, too, but you will probably want to work your way up to Satantago (a masterpiece). I actually like The Man From London, but I think I needed to see it after all of the other films to really appreciate it (and to relish entering Tarr's world once again). Turin Horse is a good ending point (probably the most difficult of his films, but certainly worth it).

More difficult than Sátántangó? That was a slog I have no desire to ever try and sit through again.

If I didn't like that, what Tarr should I try second?

Werckmeister Harmonies is definitely his most accessible. Beautiful cinematography, haunting score, a more deliberate pacing than Satantango. Turin Horse is difficult because of its extreme repetition. All of his films certainly work best on the big screen.

I screened Werckmeister for a class of high school students some years ago, and they had an awestruck, in my mind appropriate reaction. It has a motive force and a clear throughline which some of his other works lack (especially Turin Horse, with its repetitions). Werckmeister also offers some of his most visually spectacular shots, with its marching crowds, its Steadicam through the plaza, its refusal to show us the Prince. The class I was teaching had some building and some lovely students, but I also had no qualms about showing it because I knew its was so strong and clear. I would not, for instance, have shown Damnation.

I would never call Satantango a slog, though, so take that into consideration.

Did people know that AE released ALMANAC OF THE FALL (under the title AUTUMN ALMANAC) in March? Completely passed me by. How depressing that in 2016 AE are releasing major films by major directors in DVD only editions.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in a blu-ray bundle

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The Class would also be a UK BD debut.

It appears almost every package has at least one lesser film (maybe except the british) but it's extremely overpriced especially if there are no extras

I hope they decide to release 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days separately (and The Class too). Then again, they didn't for A Swedish Love Story, so you're forced to buy the whole Andersson set just to get that one (with the other two other than A Pigeon being dodgy upscaled transfers apparently).

MichaelB said that the rights to Kieslowski's "Short Films" were owned by Artifical Eye in the UK (Which is why Arrow is only releasing the Televison version of Dekalog). If a new box set is coming I would imagine they'll be included.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a Kieślowski box - AE has the rights, HD restorations are available off the shelf, and their refusal to sublicense the Short Films About Killing and Love to Arrow suggests that they plan to do them themselves.

That's exactly what I was thinking, but what would the other two be? I notice on the Zavvi listing the box set is just titled "Classics" for now, so it could be anything.

One of the remaining discs could just be The Double Life of Veronique, or if they can fit both Killing and Love on the same disc it could be the Three Colours Trilogy (but that would admittedly be a bit silly since many of us would already own all three of those). They have released some other Kieslowski titles before though: The Scar, Camera Buff, No End, and Blind Chance...

I guess they could get the same transfer of Blind Chance that Criterion released, but that still leaves one or two mystery discs. If they're going to put other directors in there, there's obviously plenty I'd love to see upgraded eventually (e.g. Bresson, Kiarostami, Jia, Ray, Haneke, Wong, Sembene, Mizoguchi, Klimov, Rohmer, Tarr, Makhmalbaf, Kaurismäki, Denis, Kalatozov etc). Obviously it will depend on whether there are decent materials available to license as well as whether they still have the rights...

The fourth AE40 box contains a pretty useless bundling of titles: The 400 Blows, Three Colours: Blue, Mouchette and Babette's Feast.

rockysds wrote:The fourth AE40 box contains a pretty useless bundling of titles: The 400 Blows, Three Colours: Blue, Mouchette and Babette's Feast.

Yeah, I saw that. Ah well, another AE release to ignore I guess.

I do hope they release 4 Months, 3 Week and 2 Days separately though...

New titles for Q1 2017 are Francofonia (Sokurov), The Unknown Girl (Dardenne) and Endless Poetry (Jodorowsky).

Yeah noticed the Tarkovsky titles are that price at the moment...might pick up Solaris and Ivan's Childhood at the very least. Anomalisa is the same price but since that's 1xBD I reckon it'll drop even further in the coming months.