Victor Erice on Blu-ray

[James78]

Region B



Region A

[ariello2001]

Voy a referirme respecto a estos films (o al menos a uno de ellos) de Victor Erice, no a la edición en BD.
¿Por qué tanta importancia por la edición de estas películas? Recuerdo haber visto hace tiempo en cine "El espíritu de la colmena" y era una película común y corriente. Pienso que hay otras películas españolas de los años 70 y 80 más representativas y recorodadas (por ejemplo "Cría cuervos", "Asignatura pendiente", "Solos en la madrugada" o "Las cosas del querer") que ni siquiera tuvieron una edición decente en DVD y que si salen en Blu ray, sí habría que festejar.

[DrManhattan]

Hombre, que te guste más o menos una película es entendible: es lo que tiene el arte, es una apreciación personal y totalmente respetable. Pero las películas de Erice aparecen siempre que los críticos y especialistas hacen listas de 'mejores películas de todos los tiempos'. Únicamente por eso ya merecen una edición en BD

(copio de la W¡iki)
"Su tercer y último largometraje hasta la fecha es El sol del membrillo, un retrato documental del pintor hiperrealista Antonio López; premiada en Cannes y Chicago y elegida varias veces como una de las mejores películas de la historia del cine. En una encuesta hecha a todas las filmotecas del mundo, fue elegida como la cinta más importante de la década."

[Immersion]

I ordered my copy of Spirit of the Beehive at Starscafe earlier on in the week, it was only 7 euros but they didn't have any copies in stock, so I'm not sure how available the item is. It seems on back order on a lot of sites. Has anyone had their copy?

[James78]

I bought mine from a Fnac in Spain, not online. You're right though; the website stock does seem erratic!

[Immersion]

Originally Posted by James78

I bought mine from a Fnac in Spain, not online. You're right though; the website stock does seem erratic!

I remember seeing them last month and the page on Amazon appeared like the release had been delayed, but Spanish releases do indeed seem erratic so maybe it has just gone out of stock. It is saying 1-3 weeks on Amazon.es, but I'm in no rush. It took about 2 months for them to get the Albert Serra boxset back into stock at Amazon, but with a decent price I was OK waiting instead of paying more shipping at sites like FNAC.

It is a shame that Spanish cinema is so poorly distributed outside of Spain, but luckily Spanish have great labels for DVDs like Intermedio, and Cameo. Spain is one of the finest countries right now for film, and they have many interesting auteurs.

The Criterion DVD of Spirit appears to have a lot of extras, and I wondered whether it might be worth buying that too, to accompany this Blu-ray. Their re-release output is so erratic that you are never sure which DVDs will later be released on Blu-ray

[DryIce2007]

I was curious how the quality on this bluray release was. Criterion usually does a hell of a job on their releases so I'm curious how this transfer stacks up against some of criterions dvd releases. I'm about to pull the trigger on the Italian version of Spirit of the Beehive or the Criterion Edition. I'm sure I'll be happy either way.

[DryIce2007]

James78,

Thanks for the inside scoop. Want to get this one and also the German Blu-ray version of "Watership Down". Only release so far for that film on blu.

[retask]

Adonde se puede comprar estas películas? Vivo en Noruega.

Where can I buy these films? I live in Norway.

[Marienbad]

I've been looking around for this at the Spanish sites but it seems to be out of print after less than a year. Or at least it is unavailable to order anywhere... Was it a limited edition or could be back in stock in a while? Who knows. I suppose I'll just to have to hope for a Criterion release.

[Komond]

It's out of order, and thinking the company (Vértice) is having some problems* and seems to not being editing again new stock of most of their movies, I don't think new copies will appear soon for those movies in Spain, sorry.

*Financial probably, it has started to release some movies in BD-R even, not many releases.

[I KEEL YOU]

I was lucky enough to find a copy of the out of print El Espíritu de la Colmena. I watched it, and while the grain structure is excellent without any DNR or artificial sharpening, but the image is insanely dark at times. There is a comparison with the Criterion DVD at caps-a-holic.com and whole objects ar enshrouded in darkness:

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergl...=201#vergleich

I wonder if the movie is really supposed to look this dark. According to this site's DVD registry, there is a second Criterion DVD release from this year, and if that's the case I wonder why they haven't released it on blu ray as well. An absolutely amazing film, for me the 70s was the best decade for movies.

[benhoppel]

correct link
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=2045&d2=2046&c=602

[sidetracked1]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

I was lucky enough to find a copy of the out of print El Espíritu de la Colmena. I watched it, and while the grain structure is excellent without any DNR or artificial sharpening, but the image is insanely dark at times. There is a comparison with the Criterion DVD at caps-a-holic.com and whole objects ar enshrouded in darkness:

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/multi_comparison.php?art=part&action=1&image=1&hd_ multiID=602&cap1=19052&cap2=19060&disc1=2045&disc2 =2046&lossless=1&x=237&y=201#vergleich

I wonder if the movie is really supposed to look this dark.

I agree that the blu-ray is dark, but I'm not sure that it's TOO dark. It seems to me that the Criterion might be too light, depending on Erice's intent.

Sometimes a filmmaker wants parts of the image to disappear into rich darkness, and for the audience to just 'feel' what's barely there instead of see it.

I feel like it's more common that images get over-lightened with the assumption that 'if it exists on the negative it should be seen'. On films I've worked on I've seen lighting and mood ruined by that approach by a distributor.

It would be great for an authoritative voice to share what was the original intent - the Criterion and the Vértice Cine are different enough that both can't be right.

That said, doing some reading on line, it looks like the whole blu-ray situation with this film is confusing. Apparently there was an early Spanish blu-ray with horrendous DNR put out by Divisa. Then - supposedly Victor Erice himself got involved, and supervised a new transfer called 2.0, and people could return their first pressings for the new Erice supervised discs. And it's a bit confusing as well as to whether the other blu-rays were made from these Divisa transfers, and if so which one.

Add to the weirdness, none of the blu-rays seem tp be in what is generally considered the correct (1:66) aspect ratio (the Criterion DVD is). But if Erice did get involved with the second version, wouldn't he have corrected that? Or did he like the 1:78 approach?

Here's a thread from a Spanish DVD site, that has lots of the above info, but you'll have to be able to read Spanish, or cut and paste to a translator.

https://www.mundodvd.com/comparativa...-1973-a-91740/

[InlandEmpire]

Does anyone know if the Spanish blu-ray of The Spirit of the Beehive (El Espíritu de la Colmena) with English subtitles is available anywhere? Seems impossible to find.

[James78]

A film director investigates the sudden disappearance of an actor friend years earlier in this slow-burning Spanish-Argentine drama, which sensitively explores themes of memory, illness and loss.

Close Your Eyes UK trailer - YouTube

[HundredYearLurker]

Just watched the Criterion DVD of The Spirit of the Beehive last night, which I haven't seen in years. I'd love a full resto and 4k release - the film deserves nothing less - but even the ancientness of that DVD transfer couldn't diminish the power of this film.

I'm in a Frankenstein mood this week - started with the original, then Ken Russell's Gothic, then Spirit of the Beehive. Next up: Flesh for Frankenstein.

[bcp994]

Originally Posted by HundredYearLurker

Just watched the Criterion DVD of The Spirit of the Beehive last night, which I haven't seen in years. I'd love a full resto and 4k release - the film deserves nothing less - but even the ancientness of that DVD transfer couldn't diminish the power of this film.

I'm in a Frankenstein mood this week - started with the original, then Ken Russell's Gothic, then Spirit of the Beehive. Next up: Flesh for Frankenstein.

It's utterly absurd that one of the best Spanish films of all time is still not available on Region A blu-ray at minimum. Who tf is in charge of cinema on physical media these days!