The Official Network Thread

[malcy30]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

Network have started their own streaming service.

https://watch.networkonair.com/?utm_...eid=974fa5f7f8

Already posted only a few posts up from yours.

It’s rental for 28 days rather than subscription or ownership of the titles you buy.

[Benoit Blanc]

Originally Posted by malcy30

Already posted only a few posts up from yours.

It’s rental for 28 days rather than subscription or ownership of the titles you buy.

Sucks. Why not a monthly subscription?

[Benoit Blanc]

Originally Posted by malcy30

No.

From comments made it would appear Stingray and The New Avengers are closer to release.

Ooh, what comments? I can't wait to see Purdey kicking face in HD.

[Benoit Blanc]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

I would love that. Though I need to get the Studiocanal Blus of The Avengers or least the Emma Peel seasons. Maybe during the holidays. There's just so many BluRays for me to buy at the moment.

I've got all the Studiocanal Blus.

[Hintermann]

I just received Alfred Hitchcock's original silent (1927) film The Lodger. Its is a great package from Network containing 2 bonus CDs with Nitin Sawhney's score and a booklet with an essay by Neil Sinyard.

It cost £9, less than half of the Criterion release. A friend, who has double-dipped this film, said that the PQ is equally good in both releases but Sinyard's essay far better than Phil Kemp's (from Criterion). That and the music CDs clinched it for me.

[kidc]

Sawhney's score for The Lodger is hideously inappropriate.

[Koroshiya Ichi]

Originally Posted by kidc

Sawhney's score for The Lodger is hideously inappropriate.

Exactly.
While the overall package of the Network release is great, I had to buy the Criterion release afterwards to actually enjoy the movie. I do normally appreciate it when composers try new music for silent films, but this was way too distracting. A choice for a more vintage track would've been nice.

[Hintermann]

OK, I'll wait and see. If the score is distracting I'll get the Criterion too.

Mind you, tastes can vary. I have never liked Carl Davis' score for the 1924 silent version of Thief of Bagdad; So, although I own the Cohen BD (which has the Davis score, as does the Eureka release, I presume), I prefer to watch that film on my old Kino Lorber DVD which has the Mont Alto score.

[Koroshiya Ichi]

Originally Posted by Hintermann

OK, I'll wait and see. If the score is distracting I'll get the Criterion too.

Mind you, tastes can vary. I have never liked Carl Davis' score for the 1924 silent version of Thief of Bagdad; So, although I own the Cohen BD (which has the Davis score, as does the Eureka release, I presume), I prefer to watch that film on my old Kino Lorber DVD which has the Mont Alto score.

You're absolutely right that tastes are relative. Let's just say that if you like actual singing in a silent movie soundtrack, you'll probably be fine with Network's release.
In any case, I'd be surprised if you don't like the release in general .

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by Hintermann

I just received Alfred Hitchcock's original silent (1927) film The Lodger. Its is a great package from Network containing 2 bonus CDs with Nitin Sawhney's score and a booklet with an essay by Neil Sinyard.

It cost £9, less than half of the Criterion release. A friend, who has double-dipped this film, said that the PQ is equally good in both releases but Sinyard's essay far better than Phil Kemp's (from Criterion). That and the music CDs clinched it for me.

A reminder however that the Criterion also has the secondary Hitchcock silent, Downhill (1927) film.

[Hintermann]

I have this psychological thing about double-dipping; my OCD type personality rebels against it. In fact, there are only two films that I have done so.

1. On The Beach: I have had the barebones and Region A locked Kino Lorber disc for a few years. Decided to take to to our second home where I have our other multiregion BD player. I recently bought the Signal One UK release for the extras, particularly the Donna Anderson interview.

2. Things to Come: I own both the Network and Criterion BDs for the different and very good set of extras.

[nitin]

The Network blu of The Lodger is guaranteed to be your third.

That score is mind bogglingly wrongheaded.

[Hintermann]

Originally Posted by nitin

The Network blu of The Lodger is guaranteed to be your third.

That score is mind bogglingly wrongheaded.

It must be, coming from you. After all, the composer is your namesake.

[Aclea]

That score is wildly problematic: Nitin Sawhney wrote a fine score for the BFI’s restored release of A Throw Of Dice where he was perfectly suited to the material, but his efforts here are a very mixed bag.

Despite his curious assertion that it’s a very British film when the style is often anything but (the Germanic influence is unmistakeable), he opts for a very unBritish and modern score that sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t but never seems like an ideal fit for the film. Its absolute nadir is when it suddenly breaks into a pop song as the Lodger and Daisy first start to connect, which is particularly jarring and ill-judged. It’s not that it’s a bad song, but it’s the wrong song telling the wrong story in the wrong part of the film. Worse, it overpowers the scene, turning it into a distraction from the lyrics and reduces the film to the kind of 80s music video that used to use silent movie footage out of context.

It’s not the only time he gravely misjudged the tone of a sequence and requirements of the music to support rather than dominate: in one scene where the landlady listens for the muffled, slight sounds of Novello’s lodger creeping back into the house late at night as he attempts not to be heard, despite Hitchcock’s exemplary talent for implying the smallest sounds through imagery, rather than emphasising the stillness and suspense Sawhney plays up the noise to the point of increasingly chaotic cacophony as if unaware of the subtlety of the scene. On the plus side it’s never as bad as the Michael Pohler industrial techno score Kino used on their DVD of Lon Chaney’s The Penalty, but there are times when it overpowers the movie or threatens to pull you out of it.

That the Criterion disc has a new score by the superb Neil Brand is reason enough for a double dip. I've heard him improvising scores for many silent movie screenings in the UK, and he never disappoints - and he's even better when he has time to work on a silent score: his score for the BFI's release of Anthony Asquith's Underground is excellent.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by Hintermann

It must be, coming from you. After all, the composer is your namesake.

Haha for the record, and Aclea does a much better job explaining why, the music is not necessarily bad per se but I have never come across a film score, specifically commissioned, that seems to have such a disregard for the imagery and filmmaking it is meant to augment.

[kidc]

Originally Posted by nitin

but I have never come across a film score, specifically commissioned, that seems to have such a disregard for the imagery and filmmaking it is meant to augment.

For your consideration...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkm2cHkIFe4

[Aclea]

And from the savage customer reviews on amazon.de, that's the most appropriate part of that score by the Tiger Lilies. The UK and US discs include alternate scores as the default options.

[Darby1985]

I thought they'd be hyping The Woman In Black left, right and centre given it's out in 5 days.

[edmoney]

I'm interested in ordering The Woman in Black but would like to add a couple additional titles to my order from Network. Seeing that I've never purchased any Network releases before and am unfamiliar with most of their titles, what are some people's blind buy recommendations of the best Blu-ray releases from Network in terms of both the movies/shows themselves and the picture/audio quality? I understand that many of Network's releases (especially the older ones) have lackluster video and audio, so I prefer to avoid those unless the content is really great. I'm open to anything in terms of genre, time period, etc. (I'm a big fan of Criterion, Kino, Arrow, etc.). Thanks.

[Aclea]

What sort of movies - especially British movies - do you like?

Hell Drivers is a terrific tough thriller with a great cast, Rome Express and The Night Has Eyes good vintage thrillers, The Rebel and The Smallest Show on Earth good comedies, Oh Rosalinda a sporadically delightful Powell and Pressburgerstylised musical, Quatermass an intriguing scifi series and The League of Gentlemen, Perfect Friday, Robbery and Sweeney 2 worthwhile but all quite different heist movies.