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I was hoping for Blu, but with Kino you can't be too sure (since that brief stretch). I'll definitely be picking it up.

Can't wait! One of my favorites of last year. I was thinking about starting a thread for it, but it seems not many seem to have seen it on here. It's a new direction for Jia Zhangke (the most important East Asian director of the last ten years). Violence in his films never has seen to go beyond slapping or almost comedic self-immolation and the gunshots off-screen from John Woo's The Killer. His years of watching John Woo, Tsui Hark and Johnnie To (the last two have films that are being viewed in A Touch of Sin) have paid off and Jia knows how to stage action and violence, though his view on it is laconic, bleak and cruel. No Woo/Lam style of heroic bloodshed. I'm sure his historical large budget production will be great.

Is it really a disappointment though? They've only very rarely done supplements and usually it is with existing extras. What existing extras are there for Nostalghia they likely could have the rights to?

Then they should price accordingly to bare bones releases.

knives wrote:Is it really a disappointment though? They've only very rarely done supplements and usually it is with existing extras. What existing extras are there for Nostalghia they likely could have the rights to?

Not sure about the rights situation, but Andrei Tarkovsky in Nostalghia is a pretty damn great behind the scenes documentary--comparable to the Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky doc they got for The Sacrifice.

That would be nifty, but like you said, rights could be with anyone.

Artificial Eye had both the "Tempo Di Viaggio" documentary and "Andrei Tarkovsky In Nostalghia" documentary on the DVD.
(Although it had a lot of extras, it was supposedly a terrible DVD with bad picture and bad audio

Will definitely pick up but will wait for sale. Price is too high for barebones. Not even a written essay.
Beaver on Nostalghia

It's only $21 on DVDPacific at the moment, I would not count on this becoming cheaper than $18 in the next few months given its RRP.

perkizitore wrote:It's only $21 on DVDPacific at the moment, I would not count on this becoming cheaper than $18 in the next few months given its RRP.

Thanks for this.

FrauBlucher wrote:Will definitely pick up but will wait for sale. Price is too high for barebones. Not even a written essay.
Beaver on Nostalghia

In any case, it seems to be the first decent release of this masterpiece that is English-friendly (there was a great, but unsubbed Czech dvd before). The Beaver caps look gorgeous, and as Gary says that the audio is also improved, I suppose the terribly annoying crackle on the AE disc (and the German disc, for instance, too) is gone now. Waiting for a sale might nevertheless be recommended, if only as a punishment for Kino for giving this film one of the worst covers in dvd history.

FrauBlucher wrote:Beaver on Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)

Why won't Kino release a full version of the Sheldon Lewis version. I really want to see something better then the dupe Alpha released.

Has anyone ever had any luck getting replacement packaging from Kino? I received the Buster Keaton set for Christmas, which is wonderful, but the outer box was pretty badly damaged in shipping. Nearly two weeks ago, I emailed Kino at the general contact address on their site but still haven't heard back. I'm wondering if there's a different email I could try or if it's a lost cause. The set just looks so damn miserable sitting on the shelf next to the beautiful Masters of Cinema box.

After two emails, I can't even get them to help me identify if a Blu-ray is a pirated copy or not.

Orlac wrote:

FrauBlucher wrote:Beaver on Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)

Why won't Kino release a full version of the Sheldon Lewis version. I really want to see something better then the dupe Alpha released.

I haven't seen it, but my understanding is this Grapevine collection contains the best and most complete edition of Sheldon Lewis' silent version, assembled from different prints (it also contains his later sound short). I don't know how it compares in length and quality to the Alpha, which I haven't seen either, but generally Grapevine transfers these days are considerably better than Alpha's (and I don't mean to damn with faint praise!)

Emak-Bakia wrote:Has anyone ever had any luck getting replacement packaging from Kino? I received the Buster Keaton set for Christmas, which is wonderful, but the outer box was pretty badly damaged in shipping. Nearly two weeks ago, I emailed Kino at the general contact address on their site but still haven't heard back. I'm wondering if there's a different email I could try or if it's a lost cause. The set just looks so damn miserable sitting on the shelf next to the beautiful Masters of Cinema box.

I've had entire packages replaced for a couple of reasons (one was the famous Warning Shadows disc which had a PAINTING INSTRUCTION VIDEO instead of the silent film), another owing to a defective encode (one of the second round of Griffith discs, I believe the Abe Lincoln) and they replaced both in a nano second.

I always found that calling or just showing up in the office is the best way to get something handled pronto. Plus you have a chance to bump into Martin Koerber in the elevator with a few reels in metal boxes under his arm.

Also, very nice to see that the Tark looks as wonderful as it does. Just seeing those caps makes me regret how long its been since I've watched any of his films.

Thanks Schreck. I'm so used to handling these things by email that the obvious option of actually calling them hadn't occured to me. The woman with whom I spoke was very friendly and said she would send out a replacement free of charge.

Yeah, it cuts through the office sludge and backlog and they're all usually very nice and eager to help, since few think to actually pick up the phone. Very approachable company, I've never walked away dissatisfied when it came to replacement/defect issues. If you don't live close enough to swing by, just buzz them.

So, Raro claimed this past summer to have acquired the U.S. rights to The Conformist; the latest Kino Lorber email says they will be releasing it this year.

Anyone else worried about the transfer being approved by Storaro?

dadaistnun wrote:So, Raro claimed this past summer to have acquired the U.S. rights to The Conformist; the latest Kino Lorber email says they will be releasing it this year.

Kino is raroVideo's distributor.

#-o I can never keep this stuff straight anymore.