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Regarding the new, restired classic releases, do the DVDs also all have subtitles? I only can find reviews of the Blu-Rays and only know that the Went the Day well? DVD has subtitles. But what about Brighton Rock, The Cruel Sea, The Dam Busters, Ice Cold in Alex, The Lavender Hill Mob and Whisky Galore? Can anyone provide this information, a mail to them didn't yield a reply.

lubitsch wrote:Regarding the new, restired classic releases, do the DVDs also all have subtitles? I only can find reviews of the Blu-Rays and only know that the Went the Day well? DVD has subtitles. But what about Brighton Rock, The Cruel Sea, The Dam Busters, Ice Cold in Alex, The Lavender Hill Mob and Whisky Galore? Can anyone provide this information, a mail to them didn't yield a reply.

My Lavender and Whisky blus have english HoH subs so I don't see any reason why the DVDs shouldn't. Or are you looking for subs other than english?

UK discs of "The Conversation" DVD and Blu-ray reviews. Looks identical to the US disc, except for region coding and German language options.

Just watched "Quatermass And The Pit" and it was absolutely stellar in picture quality. Nothing like "Peeping Tom" or "Don't Look Now". Looked like 'film'. Although I must say, the PCM audio track is NOT the original mono. There are some added foley that are obvious, but not too distracting. Mostly mono, but very subtle stereo effects are there.

I haven't gone through the extras yet, but looking at reviews, they look stellar. One of the best discs of the year, easily.

manicsounds wrote:Just watched "Quatermass And The Pit" and it was absolutely stellar in picture quality. Nothing like "Peeping Tom" or "Don't Look Now". Looked like 'film'.

Peeping Tom very much looks like film. It looks gorgeous projected, with plenty of healthy grain and a type of depth which Don't Look Now clearly does not have. The former looks very good on a 120' screen; the latter looks poor. All of the talk about Peeping Tom lacking grain etc. is simply nonsense. I assume you don't have the disc. And if you are trying to compare Peeping Tom to Quatermass And The Pit, they simply cannot look the same - film or not.

I also assume that you don't have The English Patient, because you mentioned that it looks bad. On the contrary, Optimum's disc looks very, very good, nowhere near the Canadian release, and slightly better than the German release (better compression).

Who wrote the previous post? I can't tell if it's not signed!

Carol Reed's wonderful film An Outcast of the Islands on DVD in January. No Blu-Ray it seems, but great news anyway.

I actually have the Optimum BD of "Peeping Tom", and it's been discussed before, although I do see grain, it's quite minimal, and the skin of characters look very wax-like to me. It isn't distracting enough to take away from the content of the film, but it is definitely very different from the previous DVD.

Anyway, is Optimum getting rid of their name and changing it to Studio Canal in the UK? Or will they just be "Optimum, a Studio Canal company"?

Also "the English Patient", I don't have it. For that, I was just pointing out the BDDefinition review of the disc. I guess it is still worth it for the supplements, but I'll be holding out to see how the Lionsgate would be. I was not a fan of the film when I watched it in high school, but I might give it another shot sometime in the future.

manicsounds wrote:I actually have the Optimum BD of "Peeping Tom", and it's been discussed before, although I do see grain, it's quite minimal, and the skin of characters look very wax-like to me. It isn't distracting enough to take away from the content of the film, but it is definitely very different from the previous DVD.

With a high-quality scan you do not have to see a lot of grain, and I am unsure how you view your BDs, but I don't see the wax-like effect you mention. Granted there is some inherited softness which is obvious during selected frame transitions, and some noise reduction (Criterion territory), this isn't the DNR disaster as some have concluded. It is a very good transfer. In fact, the same people who thought that this transfer was destroyed by DNR also concluded that Breakfast at Tiffany's was DNR-ed. And Breakfast... happens to be one of this year's top catalog transfers.

manicsounds wrote:Anyway, is Optimum getting rid of their name and changing it to Studio Canal in the UK? Or will they just be "Optimum, a Studio Canal company"?

The new label that you would see on their releases will be StudioCanal. Same goes for Kinowelt in Germany.

manicsounds wrote: Also "the English Patient", I don't have it. For that, I was just pointing out the BDDefinition review of the disc. I guess it is still worth it for the supplements, but I'll be holding out to see how the Lionsgate would be. I was not a fan of the film when I watched it in high school, but I might give it another shot sometime in the future.

I will try to cover the disc ASAP. However, I've seen all three release: Canadian (poor), German, (good), and UK (very good). Projected on a 120' screen, the film looks excellent, and the UK disc is clearly the best of the bunch. (I also have a Czech disc with me).

I actually do agree that the "Breakfast At Tiffany's" disc is really good, stellar in fact. Oh well, to each his own....

Anyway, Pro-B since you are posting here, question about "The Conversation" UK vs US.

UK is in 1.85:1, US in 1.78:1, you posted that the US is cropped? Is it so? I thought that almost always the 1.78:1 is a little opened at the top and bottom compared to 1.85:1

Is this not the case for "The Conversation"?

manicsounds wrote:UK is in 1.85:1, US in 1.78:1, you posted that the US is cropped? Is it so? I thought that almost always the 1.78:1 is a little opened at the top and bottom compared to 1.85:1

Is this not the case for "The Conversation"?

Not necessarily - if the 35mm source was matted to a 1.85:1 picture, the only way you can arrive at a 1.78:1 picture is by cropping it very slightly at the sides.

But I have no idea if this is the case here, and would certainly need to see some evidence.

Unless it's from an open matte source, right? If the original source was filmed in 1.33:1 full, then it would be so. I'm not familiar with how "The Conversation" was filmed (and make fun of me if you will, I've never seen the actual movie!).

I know Warner Brothers always puts out 1.78:1 discs, since the DVD days. I don't think they've ever released a true 1.85:1 disc, even if it that was the OAR.

manicsounds wrote:Anyway, is Optimum getting rid of their name and changing it to Studio Canal in the UK? Or will they just be "Optimum, a Studio Canal company"?

Here's the press release from earlier in the year.

27.02.2012
Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
The Reptile (1966)
The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

The two Gilling films are phenomenal and some of the best that Hammer produced, particularly The Plague of the Zombies. I don't think it would be unfair of me to call Prince of Darkness Fisher's worst film though.

So, 4 titles of the Ultimate Hammer boxset have been bumped to HD.

According to Amazon.fr, The Grand Illusion and To Be or Not to Be will be released on 21st February 2012.

No specs as yet for LA GRANDE ILLUSION, may be it will be best to await the UK or US parallel BR edition from Studio Canal, with Eng subs...

My query to Studio Canal UK answered quickly: When will LA GRANDE ILLUSION be available on Blu Ray in UK/IRL with English subs?...

It will be available on Blu-Ray and the planned release date will be April the 12th.

Regards
StudioCanal

Specs to far to French edition -

Film remastérisé et restauré haute définition
Livret : photos et analyse du film (20 pages)
Introduction par Ginette Vincendeau (critique de cinéma)
Émission "Cinéma Cinémas" avec Françoise Giroud, scripte sur le film
Court métrage : "La petite marchande d'allumettes" de Jean Renoir (1928 - 40')
Bandes-annonces (présentation par Jean Renoir)
La découverte du nouveau négatif par la Cinémathèque de Toulouse

Hopefully the 2nd hand market price of the Critierion will rise a little by then to fund a free upgrade!

ellipsis7 wrote:My query to Studio Canal UK answered quickly: When will LA GRANDE ILLUSION be available on Blu Ray in UK/IRL with English subs?...

It will be available on Blu-Ray and the planned release date will be April the 12th.

Query them again about To Be or Not To Be.

triodelover wrote:Query them again about To Be or Not To Be.

Criterion should be releasing this one soon too.

swo17 wrote:

triodelover wrote:Query them again about To Be or Not To Be.

Criterion should be releasing this one soon too.

Based on?

This, plus it recently turned up on their Hulu channel. Also, because it's one of the best movies ever.

swo17 wrote:This, plus it recently turned up on their Hulu channel. Also, because it's one of the best movies ever.

See, we can agree about some films. \:D/