British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[T4ffer]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

are there any short films from BFI releases people can recommend?

Depends on your threshold for "short". I'd say Ghost Stories for Christmas. But I like all the others too, e.g. Best of British Transport Films.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by ravenus

You mean as bonus features on movie discs or in short film compilations?

I have quite a few of the short collections already like Short Sharp Shocks, COI, B.S. Johnson, De Rome, Jeff Keen, so I meant more in terms of shorts included as extras. Though with the compilations sometimes there’s a few standouts.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

I have quite a few of the short collections already like Short Sharp Shocks, COI, B.S. Johnson, De Rome, Jeff Keen, so I meant more in terms of shorts included as extras. Though with the compilations sometimes there’s a few standouts.

Some things I thought were excellent:

The Bespoke Overcoat, included on The Innocents BD

The shorts on Lotte Reniger's Adventures of Prince Achmed

Fata Morgana on the Aguirre BD

Borom Sarret on the Black Girl BD

The War Game on the Culloden BD

Cabaret documentary on the Salaam Bombay BD

[GaryCouzens]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

I have quite a few of the short collections already like Short Sharp Shocks, COI, B.S. Johnson, De Rome, Jeff Keen, so I meant more in terms of shorts included as extras. Though with the compilations sometimes there’s a few standouts.

I've mentioned it before, but Alone with the Monsters on the Dementia disc. When I watched it, I thought that in 1958 a teenaged woman of colour made a (short) film and no one has mentioned it, to my knowledge. The disc publicity mentioned its DP (Walter Lassally) rather than its writer/director/second-lead actor Nazli Nour, whose only film this was. She was apparently seventeen* when it was made. Information about her is very sparse but apparently she went on to be a poet and is no longer with us.

Alone with the Monsters is a particularly apposite companion to Dementia as it too is a black and white Academy-ratio film (16mm-shot) with no spoken dialogue other than a "Shhh!"

*If the Nazli Nour you can find on FreeBMD was her (birth registered in St Pancras in first quarter of 1939), she was actually nineteen, but still teenaged.

[ricky_dicky]

Regarding Bluebeard's Castle, I was in the BFI Southbank shop earlier and the copies there still had booklets. So if you can't pick a copy up there maybe ordering direct from BFI will increase your chances of getting the booklet.

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Some things I thought were excellent:

The Bespoke Overcoat, included on The Innocents BD

The shorts on Lotte Reniger's Adventures of Prince Achmed

Fata Morgana on the Aguirre BD

Borom Sarret on the Black Girl BD

The War Game on the Culloden BD

Cabaret documentary on the Salaam Bombay BD

The War Game is a TV production & Fata Morgana is 76 mins long. Both are definitely NOT short films.

[CelestialAgent]

Under Academy definitions India Cabaret would be a feature as well. I would describe it as mid-length or a featurette.

[justwannaboogie]

Finally ordered Bluebeard's Castle from Amazon, really hoping for a booklet. I wish BFI would follow the Indicator/Radiance model of switching to a different case type to make it abundantly obvious whether it's limited or not, rather than the irritating 'booklet lottery' Arrow model.

[trobrianders]

Originally Posted by justwannaboogie

Finally ordered Bluebeard's Castle from Amazon, really hoping for a booklet. I wish BFI would follow the Indicator/Radiance model of switching to a different case type to make it abundantly obvious whether it's limited or not, rather than the irritating 'booklet lottery' Arrow model.

They haven't cottoned on yet. Why do something that risks alienating customers for no real gain.

[fatboyslim142]

From the Facebook group:

**Deletion Notice** The following title is now deleted. There are very few copies with major retailers so if you do want it, now's the time!

[Cinematt]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

are there any short films from BFI releases people can recommend?

Not sure what you're in to but there's a great selection of avant garde shorts on the Funeral Parade of Roses disc.

[mande2013]

Rarewaves is having a massive BFI sale by the way.

[rapta]

Just got a copy of Bluebeard's Castle from Amazon with the booklet, but a friend got theirs from HMV online without a booklet...just a warning for those interested. Should've just bought it on release, dunno why I faltered (to be fair I thought someone might buy it for me for Christmas, but they got me The Big Boss instead!).

[trobrianders]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

I have quite a few of the short collections already like Short Sharp Shocks, COI, B.S. Johnson, De Rome, Jeff Keen, so I meant more in terms of shorts included as extras. Though with the compilations sometimes there’s a few standouts.

Compilations and not shorts included as extras but I would say the three volumes of Humphrey Jennings documentaries.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by rapta

Just got a copy of Bluebeard's Castle from Amazon with the booklet, but a friend got theirs from HMV online without a booklet...just a warning for those interested. Should've just bought it on release, dunno why I faltered (to be fair I thought someone might buy it for me for Christmas, but they got me The Big Boss instead!).

As someone who missed the last few Eureka titles and Arrow LEs like Witness and Blood and Black Lace 4K and Death Squad 4K because I assumed they’d stick around (and only found one French retailer with The Draughtsman’s Contract 4K still in stock), it definitely pays off to heed stock warnings, though at the same time, there’s simply too many titles coming out or other things going on life to be able to do that with every title - especially with the number of limited slips and booklets being produced. Maybe was simpler when everything was a standard edition that stayed in print (that also didn’t create FOMO or shift loads of units.) Not everyone will see a message board post or Facebook comment, or in the case of Eureka, Instagram post (some labels will do emails or sections on their website.) It would be nice if every label did PDF booklets as Arrow did, or essays posted on their website like Criterion.

[fdm]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

From the Facebook group:

**Deletion Notice** The following title is now deleted. There are very few copies with major retailers so if you do want it, now's the time!

So what title was deleted?

(Did a quick look at facebook to see if I could find it but didn't see it…)

[Sifox211]

Originally Posted by fdm

So what title was deleted?

(Did a quick look at facebook to see if I could find it but didn't see it…)

From Turksib to Nightmail.

[fabio_p]

Does anybody recently ordered Pocketful of Miracles from Amazon UK?
Want to order but would really like the booklet (first pressing only).

[fdm]

Originally Posted by Sifox211

From Turksib to Nightmail.

Figures that's one I thought I already had and just recently noticed I didn't after all…

[OceanBlue]

Wanted to ask if anyone here has got the BFI's recent Blu-ray release of documentary Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande? I hadn't taken much notice of it until recently when there was an article in a daily newspaper (from a few weeks ago) about the group, followed by seeing the BFI release in a list of forthcoming UK physical media releases on DVD Beaver.