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I suspect My Best Fiend was made far too long after the "early Herzog" cut-off date.

And of course the BFI may not have the rights.

matrixschmatrix wrote:What do you mean? Herzog is the director on My Best Fiend.

Damn, you're right. Oops... For some reason, I had thought it was a third person production.

Amazon UK listing says the BD set will be 7 discs and will include Burden of Dreams. I wonder if anything should be made of all the blank spots in the "contents" section.

I suspect a Microsoft Word formatting cockup.

Anyone who preordered at MovieMail may want to switch over to Amazon, who are offering the BD set for a hair under £50.

swo17 wrote:Anyone who preordered at MovieMail may want to switch over to Amazon, who are offering the BD set for a hair under £50.

Thanks for the heads up!

With VAT removed and shipping to California added in, the final price is £44.45.

The specs on Amazon only mention alternative German and English versions for Nosferatu. (I realize this is referring to two distinct cuts of the film, not just to the audio options.) Will Aguirre include both the German and English dubs? I think I actually prefer the latter for this film.

Thank you for the heads-up, Swo17. I pre-ordered it on Amazon. Looks like an amazing deal!

Is this the right listing? It says [DVD] at the end, but blu-ray in the title. Just want to make sure this is the one you guys are ordering.

That's the one. If you want to pay £10 more, here's the DVD set.

These two steelbooks look so gorgeous that I really want to order them too. Pre-ordered the box set for now. Thanks Swo17.

swo17 wrote:That's the one. If you want to pay £10 more, here's the DVD set.

7 DVDs for at least 18 (including Burden of Dreams) films? Is that even possible?

The first three films are quite short. Several others are midlength (40-60 minutes). In total, I think it's about 24 hours worth of film, or about 3-1/2 hours per disc, which is doable.

chatterjees wrote:These two steelbooks look so gorgeous that I really want to order them too.

I'll probably end up getting them as well (edit: just pre-ordered the lot; at least Aguirre & Nosferatu will be watched before the big set arrives and I can get down to business on everything else). Hard to pass up nice looking editions of two of my all time favorite films. Besides, I've double dipped on worse.

Also has anyone compared the titles Shout announced and what's in the BFI box? Looking up the press release, Shout's got at least Little Dieter, Lessons of Darkness, and Ballad of a Little Soldier. Wonder what other discrepancies there'll be (Signs of Life hopefully).

I ordered the Nosferatu Steelbook, my first ever, and the price couldn't be more right. 11.13 Pounds after the removal of the VAT.

Anthony Thorne wrote:Would be nice if the Anchor Bay commentary tracks with Herzog could be brought over but I'm not optimistic we'll see them.

Amazon says "Full-length audio commentaries with Werner Herzog on selected titles"

The Aguirre Steelbook listing has Fata Morgana, Precautions Against Fanatics, and Unprecedented Defense... as being included on the disc (but no mention of the dubs).

I'm making an effort to check out Herzog's filmography upon these restorations of his films. I watched Aguirre, The Wrath of God for the first time today, which I really liked. The mood Herzog creates is remarkably haunting, and the chanting sounds of the subtle score are brilliantly also brilliantly used to help convey this mood.

One of the things I found most fascinating is learning about the working conditions under which Herzog made the film, shot very cheaply and consisting of a crew of approximately ten members. It's even more amazing that the film was shot on location on the Amazon River; the results are simply astounding.

Side Note: I wonder how Shout! Factory's release of Herzog's films will compare with the BFI's. I must admit that I am very tempted to import the BFI upon its release.

criterion10 wrote:I'm making an effort to check out Herzog's filmography upon these restorations of his films. I watched Aguirre, The Wrath of God for the first time today, which I really liked. The mood Herzog creates is remarkably haunting, and the chanting sounds of the subtle score are brilliantly also brilliantly used to help convey this mood.

If you haven't already, definitely check out Popol Vuh, who scored many of Herozg's films. There's even a box set of those soundtracks available. They have some great albums outside of their work for Herzog, as well.

Drucker wrote:If you haven't already, definitely check out Popol Vuh, who scored many of Herozg's films. There's even a box set of those soundtracks available. They have some great albums outside of their work for Herzog, as well.

Thanks for the information. I'm a Herzog novice (in addition to Aguirre, I've only seen Rescue Dawn and Bad Lieutenant), but I plan to retrospect his work in the near future, and will probably check out those soundtracks upon doing so.

Scream/Shout Factory have detailed their Herzog Nosferatu U.S. release and they included two audio commentaries. I hope that BFI adds at least one commentary to their release.

I saw that earlier today on Blu-Ray.com. While the steelbook BFI edition does look tempting, I think I'll end up going with the more extensive special feature edition that Shout! has to offer, assuming that the transfers are similar of course.

A quote from someone who's been dead almost thirty years proclaiming the director in question is the most important alive

That's actually a very good cover. No major complains (although as Domino pointed out, the Truffaut quote is a bit out of place, considering when it was originally said).