British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[Telstar]

Love all the Flipside releases mentioned here, but let me also add Duffer/Moon over the Alley. One (or two) of the most purely bizarre things I've ever seen.

[BarnDoor]

Originally Posted by rapta

They do quarterly announcements in their general news feed, but Amazon listings usually pop up shortly before then. Then there are press releases for some releases a few weeks before release finalising extras - but again, Amazon listings are often updated first.

As some have already speculated, there may be an announcement soon. Probably sometime in the next couple of weeks, if previous announcements are anything to go by!

If the last batch are any indication, some news should be imminent - Amazon listings for most things (bar the Alan Clarke stuff) went up in late January, then there was an official press release in early February. And before that, early November.

I'm thinking though, with the Alan Clarke behemoth set, Richard III might be delayed, since we haven't even seen cover art for that yet, let alone specs. But even if it's June, it shouldn't impact on the third quarter announcements. Akenfield is coming in July, and I imagine that Silent Shakespeare set might be one of the announcements also. Later in the year, we're due Napoleon and the Pioneers of African-American Cinema set, though they might be October-December titles.

[pedromvu]

Just quickly checked Birth of a Nation, the issue of macroblocking is quite noticeable (at least in the scene mentioned) when using my default calibration which I know at least has the proper brightness and contrast based on the Disney WoW disc.

It seems in that scene in particular the algorithm thinks it is an inter-title or something because bitrate dips below 2mbps, also a lot of other scenes hover at around 8-10mbps, I know bitrate is not everything but there is a limit of how much quality you can put on certain bandwidth with a specific codec, I just don't get why they didn't at least moved all the supplements to the disc 2.

Then there is the issue of the black levels, I don't know if this is just a film degradation issue or what, but it looks like I am watching it with the improper colour space, my display is calibrated for limited RGB (16-235) but the parts that are supposed to be black look grey like all the background on the intertitles, this makes the issue on the mentioned scene more noticeable, this issue seems to be corrected by the MoC disc (at least compared to the Kino) you can see on the blubeaver review, but then the MoC disc of Intolerance seems to suffers the same.

Also noticed that the MoC silents don't seem to lower their bitrate much when there is just intertitles, which in this case is reasonable taking in account that a black background is rarely a solid color with all the scratches, color fluctuations, damaged corners, etc on these films.

Maybe this is just a coincidence that changing colour spaces seems to fix it, maybe it is a problem of the source and needs to be fixed on a scene by scene basis, hopefully someone knows what is going on with this kind of issues on very old movies.

[BarnDoor]

Looks like the third quarter releases are starting to appear on Amazon. At the moment there is only one new addition (Akenfield has been on there for a while), and it appears to be a DVD (could be a mistake, or maybe there could be a separate Blu-ray release):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Hill-.../dp/B01EYIHTOI

In any case, worth keeping an eye on Amazon for further additions.

[BarnDoor]

The Glass Shield (1994) coming 22nd August:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glass-Shiel.../dp/B01F000SOC

Psychomania (!) (1973) coming 19th September (a Flipside title perhaps?):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Psychomania.../dp/B01F000X56

Women in Love (!!) (1969) also coming 19th September:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Love-.../dp/B01F000RXY

[Gerby]

Wow, I love Psychomania. The Flipside range would be a perfect fit.

[BarnDoor]

This might be an indication of the extras we can expect:

By way of a warm-up we’ll also have short 1965 documentary Chelsea Bridge Boys, and a half-hour drama about bikers at the seaside.

http://flatpackfestival.org.uk/event/psychomania/


On the subject of Flipside, for Halloween-season I'd love to see a release of Lindsey Vickers' The Appointment (1981). It could include the director's earlier short, The Lake (1978), among the extras. Perhaps also another notable British horror short film, James Dearden's Panic (1978). Failing that, I'd take a whole release entitled 'Short Sharp Shocks' (see here - http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org....2012-04-26.pdf), which included unreleased British horror shorts. Twenty-Nine (1969) was another BFI screened as part of that strand. Dark Water (1980) is another obscurity that could feature.

[BarnDoor]

Ah cheers for that, I had wondered if it had appeared as an extra already. That Hell's Angels documentary would be a great addition, you'd have to think the BFI would be aware of it.

[duggie walker]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

This might be an indication of the extras we can expect:



http://flatpackfestival.org.uk/event/psychomania/


On the subject of Flipside, for Halloween-season I'd love to see a release of Lindsey Vickers' The Appointment (1981). It could include the director's earlier short, The Lake (1978), among the extras. Perhaps also another notable British horror short film, James Dearden's Panic (1978). Failing that, I'd take a whole release entitled 'Short Sharp Shocks' (see here - http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org....2012-04-26.pdf), which included unreleased British horror shorts. Twenty-Nine (1969) was another BFI screened as part of that strand. Dark Water (1980) is another obscurity that could feature.

I'd LOVE to see PANIC! released. Vivid memories of it from childhood.

[John_Drake]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

Looks like the third quarter releases are starting to appear on Amazon.

I keep hoping for news on the 1984 and Klushantzev Collections.

Does anyone happen to know the fate of these releases?

[BarnDoor]

Yep. It's a similar story with Ken Russell's Dance of the Seven Veils. No doubt the BFI will release that on Blu-ray in 2019 or 2020, I forget exactly when Strauss' music becomes public domain.

[oddbox83]

Whoever is blocking 1984 is being a bit dim IMHO. Hurry up 2019!

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

The source novel for 1984 goes public domain in the UK in 2019, meaning it's probably just a case of playing the waiting game for the BFI edition.

How would the rights to the source novel affect the rights to the adaptation though? Surely it would just mean more public domain versions of the book and adaptations?

[OceanBlue]

Wasn't expecting The Glass Shield to be released by the BFI. Have only seen bits of this film, when it was shown late at night on BBC Two some time ago.

The discussion a few posts back about spooky film shorts I found fascinating. Checked out the synopses (on the IMDb).

[rapta]

A listing for something called 'Quay Brothers Collection (Blu-ray)' just popped up on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quay-Brothe.../dp/B01F72POIS

That's more like it! Day-one for that one (price permitting, of course). I wonder if they'll include the recent Nolan short in there...

[EddieLarkin]

Awesome. I do hope a Svankmajer upgrade might follow one day.

[ISmith1979]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

Wasn't expecting The Glass Shield to be released by the BFI. Have only seen bits of this film, when it was shown late at night on BBC Two some time ago.

The discussion a few posts back about spooky film shorts I found fascinating. Checked out the synopses (on the IMDb).

I hope it features the Nolan short film on the American disc too

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[Dougling]

Originally Posted by rapta

A listing for something called 'Quay Brothers Collection (Blu-ray)' just popped up on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quay-Brothe.../dp/B01F72POIS

That's more like it! Day-one for that one (price permitting, of course). I wonder if they'll include the recent Nolan short in there...

I'm guessing it's the shorts looking at the listings on here:

US: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Q...lu-ray/138488/

UK: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Quay-...lu-ray/155564/

Considering both say 1984-2015 in their titles, it makes sense that it would be, and also that it would feature the Nolan film.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by EddieLarkin

Awesome. I do hope a Svankmajer upgrade might follow one day.

MichaelB, who produced the BFI DVD collection of Svankmajer films said that there were no HD masters for most of the material, and so far there has not been any announcement of a restoration program, so it's an unlikely release for the forseeable future.

[ScreenWash]

Hello,

Unfortunately, the release date for the item(s) listed below was changed by the supplier, and we need to provide you with a new estimated delivery date based on the new release date:

"Dissent & Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC (1969 - 1989) (Limited Edition 13 disc Blu-ray Box Set)"
Estimated arrival date: June 08 2016 - June 10 2016

- Amazon UK