British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

According to IMDB he's directed 50 different things & if you discount the 4 TV things he did and going by what you said that leaves 13 items not restored by him.

Or some of the more recent ones didn’t need the same type of restoration. Maybe the ones he did digitally are fine.

[GaryCouzens]

I'm assuming there are no contractual issues with it, but Titicut Follies would be an obvious film to lead a Wiseman set. Especially due to its history as it was effectively banned in the US due to litigation for many years. I saw it at the National Film Theatre (as was) and then on its world television premiere on BBC2 in 1993.

Glad to see this set coming out when Wiseman can still contribute to it. At 95, he's not getting any younger.

[mande2013]

Originally Posted by rapta

Also worth a mention that Eyes Without a Face 4K may obviously come from BFI eventually too.

True, although even with FiM's involvement, BFI always somehow manage to find themselves outdone by Criterion.

BFI seems to have the better UHD of La Haine, but in every other instance where both labels have released the same film on UHD, the Criterion seems to come out on top.

P.S. The Seventh Seal would appear to be a tie for A/V quality, although Criterion has better supplements.

[Deadend45]

Originally Posted by mande2013

True, although even with FiM's involvement, BFI always somehow manage to find themselves outdone by Criterion.

Only to resellers. The BFI UHDs of the Seventh Seal, Yojimbo and Sanjuro have demonstratively better film grain resolving and more detail thanks to far better grading.

But I know the resellers say just the word of Criterion on the case counts more and that everybody should hate FiM as much as they do.

[WinterLand]

Any news on whats happening with the shop, when will it be online again?

I guess they will create a totally new site or something, must be quite an ordeal with what happened.

[McCrutchy]

I believe I just got the last copy of The Caretaker from Amazon:



I know this has come without the booklet for a few years, but surely it isn't going out-of-print? I didn't know, so I acted now.

I also apparently didn't have a copy of Moulin Rouge (1952), which I understand must be going, since it's a Fox title. Amazon now have 8 copies left in stock:



I wish I could have grabbed a copy of Carmen Jones, but it looks like I missed out, as it's a significantly older Fox license from 2016:

[jack182]

Does anyone know if the BFI have any plans to release any of the films in the upcoming Sophia Loren season on Blu-Ray? Quite a few of these are apparently ‘new restorations’ and don’t have any kind of Blu-Ray release worldwide. The Voyage, Heller In Pink Tights, etc.

[Nitroes]

I see Schoonmaker is in conversation with the restored film next month in Edinburgh https://www.edfilmfest.org/thelma-sc...iff25-line-up/

Last film I watched at the Cameo was The Big Lebowski. Some may say the ending strewing Donny's cremated remains is an homage to Powell's Scotland

I would love to see The Edge of the World at a cinema.

A 4K Blu-ray would be nice too.

[jackranderson]

Originally Posted by mande2013

True, although even with FiM's involvement, BFI always somehow manage to find themselves outdone by Criterion.

BFI seems to have the better UHD of La Haine, but in every other instance where both labels have released the same film on UHD, the Criterion seems to come out on top.

P.S. The Seventh Seal would appear to be a tie for A/V quality, although Criterion has better supplements.

I disagree, BFI's 4ks are superior

[jackranderson]

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

I believe I just got the last copy of The Caretaker from Amazon:



I know this has come without the booklet for a few years, but surely it isn't going out-of-print? I didn't know, so I acted now.

I also apparently didn't have a copy of Moulin Rouge (1952), which I understand must be going, since it's a Fox title. Amazon now have 8 copies left in stock:



I wish I could have grabbed a copy of Carmen Jones, but it looks like I missed out, as it's a significantly older Fox license from 2016:

I thought Caretaker was released before the first pressings booklet thingy.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

I also apparently didn't have a copy of Moulin Rouge (1952), which I understand must be going, since it's a Fox title. Amazon now have 8 copies left in stock:

StudioCanal own the film now via their Romulus acquisition.

Originally Posted by jackranderson

I thought Caretaker was released before the first pressings booklet thingy.

I believe they’ve retroactively applied it to older titles as well.

[jackranderson]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

StudioCanal own the film now via their Romulus acquisition.



I believe they’ve retroactively applied it to older titles as well.

Is that so? Every older BFI title I've bought has come as a dual format edition in the older cases with a booklet, but maybe I've just been lucky.

[T4ffer]

Cool, the temporarily offline page's design has been updated

[GaryCouzens]

Originally Posted by Nitroes

I see Schoonmaker is in conversation with the restored film next month in Edinburgh https://www.edfilmfest.org/thelma-sc...iff25-line-up/

Last film I watched at the Cameo was The Big Lebowski. Some may say the ending strewing Donny's cremated remains is an homage to Powell's Scotland

I would love to see The Edge of the World at a cinema.

A 4K Blu-ray would be nice too.

A 35mm nitrate Irish release print of the original version of The Edge of the World came to light recently in an archive (not the BFI's) and had a showing via a digital scan in London recently, presented by Ian Christie. Most of it is much the same as the version we all know (which was Powell's post-War re-edit and I believe he had the music score re-recorded) but there are some interesting alternates to some shots. If the BFI reissued the film on disc again it would be good to include this version.

[GaryCouzens]

Originally Posted by GaryCouzens

I'm assuming there are no contractual issues with it, but Titicut Follies would be an obvious film to lead a Wiseman set. Especially due to its history as it was effectively banned in the US due to litigation for many years. I saw it at the National Film Theatre (as was) and then on its world television premiere on BBC2 in 1993.

Glad to see this set coming out when Wiseman can still contribute to it. At 95, he's not getting any younger.

Ben Stoddart denied on Facebook that a Wiseman set will be among the October-December announcements due presumably next week. However, the BFI Southbank is starting a three-month Wiseman retrospective in its October-November programme, and it looks comprehensive, including the restorations of his 16mm-shot work.

[Aunt Peg]

The icing on the cake for Wiseman's work would be if:

a) Seraphita's Diary (1982) is included (for some reason this has never been available on physical media);

b) Whatever the legal reasons exist that are preventing The Garden (2005) from being shown and made available for a physical media release are resolved.

[mande2013]

Originally Posted by jackranderson

I disagree, BFI's 4ks are superior

Interesting, because I was under the impression the Criterion editions of Seven Samurai and Wages of Fear were considered superior to BFI's. That seems to be the consensus according to the threads on this site for those respective films.

[Deadend45]

Originally Posted by mande2013

Interesting, because I was under the impression the Criterion editions of Seven Samurai and Wages of Fear were considered superior to BFI's. That seems to be the consensus according to the threads on this site for those respective films.

Its a reseller 'consensus' just as they have a 'consensus' that FiM is 'nothing special'. Resellers of Shout and Twilight Time have the exact same 'consensus' about UK and other editions of the same title.

[TheHistorian]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

I believe they’ve retroactively applied it to older titles as well.

Do you recall where you heard that? I was operating on the belief that pre-2018ish would still have booklets.

[Cinematt]

Originally Posted by Deadend45

Its a reseller 'consensus' just as they have a 'consensus' that FiM is 'nothing special'. Resellers of Shout and Twilight Time have the exact same 'consensus' about UK and other editions of the same title.

I believe the general consensus on Seven Samurai was tipped by the subtitles, as Criterion have gone the extra mile and had some really good translations done for their Kurosawa releases. It's a fair position that the script is more important than slightly better encoding or master tweaks (though people argue over what's better on those anyway, it really is close.)