Has it ever been so good for us Brits?

[samdvd1]

When it comes to independent studios?

We currently have some real leaders in the pack including Third Window, Second Sight, Eureka, Arrow, Shameless, Artificial Eye, Soda Pictures and BFI. Also, we have some other great niche companies which are currently DVD only like Second Run.

I remember in the late 90s and early 00s, Anchor Bay and Tartan used to be strong independents, but that has changed obviously. Anchor Bay of the old days are long gone. It used to be that we had to go to R1 for cult films/foreign films 80% of the time, and I am really liking what I am seeing the last couple of years.

I honestly can't remember the last time we had it so good locally. Shame major studios are treating us poorly, cutting off extras left and right.

[ravenus]

^Good show, you Brits. Have a lot of interesting releases from the UK.

[mattyl149]

Don't forget New Wave/Verve Pictures who've put out great titles like Red Road and Once Upon A Time In Anatolia

[Ozu Teapot]

Yes we certainly have some great studios bringing us some great releases which is especially welcome at a time when, despite there supposedly being more choice, television seems to be providing much less in terms of world cinema, arthouse and experimental film. I definitely feel there was more exciting stuff to be found on TV in the 70s, 80s and early 90s.

The downside of being a Brit though is the current economic situation. Rising prices for energy, food and general cost of living vs. below inflation pay is making it very hard for me to keep up with all the titles I want!

[dylan32]

My first DVD player was chosen for multi region. Being a horror fan, I was just not interested in UK releases. Having pristine prints of cut and banned horror films rather than 5th generation bootleg VHS was a dream come true.

My collection was more 'special' back then, with all those lurid covers sporting anchor bay, elite, shriek show and italian shock logos, of films which felt 'forbidden'.

I still haven't taken the plunge to multi-zone bluray yet, as I just don't feel the need. It's only Criterion which attracts me these days (BU and Redemption being all-zone).

I've actually just ordered my first Criterion bluray so will have to switch at some point...

[kashif]

Yes I agree that this is the best time ever. We are getting here some great movies which are still not released in US. Specially foreign movies. I am glad that we can watch sensible cinema here on blu.

[kashif]

Originally Posted by mattyl149

Don't forget New Wave/Verve Pictures who've put out great titles like Red Road and Once Upon A Time In Anatolia

and 'Las Acacias' too. One of the finest movies I have ever seen.

[samdvd1]

Originally Posted by mattyl149

Don't forget New Wave/Verve Pictures who've put out great titles like Red Road and Once Upon A Time In Anatolia

Of course. Then there is also Park Circus and Peccadillo Pictures who both have their audiences.

[Kuros]

Since this is on the Blu-ray board for the UK, please change the thread title to: Has it ever been so fantastically shit for us Brits?

Or perhaps request that the thread be moved to the DVD board?

[dylan32]

Originally Posted by Kuros

Since this is on the Blu-ray board for the UK, please change the thread title to: Has it ever been so fantastically shit for us Brits?

Or perhaps request that the thread be moved to the DVD board?

What? Why?

[mattyl149]

Originally Posted by samdvd1

Of course. Then there is also Park Circus and Peccadillo Pictures who both have their audiences.

While Park Circus are mainly distributors, they did put some films out, but they don't seem to release anything now

They did release A Trip To The Moon, but on DVD only

While Peccadillo Pictures is not a label I really buy anything from, they did release Weekend and Heavenly Creatures, both titles I picked up

[mattyl149]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

It's not a case of "feeling", it's a simple statement of fact. Thirty years ago, you could pretty much guarantee at least two subtitled films per week on terrestrial telly (one on BBC2, the other on Channel 4) as a bare minimum. But when did either channel last show something that wasn't in English?

In particular, Channel 4's commitment to animation in general and challenging, adult-oriented animation in particular was so strong in the 1980s and 1990s that it became one of the industry's biggest players. Granted, I'm sure people like Mark Baker are making far more money on Peppa Pig than he ever did on the likes of The Hill Farm and The Village, but the Mark Bakers of the future will probably have to go straight into children's telly.



What a baffling comment. Did you actually read the thread before that little outburst?

With the BBC cutting back on it's daytime budget and showing repeats of Are You Being Served? and Keeping Up Appearances, daytime afternoon would be a great time to show some less well known films, even subtitled ones

[Judex]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

It's not a case of "feeling", it's a simple statement of fact. Thirty years ago, you could pretty much guarantee at least two subtitled films per week on terrestrial telly (one on BBC2, the other on Channel 4) as a bare minimum. But when did either channel last show something that wasn't in English?

[Show spoiler]
In particular, Channel 4's commitment to animation in general and challenging, adult-oriented animation in particular was so strong in the 1980s and 1990s that it became one of the industry's biggest players. Granted, I'm sure people like Mark Baker are making far more money on Peppa Pig than he ever did on the likes of The Hill Farm and The Village, but the Mark Bakers of the future will probably have to go straight into children's telly.



What a baffling comment. Did you actually read the thread before that little outburst?

BBC2 I'm not sure but a few weeks at least.
Channel 4 they've had one every week recently with the Indian Film Season. Even outside of that they seem to show one a week.
There's one on tomorrow at 00:55 Celluloid Man.

Saturday morning 1.20am their showing Once Upon A Time in Anatolia.

So Channel 4 still do broadcast none English films, just in the the stupid 00:30-4am slot.

[Buzz201]

Originally Posted by Judex

BBC2 I'm not sure but a few weeks at least.
Channel 4 they've had one every week recently with the Indian Film Season. Even outside of that they seem to show one a week.
There's one on tomorrow at 00:55 Celluloid Man.

Saturday morning 1.20am their showing Once Upon A Time in Anatolia.

So Channel 4 still do broadcast none English films, just in the the stupid 00:30-4am slot.

Channel 4 and Film4 show some of the bigger subtitled films (Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) in the 10/11:00pm slot, I imagine it would have been shown earlier if the first one didn't have an 18 certificate...

[rapta]

Originally Posted by kashif

and 'Las Acacias' too. One of the finest movies I have ever seen.

Also films like Dogtooth, Like Someone In Love, Nostalgia for the Light, Post Tenebras Lux, Short Term 12, Tabu...but most of all Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, which for me was a revelatory experience in the cinema (and I do have the BR but have not yet returned...still been savouring it all these years).

I'd also like to mention Dogwoof who have wandered into BR territory with the releases of Chasing Ice and Blackfish, but also have two titles coming up that I am looking forward to: The Act of Killing and Leviathan. Without those guys we'd sure have a lot less documentary (and a little less foreign titles).

Also, Mr. Bongo and Axiom Films should get a mention too

[aewb]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

When Eureka released The Murderer Lives at 21 earlier this year, it reminded me that BBC2 screened that in the mid-1980s on a Saturday afternoon - and I believe it was the UK premiere, since I couldn't find any evidence of a commercial release. (It was made in 1942, but we didn't discover Henri-Georges Clouzot's films until much later).

And that's why the 1980s was such a golden age - hand on heart, I can't think of a single TV channel right now, terrestrial or cable/satellite/digital, who'd do something like that. What struck me about that particular screening was that it wasn't of a recent film (and I suspect the overwhelming majority of subtitled screenings on terrestrial telly these days are of films made in the last few years), it wasn't even of a long-established classic, it was of a minor film by a future giant that had no prior reputation in the UK.

It's amazing to look at my dad's vhs collection and see what films were on tv in the 80's and 90's.

[Pooch]

Hi,

Originally Posted by MichaelB

Thirty years ago, you could pretty much guarantee at least two subtitled films per week on terrestrial telly (one on BBC2, the other on Channel 4) as a bare minimum. But when did either channel last show something that wasn't in English?

Actually, as others have pointed out, BBC2 and Channel 4 still show foreign titles quite regularly, but certainly not as regularly as they used to in the 1990's. But then, in the 1990's, most people didn't have hundreds of different TV channels to choose from, all fighting for your viewing pleasure. So the BBC and Channel 4 could buy the rights to foreign-language films, and be assured of reasonable ratings.

These days, many channels show something "foreign", ever since BBC4 had success with showing ENGRENAGES and FORBRYDELSEN on Saturday nights, and proved that their is a sizeable UK audience for non-English-language material.

Even ITV has dabbled in foreign-language TV shows, and who'd have thought that they, of all channels, would go near anything non-Hollywood, non-English-language?!

The problem for TV channels, is that most fans of foreign-language films and TV shows, now catch-up with such works elsewhere than the humble TV set. You can watch full-length foreign films on YouTube, for free, including stuff that has only just come out in certain countries, complete with English subtitles. You can buy a lot of foreign-language stuff on DVD and Blu-Ray, and can also import such stuff from other nations, also with English subs on many titles. So, most TV stations simply can't compete with that.

With that all said, I do miss the likes of BBC2 and Channel 4 not showing more foreign-language material on TV. Who can remember the giddy highs of FilmFour starting up, as a subscription channel, and being able to access rarely seen foreign-language seasons at prime-time each night of the week? You had Film Four, Film Four +1, Film Four World, and Film Four Extreme, all for £5-99 a month! It was manna from Heaven!

It was these two channels who introduced me to some of the greatest foreign-language works from around the globe, through the 1990's, so it's a crying shame that they no longer seem to care to continue that tradition on. But now, I know why they don't continue it.

Now look at Film4 today: the same old cack, that every other TV channel airs, with just the odd, occasional gem shown, and even that tends to be populist foreign-language titles that everyone has already seen lots and probably owns already on Blu-Ray anyway! No wonder foriegn-language fans stick to BBC4, Sky Arts 1 and 2, and even the likes of Fox for their foreign-language hits.


Pooch

[mattyl149]

Originally Posted by rapta

Also films like Dogtooth, Like Someone In Love, Nostalgia for the Light, Post Tenebras Lux, Short Term 12, Tabu...but most of all Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, which for me was a revelatory experience in the cinema (and I do have the BR but have not yet returned...still been savouring it all these years).

I'd also like to mention Dogwoof who have wandered into BR territory with the releases of Chasing Ice and Blackfish, but also have two titles coming up that I am looking forward to: The Act of Killing and Leviathan. Without those guys we'd sure have a lot less documentary (and a little less foreign titles).

Also, Mr. Bongo and Axiom Films should get a mention too

I love the documentaries Dogwoof put out

Mr Bongo are good, but they don't seem to release any films now, and sometimes the transfers they've used haven't been that great. The only Blu-rays they've released are Santa Sangre and Tropicalia

I also wish Axiom would release some more Wim Wenders on Blu-ray

[huntauk]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

Which is why the true golden age of Channel 4 can be precisely pinpointed to 1982-90. It was still pretty good in the 1990s, but they were clearly reining in their original balls-out adventurousness even then.

I was only a young boy 6-7 at the end of the golden age of channel 4 but I remember fondly staying up late on a Friday or Saturday night with the TV on in my room watching dubbed versions of anything from Cine Asia 80's classics Wheels On Meals and Mr Vampire to a bit of good old Melville with Le Cercle Rouge and Un Flic. Without the internet and being a kid there was no way to research these films once I had watched them, they were over and couldn't be accessed again so to speak. Only 12 or so years later at college and then more so at university would I start to rediscover many of these films. I think today the excitement of discovering a movie to show to your friends is gone due to instant accessibility. My uncle was into his movies and had uncut copies of Commando, Conan the Barbarian and The Exorcist in the 80s, I remember him boasting to my Dad as nobody else had them, and I know that sort of scenario is now lost in time.

[Buzz201]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

But this in itself has created a long-term problem - the TV rights for a national television channel are, by definition, worth considerably more than the rights to a limited-circulation cable or digital channel. As a result, it's harder to take risks than it used to be - when I worked in arthouse distribution in the late 80s/early 90s, our costs would often be largely covered by TV sales upfront, which meant that we could take a risk on something we liked but which clearly had little commercial appeal.

Most British channels are available internationally now as well, which doesn't help. (And thanks to the EU it's more difficult to stop international availability too)

Originally Posted by MichaelB

Only if you don't remember what they used to broadcast in the 1970s. When I did a mammoth survey of Shakespeare on television, I expected ITV to be a mere footnote, but it turned out that what it lacked in quantity it more than made up for in quality. And in the 1960s they broadcast Sophocles' Elektra in the original Greek!

In fact, when I was first getting into foreign-language films at the turn of the 1980s, they were as likely to be on ITV as they were on BBC2 - it was only after Channel 4 came along that they pretty much abandoned them. And of course Thames Television was the biggest sponsor of silent-film restorations in the 1980s - Channel 4 only took over after Thames lost its franchise.

ITV3 recently broadcast a Danish TV series, but I can't remember what it was called. ITV1 also broadcast some French language films, but only at stupid o'clock in the morning...

Originally Posted by MichaelB

But I don't think BBC4 or Sky Arts 1 and 2 are a patch on Channel 4 in the 1980s. They'd do things like near-complete Tarkovsky retrospectives during peaktime on Saturday nights, Jean-Luc Godard at his most avant-garde, Japanese films shot in Super 8, you name it. Even things like the notorious "red triangle" season contained mouthwateringly bonkers stuff like Claude Faraldo's Themroc.

The simple reason is that commercial channels like Channel 4 and ITV rely on advertising, and there is limited ad money to go round. Therefore programming needs to bring in viewers to be viable, and younger viewers are worth more. And the umpteenth repeat of I Am Legend is still likely to bring in more viewers, both overall and in the core younger demographic, than a retrospective of an old foreign director.

Also, according to Mark Kermode, who used to do some VO work for them, Film4 has had to stop doing it's extreme seasons, because there's almost nothing they can't show any more. Making the entire season pointless really. Even Antichrist is permissible uncut at 11PM these days.