British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[profondomondo]

Originally Posted by spacenoid1

They took down the shameless promotion to make way for the bfi one in Manchester fopp. They may still have some shameless disc on shelves if you look. The arrow sale probably has ended since its ended at hmv (though it was still there last weekend).

Thanks,that's okay,i'm not interested in Shameless at all,i was more curious if they had any Odeon or Second Sight mainly or maybe the odd Arrow/88 still sitting about.

I know this time last year they had a lot of boutique labels on offer,just trying to figure out how much i'm potentially going to need.

If there is only those 3 BFI titles,probably not worth making the trip

[spacenoid1]

They had second sight and odeon discs on offer during October. Seems to have ended now. Its mainly bfi and artificial eye now. Though arrow was still up last weekend I think that's probably gone now.

[profondomondo]

Originally Posted by spacenoid1

They had second sight and odeon discs on offer during October. Seems to have ended now. Its mainly bfi and artificial eye now. Though arrow was still up last weekend I think that's probably gone now.

Ah bugger,that's when i usually make the trip(i spent about £150 in there this time last year),but i didn't have any other reason to go this year,i should of asked on here at that time,nevermind.

I'll have to try and pick up what i want online,maybe those 3 BFI titles will end up in the HMV 5 for 30 eventually.

[BarnDoor]

Does anyone know if Distant Voices, Still Lives is in the 2 for £25 in-store at HMV or Fopp? I know it's not online, but I'm pretty sure I saw Eye of the Needle in the offer in-store and it's the same situation online. Only I'm hoping The Entertainer and Look Back in Anger are treated similarly, no idea what's going on with the online side of things.

[Yami]

I managed to catch the new restoration of Distant Voices, Still Lives at the Glasgow Film Theatre the other day. Needless to say it was excellent - much grainier in darker areas than I would have expected, particularly in early scenes, but I assume this was down to whatever film stock Davies used. Fingers crossed that his other films get equal treatment soon; I'm actually surprised that the BFI didn't upgrade their entire DVD box set.

[Mister Zob]

My test of An Actor's Revenge is up: https://newzobhotel.blogspot.com/201...-b-uk-bfi.html

Some additional screengrabs here too:

[Show spoiler]

[rossbirks]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

Does anyone know if Distant Voices, Still Lives is in the 2 for £25 in-store at HMV or Fopp? I know it's not online, but I'm pretty sure I saw Eye of the Needle in the offer in-store and it's the same situation online. Only I'm hoping The Entertainer and Look Back in Anger are treated similarly, no idea what's going on with the online side of things.

Checked in store the other day and it wasn't in the offer there either sadly. Was going to pick this up with Comfort of Strangers but the 2 for £25 deal seems to be hit or miss on BFI titles lately. Maybe in a few weeks it will be included.

[s-hell]

Originally Posted by Mister Zob

My test of An Actor's Revenge is up: ...

You are right, the aspect ratio is a bit strange. The BFI cover says it's 2.35:1 (really closer to 2.3:1), the Criterion is 2.39:1. The BFI image is vertically compressed compared to the Criterion, or the Criterion stretched compared to the BFI.

The older DVD editions also have the BFI's AR, 2.35:1. See this screencap, which corresponds (roughly, at least) to DVDBeaver's 3rd cap:

[Show spoiler]
BFI BD:
BFI_An_Actors_Revenge_2018_BD_03.jpg

Criterion BD (dvdbeaver):

[justwannaboogie]

Not very impressed with these 'sale' prices!

https://shop.bfi.org.uk/black-friday-offers.html

[TheDot]

Originally Posted by justwannaboogie

Not very impressed with these 'sale' prices!

https://shop.bfi.org.uk/black-friday-offers.html

Yeah, when does the sale actually start

[Cremildo]

Originally Posted by justwannaboogie

Not very impressed with these 'sale' prices!

https://shop.bfi.org.uk/black-friday-offers.html

Terrible!

[fdm]

The Alan Clarke box set isn't too bad, compared to what I paid a year ago from them. But at this point it just reminds me of my copy's arriving with dented up corners . And also of how I probably should have waited even longer to get one… and from somebody else .

[s-hell]

Originally Posted by floor pie

I watched An Actor's Revenge tonight. I'm curious, did anyone else who has seen the BFI release experience any macroblocking, especially in the opening half of the film? I'm not a hundred percent sure I'm using the correct term (not a technical expert in any way), but for example it was very noticeable in some transitions between scenes, with waves or halos of pixels occurring with changes in brightness. [...]

Originally Posted by Mister Zob

My test of An Actor's Revenge is up: https://newzobhotel.blogspot.com/201...-b-uk-bfi.html

From review: There's something really wrong with the encode, here. It shows significant compression issues. Banding keeps showing up, sometimes in a rather obvious and intrusive way (see screenshots #7, #8 and #10).
Additionally, the movie is presented in an unsual 2.30:1 aspect ratio, which seems to be vertically stretched, when compared to the US 2.39:1 release.

I had a look at the BFI's An Actor's Revenge/Yukinojo Henge after Mister Zob's review:

The aspect ratio on the BFI (2.3:1) seems good to me. The Daiei logo at the beginning doesn't look compressed vertically, and the frame enlargements in Ian Breakwell's 1995 BFI Film Classics book are sized similarly, 109 x 49 mm = 2.25:1. So I guess that it's rather the Criterion's image which is stretched vertically a bit (to 2.39:1).

But I agree that there are some compression issues with the BFI disc. I assume the film could be a bit difficult to encode due to its frequent canvas-like background colouring, but the colour banding is really heavy, not to say blatant, at 0:42:21-0:42:45 (after dialogue "your father hanged himself"). It's a sequence of changing stage lighting and several dissolves, which is visually complex, and the bitrate drops to 10-13 mbps variously.

A single screencap doesn't really show this too clearly, but in motion it's obvious because the banding has an annoying flowing pulse, for example in this shot (see screen left):

[Show spoiler]BFI_An_Actors_Revenge_BD_screencap_0.42_04.jpg

[justwannaboogie]

The Pasolini set is £22.13 delivered from Zavvi with a discount code.

[jordan-r]

Originally Posted by sjt

I've been in correspondence with the BFI apropos the replacement programme for La belle et la bête; and en passant asked about Edward II. Their reply to me yesterday ended with the comment "I’m hoping to be able to make an Edward II announcement so watch this space!".

So whatever space you watch, carry on watching in fervently hopeful mode....

About this, it will be in the set.

[BarnDoor]

Nice slips on the new individual releases from the Woodfall set:

[Fnord Prefect]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

Nice slips on the new individual releases from the Woodfall set:

Seems odd that the BFI of all people might now have started doing slipcovers. Probably look nice in the flesh but will they significantly increase early sales? Plus I hope they don't do these for their Flipside collection releases as the potentially mismatched spines will be irritating.

Possibly a dumb question but were these from Fopp?

Edit:

Red, White and Zero is £12.99 pre-order at Base.com which unless it slips into the 2 for £25 selection at HMV I can't see it getting any cheaper.

https://www.base.com/fsearch.htm?sea...white+and+zero

[BarnDoor]

That photo is from one of Fopp's twitter accounts, yes.

Base is indeed offering the best prices on new BFI titles, I've ordered The Entertainer and Look Back in Anger from them, the closest thing to 2 for £25.

The BFI have been doing select slips for a while (the Ken Russell sets, the Charlie Chaplin sets, Napoleon, Tom Jones, some other titles I forget), but there doesn't seem to be any particular reasoning as to which titles get slips and which don't. Seems a safe bet the other individual releases from the Woodfall set will get them (did The Knack?)

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

Seems odd that the BFI of all people might now have started doing slipcovers. Probably look nice in the flesh but will they significantly increase early sales? Plus I hope they don't do these for their Flipside collection releases as the potentially mismatched spines will be irritating.[/url]

They did do a slipcover for the 3 disc LE release of this.

[Dougling]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

They did do a slipcover for the 3 disc LE release of this.

Same for the 3-disc release of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.