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Hi! I live in Canada and ordered the double BD set and it has arrived today. Only trouble is, it won't play on my PS3. I had my fingers crossed that since it was a Region free release, the PS3 would be able to play it. Anyone have a solution? I absolutely love these films and wanted to upgrade from my Fantoma DVDs. Consdering these will most likely never see the light of day on BD here, what can I do? Even if this means buying a PAL/NTSC compatible BD player, I just want a solution... Anybody?

Beaver (Blu-ray - includes comparison with Fantoma DVDs)

Ah, for the day when I will take the plunge into Blu-Ray!

I wish Beaver could rewrite ths sentence in which he manages two grammatical errors in only six words.

"There is, obviously, far less artifacts."
Should be
"There are, obviously, far fewer artifacts."

Adam wrote:Ah, for the day when I will take the plunge into Blu-Ray!

I wish Beaver could rewrite ths sentence in which he manages two grammatical errors in only six words.

"There is, obviously, far less artifacts."
Should be
"There are, obviously, far fewer artifacts."

Artefacts.

david hare wrote:Extremely importantly to me the telecine team obviously took complaints about the frame judder in the Fantoma KKK on board and have almost totally straightened this out. What we now have is almost flawlessly smooth (as it used to be) moving camera but given the opening four or five shots are segued with dissolves, there is as slight frame jump as each dissolve resolves into the next image - but the improvement is physically palpable. The Fantoma version was unendurable.

Woohoo! This is great news. Thanks, David.

I'm a bit annoyed that I've missed the pre-order price for the set now, but will make a mental note to pick it up when it crops up in a sale.

Borowczyk76 wrote:Hi! I live in Canada and ordered the double BD set and it has arrived today. Only trouble is, it won't play on my PS3. I had my fingers crossed that since it was a Region free release, the PS3 would be able to play it. Anyone have a solution? I absolutely love these films and wanted to upgrade from my Fantoma DVDs. Consdering these will most likely never see the light of day on BD here, what can I do? Even if this means buying a PAL/NTSC compatible BD player, I just want a solution... Anybody?

Hmmm. I use a PS3 as my blu-ray player and had no problems playing it. Try updating your firmware through the internet connection. It is region free. However, the second disc (Anger Me) will not play in the PS3 as it is standard def PAL. You need dvd player with a PAL/NTSC converter for that.

I wish Beaver could rewrite ths sentence in which he manages two grammatical errors in only six words.
"There is, obviously, far less artifacts."
Should be
"There are, obviously, far fewer artifacts."

Gee Adam. You have my heartfelt apologies. It obviously must have irked you immensely to actually be bothered posting it in this Forum.
See, I made a decision a long time ago to post a lot of information rather than worry about crossing "t"s or dotting "i"s. I realize this has left my reviews up for spelling and grammar criticism - so be it. I suppose I could simply post one review a week - and have it be closer to ideal but I'm sure the surfers to DVDBeaver would rather have me disseminate multiple reviews and comparisons. I realize doing both would be 'the perfect world' - but I don't have the resources. Hopefully, you'll accept my forgiveness. It has been corrected. I'm sure if you look closely enough you'll see 1000's of other such errors - but, like in this case, I'm sure you gather my inference.
P.S. I’m sure you meant ‘rewrite this sentence” not “ths”. But I won’t be picky.
Regards,

Gary Tooze wrote:

I wish Beaver could rewrite ths sentence in which he manages two grammatical errors in only six words.
"There is, obviously, far less artifacts."
Should be
"There are, obviously, far fewer artifacts."

Gee Adam. You have my heartfelt apologies. It obviously must have irked you immensely to actually be bothered posting it in this Forum.
See, I made a decision a long time ago to post a lot of information rather than worry about crossing "t"s or dotting "i"s. I realize this has left my reviews up for spelling and grammar criticism - so be it. I suppose I could simply post one review a week - and have it be closer to ideal but I'm sure the surfers to DVDBeaver would rather have me disseminate multiple reviews and comparisons. I realize doing both would be 'the perfect world' - but I don't have the resources. Hopefully, you'll accept my forgiveness. It has been corrected. I'm sure if you look closely enough you'll see 1000's of other such errors - but, like in this case, I'm sure you gather my inference.
P.S. I’m sure you meant ‘rewrite this sentence” not “ths”. But I won’t be picky.
Regards,

Thank you for the fix. A very appropriate reply. Not sure why that one irked me enough to comment on it.

DVD Outsider - the longest review by some distance.

Just wondering if anyone has had a problem with the 'Anger Me' DVD disc in the package?
I've played mine on a standalone Blu-Ray player, my Toshiba Multi-region DVD player and my laptop DVD ROM drive and whilst the disc loads up...when i press the 'Play Film' option...the screen disappears in a clock like fashion and then screen goes blank and goes back to the default players menu screen?

I'm playing mine on my MacBook right now - it works fine.

For the record, this was disc two in the Blu-ray package, but I believe it's identical to the one in the DVD set (economies of scale make this a bit of a no-brainer).

Ok, thanks for confirming that...guess it'll have to go back to Amazon then.

Toxicologist wrote:Just wondering if anyone has had a problem with the 'Anger Me' DVD disc in the package?
I've played mine on a standalone Blu-Ray player, my Toshiba Multi-region DVD player and my laptop DVD ROM drive and whilst the disc loads up...when i press the 'Play Film' option...the screen disappears in a clock like fashion and then screen goes blank and goes back to the default players menu screen?

I had the same problem... but could access the doc fine via the "scene select" option.

What's the difference between owning this set on Fantoma and the two sets of Anger films that Fantoma already released? I was finally getting around to Volume 2 when I saw this set.

Just a combo pack. The excellent blu-ray of all the films is only thru BFI for now...

Zot! wrote:Just a combo pack. The excellent blu-ray of all the films is only thru BFI for now...

Yes, that's right. The BFI's Blu-ray release was actually sourced from Fantoma's masters, but underwent additional clean-up before authoring. At present, it's unquestionably the best release worldwide - and the Blu-ray disc is region-free and 1080p throughout, so should work on any player. (The extras DVD is encoded for PAL video, but should work on any PC/Mac even if your standalone player can't handle it).

It's worth upgrading for the non-shaky Kustom Kar Kommandos alone really.

Can anyone please tell the name of the first Vivaldi piece that plays at the beginning of Eaux D'Artifice? I really want to know and I've been searching high and low for it with no luck. Anyone? Please?

It sounds like it is from the Four Seasons, the second movement of Autumn - Adagio molto

While I think Eaux d'Artifice is totally breathtaking throughout, I think that opening is particularly nice - the fragile beauty of the music introducing us to this lady wandering through her watery world. The long held sustained notes creates a mournful feeling, and the way the music sounds as if it is stepping down as it continues is beautifully parallelled with the lady walking down the stone steps with the little mini-waterfalls of the stream next to it, and those slow motion shots of the water droplets spraying from the fountain - so beautiful and yet part of a constant cycle of loss.

Which then goes into the third movement which is a little more processional and joyful, enjoying the ephemerality of it all.

Yes - it's the Autumn slow movement, but with a rather free interpretation of the continuo part. I think Vivaldi might have recycled the movement elsewhere, but I can't remember offhand.

Just got this in the mail the other day, and I must say it is absolutely astonishing!! Great quality, great extras, great audio commentary.

And, seriously, this DVD changed my views on Anger. I used to only know VHS-versions of his films. In this remastered version, they look absolutely stunning and beautiful!!

Re-watching this set over the weekend, I enjoyed identifying some of the themes running through what initially seems to be the very diverse subjects of the films.

All of the films are about uniforms (the naval uniforms of Fireworks, the eighteenth century dress of the woman in Eaux d'artifice, the pierrot in Rabbit's Moon, the biker leathers of Scorpio Rising, the black magic robes of Invocation, the Egyptian gods of Lucifer Rising and most interestingly those totally self-created/self-willed icons of Puce Moment and Pleasure Dome) and the worship of the central character of a more powerful figure or unattainable object.

A film like Rabbit's Moon with the pierrot becoming infatuated by the moon and continually trying to capture it while getting involved and teased by a more worldly wise and somewhat dastardly Joker character (and a coquettish fairy!) is perhaps the purest version of this idea, while in the other films the idea often becomes more internalised in the characters wanting to change themselves into some kind of unattainable figure, and ultimately reaching for the goal of death itself (the beating in Fireworks, the final race in Scorpio, the ephemeral shots of nature in Eaux d'artifice or the lava pools in Lucifer Rising). I particularly like the way that the footage of Jesus from the silent King of Kings is used intercut with the biker gang meeting in the final section of Scorpio Rising, sometimes as if Jesus is the 'square' looking on while all the debauchery is occurring! And there is that amusing moment when the blind man kneels before Jesus and there is a cut to a crotch level point of view shot of an erection poking out of a biker's leathers, which is extremely cheeky! (But I assume that all this intercutting is to make the point that Jesus is just another guy dressed in a peculiar fetishised garb, leading a gang around in pursuit of his own untimely death, simply for doing what he loved!)

This pursuit of unattainable goals or moulding yourself into a certain persona always seems to involve drugs and ritualistic behaviours, dressing in a certain manner in order to summon a particular atmosphere.

Yet I think there is also an idea of play acting involved - that the characters in these films aren't quite as dangerous or 'evil' or 'devillish' (or 'butch'!) as they would like to be! There's the fascination with actions and iconography of 'real danger' or subversion (devil worship, UFOs, the swastika) as if the characters are trying to cloak themselves with tainted objects in the hope that some of the controversy will rub off on them.

Kustom Kar Kommandos is very interesting because it takes vehicle worship to the ultimate extreme - I like that the inside of the car we see is totally reflective so that the driver can really just admire and watch themselves manipulating the controls! The driver who we see get behind the wheel just seems to enjoy playing with all the knobs and dials instead of actually working the controls in any meaningful way, which seems to feed into that sense of playacting at a certain activity that is full of significance without really being deadly serious in intent or competent at performing the activity! I get the impression that if the 'mythologising' rock and roll soundtrack was stripped away from that particular scene that the chap behind the wheel would be making childish "Vroom! Vroom!" noises as he was playing with the gearstick! (Though the regular introduction of a character wielding a sharp knife in Invocation of My Demon Brother, Lucifer Rising, Scorpio Rising and so on suggests the danger of playacting escalating into something more violent)

But this leads to an important point about the music through all of the films playing an important role - it allows the characters to escape their confines (once they have dressed appropriately!) and soar off into their own imaginative universe.

There is a regular use of mirrors and reflective surfaces through the other films as well, something which suggests a kind of narcissistic quality to all the subjects of the films that undercuts all the transgressions. It also suggests a kind of duality of persona - the split between public and private; between work and leisure time; between human and God. Why can't 'real people' become embodiments of a mythological figure or a fantastical way of life?

Out of all of the films I like Eaux d'artifice and Lucifer Rising the best. I particularly like the sequence in Lucifer Rising of the blonde woman in the black cape climbing to the top of the rock formation during the day with cuts to a procession of torch wielding figures climing the same formation at night, and then back again - that whole section feels extremely dream-like and reminiscent of a Jean Rollin film (and the woman looks quite similar to the gorgeous Brigitte Lahaie who was so striking in many of Rollin's films)!

All of these films are fascinating to watch though and there is a lot to enjoy in noting the very fine line the films walk between the insipiring and the prosaic; the epic and the intimate; the mythological and the absurd, and how each side of the debate informs and enriches the other more deeply.

colinr0380 wrote:(... the woman looks quite similar to the gorgeous Brigitte Lahaie who was so striking in many of Rollin's films)

Isn't it Marianne Faithful? She's in the film, but it's been a while so I'm forgetting whether that is her role....

Adam wrote:Isn't it Marianne Faithful? She's in the film, but it's been a while so I'm forgetting whether that is her role....

I think you are right! And I really should have noted that since on a whim I decided to put on an old videotape of Faithfull's finest filmic hour, Girl On A Motorcycle for the first time in years tonight! Perhaps I had subconsciously made the connection!

Several of the motifs Colin notes (such as leader / follower relationships, mirrors, and garments invested with specific power) are likely manifestations of Anger's interest in the occult. Indeed, some of the films have a straightforward documentary element in this respect.

Coincidentally, I rewatched, for the umpteenth time, Eaux d'artifice on the weekend (five year old goddaughter wanted something pretty to dance in front of!) and was seduced all over again. Consequently, I have to add to the list of motifs the 'orgasmic' shots Anger finds space for in so many of his films. Those slow motion fountains in Eaux are the most extravagant manifestation of this, but, as the title of the film confirms, they're also an 'answer' to the fireworks in Fireworks, and they anticipate the sparklers, lava and selected fluids of later films. (Don't think there's anything occult going on with these shots - what you see is what you get!)

Marianne Faithfull is indeed the hill climber in Lucifer Rising.