British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[CelestialAgent]

Looks like the BFI edition of A Bigger Splash is OOP and has been reissued by Fabulous. Extra is Interview with the Director, Jack Hazan.

Presumably that’s the same 29 minute interview from the BFI release, that also added a booklet and "Love's Presentation" short by James Scott and "Portrait of David Hockney" featurette.



Here’s Portrait:
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/...ey-1972-online

Love’s Presentation is still on the BFI collection Every Picture Tells a Story - The Art Films of James Scott.

[Fnord Prefect]

Originally Posted by grahams76

I'm struggling with whether I should buy this, having four of the old two-disc DVD editions.

Depends how interested you are in the various films and/or subjects and indeed HD upgrades of them. A breakdown of the crossover content with the DVDs is:

The COI Collection Volume One: Police and Thieves (1 film)
The COI Collection Volume Two: Design for Today (3 films)
The COI Collection Volume Three: They Stand Ready (1 film)
The COI Collection Volume Four: Stop! Look! Listen! (5 films)
The COI Collection Volume Five: Portrait of a People (2 films)
The COI Collection Volume Six: Worth the Risk? (2 films)
The COI Collection Volume Seven: The Queen on Tour (disappointingly no films as some of these are fascinating)
The COI Collection Volume Eight: Your Children and You (1 film)
COI MisinforMation (No films, but as these re-mixes were deliberately compiled from VHS dupes this isn't surprising)

The Best of blu-ray also contains four films that are not on any of the previous BFI COI release:

What a Life (1948) - in SD on the How to be Eccentric: The Films of Richard Massingham and Land of Promise DVDs (thanks FriendlyDragon)
Waverley Steps (1949)
Riding on Air (1959)
Smoking and You (1964)

I'll be buying this because I think these collections are great and hope that, like last years Best of BFI blu-ray, this release is a sign of further themed collections. That said I would have liked more "new" content.

[FriendlyDragon]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

The Best of blu-ray also contains four films that are not on any BFI DVD release:

Waverley Steps (1949)
What a Life (1948)
Riding on Air (1959)
Smoking and You (1964)

Is that the Richard Massingham What a Life? If so, even if it's not on any of the COI sets, it has actually turned up on a couple of previous BFI releases (The Essential Richard Massingham and Land of Promise).

[Fnord Prefect]

Originally Posted by FriendlyDragon

Is that the Richard Massingham What a Life? If so, even if it's not on any of the COI sets, it has actually turned up on a couple of previous BFI releases (The Essential Richard Massingham and Land of Promise).

You're right. The majority of my BFI documentary DVDs aren't currently conveniently at hand. As such I didn't feel like going through all of them, and potentially relevant blu-ray releases, checking the running orders.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Areopagita

Do you think that the fact that the BFI shop is closed may have an impact on the prices of the BFI releases? [...] Should I wait for the shop to open and the prices to fall again?

It's now open again. Just got an email from them:

BFI Shop now fulfilling orders

Our online shop is now able to fulfil orders, including all our new DVD/Blu-ray releases, award-winning box sets and books. Please note that due to the measures we have put in place to ensure staff and customer safety, it may take a little longer than usual to get your order to you.

[Juma83]

One question: How is the general conversions of the BFI blu-rays if you compare to Eureka, Arrow and Criterion? Im trying to complete my blu-ray collection with BFI, specially Kurosawas movies instead for buy them in Criterion in USA.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by Juma83

One question: How is the general conversions of the BFI blu-rays if you compare to Eureka, Arrow and Criterion? Im trying to complete my blu-ray collection with BFI, specially Kurosawas movies instead for buy them in Criterion in USA.

BFI are usually pretty excellent these days but specifically re Kurosawa, the Criterion release of The Seven Samurai is much superior while the BFI boxset releases of Yojimbo and Sanjuro are better than Crierion’s releases.

[Juma83]

Originally Posted by nitin

BFI are usually pretty excellent these days but specifically re Kurosawa, the Criterion release of The Seven Samurai is much superior while the BFI boxset releases of Yojimbo and Sanjuro are better than Crierion’s releases.

This one box?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kurosawa-Sa...7800855&sr=8-3

[nitin]

Originally Posted by Juma83

This one box?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kurosawa-Sa...7800855&sr=8-3

Yes

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by nitin

BFI are usually pretty excellent these days but specifically re Kurosawa, the Criterion release of The Seven Samurai is much superior while the BFI boxset releases of Yojimbo and Sanjuro are better than Crierion’s releases.

In what way are the BFI Yojimbo and Sanjuro boxset copies better than Crierion’s releases?

[Sleazeaddict]

If true i'll grab the bfi for both!

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by Sleazeaddict

If true i'll grab the bfi for both!

The Criterion releases of both films have the original 3.0 track. The BFI set ONLY has the mono track.

[Stoicdelon]

Was cooking up my Ozu shopping list, but then it struck me that BFI might upgrade the rest of the line too, and not just Tokyo Story and Green Tea.

Late Spring, Early Summer, Early Spring and Tokyo Twilight have gotten the 4K treatment (and been released in France, and Japan I presume), while Equinox Flower, Late Autumn, Good Morning and An Autumn Afternoon got 2K remasters.

I guess I'll just buy Good Morning and An Autumn Afternoon from Criterion and get Tokyo Story and Green Tea for now and wait it out..

[nitin]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

In what way are the BFI Yojimbo and Sanjuro boxset copies better than Crierion’s releases?

They are different masters to the Criterion and less digital looking. They are encoded in the wrong colour space but if your player/tv can adjust colour space to RGB, they definitely look superior to the Criterion discs.

[Areopagita]

Originally Posted by Stoicdelon

Was cooking up my Ozu shopping list, but then it struck me that BFI might upgrade the rest of the line too, and not just Tokyo Story and Green Tea.

Late Spring, Early Summer, Early Spring and Tokyo Twilight have gotten the 4K treatment (and been released in France, and Japan I presume), while Equinox Flower, Late Autumn, Good Morning and An Autumn Afternoon got 2K remasters.

I guess I'll just buy Good Morning and An Autumn Afternoon from Criterion and get Tokyo Story and Green Tea for now and wait it out..

Green Tea wasn't released before in any form and Tokyo Story is the most popular Ozu film, so I think these two releases do not necessarily entail further upgrades. Personally, I'd rather see some new films by Ozu (Tokyo Chorus, Passing Fancy, The Story of Floating Weeds). I'm quite pleased with the PQ on these older releases. Criterion's release of An Autumn Afternoon might be superior, but Criterion's Good Morning and the colour films from the Carlotta box seem all too reddish, which I guess is not very faithful to the characteristics of the Agfa stock used by Ozu (correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know Agfa is usually bluish or yellowish, but not reddish).

[Chumpion]

Does anyone know if the Ozu re releases have age ratings on the spine? The photos on their website are just front on. How have the newer releases been? It's hard to track with the new releases since BFI have switched to the new style cases.

I'm a stickler for a uniform row of DVDs

[Stoicdelon]

Originally Posted by Areopagita

Green Tea wasn't released before in any form and Tokyo Story is the most popular Ozu film, so I think these two releases do not necessarily entail further upgrades. Personally, I'd rather see some new films by Ozu (Tokyo Chorus, Passing Fancy, The Story of Floating Weeds). I'm quite pleased with the PQ on these older releases. Criterion's release of An Autumn Afternoon might be superior, but Criterion's Good Morning and the colour films from the Carlotta box seem all too reddish, which I guess is not very faithful to the characteristics of the Agfa stock used by Ozu (correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know Agfa is usually bluish or yellowish, but not reddish).

Actually, I think Agfa film was known to go in red tones/reddish?

The reason to why I'm picking up Good Morning from CC is because the BFI is too green-tinted. Shochiku and Criterion got it right by making it reddish to do justice for that Agfa stock. Not sure how the Carlotta looks.
Also Green Tea has a Blu-ray Criterion release already.

The PQ looks great on the BFIs (I would've bought the majority from them), but if there are upgrades around the corner then I'd regret buying them.

[Areopagita]

Ozu liked the way Agfa stock rendered the colour red, but this doesn't mean that the whole picture was reddish tinted. Actually, the colours were rather muted on Agfa. I think the Eureka Blu-ray of Floating Weeds is quite faithful in terms of colours. What Criterion and Shochiku did was to try to compensate for the greenish grading of the original stock, but I don't find the end result entirely convincing.

If anyone has some more info about Ozu and his use of Agfacolor, please share! I'd like to learn more about it.

[Foggy]

Been frantically looking for High and Low (and other Kurosawa films I need to catch up) during this lockdown, hoping BFI is looking at releasing more of his films soon.

[orfy]

Originally Posted by Chumpion

Does anyone know if the Ozu re releases have age ratings on the spine? The photos on their website are just front on. How have the newer releases been? It's hard to track with the new releases since BFI have switched to the new style cases.

I'm a stickler for a uniform row of DVDs

Can’t definitively but the recent Scanavo releases for Bait and Judgment at Nuremberg had logos on the spine, as does the upcoming Funeral Parade of Roses (which I have my pre-order in for along with Green Tea)

On a related note, have you seen the new Fisher-Price BBFC logos? A whole new world of OCD pain for you right there...
https://www.filmstories.co.uk/news/t...es-right-here/

Haven’t seen any on physical media yet, but hopefully the Ozus avoid them