British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[justwannaboogie]

Apologies if this has been brought up before but why on earth haven't BFI released any more Kurosawa on blu-ray apart from the Samurai collection? So many of his other crime/earlier films are still stuck on DVD and it seems like BFI hold all the rights.

[deepbreathsanddeath]

Originally Posted by justwannaboogie

Apologies if this has been brought up before but why on earth haven't BFI released any more Kurosawa on blu-ray apart from the Samurai collection? So many of his other crime/earlier films are still stuck on DVD and it seems like BFI hold all the rights.

I assume in most cases it's because of two reasons:

1. There's no new restoration for several earlier crime movies ready to use for a Blu-ray release

or

2. Criterion might own the rights to use new restorations for some movies like Red Beard when it comes to Blu-ray in the U.S. and the U.K.
Criterion might be waiting for BFI's rights to lapse before putting out the disc.

[s-hell]

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

I assume in most cases it's because of two reasons:
1. There's no new restoration for several earlier crime movies ready to use for a Blu-ray release
or
2. Criterion might own the rights to use new restorations for some movies like Red Beard when it comes to Blu-ray in the U.S. and the U.K.
Criterion might be waiting for BFI's rights to lapse before putting out the disc.

I doubt that Toho would hand over new Kurosawa restorations to Criterion early on. The existing Toho HD transfers are rather old, and they must be doing something. There was news that they were working on a 4K restoration of Seven Samurai. Maybe the next thing we hear will be about a 30-BD-Kurosawa boxset...

[CrockettandTubbs]

Originally Posted by DefLeppard

Looks like there won't be any BFI sale like the one we had last year (around July 2nd week?) .. There were many titles down to £7.99 on Amz during that sale. ..

Shame.

HMV haven't done a BFI '5 for £30' for ages

[rapta]

Wasn't it proposed fairly recently that if a label like BFI or Eureka requests an HD master from Toho, no matter if Criterion restored it or not they must supply the master? Explains why we got MoC's House upgrade, for example. I assume it's the same for most major studios.

Though if that were true, you would think BFI would have tried to upgrade Ikiru or High and Low by now...

[CrockettandTubbs]

I wonder how low the Woodfall set will go to this year?

Rarewaves-outlet on Ebay have it for £58.42 - but with code POSE20 (20% off selected sellers - ends tomorrow) it comes to £46.74.

I only have Long Distance Runner and Sat Night/Sun Morn on blu-ray.

Has anyone ordered a boxset from them before?

[s-hell]

Toho had better keep such a paragraph in their contracts. But the BFI can be so slow in upgrading to BD. Or, maybe they are considering another little boxset release and are waiting for some more films.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by s-hell

Toho had better keep such a paragraph in their contracts. But the BFI can be so slow in upgrading to BD. Or, maybe they are considering another little boxset release and are waiting for some more films.

Last I asked - probably 2 years ago now - they had no Japanese titles in mind to upgrade, but they've since done Ichikawa's An Actor's Revenge so it would seem they're open to it should a new 4K master be available. I'm curious whether there's an expiration on their licenses for these films - surely if they wait too long, Criterion could simply snap them up and release their own discs? If that were the case I'd double-dip on most of them (basically everything but Rashomon, though I'd still probably get that eventually).

I also reckon they'd be more inclined to debut something on Blu-ray. Perhaps they'll consider Naruse again at some point?

PS: a little off-topic but I can't remember if I said on here or not that Jean Cocteau's Orphée is being re-released by BFI later this year. If they do release it on Blu-ray, let's hope they manage to get the encode right (unlike La Belle et la Bête...so disappointing).

[s-hell]

Re Kurosawa: I wonder why Toho is not more active with their Kurosawa titles. Are they completely absorbed by the Seven Samurai?

Re Cocteau: If La belle et la bête is as bad as one reads, it's a case for a disc replacement programme. Is it known how this could happen with BFI?

[jcmw98]

Originally Posted by CrockettandTubbs

I wonder how low the Woodfall set will go to this year?

Rarewaves-outlet on Ebay have it for £58.42 - but with code POSE20 (20% off selected sellers - ends tomorrow) it comes to £46.74.

I only have Long Distance Runner and Sat Night/Sun Morn on blu-ray.

Has anyone ordered a boxset from them before?

I'm hoping Zavvi have a massive discount on it sometime soon, like they did when the Alan Clarke set went down to about £30.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by s-hell

Re Kurosawa: I wonder why Toho is not more active with their Kurosawa titles. Are they completely absorbed by the Seven Samurai?

Re Cocteau: If La belle et la bête is as bad as one reads, it's a case for a disc replacement programme. Is it known how this could happen with BFI?

Funny thing is, Seven Samurai is the worst transfer of all the Kurosawa titles they've released so far on Blu-ray. They really need to revisit that one (and Throne of Blood too, from memory). I doubt they'll do that anytime soon, but perhaps if/when the box set starts to go OOP.

I wish they'd have a look at upgrading their other Kurosawa titles though. Ikiru and High and Low would be a good start but I'd also suggest Red Beard, Stray Dog, Drunken Angel, The Bad Sleep Well, I Live in Fear, The Lower Depths and even Dodes' Ka-den. I mean Wild Side released most of these in France over the last few years, so what's stopping BFI? The masters can't be that bad.

The only thing I can think of is that they might want to directly upgrade their DVD box sets, like they did for their Samurai Collection. I could see them doing it for the Crime Collection (Drunken Angel, Stray Dog, The Bad Sleep Well, High and Low) and the Classic Collection (The Lower Depths, Red Beard, Ikiru, I Live in Fear, Dodes' Ka-den). I can see why they're hesitant after the critical reviews of their Samurai Collection upgrade, but they did such a good job with Rashomon.

Anyway, they released those latter sets in 2011 so assuming their license only lasts 7 years, they've not got long to decide whether they want to renew the rights to these. If they do let them go, I bet you Criterion, Eureka and Arrow will be rushing to get their hands on whatever they can.

PS: as for La Belle et la Bête, if we keep the pressure on they might set up a disc replacement programme. They previously did when they incorrectly encoded one of the Ozu films (An Autumn Afternoon, I think). I have cancelled my pre-order but would immediate order a copy if they promised to fix it. I've been anticipating it since it was announced, and subsequently delayed. No idea why they messed such a classic up. Should've been caught in the QC stage.

PPS: Talking of all these non-upgraded BFI titles, I still can't understand why it has taken them so long to do a Blu-ray of Renoir's The River. I thought they were involved in its restoration?

[grahams76]

Originally Posted by rapta

PS: as for La Belle et la Bête, if we keep the pressure on they might set up a disc replacement programme. They previously did when they incorrectly encoded one of the Ozu films (An Autumn Afternoon, I think). I have cancelled my pre-order but would immediate order a copy if they promised to fix it. I've been anticipating it since it was announced, and subsequently delayed. No idea why they messed such a classic up. Should've been caught in the QC stage.

What went wrong? I have the US Criterion but was considering an upgrade.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by grahams76

What went wrong? I have the US Criterion but was considering an upgrade.

Superior master - from newer 4K restoration produced a few years back - but dramatically drops the ball on the encode. Frequent and pretty severe crush, especially in darker scenes, which is pretty unforgivable for a film of this stature (and especially one in black and white). Very noticeable in-motion apparently.

I had this pre-ordered and was anticipating the release next week but reluctantly cancelled until further notice. There are plenty of people moaning on the Criterion Forum and Twitter, so hopefully when the disc reviews start rolling in the BFI will listen and try and resolve the problem. Should've been held back if they were having issues getting a decent author - this is the kind of film they should be pulling someone like David Mackenzie in for, if possible (he's likely very, very busy doing discs for Indicator, Arrow, Eureka, Signal One/Plan B, Second Sight, StudioCanal etc).

[s-hell]

A number of available Japanese film blu-rays are more or less simple transfers of good 35mm prints, without a lot of the digital restoration that people have got used to. Personally, I don't mind if a film looks quite like a 35mm film if the encoding is good enough, but I would like to see it reflected in the price. The current Seven Samurai is alright with me - after all it's what people have been seeing for decades. It seems Toho has to do a lot of work for the 4K because they don't have the negative.

Kurosawa is a good candidate for boxset publishing - so I'm hoping for BFI or Criterion getting into the mood.

[Vidya]

Originally Posted by nitin

Also, somewhat disappointingly, Nick Wrigley has tweeted that there is noticeable macroblocking in the (many) dark scenes on the Beauty and the Beast release.

Here's hoping they stop the presses and do it right.

[gouryella]

Originally Posted by CrockettandTubbs

I wonder how low the Woodfall set will go to this year?

Rarewaves-outlet on Ebay have it for £58.42 - but with code POSE20 (20% off selected sellers - ends tomorrow) it comes to £46.74.

I only have Long Distance Runner and Sat Night/Sun Morn on blu-ray.

Has anyone ordered a boxset from them before?

I got a dispatch email yesterday for one. Was wondering about their packaging myself. I guess I will find out soon enough.

Originally Posted by jcmw98

I'm hoping Zavvi have a massive discount on it sometime soon, like they did when the Alan Clarke set went down to about £30.

Went down to £49.99 a few times. Never saw it that low. Hope I didn't miss it!

[dwk]

Originally Posted by rapta

PPS: Talking of all these non-upgraded BFI titles, I still can't understand why it has taken them so long to do a Blu-ray of Renoir's The River. I thought they were involved in its restoration?

I might be mistaken, but wasn't this up under the Criterion section on FilmStruck UK?

[s-hell]

Originally Posted by dwk

I might be mistaken, but wasn't this up under the Criterion section on FilmStruck UK?

But a stream is not a disc, of course...

[nitin]

Originally Posted by rapta

Superior master - from newer 4K restoration produced a few years back - but dramatically drops the ball on the encode. Frequent and pretty severe crush, especially in darker scenes, which is pretty unforgivable for a film of this stature (and especially one in black and white). Very noticeable in-motion apparently.

I had this pre-ordered and was anticipating the release next week but reluctantly cancelled until further notice. There are plenty of people moaning on the Criterion Forum and Twitter, so hopefully when the disc reviews start rolling in the BFI will listen and try and resolve the problem. Should've been held back if they were having issues getting a decent author - this is the kind of film they should be pulling someone like David Mackenzie in for, if possible (he's likely very, very busy doing discs for Indicator, Arrow, Eureka, Signal One/Plan B, Second Sight, StudioCanal etc).

Not crush but macroblocking.

[cool hand bluke]

BEAUTY......



......AND THE BEAST



Couldn't resist! They did a replacement disc for their first attempt at a blu for The Leopard.
Crushed blacks, if I remember correctly. So a precedent has been set. There is hope....