British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[Cecil B. DeMille]

Does anybody know whether Jerzy Skolimowski's EO and/or The Haunting of Julia will be encoded by Fidelity in motion?

[gothicform]

I'm going to make an educated guess we'll see a restoration of the Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) released in conjunction with the Danish film institute.

[Django100]

I joined up at the site but their prices are ridiculously expensive! When they get more profit from selling the films themselves why charge so much?

[Yami]

Originally Posted by gothicform

I'm going to make an educated guess we'll see a restoration of the Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) released in conjunction with the Danish film institute.

Why? Eureka have already released the Danish restoration. If anyone else were to do another UK release (which doesn't seem likely) then they'd surely make use of the superior Gaumont restoration.

[rapta]

BFI teasing June announcements on Thursday with an image of Elizabeth Taylor in Identikit (1974).

[trobrianders]

Originally Posted by rapta

BFI teasing June announcements on Thursday with an image of Elizabeth Taylor in Identikit (1974).

aka The Diver's Seat. Just saw the trailer. Looks seriously demented. The Slant review is good on it; how Taylor's reward of an Oscar for an unhinged performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? made her seek out ever-increasingly nutty roles. This'll be a great release. A film in huge need of contextualising extras.

[grahams76]

Originally Posted by rapta

BFI teasing June announcements on Thursday with an image of Elizabeth Taylor in Identikit (1974).

Nice. I almost bought Severin's House Of Psychotic Women box to get that and Footprints. Hopefully the latter gets a single release soon too.

[wabrit]

Originally Posted by trobrianders

aka The Diver's Seat. Just saw the trailer. Looks seriously demented. The Slant review is good on it; how Taylor's reward of an Oscar for an unhinged performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? made her seek out ever-increasingly nutty roles. This'll be a great release. A film in huge need of contextualising extras.

Have been wanting to see this ever since reading Muriel Spark's novel; if it stays anywhere near faithful to the source, it should be a nutty delight.

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by grahams76

Nice. I almost bought Severin's House Of Psychotic Women box to get that and Footprints. Hopefully the latter gets a single release soon too.

Depends whether Shameless have lost the rights or not.

[grahams76]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

Depends whether Shameless have lost the rights or not.

For the UK, any decent solo release worldwide that doesn't cost an arm and a leg will be a purchase for me.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by rapta

BFI teasing June announcements on Thursday with an image of Elizabeth Taylor in Identikit (1974).

Happy to see it get a UK release, but would rather get the Severin boxset.

New titles are:

I Am Weekender/Weekender

https://shop.bfi.org.uk/i-am-weekender.html

Western Approaches

https://shop.bfi.org.uk/western-appr...t-edition.html

The Driver’s Seat [Identikit]

https://shop.bfi.org.uk/the-driver-s-seat.html

[CouncilSpectre]

In for WA

[magnetiques]

definitely into weekender

[Django100]

I'm in for 'The Driver's Seat'.

[CelestialAgent]

No mention of Blu-rays, but Robin Baker has curated Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger (full details announced at the end of June), including 4K remasters (BFI National Archive and five from The Film Foundation) and rarities “seen for the first time in many decades – including solo projects, early works as well as a substantial collection of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s home movies”, “BFI Distribution re-releases; a UK-wide cinema programme presented in collaboration with the BFI Film Audience Network”, a retrospective programme (16th October-31st December) and The Red Shoes 75th anniversary exhibition at Southbank (comprising “costume and production designs, treatments, personal correspondence, behind the scenes photography and posters” taken from personal collections/archives), BFI Player collection and books.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/cinema-u...ll-pressburger

[rapta]

Maybe it could get the ball rolling on Blu-rays of I Know Where I'm Going especially, but also 49th Parralel, The Spy in Black, The Battle of the River Plate and maybe even A Canterbury Tale and Ill Met By Moonlight. All of those are in ITV custody, with a few of them getting French Blu-rays (no idea as to the quality though; perhaps they'd need remastering).

That said, more likely they'd get Network discs, or even a box set if we're lucky, unless ITV bother doing some themselves (likely they'd only do I Know Where I'm Going and A Canterbury Tale, if any). Same goes for The Small Back Room, which is with StudioCanal; I was hoping Indicator might rescue it, but more likely SC or Network will.

[Yami]

I suspect if there were going to be any home video releases then they would have mentioned them in the press release, but if there are then they're likely to be along the lines of Bluebeard's Castle (recently restored) or Powell's early 'quota quickies' Rynox and Hotel Splendide.

[DavidRoylance]

If The Phantom Light is in any way typical of Michael Powell's quota-quickie films, then they will all be quite the revelation, assuming the BFI go there. He had a similar sure hand with thrillers to Hitchcock, I feel.

[CelestialAgent]

BFI have also acquired Joanna Hogg’s most recent film The Eternal Daughter (reteaming with Tilda Swinton as a spiritual sequel to The Souvenir - so technically the third film in that series to go to a different UK distributor after Curzon and Picturehouse!) - however despite releasing in the US last December, they’re not planning a theatrical release until the autumn alongside a BFI Southbank Hogg retrospective, though it makes sense if it’s a ghost story rather than a summer release (considering next few months are already planned out.) Hopefully they’ll also give this a Blu-ray (same for God’s Creatures), or maybe there could be an A24 webstore exclusive within the next six months?

https://deadline.com/2023/03/the-ete...nd-1235306691/

[Hammerlover]

BFI should release a special 4K edition of O LUCKY MAN!