Dekalog and Other TV Works (Arrow)

[Oscar Rothman]

http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/shop/ind...product_id=853

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS



4K restoration of all ten episodes, presented in their original broadcast aspect ratios

Original Polish mono soundtrack (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays), with optional English subtitles

Pedestrian Subway (1973, 29 mins), Kieślowski’s professional fiction debut, about a man trying to repair a failed marriage

First Love (1974, 52 mins), a docudrama about a teenage couple coping with an unwanted pregnancy

Personnel (1975, 67 mins), Kieślowski’s first feature-length fiction film, a partly autobiographical piece about a Warsaw theatre company

The Calm (1976, 82 mins), one of Kieślowski’s most powerful early films, about a man rebuilding his life in mid-70s Poland after a short prison sentence

Short Working Day (1981, 73 mins), Kieślowski’s study of a political strike, controversially told from the viewpoint of a Communist functionary trying to keep order

Krzysztof Kieślowski: Still Alive (2007), an affectionate 82-minute portrait of the director by his former student Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz, including interviews with dozens of friends and colleagues

Collector’s booklet featuring a lengthy essay on Dekalog and Kieślowski by Father Marek Lis, plus Kieślowski’s own intensely self-critical discussion of all the films in this set and Stanley Kubrick’s famous eulogy to Kieślowski and co-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz
More extras in development!

[Aunt Peg]

I do hope that the cinema versions of A Short Film About Killing & A Short Film About Love are included.

[ParisTexan]

Oh. My. God

[Superted]

I was going to pre order the criterion but this looks better no?

[VONi]

Originally Posted by Aunt Peg

I do hope that the cinema versions of A Short Film About Killing & A Short Film About Love are included.

Yeah me too, if they are included then it's truly a killer set!

Edit: It seems AE owns the rights for those.

[MechaGodzilla]

We've still got half of 2016 left but I think it's safe to say Arrow will be a strong candidate for the title of Label of the Year when all is said and done.

[Arch Stanton]

Originally Posted by Aunt Peg

I do hope that the cinema versions of A Short Film About Killing & A Short Film About Love are included.

This might be the deal-breaker for me.

I'd rather buy from Arrow though just because of price. Assuming both are of equal quality presentations, of course.

[xxnomad]

gosh i feel like one would need both sets (criterion/arrow) to get all the supplements...

ugh but that's excessive...

ugh but he's my favorite director...

ugh but i'm broke.

[Justin101]

It's a shame that the feature length versions of Love and Killing aren't included but those additional features kind of make up for it.
Since Artificial Eye has the rights still for those 2 perhaps this box set will ignite a flame in them to put them on BD also.

[silverlakephil]

Barnes and Noble generally have an annual 50% sale in November, so I think I'll wait till then to get Criterion's version of the Dekalog. I believe there could be a flash sale on Criterion's site in October as well. Kieślowski seems to be one of their favorite Directors so I can see them releasing his other work in the future.

[Gerby]

Arrow's release will be in the correct 25fps though unlike the Criterion release so along with the extra TV work, the Arrow release wins out for me. (Just hope AE eventually put out the 2 extended films on blu)

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by silverlakephil

Barnes and Noble generally have an annual 50% sale in November, so I think I'll wait till then to get Criterion's version of the Dekalog. I believe there could be a flash sale on Criterion's site in October as well. Kieślowski seems to be one of their favorite Directors so I can see them releasing his other work in the future.

They have the rights a ton more of his stuff based on their Hulu offerings. Whether those would be blu/mainline releases or an Eclipse set, I don't know.

[VONi]

Originally Posted by Gerby

Arrow's release will be in the correct 25fps though unlike the Criterion release so along with the extra TV work, the Arrow release wins out for me. (Just hope AE eventually put out the 2 extended films on blu)

Yup, just cancelled my Criterion pre-order. Looks like Arrow will do an outstanding job with this!

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by Gerby

Arrow's release will be in the correct 25fps though unlike the Criterion release so along with the extra TV work, the Arrow release wins out for me. (Just hope AE eventually put out the 2 extended films on blu)

Are you certain of this? I know Eureka's MoC lineup, as an example, prefer 24 fps encodes, and even though Arrow have done 1080/50i with non-Arrow Video releases (mainly UK and European TV series), I can't remember the last time I saw a native 25 fps encode from either Arrow Academy or Arrow Video, but if they will present this in native 25 fps, then...

[tenia]

It has been confirmed on criterionforum.org that the material will be encoded in 1080i50.

I don't think Arrow ever had to use 1080i50 to respect the native 25 fps frame rate but the recent Watkins / Russell / Clarke releases from the BFI had to.

[TheKillKillKills]

I will defenitely grab this set for sure. I still have around 10000+ point collected from the previous sale. Almost using this point on Female Prisoner Scorpion set, but holding off to see if there is a better boxset down the line, and I am not disappointed. This is such a strong year for Arrow, no other lebels could match at the moment IMHO.

[Anthony Thorne]

Michael Brooke made a couple of replies on Facebook that I found informative.

Would the transfer be identical to the upcoming Criterion release? If so, I'll get this one right now.

It's sourced from the same restoration, although the Arrow version will be presented at the correct 25fps TV framerate. (Criterion, unavoidably, have to slow it down, because the US BD spec doesn't allow for European television framerates.)

So essentially, this will be presented the way it was originally intended?

Yes. We did a lot of research into this, because its status as a hybrid cinema/TV piece meant that it wasn't obvious what the correct framing and framerates were, but we're now close to certain that the framing should be 4:3 for parts one-four and seven-ten, 1.66:1 for parts five and six (they were originally shown slightly letterboxed in the early 1990s), and 25fps for everything.

We even checked the music against the soundtrack CD to ensure that the pitches matched, paying particular attention to parts five and six as those were the two given extended cinema releases (presumably slowed down to 24fps).

Above all, we wanted to make sure that the bizarrely reframed 16:9 Polish BD did *not* reflect the framing of the restoration - which would have been an absolute deal-breaker. Thankfully, the cropping was done at the very last stage, so was easily reversible.

[BobbyMcGee]

Will wait for a review on both the Arrow and Criterion version before making a decision on which to get (or both). If the Arrow set is sold out at that point then that makes my decision easier (obviously). But I think that it is wonderful that both companies are releasing this on Blu-ray and I am excited to own it one way or another.

[Vidya]

Hmm, I'm not even sure if my system is capable of 1080i/50. I'll have to order a cheap blu-ray to test it out. Anybody know how TotalMedia Theatre 6 handles 1080i/50?

[stigdu]

This will be a decent upgrade from our Polish discs. The missus will be pleased, even though I think she prefers Andrzej Wajda.

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