British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[James78]

Special features

• Presented in High Definition
• India Matri Bhumi (1959, 90 mins): Roberto Rossellini’s part-documentary, part-fiction portrait of India
• Around India with a Movie Camera (Sandhya Suri, 2018, 73 mins): drawn exclusively from the BFI National Archive and featuring some of the earliest surviving film of India
• Around the River (Arnaud Mandagaran, 2008, 60 mins): a documentary about the production of The River
• Introduction by Kumar Shahani (2006, 16 mins): introduction by the Indian director and screenwriter
• Villenour (French India: Territory of Pondicherry) (1914, 4 mins): a travelogue by Pathé Frères with gorgeous stencil-coloured images of French India
• Manufacturing Ropes and Marine Cables at Howrah, Near Calcutta (1908, 8 mins): an instructional film by Pathé Frères depicting the jute industry
• Trailer
• Stills gallery
• 2-disc limited edition of 3,000 copies
• Illustrated booklet with essays by David Thompson and Dina Iordanova, an interview with Rumer Godden by David Thompson, an archival feature ‘Renoir in Calcutta’ by Satyajit Ray, notes on the special features and full credits

Product details

RRP: £22.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1427 / 12 France, India, USA / 1951 / colour / 99 minutes / English language, with optional subtitles for the Deaf and partial hearing | 1.33:1 aspect ratio // Disc 1: BD50, 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit) // Disc 2 : BD50, 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/16-bit)

[DefLeppard]

Pre-order for The Seventh Seal 4K is up on Deff.com!

[Aclea]

Bergman's funniest comedy. The bit with the tree cracks me up every time.

[BarnDoor]

As are other new releases for Oct/Nov:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Short Sharp Shocks Volume 2

Out Of The Blue

The Seventh Seal (4K UHD)

[CouncilSpectre]

That’s a ridiculously strong line up

[justwannaboogie]

Interested to see how Seventh Seal compares to the Criterion 4K remaster, maybe it won't have such aggressive noise removal.

[Yami]

It will almost certainly be the same 2018 Svensk Filmindustri 4K master; I can't imagine they've done another one. It was the only one from a 4K source in the Criterion set.

[CelestialAgent]

I hope they can create some new extras or find something in the archive for Body Snatchers, it has the Paramount produced extras but not the Olive ones:

Audio Commentary with film historian Richard Harland Smith
“The Stranger in Your Lover’s Eyes” visual essay (11:54)
“The Fear is Real” featurette (12:26)
“I No Longer Belong: The Rise and Fall of Walter Wanger” featurette (21:08)
1985 Archival Interview with actor Kevin McCarthy hosted by Tom Hatten (7:25)
Gallery of rare documents detailing aspects of the film’s production
Essay by author and film programmer Kier-La Janisse
Original Theatrical Trailer (2:15)

Of course Eureka produced their own extras for films like Johnny Guitar, Rio Grande which can definitely be considered worthy of double dips in their own rights.

I was turned off the BFI release of Hair as the unique extras are Nicholas Ray in Conversation and a handful of shorts tangentially related to the period - so I suppose I could buy it for Aquarius (1966) and save myself the £1 BFI Player rental fee, but the other shorts are available online (I watched Discomania for free on BFI Player and it's a blast!) The Olive Signature edition is much stronger in terms of extras, though the upcoming Capelight mediabook seems like a missed opportunity as the only extra seems to be the CD soundtrack.

Very happy to see more 50s monster movies and horror on Blu though!

Not watched the first volume yet but quite a few of the films on Short Sharp Shocks vol. 2 sound interesting: Hangman, The Dumb Waiter, Mark of Lilith.

No reviews of Face of Darkness on Letterboxd but the concept sounds fascinating!

[justwannaboogie]

Originally Posted by Yami

It will almost certainly be the same 2018 Svensk Filmindustri 4K master; I can't imagine they've done another one. It was the only one from a 4K source in the Criterion set.

Agreed, the source will very likely be the same but if Criterion did some extra tinkering on their end it may not be present on this new release.

[mmarczi]

I thought you people were joking when I first read of a Seventh Seal 4K. My personal favorite film of all time, so obviously a day one for me.

[andantelise]

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

As are other new releases for Oct/Nov:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Short Sharp Shocks Volume 2

Out Of The Blue

The Seventh Seal (4K UHD)

I wonder if it's just UHD or DV or HDR as well.

[Gerby]

I'm in for all 3 blu ray's which is rare for me nowadays.
Short Sharp Shocks Vol.2 will be worth it just for The Dumb Waiter alone, that's a standout short.

[HTMLJames]

Would have preferred Persona in 4K, though I think that was only remastered in 2K. I'll probably still get this one to show my support, price permitting.

What I find most interesting about that product listing - the Cat. No. is BFIUD002! so hopefully at least one other 4K disc is on it's way, I doubt it's Bergman as it looks like The Seventh Seal is the only 4K remaster, with everything else being 2K. Maybe the next one will be a British film? It would have to be a big seller, so maybe something from the Film4 library like Trainspotting or Shallow Grave. Or perhaps a re-release of something like La Haine or Tokyo Story.

[Ben_C]

So, with the Seventh Seal announcement, are we now going to play the “most wanted UHDs from BFI” game?

[latehong]

I was kind of hoping Eureka would get Invasion of the Body Snatcher and make an unofficial original ending cut by cutting out the last 'happy ending' scene and smuggle it into the disc as an easter egg, as they did with the reconstructed cut of Murders at the Rue Morgue in Three Edgar Allen Poe Adaptations Starring Bela Lugosi release. Oh well.

[BarnDoor]

More:

Ingmar Bergman Volume Two

Bleak Moments

Naked

Les Enfants Terribles

[CrockettandTubbs]

Bergman vol.2 -

• Audio commentary on The Seventh Seal by film critic and editor-in-chief of Diabolique magazine, Kat Ellinger
• Perfect-bound book featuring new essays by David Jenkins, Ellen Cheshire, Leigh Singer, Kieron McCormack, Philip Kemp, Jessica Kiang, Geoff Andrew and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
  
• Other extras TBC

[jackranderson]

Originally Posted by BarnDoor

More:

Ingmar Bergman Volume Two

Bleak Moments

Naked

Les Enfants Terribles

BFI win this month.

[anceps]

Originally Posted by jackranderson

BFI win this month.

I think that's probably the best month of releases from any boutique I've ever seen.

[justwannaboogie]

That's a hell of a slate. I look forward to BFI's announcements as much as Eureka's these days.