criterionforum.org

MichaelB wrote:

Mr Finch wrote:Have AE corrected their misspelling of Kieslowski's name on the release artwork?

Hmmm. On the front cover they get it right - i.e. 'Krzysztof Kieślowski' - but on the back the diacritic has migrated to the second 's' ('Kieslowśki'), and their concern for Polish orthography only extends as far as his name, because Sławomir Idziak is rendered as plain 'Slawomir'.

They also leave off the acute accent on 'Véronique' and spell 'unconsciously' as 'unconciously', though the most visible proofing cock-up is the made-up word 'Magicial', which unfortunately is on the top left of the front cover in fairly large type.

Don't mean to stick the boot in, but they also have Jacob as "utterley captivating" in the blurb. Hey, at least it's a region-free BD and looks great!

peerpee wrote:Don't mean to stick the boot in

He said, shrugging like an Intermilan centre back still grinding his heel into eye socket of prone convulsing victim.

Has anyone else had customer service problems with Artifical Eye these days? I've always had a hard time getting replies to emails from them, but I called them today to ask for replacements of three titles of theirs that I've received with manufacturing defects and was told they can't do anything about it! Their only suggestion was to talk to whoever I purchased the discs from. Not much help when the titles have been on the kevyip for more than a few weeks! What makes it all the more frustrating is that they were fine in the past and every other label that I've had to get in touch with over the years when this has happened has always been really helpful.

If they really are manufacturing defects (faulty pressings?), then they should do something about it, especially if you're in the UK.

The Digital McGuffin wrote:Has anyone else had customer service problems with Artifical Eye these days? I've always had a hard time getting replies to emails from them, but I called them today to ask for replacements of three titles of theirs that I've received with manufacturing defects and was told they can't do anything about it! Their only suggestion was to talk to whoever I purchased the discs from. Not much help when the titles have been on the kevyip for more than a few weeks! What makes it all the more frustrating is that they were fine in the past and every other label that I've had to get in touch with over the years when this has happened has always been really helpful.

I've had precisely the same problem in the past. They are one of the least customer-friendly labels on the market. I've never had an email replied to - which was very frustrating trying to find out if the Bela Tarr Collection carried the same master of Werckmeister Harmonies, among other queries - and the one time I've called them was about a faulty disc and was given the same advice. It's a shame that they take this route in dealing with their customers; Tartan were very much the same when I've contacted them in the past.

It's little comfort, but at least they're prices fall into the budget-line within a matter of months, so re-buying the dvd cut-price isn't quite as frustrating as it could be.

I had a similar experience with Arthaus in Germany. One of the DVDs I bought of their label was listed as having German subs both on the box and on their website, but my disk didn't have any. I e-mailed them (in German naturally) asking if I had received a faulty disk. I never received a reply but in less than 24 hours their website had been amended to no longer list German subs.

Shame every company can't be like MoC or Raro who are very customer friendly.

Has anyone else had an opportunity to view the newly released Kitano Takeshis' disc? It appears that throughout the film there is a slight stutter in the image that happens on and off. It's not terribly noticeable I suppose if one isn't paying close attention. It's almost as if a frame or two were removed from the film. Has anyone else noticed this?

peerpee wrote:If they really are manufacturing defects (faulty pressings?), then they should do something about it, especially if you're in the UK.

They said that they've not had any faults reported on these particular titles before but they are definately from manufacture - a bubble between layers on one, a strange wrinkle beneath the surface on another. Even more frustrating is that all of them are from boxsets (including the rather chunky Essential Hanneke boxset), so a rebuy would still be rather pricey.

Theo Angelopoulos' The Beekeeper coming from AE in June

EDIT: As are Pavel Lounguine's The Island
The Essential Claude Chabrol Vol. 2
A re-release of Samira Makhmalbaf's The Apple
Rohmer's Moral Tales
Mia Hansen-Love's The Father of my Children

And Sergei Paradjanov's Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors

Just noticed that "Antichrist" is ART666.... seems no one else caught this, but it is appropriate i guess.

bigP wrote:The Essential Claude Chabrol Vol. 2

This is a big deal for UK consumers as the Color of Lies never even got British theatrical distribution, making this its debut anywhere in the country. And the transfer couldn't possibly be worse than the Kino. It's a great film, but the Story of Women is awful and Masques an amusing trifle-- none of the three films even remotely compliment each other

Whoops http://www.artificial-eye.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; gone.
Raising hopes for an optimist that they might finally be launching a decent web site elsewhere?
But the real reason is probably more prosaic...

Very positive review of the Fish Tank blu-ray.
Looks to be region-free.
Just a pity that Wasp does not seem to have had an HD makeover.

bigP wrote:Theo Angelopoulos' The Beekeeper coming from AE in June

Very, very glad to see this but it does once again compel the question of whatever the hell happened to the rest of the New Star DVDs. I remember seeing cover images for the Angelopoulos titles they had not yet released but as far as I know they never got released. Wonder if they ran into money trouble or something.

Raising hopes for an optimist that they might finally be launching a decent web site elsewhere?

It's up again and running.

DVD Times on the excellent AE Blu-ray.

charulata wrote:Just a pity that Wasp does not seem to have had an HD makeover.

Just a pity that Wasp hasn't been incinerated, sealed inside a lead canister and fired into space

John Cope wrote:I remember seeing cover images for the Angelopoulos titles they had not yet released but as far as I know they never got released. Wonder if they ran into money trouble or something.

It might have been due to something as prosaic as a change of management - the old Artificial Eye (which I think was still around when the Angelopoulos titles were announced) is now effectively New Wave Films.

Nothing wrote:

charulata wrote:Just a pity that Wasp does not seem to have had an HD makeover.

Just a pity that Wasp hasn't been incinerated, sealed inside a lead canister and fired into space

With or without Ms Arnold?

AE have bought the rights for Todd Solondz' new film Life During Wartime: theatrical release end of this month, DVD probably in September or October.

MichaelB wrote:the old Artificial Eye is now effectively New Wave Films.

Well, in a sense... The old Artificial Eye - Artificial Eye in its heyday - was Andi Engel, RIP.

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:With or without Ms Arnold?

Ah, they'd just create another one.

The Alain Resnais Collection in June. It contains "I Want to go Home", "Life is a Bed of Roses", "Love Unto Death" and "Melo".

Hopefully with better transfers than the Kinos

I believe the Kino Resnais discs are simply NTSC conversions of the French MK2 discs of the same films, which also have English subtitles. Most likely Artificial Eye would be using those same transfers, but in their native PAL format.

The French disc of Mon oncle d'Amerique that is part of the same MK2 Resnais set is a BIG improvement over the New Yorker R1 disc, as I'm sure has been mentioned elsewhere on this board.