Claire Denis’ Bastards (2013) - IFC Films / VS Partner Label BD

[nicwood]

I’ve received my copy of Bastards today from VS and noticed two severe issues with the disc that warrant a recall.

1. The master is riddled with aliasing and looks blurry, likely due to the original master file having been 25 fps. The disc presents that master in 24 fps.

2. The English subtitles are burnt into the master even though there is a menu switch that should’ve allowed me to disable the subs. If you toggle "English SDH" on or off you don’t see a difference.

The video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas also shows clips of that improper encode where as the other archival extra with Claire Denis looks correct.

I think something went badly wrong during the encoding stage. I’ve already informed VS of what I saw and will report back once I hear more about a potential replacement program.

[nicwood]

VS already replied and they can’t do anything as IFC are responsible for the release.

This is the way to contact them: https://www.ifcfilms.com/contact-us

[DAT_JB]

Why didn't you get the UK release?

[nicwood]

Originally Posted by DAT_JB

Why didn't you get the UK release?

I wanted the new extras.

[nicwood]

Quick update: I have not heard back from IFC, neither from a disc producer at OCN (Vinegar Syndrome’s parent company). A lengthy, factual item review I complied with the issues at the VS website was also rejected, which really annoys me.

Did anyone else also write them and get a response? If so, please let me know which email / website. Thank you!

[White Dang]

I'm still waiting on someone else to chime in. I haven't had time to check my copy

[nicwood]

"Update" or the lack thereof: No communication whatsoever from VS, IFC and Justin LaLiberty here on the forum. Honestly, I would’ve expected this from a label like KL but not VS as they’re normally incredibly generous and customer-friendly. I’ve done all I can and delivered a precise, detailed, factual breakdown of the issues like I always do but to no avail. (I work a lot and just couldn’t manage to do screenshot comparisons in addition to the considerable effort I undertook to make this understandable for people that don’t have the technical knowledge to understand the problems right away).

Thankfully Curzon / AE did a nice BD back in the day but it’s a damn shame that this is buried like that. As we can see with the lack of discussion whatsoever concerning this release, it is simply too small to reward the effort from VS and co.