British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[cool hand bluke]

Wages of Fear is amazing. Really authentic, especially for the time. No glamour, politically astute, great grizzled characters. And what a trip through the jungle!! You'll sweat too.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by 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

If you like Clouzot, worth picking this up as well:



Also worth checking out William Friedkin's Sorcerer, which is a retelling of The Wages of Fear.

[grahams76]

I love both films, but prefer Sorcerer. That movie should be a lauded classic, instead of a mostly forgotten flop.

[MacEachaidh]

Didn't it fall foul mostly of lack of promotion and commercial opportunities, rather than critical recognition? (It even got stiffed in some senses when it finally made it to Blu-ray.)

I've rather gone off Friedkin as a filmmaker, and in this case much prefer Clouzot's version anyway, but I wouldn't think of Sorcerer as a flop.

[rapta]

It was notoriously a box office flop, overshadowed by the much more digestible Star Wars that came out around the same time. Also people were confused about the title, expecting something akin to The Exorcist and instead ended up watching an 'existential thriller' starring the dude from Jaws.

At least I think that's what grahams meant by 'flop'.

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by rapta

It was notoriously a box office flop, overshadowed by the much more digestible Star Wars that came out around the same time. Also people were confused about the title, expecting something akin to The Exorcist and instead ended up watching an 'existential thriller' starring the dude from Jaws.

At least I think that's what grahams meant by 'flop'.

That's pretty much what I was getting at as well. People didn't understand what the film was about, largely because it wasn't marketed well. Well, that and Friedkin's own habit of spinning off into the clouds. (I think his ending spoils the film.)

Anyway, that aside, no question that the Clouzot is worth seeing.

[Olmo]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques are the films that made Hitchcock realise that he had a serious rival for the first time.

According to Stephen Rebello in his book on the making of Psycho, Hitchcock was surprised that so few people (even in France) picked up on quite how much he'd lifted from Les Diaboliques - and entirely consciously!

I think from the same book or possibly David Thomson's The Moment of Psycho, it is thought Hitchcock made attempts to option Les Diaboliques but on missing out, turned to another Boileau-Narcejac story, namely Vertigo.

[rapta]

Good news! The BFI transfer of Rashomon is just as good if not better than the Criterion according to this review:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-r...on_blu-ray.htm

Very happy about this! Was a little worried after the lukewarm response to the previous Kurosawa Samurai Collection and especially considering Rashomon is my favourite Kurosawa film. Looking forward to getting it in just over a week's time!

[rapta]

Ah so they did use the AFA print then, so both were from the same source in the end (but presumably tweaked in-house). That's good to know.

[p_cqvist]

There is a decent amount of compression artifacts in certain scenes on the Criterion disc. As the encoding from BFI is better in general, that release will probably be superior when it comes to PQ.

[DVD Phreak]

The release date for BFI's "Birth of a Nation" Centenary Blu-ray edition has been delayed from 9/28 to late November. Amazon UK has updated its product page.

[Fabs]

Are we going to see other Ozu films on Blu-Ray? I remember them saying they had plans to release all 32 Ozu films.

[Vidya]

Originally Posted by rapta

Good news! The BFI transfer of Rashomon is just as good if not better than the Criterion according to this review:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-r...on_blu-ray.htm

I don't believe that the Criterion screenshots featured in that comparison are accurate. Looks like some sort of softening filter had been applied. I don't know how the reviewer could've messed up simple screen captures like that.

Originally Posted by DVD Phreak

The release date for BFI's "Birth of a Nation" Centenary Blu-ray edition has been delayed from 9/28 to late November. Amazon UK has updated its product page.

Darn, I was holding off purchasing the MoC release in hopes to compare the two. Guess I'll have to wait a little longer.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by Vidya

Looks like some sort of softening filter had been applied.

It's called the Gary Screen-Capturing System Filter.

[fdm]

Originally Posted by tenia

It's called the Gary Screen-Capturing System Filter.

And/or possibly some compression since they're jpg files.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by fdm

And/or possibly some compression since they're jpg files.

It could be, but I strongly believe 95% of the problems with his caps come solely from his way to do them.

[fdm]

Yeah, I know this site likes to rag on his site when given the chance (sometimes correctly, sometimes not), but it's still where I go when I want to quickly see how the colors came out for one release compared to another; or whether something's in rough shape and not worth the bother; or even for a quick idea of whether I'm even interested in the film. Sure it has a few quirks/limitations, but it gives me what I need, or at least provides a good start. Overall I think mostly the criticism is overblown, though certainly not always.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by fdm

Yeah, I know this site likes to rag on his site when given the chance (sometimes correctly, sometimes not), but it's still where I go when I want to quickly see how the colors came out for one release compared to another; or whether something's in rough shape and not worth the bother; or even for a quick idea of whether I'm even interested in the film. Overall I think mostly the criticism is overblown, though certainly not always.

The issue is that if you bother doing screencaps, do it right or don't do it. There have been many cases where Gary caps created useless discussions on color-timing, grain handling, filtering and al. simply because they are not properly done. And I also remember how one forumer (on AVS I think) had to re-do all his caps of a given (and very expected BD) because he had recently updated his graphic card pilot and didn't realised it messed his setup. His caps turned out to be looking as if the movie was DNRed to death, where it actually wasn't at all (but like, at all).

Wrongly captured screencaps can have wrong saturation (especially on red), gives a softer look than it should be, and also add compression artifacts which are not on the disc.

When you think of that, it mean the only thing you can look at would be framing / aspect ratio, level of damages, and then it's only to have an extremely rough idea of if it's good or bad. There's nothing in between, but one needs no genius to know Transformers 4 look good or that Carrie's BD looks bad. The reviewer's experience and screencaps added values are precisely in the middle, where it can be difficult to assess more subtle issues.

[Nielsb90]

Does anyone know if the Rashomon packaging is the same as older BFI titles (slimcase with a booklet and BFI logo on the spine)? I really like the old look but it looks different from the picture on here...

[rapta]

Pretty sure it'll be a Blue Amaray case (regular 14mm width, same as Vivre Sa Vie most recently). And yes, definitely always a booklet unless one isn't mentioned (and that has only been with reissues so far).

The current image is just a mockup, similar to all the other recent BFI releases - blue banner generally indicates it'll come in a Blue Amaray case, whilst a silver Dual Format banner indicates a Clear Amaray case.

There's always a BFI logo on the spine by the way - every BFI title I've ever bought has the logo on the spine and in the top left hand corner of the front cover.

PS: I'm thinking that if a release is Dual Format, they put them in a Clear Amaray, but not sure what they do if it's a multiple BD release (like the Chaplin Mutual Comedies set). Someone will have to confirm that one for us...I did see a copy in-store at Fopp last weekend but seeing as it is sealed with a slipcover I couldn't tell.

PPS: just saw IanSchultz23's post on the 'Post a picture' thread of the upcoming BFI release of Night and the City...which is 1xBD, but seems to have a clear case, and there's no BFI logo on the front. So that generally goes against everything I assumed about BFI releases, unless he swapped out the case, and there's a logical reason for the lack of BFI logo on the cover (e.g. Fox asked them not to, much like Paramount ask Eureka not to put the Eureka logo on the front cover).