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I got the box today, but with my kid being sick I've only been able to dip into it. From what I've seen I'd say the transfers look just great, but my equipment isn't exactly high-end (my TV set is from 1992) so it's certainly possible that I could miss some problem that would be obvious to others. There's perhaps a little more film damage (dirt, tram lines, flicker) than I was expecting but not enough to be a nuisance.

The book is very impressive at almost 550 pages, but it is in Dutch only. The booklets for each disc are also in Dutch but the information there is easy to decipher (the pages of the booklets have been printed in the wrong order, but they all seem to be there). The discs are NTSC. They have Dutch and English-language menus, and if you choose English, all films seem to default to English narration or subs as appropriate. A small bug: the Orson Welles version of The Spanish Earth defaults to Dutch subtitles on, but they're removable. By the way, the discs are not generally French-friendly, so the French box set is unlikely to contain the exact same discs.

I noticed that the silent version of Rain is three minutes longer than the scored versions.

Oh, just noticed something else. The French version of Rotterdam Europoort is available as an alternate audio track, but the English subtitles only match the Dutch audio. This wouldn't bother me if the French track was a simple translation of the Dutch version, but according to the book, Chris Marker revised the original narration extensively for the French version.

Thanks for sharing your impressions, ola t!
I hope the forthcoming French two volume set will have the same content 'cause I'm about to flex my (non-existant) Dutch commercial vocabulary on one of the e-tailers linked above or at JUST.

I received the following info which might be of interest:

"The book that accompanies the Ivens DVD collection is at the present moment only available in Dutch.

However, arrangements are being made for a French and English publication."

No time frame, but worth holding off ordering for a while.

I wanted to provide some information about a few things that have been left hanging so far in this thread.
First, according to the European Foundation Joris Ivens, the Arte sets are French-English editions, and the extra material is the same as the big Joris Ivens box.

Secondly, for those waiting to order the set from ivens.nl until the English version of the accompanying book is published, unfortunately there has been a considerable delay in that release. It was supposed to come out in April 2009, but now it's uncertain when it will come out.

However, the set can be ordered at a lower cost without the book, even though as ola t noted on the previous page that option seemed to disappear from the web site. The base price for the set without the book is €39,95, and shipping outside Europe is either €17,50 for standard or €19,50 for priority. The way to make the purchase is to contact them via the site and have them email an invoice.

Finally, for those who may not have read the post in the Amazon thread, these Arte sets are currently part of a 25% off Arte promotion at Amazon.fr.

And just to add, with Amazon.fr discounts these two sets can be purchased together for $75 shipped to the US. Its the best price I've seen by far.

Absolut-Medien, who does Arte editions in Germany, has released this as a single 5-DVD set, but it sells for EUR 67.99 at Amazon.DE. The French version is broken up into two sets, selling for EUR 25.99 and EUR 30.99 at Amazon.FR, which says it is released by Sony Home Entertainment, which threw me at first. But the covers say "Arte Edition." Amazon.DE conveniently lists the contents of each disc, which Amazon.FR does not.

I know this thread is long, long dead and the discs are now out of print... but given that these films haven't made it to blu, I'm thinking of picking these up second-hand. Is anyone able to tell me if the two French sets are definitely English-friendly? It's hard to find proper info online about the subs and language of the French releases. Cheers!