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Matango wrote:AE's Dersu Uzala must be in contention for worst DVD of the year. Appalling transfer, barely watchable, and erroneous info on the back cover on everything from subtitles to running time to sound format. Anyone else as disappointed as I am?

I would be if I had bought it....thanks for the warning!

I don't normally comment on transfers and the like, but Derzu Usala was really poor, came away feeling that while I may have watched the film, but hadn't seen it. All of which really harmed my enjoyment and appreciation of this fascinating Akira Kurosawa film in which nature and the landscape plays such a dominant role.

Fingers crossed a US company can make amends.

Kino dropped the ball once; dare we hope someone else gets the rights?

Beaver on The Chess Players.

Kaurismaki 1: Match Factory Girl, Ariel, Shadows in Paradise (Sep 10)

Kaurismaki 2: Take Care of your Scarf, Tatjana, Drifting Clouds, Juha (Sep 24)

Kaurismaki 3: Crime and Punishment, Hamlet Goes Business, La Vie de Boheme (Oct 22)

Kaurismaki Leningrad Cowboys: Leningrad Cowboys Go America, Meet Moses, Total Balalaika Show (Nov 12)

Geez, if only Sembane, Feuillade, Ray or Angelopoulos would get such swift treatment.

I'm up for the three main boxes. I've only seem The Man Without a Past, and I absolutely adore the film. Probably pass on the Leningrad Cowboys set, for now.

What A Disgrace wrote:Geez, if only Sembene, Feuillade, Ray or Angelopoulos would get such swift treatment.

Too right! I know there are problems but I'd love to see more from Bresson, Tarr, Mizoguchi, Ozu, and Rivette.

What A Disgrace wrote:Geez, if only Sembane, Feuillade, Ray or Angelopoulos would get such swift treatment.

Not that swift - going from the programming, I'm guessing these are straight ports of the Swedish boxes that I've had for years.

(And I hope they've fixed the subtitle glitch on Ariel if that is indeed the case - right at the very end, they slip badly out of sync, and given the sparseness of the dialogue in a Kaurismäki film, you REALLY notice!)

I got all the Swedish releases except the Leningrad Cowboy box. I already have the first of these on video -- and my impression (from reading) is that the other two films in the set are not really "essential").

BTW -- is Calmari Union being left out? (It was included in one of those Scandinavian sets).

Michael Kerpan wrote:I got all the Swedish releases except the Leningrad Cowboy box. I already have the first of these on video -- and my impression (from reading) is that the other two films in the set are not really "essential").

Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses is dire (or at least the first half is; I didn't stay for the second), but Total Balalaika Show is a work of absolute genius, and by far the greatest concert film ever made.

I even played an extract from it at my wedding (the cover version of 'Happy Together', which you can see on YouTube here)

MichaelB wrote:I even played an extract from it at my wedding (the cover version of 'Happy Together', which you can see on YouTube here)

Wow - still married?

tavernier wrote:

MichaelB wrote:I even played an extract from it at my wedding (the cover version of 'Happy Together', which you can see on YouTube here)

Wow - still married?

Very much so.

I just found a rendition of "Delilah" from that concert on youtube also -- even more mind blowing than "Happy Together".

After my enquiry of the possibility for the inclusion of a CD of music by Mihaly Vig to accompany The Man From London I received this reply from Robert Beeson of Artificial Eye:

There was a Hungarian CD via www.bahia.hu

But adding a CD is something we will try to do when we do a Tarr box-set
- but that won't happen until late 2008 at the earliest

I included this info on the Satantango thread but you can get the vig cd from Tzameti in prague. I don't think The Man from London music has been released unfortunately.

DVD Times review of Kaurismäki's superb Lights in the Dusk. Bring on the boxsets!

foggy eyes wrote:DVD Times review of Kaurismäki's superb Lights in the Dusk. Bring on the boxsets!

Looks like this release has some extras that the Scandinavian release didn't have. for comparison purposes, my remarks and screen shots from the Scandinavian DVD (there seem to have been Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish releases of the same DVD).

The recent Art Eye ad in the October MovieMail catalogue says that the Kaurismaki collection 3 contains Crime and Punishment, Hamlet Goes Business, La Vie de Boheme and Calamari Union.

DVD Times Review of The Aki Kaurismäki Collection Volume 1.

DVD Times review of Kaurismäki Volume 2.

Sorry if this is posted somewhere else - I notice that AE have got two Fassbinder boxes lined up for november, both amazon preorders at £30. Very nicely they've got two rare documentary pieces, but very annoyingly one in each box.

1. LOLA, WHY DOES HERR R RUN AMOK?, MARTHA and I ONLY WANT YOU TO LOVE ME.

2. VERONIKA VOSS, IN A YEAR OF THIRTEEN MOONS, THE THIRD GENERATION and GERMANY IN AUTUMN.

Good news about the third Kaurismäki box on DVD Outsider.

Not only does it offer four (admittedly minor) films against the other sets' three apiece, but it also throws in Jonathan Ross's wonderful 1991 documentary on Kaurismäki. ("You don't move the camera very much, do you?" "Well, when you have a hangover it's hard to push it")

Curiously, I Hired A Contract Killer seems to be omitted from Artificial Eye's boxes, even though it was included in the Swedish equivalent. I suspect this is rights-related.

porcupine2 wrote:Sorry if this is posted somewhere else - I notice that AE have got two Fassbinder boxes lined up for november, both amazon preorders at £30. Very nicely they've got two rare documentary pieces, but very annoyingly one in each box.

1. LOLA, WHY DOES HERR R RUN AMOK?, MARTHA and I ONLY WANT YOU TO LOVE ME.

2. VERONIKA VOSS, IN A YEAR OF THIRTEEN MOONS, THE THIRD GENERATION and GERMANY IN AUTUMN.

I Only Want You to Love Me isn't a documentary, it's a (superb) feature. Shame if it's only available in the box. Hopefully someone else will pick it up as a stand-alone title.

zedz wrote:I Only Want You to Love Me isn't a documentary, it's a (superb) feature. Shame if it's only available in the box. Hopefully someone else will pick it up as a stand-alone title.

I second this - it is a great film and the first Fassbinder I ever saw (If you are interested it is the most recent Fassbinder film shown on terrestrial television in the UK, by BBC2 in their 1994 season of 'Lost and Found' films which also premiered Tokyo Drifter and The Ghost Ship amongst others!)

Thanks for the correction (I'd read that it was documentary-style and misremembered it) and recommendations - I might well splash out on this if it gets reduced at some point. Anyone seen Germany in Autumn?