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domino harvey wrote:A lot of MGM boxes, including their Bergman box

Concerning the Bergmans, that only leaves the individual releases of Persona and The Seprent's Egg in print. The Passion of Anna, Shame, and Hour of the Wolf are now OOP, so do you think this could open the door for potential Criterion releases? The MGM editions left a lot to be desired (non-anamorphic, lousy commentaries).

I think 'lousy' doesn't begin to describe those commentaries. Soul-destroying?

Given Criterion's relationship with Bergman, I'm sure they'll be chasing these titles like crazy if there's the slightest chance that MGM will let them go.

zedz wrote:I think 'lousy' doesn't begin to describe those commentaries. Soul-destroying?

Well, I guess I wouldn't know. I listened to about 5 minutes of the Persona commentary before shutting it off and never attempted another one.

You lucky, lucky man. I stuck through them as some kind of masochistic ritual ("surely it can't be all like this?" It was. But I did a shitload of ironing and completely reorganized my bookcases.)

I'm curious now, what makes them so bad?

Nah, you're not getting off so lightly. You're going to have to listen to one. At any rate, it's sort of hard to explain: they're not just your common or garden bad commentaries, they're terrible in their own special way that mixes unbelievable pretension, unbelievable vapidity and considerable creepiness.

I'll give you a slight sneak preview, knives. During the opening montage of Persona, when Bergman shows a spider in close-up, the guy says, "Oooh, a spider." And he says it in such a way that I could totally visualize him quivering with fear, as if reacting to a scary story for his children. I know that doesn't sound like much, but when I heard it, I literally went :-k #-o

That said, I did enjoy the interviews with Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson on that disc. Of course, it would be great to have them do a joint interview, or better yet, a commentary of their own.

Okay, that's hilarious. Next week if it's still at a reasonable price I have to buy these (I love the movies so why haven't I done that before?).

And there I was momentarily hesitating before buying the UK MGM Bergman box set for something like £8.99 because it didn't have the commentaries! I'm glad I took that particular plunge now.

Well the UK Bergman box is missing the supplements disc, and Persona, and also, here's a low blow: English Hard-Of-Hearing subtitles only.

[WIND], [COUGHING], [OMINOUS NOISE], [SILENCE], etc...

Wasn't the US MGM 'Persona' in the boxset horribly cropped though? The UK Tartan Region 0 edition had a much better picture.

manicsounds wrote:Well the UK Bergman box is missing the supplements disc, and Persona, and also, here's a low blow: English Hard-Of-Hearing subtitles only.

[WIND], [COUGHING], [OMINOUS NOISE], [SILENCE], etc...

Since I had the Tartan box, I didn't need Persona - and I spent a very happy morning downloading and editing my own HOH-free subtitle tracks (only needed for three of the films, since The Serpent's Egg was in English).

Granted, I might have felt justifiably miffed if I'd paid full price (at the time, the US box was going for over £50!), but for just over two quid a film I wasn't at all minded to complain.

Luckily I watched the new supplemental docs before cracking the commentaries and realized that the same dude who grated on my nerves pontificating on camera would be taking the UA four on solo. I did like his dark muted plaid shirts and nifty Hathaway wool ties though! The SERPENT'S EGG track was an engaging, totally personal and candid solo turn by David Carradine which I consider priceless. (I've worked with Carradine and he can be amazingly open regarding his misjudgements even without mind altering substances) The interviews with Ullman and Andersson were the best part of the non archival material. Impossible to ignore was the difference in their appearance. Bibi positively glowed with health and youthful vitality. She looked as if she hadn't aged at all since THE TOUCH or SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. Liv on the other hand was quite drab, pale and fatigued, looking a good 10-15 years older than her actual age.

I know it's probably somewhere else on the forum but could someone revisit the particulars of the OAR controversy with regard to the UAs, especially PERSONA.

MichaelB wrote:I know it's probably somewhere else on the forum but could someone revisit the particulars of the OAR controversy with regard to the UAs, especially PERSONA.

There's a page here on DVDBeaver with most of the information. It mentions nothing about 'Persona' being corrected though.

manicsounds wrote:Well the UK Bergman box is missing the supplements disc, and Persona, and also, here's a low blow: English Hard-Of-Hearing subtitles only.

[WIND], [COUGHING], [OMINOUS NOISE], [SILENCE], etc...

Oh, I do hope they differentiate between [SILENCE] and [GOD'S SILENCE]. Otherwise, what's the point?

[SOUNDS OF PROFOUND SHAME]
[INDISCERNIBLE SUFFERING]
[FAINT EXISTENTIAL ANGUISH]

[PERCEPTIBLE MEANING]

I just watched a Family Guy episode on the season 11 set, which had captions of [INDISTINCT HAPPY TALKING]... interesting one.

Anyway, NOT out of print is Arrow UK's "Funhouse" Blu-ray, it is just out of stock, and repressed editions will be region B instead of region free.

Probably a victim of the Sony DADC fire - I know Arrow were badly affected.

Artificial Eye's "Satyajit Ray: Volume 1", out of print?

See above - existing unsold stocks almost certainly fell victim to the Sony DADC fire, and I doubt it was top of the list for a repressing.

manicsounds wrote:Artificial Eye's "Satyajit Ray: Volume 1", out of print?

That sucker was on sale for very cheap on Amazon for a while, and I'm kicking myself for procrastinating on it (due to the mediocre image quality, although I doubt we'll see any better).

Seriously, even I was skeptical with the image quality and zero extras, but I went ahead and bought it, becoming one of my favorite boxsets and only in due to the quality of the 3 movies. Well, box 2 and 3 are still available...

The two Kino Noir boxes are listed as "discontinued" on their website.

Lionsgate just discontinued ALL of their Republic titles as of yesterday. I think Mike releases his weekly discontinued list on Sundays, which should include the titles in question.

We know that Criterion have been upgrading the Paramount titles to blu-ray and have plans for Harold and Maude, so they still seem to be on great terms with Paramount. It might require a separate licensing deal but they are totally going to be all over this. (if they haven't put together a deal already)