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What A Disgrace wrote:Ashik Kerib is coming

Based on precedent, this will almost certainly be the PAL Ruscico edition.

Which is no bad thing - it's one of the best Paradjanov transfers out there, and I wasn't even bothered by the 5.1 remix (given that the sound is entirely non-diegetic and heavily music-based).

MichaelB wrote:Based on precedent, this will almost certainly be the PAL Ruscico edition.

Which is no bad thing - it's one of the best Paradjanov transfers out there, and I wasn't even bothered by the 5.1 remix (given that the sound is entirely non-diegetic and heavily music-based).

It's more than just that, one of the tracks has the original Azerbaijani dialogue without the Georgian-language voiceover that the Georgia Film Studio imposed on the film. So the Ruscico mix is altogether different from what has been available until now. Personally I like it better, though I never minded the Georgian overdub--it also worked in its own odd way.

Apparently, Paradjanov had initially wanted to make the film in Persian, in keeping with its "Orientalist" aesthetic, but practical considerations made him switch to Azerbaijani.

I agree, the Ruscico transfer looks beautiful, though the film itself has the weakest photography of all of Paradjanov's major works. (Quite a few awkward pans and zooms.)

Wonder of wonders, just received email notification that my Histoire(s) has shipped.

I received my copy of Histoire(s) du cinéma today. The episodes are spread over three discs as follows:
Disc 1: 1a, 1b
Disc 2: 2a, 2b, 3a, 3c
Disc 3: 4a, 4b

I've just watched episode 1a, and can report that the subtitles translate a great deal, not only Godard's voiceover, but also most of the intertitles, and many of the French soundtrack excerpts. I haven't seen the French disc, but from what Gary reports at the Beaver, it seems that the AE subs are more complete.

Significant extras?

I'm crossing my fingers for a filmography

Domino you've used that joke before!
If the subs are solid my day has been made.

Is that a cyber Rimbaud in your avatar?

As long as there is no significant extra - i see no reason to double dip here. All the necessary translations have been published long ago - and for those who want the detailed info they can (again and again) go here http://cri-image.univ-paris1.fr/celine/celine.html

The visual score is a treasure and a great reference for sure, but I'm certainly glad I waited for the AE version. It's a bummer if they couldn't also include & subtitle 2x50 Years of French Cinema and the Cannes press conferences, though.

accatone wrote:Significant extras?

None whatsoever - unless there's an easter egg I haven't found! The discs come in thinpacks with some quotes from Godard about each episode (from the Cannes press conference?) on the back, and inside each one there's a quote from an interview with Serge Daney. That's it. Might the absence of Deux fois cinquante ans de cinéma français be because as a BFI production they hold the rights?

The Scemama schema is very useful, but for episode 1a it stops at 24’37. The episode is 51 minutes. Does anyone have it for the second half?

DVD Times on Histoire(s) du Cinéma.

Thanks Michael!

No need to double dip (for me)!

ps: and Dominos dreams came through…

Oddly, my Histoire(s) DVD (disc one) freezes up on my DVD player just a minute or so in. It works fine in my computer's DVD player, and there aren't any marks on the disc (and it was seated correctly on its disc hub when I received it). I've tried turning the player off and so forth but the freeze happens in roughly the same place (but not on the exact same frame) each time. It's the Philips DVP642, in case anyone else has that player and wanted to report their findings. Very strange; first time I've had a problem specific to one DVD player. Maybe the laser's starting to go bad.

You could try a DVD lens cleaning disc - dust may have built on the lens surface impeding its ability to read discs...

Don't worry Oedipax I have had a similar experience. My R2 set of the Granada Sherlock Holmes Box set has problems with freezing on 2 discs in 4 places. This only happens on my Toshiba player and nowhere else. The only other glitch is with my two R1 DVDs from Dreamquest with these the subs freeze once [SILENCE & CRY] and thrice [THE WITNESS] once again it is only on my Toshiba and on nothing else. Conclusion: the discs are fine but the particular player has a subtle 'reaction' to rare electronic transfer points.

December 8 will bring the following:

Time and Winds (Reha Erdam, Turkey, 2006)
The Banishment (Andrei Zvyagintsev, Russia, 2007)
The Dardenne Brothers Collection
The Legend of the Suram Fortress

I've had a very quick spin through Artificial Eye's debut Blu-ray, Hidden, and it looked absolutely fine.

Given that the film was shot on HD to begin with, one wouldn't expect any major transfer issues, and on the basis of the scenes I watched I couldn't see anything that would give any cause for complaint - screen size aside, it looked damn near identical to what I saw projected digitally in the cinema, which is exactly as one would hope.

I was struck by the size of the subtitles, though - they're perfectly readable and very sharp, but they're also very small indeed: so much so that I suspect you really need to watch this disc on a screen at least 40" or above. This isn't a complaint by any means, but I thought it was worth noting.

Any idea whether it's region coded?

I don't know how to tell from the disc itself (can the PS3 identify the region code?), but the box artwork explicitly says ABC.

What A Disgrace wrote:December 8 will bring the following:
The Banishment (Andrei Zvyagintsev, Russia, 2007)

You made my day!!! The french dvd is quite expensive with the ](*,) shipping fees...

Can we expect a Blu-ray edition of the banishment?

Rohmer's THE ROMANCE OF ASTREA AND CELADON comes to AE DVD on Jan 12, 2009...

MichaelB wrote:I don't know how to tell from the disc itself ...

Neither do I! :)

MichaelB wrote: ...but the box artwork explicitly says ABC.

That sounds like good news. Thanks.

Has anyone bought the Zatoichi Blu-Ray?

Ashes of Time Redux SD DVD and BR due on 26th of January 09, according to Amazon - anyone know when Sony plan to bring this out in the US?

Hail_Cesar wrote:

What A Disgrace wrote:December 8 will bring the following:
The Banishment (Andrei Zvyagintsev, Russia, 2007)

You made my day!!! The french dvd is quite expensive with the ](*,) shipping fees...

Can we expect a Blu-ray edition of the banishment?

I’m really looking forward to seeing this, I absolutely love The Return. Might wait hold out an see if it gets the blu treatment.