British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[KrugerIndustrial]

DVDBeaver looks absolutely horrible. Gary or whoever runs that site should learn some web design skills. Not that I don't appreciate his efforts and reviews but I feel almost dirty after visiting that site.

[Arkadin]

wow.
you should have seen what it looked like 2 or 3 years ago.
trust me, it looks a LOT better now.

[KrugerIndustrial]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

wow.
you should have seen what it looked like 2 or 3 years ago.
trust me, it looks a LOT better now.

That might very well be true but as I study computer science in college I find it funny how there are so many 'professional' websites that look like they've been designed by a 10 year old blind cat.

Website is the first thing a customer will notice. IMO that is something that can't be ever overlooked. E.g. it doesn't matter if you have a Ph.D. in Film if your website tells a completely different story.

Sorry, off-topic.

[nitin]

hmm, I was interested in An Autumn Afternoon and the screenshots look ok but why does it only take up less than 14 GB of space. There's bound to be some compression issues with sort of bitrate, like in The Edge of the World which looked lovely except in a few scenes when there was noticeable pixelisation.

[Arkadin]

I never understand such low usages of space.
Is it really THAT much more expensive to encode in such a way that the file size is fairly large--i.e.
is it strictly a $ issue that causes such small file sizes to occur?

[ccfixx]

Originally Posted by nitin

hmm, I was interested in Late Autumn and the screenshots look ok but why does it only take up less than 14 GB of space. There's bound to be some compression issues with sort of bitrate, like in The Edge of the World which looked lovely except in a few scenes when there was noticeable pixelisation.

Where are you seeing the 14GB for "Late Autumn"?

According to the DVDBeaver review, "Late Autumn" is on a single-layered blu-ray (25GB) and the feature takes up 24.6GB of those 25GB.

"An Autumn Afternoon" is listed at 14.3GB, but not "Late Autumn."

[nitin]

fixed, got them mixed up.

[djvaso]

Nice to see BFI logo on such a beautiful release:

[pro-bassoonist]

[nitin]

proper transfer of Before the Revolution please (ie no 14gb or 11gb transfers please, use disc space).

Would love to get it if its done right.

[TJS_Blu]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

Loads of info about upcoming Dual Format releases posted at the Criterion Forum - inc. specs and region status.

Plus there's info about upcoming standard def releases that will blow your sox off.

[Arkadin]

MORE!!!
that is some great news!!!

[kristoffer]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

Loads of info about upcoming Dual Format releases posted at the Criterion Forum - inc. specs and region status.

Titles include Before the Revolution, Fun at St Fanny's, The Humphrey Jennings Collection, More and Turksib (which includes a 1080p Night Mail as an extra), all of which will be out in August and September.

Full specs for Deep End and Requiem for a Village have also been confirmed.

But nothing about any Kurosawas! Especially Seven Samurai!

[rezpekt]

Originally Posted by kristoffer

But nothing about any Kurosawas! Especially Seven Samurai!

Seven Samurai was delayed from September 2010 to September 2011 as far as I know. Don't expect anything before that.

[rkish]

The two new Ozus were dispatched to me on Saturday/Sunday...getting VERY psyched for these. I'm almost more excited by the supplemental films than the main features.

I don't think "A Hen in the Wind" and "A Mother Should Be Loved" have ever gotten a home video release?

[rkish]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

Certainly not in an English-speaking country, but they were both released as separate DVDs by the Hong Kong-based Panorama label.

Going from the DVD Beaver reviews, I'd say that the BFI releases are probably from the same source (presumably an SD master supplied by Shochiku) - but the subtitles are much better. And of course you get 1080p versions of Late Autumn and An Autumn Afternoon as extras, so it's not a particularly tricky choice.

They're both really good, by the way - A Mother Should Be Loved gets over the loss of its first and last reels surprisingly effectively (handily, they were both bookends in the original film, set in different time periods - the real dramatic meat is in the surviving material), and A Hen in the Wind is one of the most gripping depictions of the very real hardships faced by families in immediate postwar Japan that I've seen to date.

MichaelB...as always...thanks very much for your learned input. You have managed to dial my excitement of this, up several notches!

You're right...before I was aware of BFI's committment to releasing the Ozu catalogue of films, I was checking out the EBay/Amazon UK market to see which of his "obscure" films I could find. I remember seeing Panorama as the only source for those titles.

I think that felllow "region A" Ozu enthusiasts, such as myself are simply thrilled that these are not only being released, but are being released at a fairly fast clip!

[pro-bassoonist]

[Arkadin]

wow, that cover of Requiem makes me think of that crazy b movie where the old folks are being forced to leave their building and they end up burying some guy alive with concrete. anybody ever see that one?
can't remember the name.
what a classic

[KrugerIndustrial]

Are there any BFI insiders on this forum? I have three BFI titles that I own and I'd need to replace the booklets. They are quite thick and I can only assume they were damaged during shipping.

[Opdef]

Originally Posted by KrugerIndustrial

Are there any BFI insiders on this forum? I have three BFI titles that I own and I'd need to replace the booklets. They are quite thick and I can only assume they were damaged during shipping.

I've had this issue with a few of the BFI ones, due to the size of the booklets. I've learnt to live with it, but you could just return the whole thing from wherever you got it from and they should replace it.