criterionforum.org

zedz wrote:Thanks indeed, Cold Bishop! This is fantastic news (and I doubt any of us would have hazarded a purchase without those caps). This may be my only chance in this lifetime to say, "Bravo, Facets!" so: Bravo, Facets!

Their new-ish release of Germany Pale Mother is actually pretty good looking as well, although they claim it is an high definition transfer which I doubt. Here are some screens:

I completely forgot about them releasing Germany Pale Mother, and am glad to see it come out decently.

yoshimori wrote:Yes. The Polart image is superior. BUT, if I remember correctly, the subtitles are a horror!

Hardly a horror. Yes, there's mistakes like "Farther" for "Father" and such, and once or twice I needed to rewind and pause to catch a subtitle that went to fast, and missing subtitles on two lines of dialogue, but there's no mistake that you can't figure out right away, or that will actually prevent you from understanding the film.

As for the actual translation, I have no idea....

It might be worth noting that Mother Joan of the Angels is included in one of Best Film Co's Polish Film School box sets - and there's every likelihood that it's the same transfer as the Polart, only native PAL. (All the Polart discs I have to date are PAL-NTSC conversions)

I'll be buying it at some point in the not too distant future, and will report back then.

MichaelB wrote:(All the Polart discs I have to date are PAL-NTSC conversions)

The combing would support this idea, but, especially considering the alternatives, it didn't bother me too much. But if there is a PAL out their, its definitely the way to go. Is it only available in the boxset?

Splendid news that this extraordinary film is available in a better transfer than the one Second Run had access to, and it makes me speculate about Facets' release of Aleksandr Ford's Knights of the Teutonic Order. Did anyone ever have a chance to look at this?

Doesn't look good. Hopefully, the small images give the answer. I haven't seen Second Run's disc, but if there still any question about it, I can risk tracking it down.

EDIT: Some googling seems to show its the same transfer, albeit Second Run may have done more work with it, and certainly has better subtitles.

Cold Bishop wrote:The combing would support this idea, but, especially considering the alternatives, it didn't bother me too much. But if there is a PAL out their, its definitely the way to go. Is it only available in the boxset?

There is a separate release, but it doesn't seem to have English subtitles, and it dates from 2004 - i.e. earlier than the Second Run disc. I'm also not sure that the box set has been released yet - I posted details of four boxes here, but I can only find the first two on sale.

Cold Bishop wrote:Some googling seems to show its the same transfer, albeit Second Run may have done more work with it, and certainly has better subtitles.

It sounds to me like exactly the same transfer (in that it seems to have identical problems), though Second Run's subtitles should at least be in sync!

Worryingly, rumours that no decent materials survive may well be true - this film is one of the all-time blockbusters in Polish cinema history, and it's hard to believe that a Polish label at least wouldn't have produced a glorious restoration by now.

davidhare wrote:Michael, a propos these, no-one has ever answered my long standing query about Faraon/Pharoah - do any first gen elements survive for this at all?

DVD Savant reviews The Future of Emily (The Helma Sanders-Brahms Collection)

Not that it is an extremely important film; but it is apparently one of the very few good transfers from Facets:

Facets' DVD of The Future of Emily contains a beautifully mastered enhanced transfer with excellent color. Jürgen Knieper's music score is flattered by the clean audio track. The English subtitles are removable.

Maybe they just did a PAL to NTSC conversion from a good European transfer, though.

Does anyone have the Facets boxes of the films of Johan Van der Keuken, and can speak to their quality? Remarkable that they have two, but I'd like to hear something about them before plunking $70 on each of them.

Adam wrote:Does anyone have the Facets boxes of the films of Johan Van der Keuken, and can speak to their quality? Remarkable that they have two, but I'd like to hear something about them before plunking $70 on each of them.

They've released volumes 1-3. I have the first two discs of volume 3 coming in the mail from netflix, but I have heard good things about the Facets discs. The Arte editions were NTSC so they probably could have just ported them.

Cool. I've only seen 1 & 2. Ports seem likely. Let me know how they look to you when you get them.
Let me clarify - seen the boxes from the exterior in a store, not viewed the discs.

Apparently, Savant reviewed the second volume of Johan Van Der Keuken Complete Collection. He seems to be happy with the video and audio quality.

zone_resident wrote:Apparently, Savant reviewed the second volume of Johan Van Der Keuken Complete Collection. He seems to be happy with the video and audio quality

Thanks!
Hmm, neither DVD Planet nor Deep Discount carry vol. 2 any more. Must look further.

Adam wrote:

zone_resident wrote:Apparently, Savant reviewed the second volume of Johan Van Der Keuken Complete Collection. He seems to be happy with the video and audio quality

Hmm, neither DVD Planet nor Deep Discount carry vol. 2 any more. Must look further.

DVD Pacific has Vol. 2 for around $50. Almost the same as what Deep Discount asks for Vol. 1.

Thank you for doing all this work for me!

Well, maybe Facets hasn't released Volume 3. The discs I got from Netflix are from Arte.

Regardless, they look pretty good, but can't confirm what Facets look like.

Cabiria21 wrote:Well, maybe Facets hasn't released Volume 3. The discs I got from Netflix are from Arte.

They did. It is listed on the Facets' web site; and it appears as "in stock" at Amazon, DD and DVD Pacific.

Beaver on All My Good Countrymen.

Gary Tooze wrote:I guess the bottom line is that it is flawed but a notch above what I have seen from Facets in the past. It is watchable although not in pristine form - both the transfer and the source have some weaknesses. It looks like a high-end VHS port to digital.

I'll probably pick this up during the next Planet/DDD sale.

Not wishing to wait until Nov. for the DDD sale, I got All My Good Countrymen from Netflix. While the image is undoubtedly several notches above Facets' usual standards, the subtitling is terrible. Aside from being non-removable and in an ugly font (albeit admittedly not as ugly as the font they've used on previous Czech releases), they miss a lot of dialogue.

Moreover, the subs are typo-ridden. This example isn't verbatim, but at one point the character talks about leaves falling off the aspen trees, which the subs misspell "leaver falling off the apen trees."

That said, the film is beautiful and well worth watching. You don't need to pick up all the dialogue to follow the story, and I'm guessing that the film must have influenced later filmmakers from the region, including Kusturica. I'm pissed about the subs b/c they're an indication that Facets is still doing lazy work and have yet to put together a single complete high-quality dvd package, but this film is so good that it didn't matter anyway.

jbeall wrote:Not wishing to wait until Nov. for the DDD sale, I got All My Good Countrymen from Netflix. While the image is undoubtedly several notches above Facets' usual standards, the subtitling is terrible. Aside from being non-removable and in an ugly font (albeit admittedly not as ugly as the font they've used on previous Czech releases), they miss a lot of dialogue.

Moreover, the subs are typo-ridden. This example isn't verbatim, but at one point the character talks about leaves falling off the aspen trees, which the subs misspell "leaver falling off the apen trees."

This is a consistent problem with Facets from what I've seen, and many reviewers and others who comment on their discs are so focused on picture quality that the problem is seldom mentioned. It's not just that there are so many typos, which are extremely distracting; it's also that the translations are often so awkward that it makes all the characters come across like irritating nitwits, or it simply makes it impossible to understand the meaning of the dialog.
Here are a few examples from Letters in the Wind, which I watched recently:

Don’t be so clumsy or everybody would deny your rights. The world’s a traitor. Yes I was telling… What a never you have!

They’ve made us run in the snow since. Morning and now I can’t get out this gun. I’m so nervous I want to bead them and make them shut their mouth.

Those weren't even the worst examples, but they're representative of what pretty much the whole translation is like, as with a lot of other Facets discs I've seen. Fortunately, some are a cut above this.

The subtitles on Capricious Summer are barely coherent, clearly done by someone with a very rough command of English.

Hi,

Does anyone know what is the picture quality of Facets releases of these Jerzy Kawalerowicz films: Cellulose, Death of the President (I think this one one is full frame while originally Widescreen), Shadow and Under the Phrygian Star.

Thanks.

Can anyone comment on the quality of their edition of The Lady with the Dog?

Cabiria21 wrote:Well, maybe Facets hasn't released Volume 3. The discs I got from Netflix are from Arte.

Regardless, they look pretty good, but can't confirm what Facets look like.

Facets now lists vol 3, 4, and 5 all coming soon (or out)!