British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[sjt]

Originally Posted by UnionJackMix

Having received TT's Dragonwyck I was delighted to be able to watch Gene Tierney's Biography "A Shattered Portrait": what a life she had.
I now had another look at her filmography and noticed the the BFI is going to release The Razor's Edge and it's out in what a month, but still no artwork uploaded here: is there really no advance look around yet?

The release has been put back - has any S1 title ever arrived as announced? - until 30th November, which allows them more artwork leeway. The original Fox release of this on BD in the US was well over 5 years ago - their last Studio Classics offering to the best of my knowledge, and one of their last catalogue releases before giving them up altogether - and didn't offer much beyond a very fragmentary joint commentary. And the picture wasn't in all that good a shape either, from a decidedly dated master, with a fair amount of spots and scratches. It'll be interesting to see whether S1 can improve on Fox's own effort (in a film of quite bludgeoning boredom, alas, greatly outstaying its welcome at 145').

[gap]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

I've still heard nothing and I can't remember my login for the website I'll have a look in store in HMV for a copy though

My CEX copy of Harold and Maude arrived absolutely pristine as well

Originally Posted by gap

I find that, in general, the boutique label releases are nearly always mint. I suppose the average joe doesn't buy them so once they have been sold, they sit untouched until another collector-type picks them up.

My L'Age D'Or arrived from CEX this morning - the last copy on their website when I ordered last Thursday. Absolutely mint condition disc, box and booklet.

[Wes M.]

Originally Posted by Wes M.

10 days on from placing an order for L'age d'or, Simply Home Entertainment have yet to send me a cancellation email ! At this point, it's getting on my nerves. I'm thinking of that line from a jumpy Frederic Forrest in Apocalypse Now: "Why don't they f**kin attack, man!"

@CelestialAgent - did you hear anything from them about your order ?

One last post to close this one out. I had to mail Simply Home Entertainment yesterday to tell them that the title appeared out of stock. I reckon it was before I placed the order and I do wonder how long it would have taken SHE to mail me to confirm - not sure I would use them again. Anyhow, the order is officially cancelled. Actually, I'm not terribly upset I missed this one, I have the old ragged looking BFI DVD edition but honestly I was never very fond of the films. I definitely won't be paying OOP prices for the BFI BR. I'm sure it will make a return at some point. Well done to everyone who snatched a copy from the jaws of oblivion !

[wabrit]

Originally Posted by Wes M.

One last post to close this one out. I had to mail Simply Home Entertainment yesterday to tell them that the title appeared out of stock. I reckon it was before I placed the order and I do wonder how long it would have taken SHE to mail me to confirm - not sure I would use them again. Anyhow, the order is officially cancelled. Actually, I'm not terribly upset I missed this one, I have the old ragged looking BFI DVD edition but honestly I was never very fond of the films. I definitely won't be paying OOP prices for the BFI BR. I'm sure it will make a return at some point. Well done to everyone who snatched a copy from the jaws of oblivion !

Simply took over what used to be a brilliant Mom 'n' Pop operation called MovieMail that I used to get most of my disks from; they were great, really personal and reliable service. Sad to see what became of it.

[Spiderwalk]

Originally Posted by wabrit

Simply took over what used to be a brilliant Mom 'n' Pop operation called MovieMail that I used to get most of my disks from; they were great, really personal and reliable service. Sad to see what became of it.

MovieMail were one of the best online retailers for many years, but when they sold their business to Simply Media it went downhill really fast! I avoid them like the plague now.

[Wes M.]

Originally Posted by Spiderwalk

MovieMail were one of the best online retailers for many years, but when they sold their business to Simply Media it went downhill really fast! I avoid them like the plague now.

Ah, I wasn't aware of the connection. I often bought DVDs from Moviemail and I very much enjoyed their 15min podcast with..... was it Graham Hobbs ?

Incidentally, no malice towards the poster who pointed me to Simply a few pages back - it was a kind gesture, I just happened to be unlucky to order in that twilight zone of depleting stock levels.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by Spiderwalk

MovieMail were one of the best online retailers for many years, but when they sold their business to Simply Media it went downhill really fast! I avoid them like the plague now.

It’s confusing on TrustPilot because it conflates the two businesses. But you can see the decline in quality play out

[SeanJoyce]

£39.99 is a good price, but what are the chances of the Herzog collection taking another dip in price? Should I wait until closer to the holidays?

[wabrit]

Originally Posted by Wes M.

Ah, I wasn't aware of the connection. I often bought DVDs from Moviemail and I very much enjoyed their 15min podcast with..... was it Graham Hobbs ?

I think it was; it was a small business and you felt you actually got to know most of the staff by name. They even gave me a discount on orders because i used to buy so much from them, and they were passionate and enthusiastic about film. It was really sad when they sold the business but i imagine financially they may not have had much choice.

[MillyD]

Talking about online retailers do people know if https://www.moviesandgamesonline.co.uk/ is a reliable site. Bought Chaplin Mutual Comedies from it, and was one of the first times blu-ray went missing. They have been in touch for sending another one... Annoyingly it came back in stock again on Rarewaves, slightly cheaper.

[benkell]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

£39.99 is a good price, but what are the chances of the Herzog collection taking another dip in price? Should I wait until closer to the holidays?

It is a fair price but has been lower, i bought it for £27.99 plus postage from the BFI store in a sale, just checked my account and that was in May 2019,i don't know if they have had a sale this year.

[Rutger Lundgren]

Originally Posted by benkell

It is a fair price but has been lower, i bought it for £27.99 plus postage from the BFI store in a sale, just checked my account and that was in May 2019,i don't know if they have had a sale this year.

It went on sale this May as well, only it was £32.99 plus postage, which is still a good price.

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

£39.99 is a good price, but what are the chances of the Herzog collection taking another dip in price? Should I wait until closer to the holidays?

I think I got it for £26.99 somewhere online but I can't remember where from though.

[UnionJackMix]

Why is "Mademoiselle" suddenly not available on amazon when it's due out tomorrow?

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jayembee

I've got an order pending from BFI with Carmen Jones in it. It's been pending for a month now. I hope to hell I manage to get that title (and their edition of Night and the City). I wrote to them about it, but haven't gotten a reply yet.

The above posting was from July 24th. I'd continued trying to contact them by various methods on-line methods, plus calling them at the phone number they provide in their order acknowledgment emails. No dice.

Finally, I sent another email, and CC'd it to the BFI "Membership" team. The BFI Shop folks still didn't seem to get this email (maybe my email was somehow getting trapped in a spam filter), but the Membership folks forwarded it to them, and they got that.

Turns out, the ball got seriously dropped. They actually found my order on a shelf, all boxed up and ready to go, but no one managed to notify Royal Mail that there was a package to pick up. So it's been sitting there on that shelf for that last three months. Now it's on its way.

On the upside, since the order was packaged back at the end of June, the two Fox titles that have since gone OOP are there in the package. Now all I need to worry about is the package being lost or damaged by USPS.

I sympathize with much of their staff being furloughed because of Covid, but for the foreseeable future, I'm going to have to buy their titles through Base, Deff, Rarewaves, or whomever.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by UnionJackMix

Why is "Mademoiselle" suddenly not available on amazon when it's due out tomorrow?

The obvious answer is "Because it's Amazon". My experience has been (especially in these Covid Times) that even if Amazon has a product in stock, they still take upwards of a week to actually send something on its way.

[burdette]

Is the Soviet Influence 2: Battelship Potemkin and Drifters a release that is worth picking up? I've actually never seen Potemkin...

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jayembee

On the upside, since the order was packaged back at the end of June, the two Fox titles that have since gone OOP are there in the package. Now all I need to worry about is the package being lost or damaged by USPS.

By the by, when I was concerned about getting the Fox titles before they went OOP, I ended up ordering a copy of Carmen Jones from Deff.

I had a copy of Criterion's edition of Night and the City, so I wasn't worried about that so much, but I'd never gotten around to getting the Fox Studio Classics BD of Carmen Jones, and that was becoming difficult to find.

Anyway, once my BFI order arrives, I'll have an extra copy of Carmen Jones, in case anyone wants to make a deal for the price I paid (£12.49, or about US$16) + shipping, or work out a trade.

[Razorhead]

Originally Posted by burdette

Is the Soviet Influence 2: Battelship Potemkin and Drifters a release that is worth picking up? I've actually never seen Potemkin...

Can't speak for Drifters but BP a must watch. It's far more interesting than its reputation as that Soviet film that invented montage editing suggests.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Razorhead

Can't speak for Drifters but BP a must watch. It's far more interesting than its reputation as that Soviet film that invented montage editing suggests.

Pretty much any Eisenstein is worth watching.