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peerpee wrote:We'll be announcing two all new Blu-rays on Wednesday 15th December.

When will you announce #17?

LA SIGNORA SENZA CAMELIE in March, on Blu too... News is great Xmas present, along with LE AMICHE announcement.... And thanks to Nick & MoC team for fulfilling this particular wish so speedily and so successfully...

Great news, and glad to see they seem to have given up the one-format-only policy.

Sorry for being a pain in the ass about this, but Nick, does it look like the two Antonioni's will be region free on blu?

We're putting the releases together and working everything out at the moment. There's no point asking the same question every day! (even on Christmas Day!) -- Obviously, we try for region-free on every release and we often don't make the final decision until the last moment. If all goes to plan, we'll know in late January.

I don't know how this process works. I also didn't know that you had that info only late in the game. Sorry.

I don't know what studio policies/rights issues may be in the way, but given MoC's track record with Imamura, The Pornographers on blu would be a dream come true. With all of its long shots and detail, it would greatly benefit from the enhanced resolution. Not to mention a nice booklet offering some context regarding the social and political circumstances and cultural backdrop of the film. Criterion's barebones SD, though I appreciate its existence, just doesn't cut it... and I see little hope for an upgrade from them any time soon.

from Twitter: Our LATE MIZOGUCHI boxset (8 x DVDs + 4 thick booklets, all in a hard box) is out on January 24th 2011 for a steal. No Blu planned unfortch.

Any chance of MoC doing Borzage´s Bad Girl? The resto showed recently at MoMa.

I wonder if Nomura's Castle of Sand has caught MoC's eye (coming out on blu-ray next week). Excellent film.

Steven H wrote:I wonder if Nomura's Castle of Sand has caught MoC's eye (coming out on blu-ray next week). Excellent film.

This is one of my LEAST favorite Nomura films. ;~{

I found it somewhat problematic on its own terms (and not nearly as good as the book it was based on). Stake Out (in glorious b&w) would be my suggestion if MOC wanted to tackle Nomura (perhaps paired with Yoji Yamada's Matsumoto adaptation, Banner in the Mist).

Le amiche specs taken from Movie Mail:

* 2 discs
* Beautiful new transfer of the film in its recent restoration by Cineteca di Bologna, L'Immagine Ritrovata, and Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation, in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio, and presented in a 1080p AVC encode on the Blu-ray
* A new and exclusive video introduction to the film with critic and teacher Gabe Klinger
* A new and exclusive video featuring Gabe Klinger discussing the arc of Antonioni's entire career
* Optional English subtitles
* A lengthy booklet containing newly translated critical pieces about the film, excerpts of interviews with Antonioni, and more.

La signora senza camelie specs taken from Movie Mail:

* 2 discs
* Beautiful new transfer of the film in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio, presented in a 1080p AVC encode on the Blu-ray
* A new and exclusive video introduction to the film with critic and teacher Gabe Klinger
* A new and exclusive video featuring Gabe Klinger discussing Antonioni in the context of the Italian production system of the 1950s
* Optional English subtitles
* A lengthy booklet containing newly translated critical pieces about the film, excerpts of interviews with Antonioni, and a lengthy debate between Antonioni and critic Luigi Chiarini on the subject of the film.

Hmm! Yes, Michael maybe it isn't the *best* Nomura as it is a little on the cheesy side, but I still enjoyed it! It was also a big difference in film quality going from the Panorama to the proper Japanese release (minus the subs, of course). Zero Focus is still my favorite of his, but I guess that is not in blu-ray yet unfortunately. There is still a bunch of Nomura I haven't seen, especially interesting to me are all those early to mid-sixties comedies and 50s work, other than Stakeout.

I would love to see a greater number of pre-1960's Japanese films available. Also, I understand that Kyoko Kishida made many films but only about 5 are available in the West in subtitled form. Does anyone know of any attempt to rerelease any of her films with subtitles?

A piece of blurb appearing on both Moviemail & Amazon.co.uk product pages for LA SIGNORA SENZA CAMELIE, starts by saying it is Antonioni's second feature film, whereas of course it is his third, after CRONACA DI UN AMORE and I VINTI... An oversight somehere...

Stakeout and Zero Focus seem to be Nomura's best films (btw -- the recent re-make of Zero Focus just doesn't measure up to the original -- despite a good cast and decent production staff).

I think Yoji Yamada's best early films are more in need of Western attention than Nomura's, however. ;~}

Hi, I was wondering if Eureka Video will release in the future dvds & blu-ray with foreign languages subtitles/soundtrack ? I know that they did use to do it in the past (the 2002 restored edition of Metropolis and others) so...

Thanks to answer

That Metropolis disc had multiple subtitle options because all the discs around Europe were exactly the same disc, from Germany. Now, MoC makes their own discs, so its pretty unlikely that they will include other language subtitles.

Old News - full thread has been up since Thursday, lot's of discussion there!...

I would like to see more Japanese films with Kyoko Kishida, the actress, especially toward mid-life. The only two I have seen where she plays more than bit parts are Woman of the Dunes and Manji. She had a long career in Japan but only about 6 films with her in them have been subtitled and sold outside of the country.

Also, I've seen rumors from time to time about a remake of Seven Samurai. What I've heard has held it up is that Kurosawa gave all of the major actors in the film a piece of the property rights, so to speak, and acquiring permissions from their various estates would be a nightmare. Almost none of the original actors are still alive. This was only a rumor, however. If anyone knows anything more I would like to hear of it.

Finally, Toshiro Mifune's son, Toshio, has appeared in at least one film. Does anyone know of any others?

What's this hint on Twitter about "messy films"?

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:What's this hint on Twitter about "messy films"?

Imamura?

souvenir wrote: Imamura?

That sounds like a good guess to me! From the quotes section of his biography on IMDb : "I am interested in the relationship of the lower part of the human body and the lower part of the social structure on which the reality of daily Japanese life obstinately supports itself. I like to make messy films."

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:What's this hint on Twitter about "messy films"?

What's the hint? I don't see anything on Twitter.