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Thanks Michael. I was hoping The Calm might be in HD but I assume only an SD source is available?

We've made extensive enquiries, and what we've been offered is what was available.

Final specs:

• 4K restoration of all ten episodes, presented in their original broadcast aspect ratios
• Original Polish mono soundtrack (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays), with optional English subtitles
• Pedestrian Subway (1973, 29 mins, HD), Kieślowski’s professional fiction debut, about a man trying to repair a failed marriage
• First Love (1974, 52 mins, SD), a docudrama about a teenage couple coping with an unwanted pregnancy
• Personnel (1975, 67 mins, SD), Kieślowski’s first feature-length fiction film, a partly autobiographical piece about a Warsaw theatre company
• The Calm (1976, 82 mins, SD), one of Kieślowski’s most powerful early films, about a man rebuilding his life in mid-70s Poland after a short prison sentence
• Short Working Day (1981, 73 mins, HD), Kieślowski’s study of a political strike, controversially told from the viewpoint of a Communist functionary trying to keep order
• Still Alive (2007), an affectionate 82-minute portrait of the director by his former student Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz, including interviews with dozens of friends and colleagues
• The Guardian Interview: Krzysztof Kieślowski (93 mins), an onstage conversation with Derek Malcolm at London’s National Film Theatre on 2 April 1990 to mark the British premiere of Dekalog
• Dekalog: An Appreciation (78 mins), in which critic Tony Rayns, a Kieślowski champion for many decades, pays tribute to his masterpiece
• KKTV (75 mins), Polish cinema expert Michael Brooke explores Kieślowski’s small-screen output in the context of his work as a whole
• 128-page collector’s book featuring a lengthy essay on Dekalog and Kieślowski by Father Marek Lis, plus Kieślowski’s own intensely self-critical discussion of all the films in this set and Stanley Kubrick’s famous eulogy to Kieślowski and co-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz

I sure hope this makes it before the year's end, because my mouth is watering.

I mean, other than that Arrow has had about a 66% box set delay rate, is there anything to indicate this won't make it out next month? I have a feeling this was dated in October keeping in mind some snafu could push it back six weeks and it'd still be out in the Holiday frame (unlike Rivette last year)

It's all on schedule, and we're not anticipating any problems.

(Famous last words...)

Wow, so if the art is right, Arrow have spread the series over all five Blu-rays, compared to Criterion's two. Not, of course, that I think there will be any huge difference, but I was just stunned that Criterion compressed the main series so much, especially when the supplements seem less compressed (if DVD Beaver's info on the third and fourth disc is anything to go by) by comparison, despite being supplements. My desire would always be to devote the maximum space possible to the main content, and then use more compression on whatever supplements I chose. So I was surprised that Criterion didn't go for at least 2 1/2 discs (1-4, 5-8, 9-10) with the two other films on the other 1 1/2, with the extras compressed to the last half of the fourth disc.

Even with Arrow's more significant extras, this should make for an interesting image comparison. I know bitrates are far from everything, but I've often found that 4K film sources do look slightly richer at higher Blu-ray bitrates (e.g. the Sony Japan barebones "Mastered in 4K" 2 BD set of Lawrence of Arabia), though this is just my layman's opinion.

There are indeed two episodes per disc - it seemed the most logical way of going about it, given that ten doesn't divide very neatly. (Twelve episodes would have been much more straightforward!).

So the formula is essentially:

- Two Dekalog episodes at a high bitrate;
- A single TV work at a lower bitrate;
- An extra at the lowest bitrate.

...and that way Dekalog itself should derive the maximum possible benefit.

Incidentally, please don't have inflated expectations about the presentation of the five other TV works - Arrow could only make use of what was available, and what was available sometimes wasn't especially great. As with I vampiri (on Black Sunday), Trapped in Lust (on Branded to Kill) and The Seven Minutes (on Beyond the Valley of the Dolls), they're being included for extreme rarity value rather than AV demonstration material, although at least upscaling them will mean that the subtitles can be nice and sharp.

Is there anything on the DVD's that is not included on the five Blu-Ray's?

MichaelB wrote:There are indeed two episodes per disc - it seemed the most logical way of going about it, given that ten doesn't divide very neatly. (Twelve episodes would have been much more straightforward!).

So the formula is essentially:

- Two Dekalog episodes at a high bitrate;
- A single TV work at a lower bitrate;
- An extra at the lowest bitrate.

...and that way Dekalog itself should derive the maximum possible benefit.

Excellent. This, along with the native frame rate, should make the Arrow release indispensable.

MichaelB wrote:Incidentally, please don't have inflated expectations about the presentation of the five other TV works...although at least upscaling them will mean that the subtitles can be nice and sharp.

My thoughts exactly. I much prefer HD subtitles over SD ones. The difference can be jarring if you've watched several Blu-rays, and then have to switch to an SD extra, or an older DVD with an otherwise acceptable SD presentation, so I'm all for HD upscaling where at all possible.

McCrutchy wrote:Wow, so if the art is right, Arrow have spread the series over all five Blu-rays, compared to Criterion's two. Not, of course, that I think there will be any huge difference, but I was just stunned that Criterion compressed the main series so much, especially when the supplements seem less compressed (if DVD Beaver's info on the third and fourth disc is anything to go by) by comparison, despite being supplements. My desire would always be to devote the maximum space possible to the main content, and then use more compression on whatever supplements I chose. So I was surprised that Criterion didn't go for at least 2 1/2 discs (1-4, 5-8, 9-10) with the two other films on the other 1 1/2, with the extras compressed to the last half of the fourth disc.

My own idea about how it could have been configured was: 1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-10 with Killing and Love on the second and third discs (to correspond with their episodes) and then the supplements spread throughout the discs.

Really Criterion needed another disc and it's a bit of a cheat to have done it the way they did - I think doing 1-3, 4-6, Killing/Love, 7-8, and 9-10, with most of the supplements on the final two discs, would have probably been the best solution overall. Arrow's will almost definitely nearly double the bitrate and look considerably better, but for some strange reason I still feel the compulsion to own both rather than just the Arrow one that's pretty clearly the better set (it was looking that way before today, but I think the MichaelB video essay absolutely pushes it over the edge beyond any argument), probably as Dekalog was one of my dream Criterion releases since I've started caring about movies to begin with and I just really want to support it. But I'm glad Arrow are doing what they can to do it right if Criterion isn't quite managing it perfectly.

As good as Criterion/Janus' trailer for their release of Dekalog was, Arrow's really blows it out of the water. Absolutely sensational!

Our very own Peerpee takes the credit for that one - and he also designed the 128-page book.

And he was an absolute joy to work with on that - I've generally been very lucky with the designers I've worked with over the years, but it's (unsurprisingly) very rare indeed to have one who so deeply understands the work under discussion at a really fundamental level.

Aw, thanks very much Michael. Likewise, was great to finally work closely with you and the Arrow folk on something – and I'm very honoured to work on a project as special as this.

You've done quite well in terms of very special projects this year!

The Arrow version of Dekalog is scheduled to release a week from today. I have not seen any reviews or comparisons yet. Any information?

There's a lot to get through, and it's unlikely anyone will have received review copies just yet. But I'm happy to confirm that the discs and book have all been signed off.

Pushed to October 31.

How can this be pushed if it was shipped according to Arrow's site, about a week ago?

dda1996a wrote:How can this be pushed if it was shipped according to Arrow's site, about a week ago?

Did you happen to order anything else at the same time? There's a glitch that's been popping up where it says all items in an order have dispatched when only one or two actually have. Dekalog still says "Stock on order" so I'd be surprised if anyones was dispatched until it says "In Stock".

Sadly I did... I also ordered The Killing during the sale. Does that mean they shipped the killing already?

dda1996a wrote:How can this be pushed if it was shipped according to Arrow's site, about a week ago?

It wasn't. I've no idea what was going on with the shipping notice, but it's a logistical impossibility for Dekalog to have been shipped a week ago as the DVDs were still being signed off back then.

It appears, for some strange reason, orders with Dekalog in (possibly as they were anticipating a delay?) shipped everything else available in each order. My order of 2 titles plus pre-orders for Dekalog and Burnt Offerings came with just the two previously available titles on Tuesday. I assume Burnt Offerings won't ship until Dekalog is ready, though.

Yep. Got my other discs, which I pretty much guessed after Michael's post in response to everyone's shipment confirmations.