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Irma Vep: This should be a great opportunity for those who wish to replace the dreadful Lorber R1 disc with a solid release (and could not benefit from the excellent French Assayas collection). UK street date is: March 31.

Pro-B

I have to assume that it is guaranteed not to carry the Lorber transfer. I can NOT see how a company could approve such a disaster at this point...unless they are called Facets.

Fortunately, the UK distrib isn't Facets.

Pro-B

This is fantastic news!

On checking the Play.com cover and the BBFC page, Second Sight will be releasing the DVD.

Very good news indeed. I'm pretty sure this will be the same transfer as on the French disc, as indeed no-one (and surely not Second Sight) would dare to release that Koch Lorber catastrophe to audiences nowadays. Not even Koch Lorber would. I hope this has some good extras...

I just noticed from that play.com page that Assayas's latest film Boarding Gate is getting a UK release earlier in March (the 10th compared to Vep's 31st) - it doesn't say whether that is also a Second Sight release though (strangely there doesn't seem to be any BBFC info available on it).

Edit: Details now up on Second Sight's site:

Special features
• Man Yuk – Portrait of Maggie Cheung
• Interview with Olivier Assayas / Charles Tesson
• Interview with Maggie Cheung / Nathalie Richard
• Maggie Cheung Rushes
• Trailer

I'm happy that this came out but I would definitely wait before purchasing it. Zeitgeist is restoring the film now for a theatrical re-release and I know for a fact that they already had Assayas come in to supervise their new DVD transfer. It's coming sometime later this year and it should be the definitive release.

DVD Times also reviewed the Frenc disc 2 years ago

The reviewer was rather satisfied with the video and audio quality on that occasion. But reviews made 2 years apart are probably not directly comparable...