criterionforum.org

Interesting to note that the Bruce Eder visual essay is new- I was assuming it was something unearthed from the laserdisc era, as a lot of the Eder-on-blu stuff has been. This release is really packed with familiar favorites in the supplements.

Beaver

I emailed saying that many of the extras on the UK disc are missing from the review.

manicsounds wrote:Beaver

I emailed saying that many of the extras on the UK disc are missing from the review.

Svet on Blu-ray.com said:

Commentary - a terrific audio commentary by Things to Come expert Nick Cooper, who does an in-depth analysis of the film and discusses its production history. There is an enormous amount of factual information here which allows one to gain a much better appreciation of the film, H.G. Wells' novel, etc.

[...]

The audio commentary by Things to Come expert Nick Cooper is amongst the very best I've heard appear on Blu-ray and DVD.

Think I may well be going for the Network release judging by the transfer comparison and the extras. They're slowly becoming one of the better labels out there. I do like some Kalat though.

Yeah, but Svet also said this about Kalat's Godzilla commentary:

Mr. Kalat's commentary is informative but admittedly too emotional and ultimately quite difficult to endure.

And he called Richard Schickel's On the Waterfront commentary "excellent".

He's nuts I tells ya!

Anyone have the Network Blu? Interested in what the second disc "virtual extended" version entails...

I have the Network disc. It opens with this:

Though the restored version of Things to Come presented on this DVD is the longest running print known to exist, its original theatrical run-time was significantly longer, though this version is now lost.

Additionally, there were a number of scenes that were either filmed and not used or not filmed at all.

This 'Virtual Extended Edition' of Things to Come is an expansion of the print on this disc in such a way as to include cue-cards at various points detailing additional dialogue and scenes.

These additions vary from a single line of dialogue through to some significant missing scenes.

This is not a "Director's cut" of Things to Come or even an attempt to reconstruct the original theatrical version - this is just a tantalising "What If?" to show what possibly could have been...

As for the Network commentary, it's informative, yet dry and a bit on the boring side of tone. Nick Cooper puts in a lot of good information in the booklet as well, but yes, I'd prefer a Kalat commentary. I probably won't be getting the Criterion since the UK disc is already excellent in PQ and supplements.

manicsounds wrote:As for the Network commentary, it's informative, yet dry and a bit on the boring side of tone. Nick Cooper puts in a lot of good information in the booklet as well, but yes, I'd prefer a Kalat commentary. I probably won't be getting the Criterion since the UK disc is already excellent in PQ and supplements.

Ah, how one's past comes back to haunt...! In fairness, the original DVD commentary was very much a last-minute thing, done with only a couple of days' notice, and could have benefited from more preparation/psyching-up (that sort of thing not being even remotely like my day job). I did consciously try not to duplicate information that was already in the booklet, although with hindsight doing so might have been better than some of the longer gaps in the commentary. I would have liked to have revisited it for the Network Blu-Ray, but ultimately that wasn't possible. We did manage a substantial revision of the booklet, although I now have more than enough to fill a whole book on the film, which in fact I intent to do next year. Still, I'm very much looking forward to the Criterion release, not least for the opportunity to finally get a copy of the unused Moholy-Nagy footage!

Mr Cooper, very nice to hear from the man himself. You obviously put in a lot of work into the Network discs, not just the booklet and commentary but also with the galleries.

Anyone feel that Cedric Hardwicke's rant about progress on a giant tv screen was the inspiration for Sideshow Bob's rant about television on a giant tv screen in The Simpsons?

I went through the special features last night, except the commentary. I thought the piece on the music of the film was absolutely superb, made me really want to revisit the film in a way the piece on the production design did not. I had no idea how significant the score was in the history of film scores. It was great to have the unique approaches to the film scoring the film strove for put into context. Really great work.

The repurposing of the 'found footage' of the unused effects reel as a triptych was absolutely mesmerizing, brilliant work by that particular artist who saw how to really make use of the material. Just wonderful.

I find the film an interesting bore, but the extras on this set are excellent. I'll probably end up watching the film with Kalat's commentary more often than the film proper.

Yes, Kalat's commentary is far more entertaining than the film. It's a "preachy" film with long awkward scenes of dialogue. The features seemed to suggest that it couldn't be helped because Wells had final say, so all those involved were limited, sticking in whatever changes they could sneak in.

I like the film well enough- the set design is consistently great, and Ralph Richardson is pretty delightful- but I'd be hard pressed to defend it as 'good' in any absolute sense, but it's fun to watch. The Kalat commentary- and the Frayling and Eder pieces- certainly add immeasurably, though.

The score alone makes this one of my favourite films. I still don't get Well's uptopia - it's supposedly brilliant, yet everyone riots because of one guy on a tv set?

And am I the only one who really wished we could have seen the alternate footage where it was Ernest Thesiger as the artist?