British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[Pera]

Did anyone get Around the world with Orson Welles yet ?

[rapta]

Originally Posted by mattyl149

Not only has my copy of Eyes Without A Face finally shipped from Amazon (after the numerous delays), but it's also going to be delivered today

I can't wait to receive it

Mine arrived just now even though it said it would arrive tomorrow. Great stuff! Brilliant package. I also got Vivre sa vie and forgot it came with a booklet, also looking great. But finally...Eyes Without A Face!

[Myshkin]

Originally Posted by rapta

Mine arrived just now even though it said it would arrive tomorrow. Great stuff! Brilliant package. I also got Vivre sa vie and forgot it came with a booklet, also looking great. But finally...Eyes Without A Face!

From Amazon? That tracking thing is useless with the new way of delivering. Whenever it says out for delivery it gets delivered that day, but the tracking always has delivery listed as a few days away.

[Spiderwalk]

Originally Posted by rapta

Mine arrived just now even though it said it would arrive tomorrow. Great stuff! Brilliant package. I also got Vivre sa vie and forgot it came with a booklet, also looking great. But finally...Eyes Without A Face!

Cool!... I'm going to buy both films in HMV tomorrow. I'm also hoping they have The Town That Dreaded Sundown and The Harder They Come in-store too.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by Myshkin

From Amazon? That tracking thing is useless with the new way of delivering. Whenever it says out for delivery it gets delivered that day, but the tracking always has delivery listed as a few days away.

Well, it was dispatched yesterday and I'm guessing the Amazon Logistics courier just prefers to get them delivered ASAP. Noticed the tracking information is much more reliable - if it has arrived at your local depot/courier, safe to say it'll arrive the same day if not the next.

Originally Posted by Spiderwalk

Cool!... I'm going to buy both films in HMV tomorrow. I'm also hoping they have The Town That Dreaded Sundown and The Harder They Come in-store too.

Both BFI titles should be £10.99 from HMV, and The Town That Dreaded Sundown should be too. I would've got The Town That Dreaded Sundown too but I've been cutting back on pre-orders and had watched the film recently too - safe to say it's one I will pick up at some point though, as with most Eureka Classics titles!

[FransT]

Are there subtitles for the hearing impaired on the 'Around the world with Orson Welles' BFI blu-ray?

[tenia]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

Disappointingly no there isn't.

Disappointingly unusual from the BFI.

[stepeanut]

Got fed up with waiting for Around the World with Orson Welles. I pre-ordered from Amazon on the day it was announced, and my shipping status has been stuck on Preparing for Dispatch for the last two days. So, I cancelled the Amazon order and picked it up at lunchtime from Fopp.

When it was first announced, this set was touted as being individually numbered. Whatever happened with that?

[tenia]

I believe it's limited only, not numbered.

[rapta]

I thought it was numbered too. I guess they bailed on that when they realised it's only a 1-disc set. Still, they did give it a slipcover.

[the blob]

Originally Posted by Spiderwalk

Cool!... I'm going to buy both films in HMV tomorrow. I'm also hoping they have The Town That Dreaded Sundown and The Harder They Come in-store too.

No Eyes Without A Face in my local which i was pretty disappointed about. I figured it would be a dead cert being BFI. When I asked, they hadn't had any stock and advised me to order online instead of shop order as 'they were having supplier problems'. I'm wondering if they're just being told to promote the website as much as possible.

Picked up The Harder They Come at least.

[Spiderwalk]

Originally Posted by the blob

No Eyes Without A Face in my local which i was pretty disappointed about. I figured it would be a dead cert being BFI. When I asked, they hadn't had any stock and advised me to order online instead of shop order as 'they were having supplier problems'. I'm wondering if they're just being told to promote the website as much as possible.

Picked up The Harder They Come at least.

I had the same response in my local HMV today. On their site it states back in stock within a week, but I ordered it from Amazon earlier, which said 9 to 12 days for delivery... wtf. The release of Eyes Without A Face is cursed I tell ya'!.

They didn't have Vivre Sa Vie either, but I did manage to get The Harder They Come, A Blade In The Dark and The Town That Dreaded Sundown though.

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by the blob

No Eyes Without A Face in my local which i was pretty disappointed about. I figured it would be a dead cert being BFI. When I asked, they hadn't had any stock and advised me to order online instead of shop order as 'they were having supplier problems'. I'm wondering if they're just being told to promote the website as much as possible.

My amazon pre-order still hasn't shipped either (I made the order a year ago!).

[stepeanut]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

The booklet mentions there were plans for 26 episodes which makes it disappointing he only delivered 6, 2 of which where unfinished.

Having just finished the Blu-ray, like the BFI Out of This World DVD, this release ultimately feel like a tease for something bigger and better that we know doesn't exist. Which feels like a shame.

Typical Welles, really. Your final statement could apply to a number of Welles projects, or as an epitaph to his career as a whole.

Around the World with Orson Welles is an interesting experiment, if oddly disjointed at times. Some of the interviews are stilted, even awkward, and the repetition of material across the two Pays Basque episodes is frustrating when watched back-to-back. Obviously, it wasn't intended to be viewed that way when it was made. I guess the language of the television documentary was still being developed.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by adamhopelies

My amazon pre-order still hasn't shipped either (I made the order a year ago!).

I ended up cancelling my original pre-order 'cause I noticed the lowest price of £10.99 wasn't updating. I wonder if that's the reason why yours wasn't sent? The listing has been changed several times over the past 18 months (from 3-disc to 2-disc to 3-disc again and finally 2-disc), I wonder if that has any impact on the order not updating?

Just to confirm, it does exist - mine arrived from Amazon yesterday (as did Vivre sa vie), and BFI have posted photos up of copies in their offices. I wonder if they sent some pre-orders but ran out of stock and there's a problem at Sony DADC? Whatever has happened, it seems to have affected both Amazon and HMV.

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by rapta

I ended up cancelling my original pre-order 'cause I noticed the lowest price of £10.99 wasn't updating. I wonder if that's the reason why yours wasn't sent? The listing has been changed several times over the past 18 months (from 3-disc to 2-disc to 3-disc again and finally 2-disc), I wonder if that has any impact on the order not updating?

I live-chatted with them and they said it's just down to the delay in receiving stock. The price is showing at £10.99 so there's no problem there. Will just leave it as is for now.

[Pera]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

Yes. Watch 4 episodes far:

Video: 8/10 - Better than expected though not pristine. Very occasional damage but not distracting.

Sound: 7/10 - Mostly fine. Occasional background hum. The audio on the Vienna episode was obviously quite damaged at some points but the restorers have done as much as they can to fix it though it's still noticeable. Also, occasionally the sound itself was less than perfectly recorded but due to the experimental (for the time) nature of the shooting this is understandable.

Bonus content: N/A - Read the shortish booklet which while far from an Arrow or MoC brick is still interesting in providing a little background (hope his earlier BBC series still exists) Not watched the documentary or interview.

The programme content is quite leisurely and tends to focus on one aspect of the towns or country's culture with it's better moments occasionally putting me in mind of Whicker's World. I wish more had been made.

Mr.Welles an affable host. For example I was struck by the difference between his attitude and apparent interest when interviewing a trio of Chelsea pensioners and that of James Mason interviewing the residents of a Salvation Army hostel in the London Nobody Knows.

Thanks for all the details!

[isaacredfield]

Since The Quay Brothers are getting a release in the US do we know if the bfi have any plans of giving their collection a blu upgrade?

[grim_tales]

I hear BFI are releasing Wages of Fear, is that worth seeing? I've only seen one Clouzot film before (Les Diaboliques) but it was fantastic

[kidc]

WAGES OF FEAR is essential viewing, nail biting stuff. If I ever cared about convincing somebody who thought all old black and white foreign films were boring, dry affairs that they were wrong WOF is probably the film I would use.