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I just finally _bought_ the large-ish Ruiz DVD set.

A nice surprise this morning: I put the Arte set up for sale on Amazon, mostly as a lark, thinking I probably wouldn't get anything for it due to this announcement, but I managed to sell it within 12 hours of posting it and have now offset my costs for this box by a third! So, those with the existing set, there's still some people out there willing to pick it up for a reasonable price (less than I paid for it, sadly, but still more than I expected)

Now available for pre-order on Amazon, but I'm hoping this price will come down by about half. Currently it's £149.99.

criterionsnob wrote:Now available for pre-order on Amazon, but I'm hoping this price will come down by about half. Currently it's £149.99.

Order direct from Arrow: it's vastly cheaper, and your money is a far more direct vote for more of the same from them.

That's the RRP. Arrow's early-bird price (until September 8th) is half that amount.

The Rivette Arte set I have does not contain any of these films? Was there a set that did contain them (if so, I missed it).

He means the Arte/Absolut Medien Out 1, not the 6-film set of various '80s and '90s films.

Talking about the French 6-film set, the transfers of the films on that set are still so much superior to any other release of the same films I've seen from Germany or the UK. It's an awful shame that it came without any subs. I'm still surprised that individual dvd releases of relatively recent films - and most likely from the same masters - can look so much different in terms of image clarity. But the arte discs all have maxed-out bitrates as far as DVD9 allows, and probably that's the reason why they look considerably sharper than their equivalents. If you don't need subs, or if you know how to add them to a dvd, that arte set is definitely the far best way to see those films. It may be OOP now, though.

Sorry MK, I was referring to the German box of Out 1 and Spectre as swo surmised

I agree with Tomasso as to the virtues of that French Arte set, and would note that the French DVD of Celine and Julie may also be the best looking available version (albeit also unsubbed).

Didn't realize the German Out 1 set was Arte (just remembered the Absolut branding). Glad now I never got this.

Considering that the price of the upcoming Carlotta release of Out 1 no doubt will be about the same as what I paid for this one, all the extra films are just icing on the cake. I know that Carlotta won't have the book or the Fischer documentary so hats off to Arrow. I was wondering what I'd do with the points from the Yoshida set so I'm glad they announced this release so soon. For sixteen discs, paying $100 is quite reasonable. A pity they couldn't interview William Lubtchansky, of course.

I have to say I'm quite pleased with what Arrow selected. Duelle, Noroît, and Merry-Go-Round are three films that I've wanted to watch but haven't since I've been trying to research the ones that I own already. But these represent an era of Rivette in dire need of further evaluation so rather than a random selection it looks more like much appreciated curation. (Clearing the rights helped, of course.) I never thought I'd see a year with Yoshida let alone also Rivette. Not to mention all the other great releases from Arrow this year! In short, a major coup. Now all we need is someone to talk sense to Boris Eustache and get The Mother and the Whore released on blu.

This is a minor point, but I was wondering if anyone could answer this question from experience: I'm in the U.S., and have never ordered anything directly from Arrow before. On their store website you can change the price display between pounds, euros, and dollars; if I change the display to American dollars and order the set, will they charge me in American dollars, or will they still charge me in pounds? Some of my credit cards charge a fee for currency exchange, and I'm trying to figure out how best to place the order.

Raymond Marble wrote:This is a minor point, but I was wondering if anyone could answer this question from experience: I'm in the U.S., and have never ordered anything directly from Arrow before. On their store website you can change the price display between pounds, euros, and dollars; if I change the display to American dollars and order the set, will they charge me in American dollars, or will they still charge me in pounds? Some of my credit cards charge a fee for currency exchange, and I'm trying to figure out how best to place the order.

You're still likely to get the international charge. I think that view is merely for convenience.

They use Paypal, so it doesn't matter, they'll convert it for you sans fees

Just to clarify this is region free? I hope I can figure a way to get this as I'll be on the move until January.

Maybe you're looking for direct confirmation from Arrow, but it is region-free according to the listing on their site.

domino harvey wrote:They use Paypal, so it doesn't matter, they'll convert it for you sans fees

Unless you are paying with an American Express, in which case they charge in the native currency. Depending on the AmEx, there may be an extra 1-3% charge.

(I know this because I am in the US and ordered this set with my AmEx via PayPal, and when I chose the AmEx the currency changed from US Dollars to pounds. Also PayPal does include a currency conversion fee, the cost in US dollars for a Visa was $120-something and my AmEx equivalent charge was $116).

ANYWAY. Super excited for this.

I hate to clog up the thread with this, but will PayPal charge me now for preordering from Arrow's site or after the release date?

Now

Region-locked consumer (and hence, infrequent Arrow buyer) here... am I to understand there's going to be some sort of sale before the early-bird discount is up?

denti alligator wrote:Loved Celine and Julie. Haven't seen much else by Rivette. Worth jumping in with this?

I'll second this question. I haven't seen *anything* by Rivette, despite him being on my radar for quite some time now. As an admirer of Godard, Truffaut, and the French New Wave as a whole, this box set seems like an essential blind buy, however. Thoughts?

We are not throwing around endless superlatives because Rivette sucks. If by odd chance you hate it, you'd surely be able to make your money back reselling it

criterion10 wrote:

denti alligator wrote:Loved Celine and Julie. Haven't seen much else by Rivette. Worth jumping in with this?

I'll second this question. I haven't seen *anything* by Rivette, despite him being on my radar for quite some time now. As an admirer of Godard, Truffaut, and the French New Wave as a whole, this box set seems like an essential blind buy, however. Thoughts?

This release, of all the Rivette films currently available, probably represents the 'deep end' of Rivette, but come on in, the water's fine.

pzadvance wrote:Region-locked consumer (and hence, infrequent Arrow buyer) here... am I to understand there's going to be some sort of sale before the early-bird discount is up?

Kind of - generally Arrow does a sale the first week of every third month (March, June, September, December) and during the sale double reward points are offered, so if you were to wait to order this, for instance, you'd recieve 1500 points, or £15 in value (as opposed to 750 points/£7.50).

I can reasonably imagine them moving the sale back a week so the early bird discount expires before this bonus and Battles Without Honor...'s.

Ribs wrote:

pzadvance wrote:Region-locked consumer (and hence, infrequent Arrow buyer) here... am I to understand there's going to be some sort of sale before the early-bird discount is up?

Kind of - generally Arrow does a sale the first week of every third month (March, June, September, December) and during the sale double reward points are offered, so if you were to wait to order this, for instance, you'd recieve 1500 points, or £15 in value (as opposed to 750 points/£7.50).

I can reasonably imagine them moving the sale back a week so the early bird discount expires before this bonus and Battles Without Honor...'s.

And are these points only usable toward future purchases or can they be applied to the set you're purchasing?