British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[CelestialAgent]

Not sure if this is the first time this has happened but Michael Powell: Early Works is a scanavo with a full height booklet, rather than Amaray height

[bleedandtrim]

BFI were advertising Ramsay's Morvern Callar streaming on BFIPlayer - was it available previously? Would be typical if they announced a BD after I just imported the FCE release, but people seemed to think music rights were blocking it previously?

[CelestialAgent]

Like with Thundercrack, BFI Player doesn’t necessarily equal a BFI disc, although certainly films like Maeve were streaming on BFI before the disc, and she has a new film out in the autumn.

[Sifox211]

Originally Posted by bleedandtrim

BFI were advertising Ramsay's Morvern Callar streaming on BFIPlayer - was it available previously? Would be typical if they announced a BD after I just imported the FCE release, but people seemed to think music rights were blocking it previously?

I also just bought the FCE edition, but as it was only £11 shipped to the UK I won't be heartbroken if another edition appears!

[Seasnake30]

Has anyone bought Stray Dogs or High and Low recently and got the first pressing with the booklets?

[CelestialAgent]

Doesn't guarantee a disc (but likely given their other Davies releases), but BFI are reissuing The House of Mirth in UK cinemas on 24th October, and they're also releasing The Housemaid on 7th November.

[dallywhitty]

The BFI are re-releasing Battleship Potemkin on Blu-ray with the Pet Shop Boys score (which is also included on CD).

A fixture in the critical canon almost since its premiere, Sergei Eisenstein’s legendary film about a 1905 naval mutiny was revolutionary in both form and content. Battleship Potemkin is celebrated for its dynamic compositional strength and editing of such frame-perfect precision that it’s hard not to be swept along. Despite endless quotation and parody, the set-piece massacre on the Odessa Steps still packs a sledgehammer punch.

First revealed at a special outdoor screening in front of an estimated 25,000 in Trafalgar Square in 2004, Pet Shop Boys’ score, performed with the Dresdner Sinfoniker and orchestrated by Torsten Rasch, blends electronic beats with orchestral grandeur to create a contemporary cinematic experience.

Extras

Hochhaussinfonie (2017, 68 mins): a multimedia musical production by the Dresdner Sinfoniker orchestra and Pet Shop Boys, conceived by Markus Rindt and directed by Sven Helbig, on the evening of 20 July 2006, in Dresden
Trafalgar Square Highlights (2004, 4 mins): a behind-the-scenes film when Pet Shop Boys performed their newly composed score for*Battleship Potemkin, accompanied by the Dresdner Sinfoniker orchestra in Trafalgar Square, London
CD featuring the score by Pet Shop Boys and Dresdner Sinfoniker
Trailer (2025)
**LIMITED EDITION** Illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Chris Heath and Sarah Cleary, and archive pieces by Neil Tennant and Michael Brooke

[MaciejCichosz]

Well, that's a welcome surprise!

[Wendell Armbruster]

I noticed they're releasing the soundtrack on vinyl but good to see this blu-ray coming. Never got to see the film with their music.

Interesting it's being released on a Friday and paired with a CD, are they hoping to dent the music charts when combined with the other formats?

[OnlyJapantown]

Battleship Potemkin is probably the movie I'm most ashamed of never having watched. Time to rectify that!

[Ben_C]

Not sure about that front cover.

[MifuneFan]

New BFI Trailer

New trailer for Battleship Potemkin (1925) | Music by Pet Shop Boys | In cinemas 22 Aug - YouTube

[CrockettandTubbs]

Originally Posted by OnlyJapantown

Battleship Potemkin is probably the movie I'm most ashamed of never having watched. Time to rectify that!

Saw it in a film studies class in the late 80s!

[Sifox211]

Originally Posted by Ben_C

Not sure about that front cover.

It's horrific. I've noticed a tendency over the years in the BFI to choose the ugliest or most kitchen-sink covers for their releases*. Perhaps they think it makes them more relevant and less middle class? As if collecting Blu-rays of obscure films isn't the most middle class thing you could be doing

* See also all the recent Kurosawa UHDs.

[TooOldToDieYoung]

WTF is up with that cover? Looks like 15 minutes of effort, this must be a new low.

[jackranderson]

Shame it doesn't include everything from "The Soviet Influence"

[poisonmail]

I wish some of Eisenstein’s work that’s trapped on DVD was getting some attention but on the other hand as a massive Pet Shop Boys fan I’m very excited for this.

[koberulz]

I get the impression it's a release of the soundtrack with the film accompanying it, rather than a release of the film qua the film.

[Mothravka]

Would be more excited if the film got a 4K UHD release, it deserves that. I might upgrade my Swedish Blu-ray from 2009 if it also includes another score. Could also do without the CD.

[Anthony Thorne]

Originally Posted by TooOldToDieYoung

WTF is up with that cover? Looks like 15 minutes of effort, this must be a new low.

There's a Pet Shop Boys soundtrack, with a Pet Shop Boys CD included, and the Pet Shop Boys highlighted on the cover, and you're asking why it has a cover with a young, wide-eyed male with his mouth wide open? It should take you ten seconds to figure it out.

I think (could be wrong) it was Marlene Dietrich who wrote in her biography she enjoyed POTEMKIN for all the homo-erotic shots of 'hunky sailors', so some funny bugger at the BFI has decided to lean into that angle of it.

Just noticed the trailer above with the BFI logo at the end of a big rising cannon. I'm still irked at what the BFI did with their BROTHER warning at the start of the film, but all this is pretty funny.