British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[tenia]

Originally Posted by rapta

Hmm, it's not like the BFI to go the BD-25 route these days, and especially for such an anticipated film.

AVB still is 24 Mbps, which should be enough.

[rapta]

Yeah, as Gary points out in the review, it could just be that this is the best we're gonna get from this master, and being quite light on extras they managed to fit it all on a BD-25 with room to spare. I'm sure it'll look fine in motion!

I'm definitely getting it, just not sure when! Probably will keep my pre-order, but will decide the week before. Happy to see more Spanish cinema on Blu-ray though (and not just Almodovar, as much as I respect him).

[OceanBlue]

Hoping The Glass Shield hasn't been pushed back (the release date is still Monday 23rd January?). Not heard much about this BFI title lately (referring to a finalised list of extras).

[nitin]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

Hoping The Glass Shield hasn't been pushed back (the release date is still Monday 23rd January?). Not heard much about this BFI title lately (referring to a finalised list of extras).

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=20406

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by nitin

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=20406

That's great, thank you. Much appreciated. I'm satisfied with those extras, and thankful that (in the end) we're going to get a Blu-ray release of The Glass Shield.

[javi92]

Little disappointed with El Sur. Cancelled my preorder, but I'll probably pick it up later in a sale.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by rapta

Hmm, it's not like the BFI to go the BD-25 route these days, and especially for such an anticipated film. What are people's opinions on this one?

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film6/blu-r...ur_blu-ray.htm

Still looks good to me, but I'm no expert. Does look a bit too clean/digitised from the trailer on YouTube, but that was just a trailer...still, I'm glad this is being released on Blu-ray. Just not sure I definitely need to keep my pre-order, and may pick it up in a month or two instead.

Looks like a filtered and edge enhanced source master to me but still reasonably decent overall going by those caps. Compression looks ok, not great, but nothing that looks like it would be an issue when watching. I doubt increasing the bitrate would have done much that is noticeable.

[ParisTexan]

Originally Posted by javi92

Little disappointed with El Sur. Cancelled my preorder, but I'll probably pick it up later in a sale.

See, this is why we can't have nice things on blu-ray.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

That's great, thank you. Much appreciated. I'm satisfied with those extras, and thankful that (in the end) we're going to get a Blu-ray release of The Glass Shield.

Speaking of which, there's a review for that one up as well:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film6/blu-r...ld_blu-ray.htm

Looks good to me! Glad to finally have some Charles Burnett on Blu-ray, even if it's not the most obvious choice.

I hope MoC or someone can get To Sleep With Anger soon (it's a Sony title, and Indicator don't have it apparently). The BFI DVD has been OOP for a while now, so I assume they're not doing it themselves.

PS: I had no idea this film had Elliot Gould, M. Emmet Walsh and Michael Ironside in it! Pretty solid supporting cast then, when you've got Ice Cube and Lori Petty too.

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by rapta

Speaking of which, there's a review for that one up as well:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film6/blu-r...ld_blu-ray.htm

Looks good to me! Glad to finally have some Charles Burnett on Blu-ray, even if it's not the most obvious choice.

I hope MoC or someone can get To Sleep With Anger soon (it's a Sony title, and Indicator don't have it apparently). The BFI DVD has been OOP for a while now, so I assume they're not doing it themselves.

PS: I had no idea this film had Elliot Gould, M. Emmet Walsh and Michael Ironside in it! Pretty solid supporting cast then, when you've got Ice Cube and Lori Petty too.

Thanks for sharing the DVD Beaver review link. I've got more of a positive vibe about this release compared to El Sur (thinking about cancelling that pre-order. Keeping the Glass Shield pre-order). I'd forgot that Richard Anderson was in the film as well.

Who (or where) was The Glass Shield licensed from? I thought it was originally part of the Miramax library, but I'm not sure now who owns the Miramax library (unless they're still with Miramax themselves). There's an ensemble drama from later on in the 90's, which I believe was part of the Miramax library as well (and had an effective music score and soundtrack), called Playing by Heart (1998 film directed by Willard Carroll). It definitely had a VHS release in the UK, and possibly a UK DVD release as well. If the BFI have other Miramax library titles they're planning on releasing, I'm hoping that Playing by Heart gets a Blu-ray release, including interviews with some of the cast.

[Yami]

Having seen this master of El Sur theatrically, I thought that it looked like an older HD master and could well do with a new 2K/4K scan especially for the darker scenes. But it's a masterpiece, and there's no better alternative, so it's a must own release in my opinion.

[Olmo]

The Amazon listings for Scorcese's Who's That Knocking at My Door & Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore have disappeared.

Oh dear....here we go again, perhaps?

[rapta]

Originally Posted by Olmo

The Amazon listings for Scorcese's Who's That Knocking at My Door & Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore have disappeared.

Oh dear....here we go again, perhaps?

That's odd, I noticed they'd detailed the extras at the weekend - the same ones as listed on the BFI Shop before they too disappeared - so a little surprised they'd delete the listings after updating it.

I hope they haven't cancelled these as obviously they'd be pretty popular. I never expected them to get any Scorsese, and especially from Warner Bros.

[BarnDoor]

When did they update this? Hardly encouraging for Blu-ray releases of the Scorsese titles:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/n...e-here-anymore

I see the DVDs are listed on Amazon. If the BFI still had plans to put these out on Blu, would they not simply delay the previously-announced dual-format releases?

[Dougling]

Didn't The Glass Shield get announced as Blu-Ray, then become just DVD for ages, and then suddenly come back to Blu-Ray again, in the build up to release? Maybe a similar thing will happen here... I hope.

[BarnDoor]

Originally Posted by Dougling

Didn't The Glass Shield get announced as Blu-Ray, then become just DVD for ages, and then suddenly come back to Blu-Ray again, in the build up to release? Maybe a similar thing will happen here... I hope.

As I recall, The Glass Shield was not originally announced as a Blu-ray (at least not officially), though I could be wrong. The fact that they (rather covertly) changed the press release in this instance is troubling.

[NjabPhungula]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

When did they update this? Hardly encouraging for Blu-ray releases of the Scorsese titles:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/n...e-here-anymore

I see the DVDs are listed on Amazon. If the BFI still had plans to put these out on Blu, would they not simply delay the previously-announced dual-format releases?

Yeah, this isn't looking good at all. I'm disappointed.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

When did they update this? Hardly encouraging for Blu-ray releases of the Scorsese titles:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/n...e-here-anymore

I see the DVDs are listed on Amazon. If the BFI still had plans to put these out on Blu, would they not simply delay the previously-announced dual-format releases?

Oh FFS, not again. It could well be that Warner Bros can't or won't let them release them on Blu-ray (as with The Devils, though they supposedly had reasoning for that), but I really really hope they 180 this decision ASAP. I'd still get them on DVD but definitely not on day one.

The Glass Shield was initially announced as a Blu-ray (maybe even Dual Format, or separate DVD and Blu-ray), then the Blu-ray was cancelled, then they found out there was an HD master after all and managed to interview Burnett himself so that put the release back quite a bit.

I'd be happy to wait for these two if it meant we'd get them on Blu-ray. I emailed my BFI contact yesterday, but no response as of yet. I hope he can clarify what's going on with these titles after getting our hopes up!

[BarnDoor]

Yeah I can't help but think it might be complications with Warner. Hopefully they work something out.

[Fnord Prefect]

Originally Posted by Dougling

Didn't The Glass Shield get announced as Blu-Ray, then become just DVD for ages, and then suddenly come back to Blu-Ray again, in the build up to release? Maybe a similar thing will happen here... I hope.

Glass Shield was announced as DVD only and then updated a few weeks later to dual format. Last year the same thing also happened with the BFI edition of On the Black Hill.