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foggy eyes wrote:the Mr. Bongo disc is up for pre-order at HMV for only £6.99 (surely a misprice), it's got to be worth it!

Amazon.uk is also selling it for 6.98 pounds, although the two sites show "list" prices that are different by about 80% (9.99 at HMV vs. 17.99 at Amazon.uk).

Both Identification of a Woman and L'Avventura are up for pre-order. Artwork is awfull!

L'AVVENTURA artwork is an abstraction of an original Italian poster, while IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN appears to have a pair of female buttocks, unidentified certainly till you view the film!.... The latter far too stated for an Antonioni film, but maybe Mr Bongo hope to pick up on a different market...

This sort of thing more suitable...

Mr. Bongo mentions Black God White Devil and Memories of Underdevelopment as coming soon!

Those were reported earlier. Though based on Mr. Bongo's track record one can't really hold much help despite many of their releases being 'essentials'. Such a shame, we can only hope these titles will be released in other territories. Come on CC let's have a Memories of Underdevelopment!

Come on CC let's have a Memories of Underdevelopment!

Memories of Underdevelopment is definitely a New Yorker title. They still have both non-theatrical and video rights (along with 16mm and 35mm prints). I know they've been talking about putting it on DVD for a while but nothing's come of that so far. Still, it's almost certain to make it out eventually but whether or not it will be better than the Mr. Bongo release is an open question.

ptmd wrote:Memories of Underdevelopment is definitely a New Yorker title.

New Yorker just put out Alea's THE LAST SUPPER, and they've been talking about doing Humberto Solas' LUCIA.

In the meantime, ICAIC has released a very nice DVD of MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT, with English subtitles, NTSC region-free. If you don't live in the U.S. you can even order it directly from Cuba, along with some other Cuban films. The ICAIC edition looks quite a bit better than the edition from Zafra in Mexico.

L'AVVENTURA is out... Specs...

DVD9 PAL. Dolby digital.
All regions.
Black & White 1950. Widescreen 1.85:1
Running Times: 143 minutes
Rating: PG
Sub titles: English
Language: Italian

Find it here

stephan73 wrote:Both Identification of a Woman and L'Avventura are up for pre-order. Artwork is awfull!

Our local release (Australian R4) is much, much worse.

ptmd wrote:Memories of Underdevelopment is definitely a New Yorker title.

Yes that's right, I forgot that. Such a shame it would have made a nice CC title, though the seem Cuban wary, which is a great shame as Cuba has so much to offer. I didn't like The Last Supper as much, the second act, comprising entirely of 'the last supper' is a little too long but a good movie nonetheless.

I don't know how Mr. Bongo are managing to acquire all these great titles let's hope they don't mess any more up, I'm vainly hoping that Black God, White Devil will be a good release.

And IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN (WS also) coming now at earlier date of May 19th

Believe me, that'll be an error, amazon do it all the time. Virtually nothing gets brought forward and if it does L'Avventura would be, too. It'll be end of June...

Actually it ain't, cos David the numero uno @ Mr Bongo just emailed me to say IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN & L'AVVENTURA are in stock & available in their own online store right now , and are obviously entered into the supply lines to other stores such as Amazon, who also have just e-mailed to say it will despatch 19th or 20th May.... Mr Bongo shopfront

I've seen checkdiscs of the two new Mr Bongo Antonionis, and they're a very pleasant surprise after the lacklustre Cronaca di un amore - they're completely barebones, but the transfers are anamorphic and sourced from very clean prints (1.75:1 for L'Avventura, 1.85:1 for Identification) and the subtitles are optional.

That said, L'Avventura can't possibly compete with the Criterion for extras, but it's a fair bit cheaper - massively so if you go for the HMV offer (which I'd definitely recommend)!

Mr Bongo's dedicated site for The Saragossa Manuscript

PillowRock wrote:

foggy eyes wrote:the Mr. Bongo disc is up for pre-order at HMV for only £6.99 (surely a misprice), it's got to be worth it!

Amazon.uk is also selling it for 6.98 pounds, although the two sites show "list" prices that are different by about 80% (9.99 at HMV vs. 17.99 at Amazon.uk).

Same goes with both L'Avventura and Identification of a Woman for those who are interested in jumping on the £6.99 pre-order (bargain) price at HMV. Amazon have both movies up at a sickening £13.49 (staying well within the boundaries of their £1.24 shipping price on all items under £15.00) whilst HMV offer, as alway's, free delivery to-boot.

Michael,

Could confirm whether or not the IOW disc is progressive?

Thanks,
Dr.A

pro-bassoonist wrote:Could confirm whether or not the IOW disc is progressive?

With the caveat that I only have a DVD-R checkdisc, so it may not necessarily reflect the final retail version, the answer appears to be yes - I've just stepped through a couple of sequences and there's no sign of any interlacing.

Just to say the Amazon release date has now indeed been pushed back to June 30, however as I posted above, the two Antonioni discs are available right now from the online shop on the MrBongo website itself - my IDENTIFICAZIONE DI UNA DONNA shipped yesterday....

In the BFI Southbank guide I received today Mr Bongo's ad shows the same clunky cover art style Mr Bongo has been doing so well lately for Black God, White Devil and Memories of Underdevlopment both dated as October releases. The ad also mentions The Hour Glass Sanitorium by Wojciech Has, Lucia by Umberto Solas and Strawberry and Chocolate by Tomas Guttierez Alea as coming soon. An exciting line up, let's hope they're more The Saragossa Manuscript and less The Adversary...

Trailer for Memories of Underdevelopment is online at Mr. Bongo's Youtube channel!

Play.com has preorders for both Black God, White Deviland Memories of Underdevelopment!

Play.com has preorders for both Black God, White Devil and Memories of Underdevelopment!

Why does anyone care about this Glauber Rocha release? Just buy the Brazilian DVD which will, no doubt, be infinitely superior...

Because having put off buying the Brazilian release due to its price one can always hope that Mr Bongo don't mess this up and the release is less than a third of the price.

FSimeoni wrote:Because having put off buying the Brazilian release due to its price one can always hope that Mr Bongo don't mess this up and the release is less than a third of the price.

They've significantly raised their game since their initial releases - The Saragossa Manuscript wasn't bad at all, and the two recent Antonionis, while barebones, offered excellent value for money. The Criterion L'Avventura is clearly superior, but scarcely "infinitely", and you pay for the difference!

Don Lope de Aguirre wrote:

Play.com has preorders for both Black God, White Devil and Memories of Underdevelopment!

Why does anyone care about this Glauber Rocha release? Just buy the Brazilian DVD which will, no doubt, be infinitely superior...

Apart from price, as FSimeoni points out, the Brazilian DVD also doesn't include subs for any of the interesting-looking extras. I believe that all the other, later Brazilian DVDs of Rocha's films have subs for everything, but not for Black God White Devil, sadly.