Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[Col Umbus]

The Bounty showed up today. I know many are upset due to delays, but it is only 11 days after the expected release date.

Glad to have this in the collection.

[Rory]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

According to this poll I started, the most wanted OOP title is Mysterious Island, and I really hope it is this!
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=255482

For those who missed out on this title, it's now out in Spain and is Region Free. DVDBeaver says it's the same transfer, but without an isolated score. You can order it from Amazon UK.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-r...nd_blu-ray.htm

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Rory

For those who missed out on this title, it's now out in Spain and is Region Free. DVDBeaver says it's the same transfer, but without an isolated score. You can order it from Amazon UK.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-r...nd_blu-ray.htm

DVD Beaver also says it's a bootleg.

[film11]

Originally Posted by Col Umbus

The Bounty showed up today. I know many are upset due to delays, but it is only 11 days after the expected release date.

Glad to have this in the collection.

Be sure to let us know how it looks/sounds. Thinking of getting this one but just got two other TT titles so I'm awaiting feedback for BOUNTY.

[kong73]

Originally Posted by jayembee

From their Facebook page:



I don't know how almost a week's notice constitutes "shitty".

News flash! Not everyone checks Facebook, I'm not even on it.

[Millibar]

Just finished watching Night of the Generals which I recorded from the TV.

I had this on my wishlist as a blind buy, ive now changed my mind.

The biggest disappointment with this film - for me anyway - was the accents.

I appreciate it's based predominantly on German/French characters but the English plummy accents on some bit part actors is rather off putting.

As for the reporter with the American accent - why?

If you can get over the jarring accents I would expect the transfer to be rather good.

The upscaled TV broadcast via a projector was impressive.

It will be interesting to see what others make of the film rather than just the transfer.

[dragon53]

MILLIBAR:

Accents aside, was NIGHT OF THE GENERALS worth buying?
I saw a few minutes of it on tv many years ago and was wondering if I missed a movie worth having.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by dragon53

MILLIBAR:

Accents aside, was NIGHT OF THE GENERALS worth buying?
I saw a few minutes of it on tv many years ago and was wondering if I missed a movie worth having.

I think it's a fascinating failure. Much derided on its initial release despire reuniting the Lawrence of Arabia team of Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif (who share little screen time) and producer Sam Spiegel, Anatole Litvak's The Night of the Generals is a different kind of epic failure, and much more interesting than many a success of its day.

Clumsily ripped off by the Vietnam movie Saigon/Off Limits, it's big-budget WW2 murder-mystery that goes off in all directions and frequently completely forgets its nominal main character, Omar Sharif's wildly miscast Nazi military policeman on the trail of the German general who brutally killed a Polish prostitute. In truth his part is little more than a cameo: he never does any detecting, merely occasionally getting information and a nice dinner from Philippe Noiret's French detective while the plot flashes forward to 1967 or off on a tangent with the plot to assassinate Hitler. The fact that so much screen time is devoted to unlikely Lothario Tom Courtney chauffeuring psychotic General Peter O'Toole around Paris doesn't exactly help the whodunit element, especially with his tendency to come over all epileptic every time he sees Vincent Van Gogh's self-portrait in the 'degenerate art' section of the Louvre.

Sharif isn't the only curious casting: it appears that the Wehrmacht did their recruiting almost exclusively at RADA, with their ranks swelled by cockney character players and their general staff by the better spoken staples of the British film industry. Somehow it just doesn't seem right to see John Gregson playing a Nazi...

The film is either too long or too short. As a mystery it needs to be tighter and more focused on the original investigation; as an epic exploration of Nazi opportunism, both during and after the war, it needs to be longer. As it stands, it does neither approach justice. But, sprawling and devoid of suspense that it is, the film still holds the interest, partially out of it's overly elaborate staging (there is one particularly impressive sequence of the razing of a Polish ghetto that highlights cinematographer Henri Decae's use of color) and it's over-reaching, misdirected ambition. And just when your attention is ready to stray it will throw in some interesting side-note or line of dialogue, such as Noiret's delicious response to Sharif's statement that one of their generals is a murderer: "Only one?" Sadly the raised question of morality being a simple question of scale - that while mass-murder is admirable in war, individual murder remains abhorrent - gets lost along the way.

[Millibar]

Originally Posted by dragon53

MILLIBAR:

Accents aside, was NIGHT OF THE GENERALS worth buying?
I saw a few minutes of it on tv many years ago and was wondering if I missed a movie worth having.

The review by Aclea nails it. Its hardly a murder mystery and the miscasting is just too hard to ignore.

I wouldnt purchase this as a curio in a bargain bin sale I'm afraid.

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by baheidstu

Yeah, then all we'd have to worry about is our discs rotting.

That has been greatly, greatly exaggerated.

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

DVD Beaver also says it's a bootleg.

well, just comparing now the 2 releases, it seems the Spanish bootleg has better compression and depicts grain better:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/117654

How did they manage to do that if it is a bootleg?

I would LOVE the isolated score, but if TT doesn't rerelease this, I might consider the Spanish Bluray.

[dragon53]

ACLEA:

Thanks for the review...you just saved me some bucks.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

well, just comparing now the 2 releases, it seems the Spanish bootleg has better compression and depicts grain better:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/117654

How did they manage to do that if it is a bootleg?

I would LOVE the isolated score, but if TT doesn't rerelease this, I might consider the Spanish Bluray.

Theoretically it can still be a bootleg. Bootleg doesn't mean it is ripped straight from Twilight Time blu ray same encoding and all. All bootleg means is they are not authorized to release it, and may not have signed a proper contract and/or paid royalties.

If it is indeed a bootleg, there may have been other sources for them besides just the Twilight time disc. Maybe they somehow got their hands on a DCP or had access to a good 35mm print?

I don't know much about counterfeit movies, but I know Europe had all kinds of companies that basically specialized in music bootlegs back in the day - so it wouldn't be all that surprising.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

well, just comparing now the 2 releases, it seems the Spanish bootleg has better compression and depicts grain better:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/117654

How did they manage to do that if it is a bootleg?

Both of those screenshots are heavily compressed (600k) and shouldn't be used as accurate comparisons. The discs have been examined and the video tracks are identical. As you can see they're not the same frame, either. The spanish one could be an I-frame while the US one could be a predicted frame.

[JoeDeM]

Originally Posted by AgentOrange

Theoretically it can still be a bootleg. Bootleg doesn't mean it is ripped straight from Twilight Time blu ray same encoding and all. All bootleg means is they are not authorized to release it, and may not have signed a proper contract and/or paid royalties.

If it is indeed a bootleg, there may have been other sources for them besides just the Twilight time disc. Maybe they somehow got their hands on a DCP or had access to a good 35mm print?

I don't know much about counterfeit movies, but I know Europe had all kinds of companies that basically specialized in music bootlegs back in the day - so it wouldn't be all that surprising.

Didn't someone say it was a BD-R.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by AgentOrange

Theoretically it can still be a bootleg. Bootleg doesn't mean it is ripped straight from Twilight Time blu ray same encoding and all. All bootleg means is they are not authorized to release it, and may not have signed a proper contract and/or paid royalties.

If it is indeed a bootleg, there may have been other sources for them besides just the Twilight time disc. Maybe they somehow got their hands on a DCP or had access to a good 35mm print?

I don't know much about counterfeit movies, but I know Europe had all kinds of companies that basically specialized in music bootlegs back in the day - so it wouldn't be all that surprising.

It is unquestionably taken straight from the Twilight Time disc. Look at the bitrate graphs between the two:

Mysterious Island

Twilight Time:



Resen:




The Big Heat:

TT:



Resen:



Body Double

TT:



Resen:




This is in addition to the fact that they have a more than curious overlap between what TT releases, and what they release, the more obscure titles they release are dead giveaways to me that they're TT rips (e.g. Bell Book and Candle) . And it's always after the TT release. This is also besides the fact that many of their discs are just BD-R's, and there's zero mention on the back of the studio they're licensing it from. I'd also consider the fact that every single release is region free to be suspect too.

This is 100% a bootleg/illegal label making money off of TT and other label's releases. They're ripping off some of Eureka/MOC's discs too. Honestly if people still have doubt about this, I don't know what to say.

[DaveyJoe]

I'm going to reserve judgment until we have all the facts.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by DaveyJoe

I'm going to reserve judgment until we have all the facts.

What facts are you looking for? Resen to admit they're bootlegs? Amazon to remove the listings? Twilight Time said Resen is a bootleg company selling unauthorized copies, that's a fact. The bitrate graphs are identical, that's a fact. The release overlap between them is more than curious, that's a fact. Why you need more is beyond me

[rdodolak]

What is Sony doing about this?

[MifuneFan]

Release dates and some overlapping titles:

Bell, Book, and Candle
TT: April 2012
Res: April 2014


Bells of St. Mary's
TT: Nov. 2013
Res: Jan 2014

The Big Heat:
TT: May 2012
Resen: Oct. 2013

Body Double:
TT: August 2013
Res: April 2014


Khartoum
TT: Jan. 2014
Res: Nov 2014

Major Dundee:
TT: April 2013
Res: April 2014

The Man from Laramie
TT: June 2014
Res: Jan. 2015

Mysterious Island:
TT: Nov. 2011
Res: August 2014

Picnic:
TT: Jan 2012
Res: Oct 2014


The Train:
TT: June 2014
Res: Jan 2015


In many cases, Resen are the only other label to have released the title besides TT. Considering how obscure/niche some of these titles are, there's very little chance it's just a coincidence. I highly doubt they just decided to pick the same titles TT are releasing, and it's always after the TT release, and the bitrate graphs are identical. Bootleg/Illegal/Unauthorized, however you name it, don't support this garbage.