The Loves of Pharaoh (Ernst Lubitsch, 1922)

[rezpekt]

Next year, German company Alpha-Omega Digital will release Ernst Lubitsch's The Loves of Pharaoh (Das Weib des Pharao, 1922) on Blu-ray.



Additional material:

• Booklet: 20. pages, color. Texts and images relating to the film and the restoration: Introduction by Thomas Bakels, personal message to the fans from Ms Nicola Lubitsch, Essay by Kristin Thompson, Interview with Frank Strobel, Text by Egyptology expert Bernt Müller
• Trailer: English, German
• Production documentation: location shots, photos of missing scenes, programme booklet - Filmkurier Berlin 1922
• The Return of Lubitsch’s Pharaoh: A documentary about the restoration of The Loves of Pharaoh, depicting the complex restoration project in pictures and narration about the making of the film, interviews with contributors and scene comparisons. Information about color selection, technical procedures and source material is provided as well as a context to the new recording of the original music score. (35mins)
• Film concert: A high-class program in its own right is this HD recording of WDR Rundfunkorchester performing the music score in Cologne, Germany, on 14th and 15th September 2011. This program was produced by ALPHA-OMEGA digital especially for this release. Assembled using footage from 16 cameras strategically placed within the orchestra, the music takes center stage and the film becomes the supporting act. The outstanding performance of the orchestra under the direction of Frank Strobel finally completes the film and can be experienced in full length and from close-up with this first ever recording of Künneke’s score. (100 mins)

Languages:
German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Arabic

The film is presented in 10 selectable language versions. The title cards are re-created as full screen intertitles as was common practice for foreign releases in the silent film era. The titles were translated by colleagues and friends who came to the project with a profound subject expertise. For the German, English, French and Italian versions the original type face could be used. The Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Arabic versions exhibit a different appearance due to their unique characteristics.

Specifications:
One BD50 disc
Duration: Main Feature: ca. 100min, Additional Material: ca. 144min
Frame Rate: 20 f/s
Resolution: HD 1920×1080
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (1,33:1) (main feature)
Audio: PCM 2.0 Stereo| DTS-HD 5.1
Source Material: Original Russian and Italian nitrate release prints
FSK 0: No age restriction in Germany

Price:
Blu-ray: €34.90
International shipping: €6.50


Read more about the film, the restoration and the Blu-ray release.

[McCrutchy]

With all the available versions, do we know if the copious extras will be subtitled in English?

[McCrutchy]

The Loves of Pharaoh Blu-ray

I shot an e-mail off to Thomas Bakels from the Alpha-Omega web site, and he replied very quickly:

The main movie is titled in 10 languages with full frame intertitles, of course english is one of them.
The orchestra performing doesn't need any language versions since it's purely music.
The documentary is german audio and english subtitles. The menus are all in german and english.

You might have read that we're running late on the release, but I promise we're working very hard on getting
it done soon. Too many want to "eat our cake" before we see a dime and that needs to be different for us,
because we worked too long and too much for not being rewarded. - We're gettin there.

Please bear with us some more, it's gonna be worth it.
Thanks again and all the best for your new year 2012 !

Thomas Bakels
ALPHA-OMEGA digital GmbH

[Arkadin]

wow, this should be fantastic.
blu-ray really starting to have quite the silent library.

[rezpekt]

It's finally ready!

Dear Forum Members,

We are excited to announce the release of the DVD and BluRay of „The Loves of Pharaoh“ on 30th June 2012.

The production of the DVD and BluRay edition took longer than expected due to the complexity of the project and extraordinarily high production costs. The established production methods and distribution channels make an independent release in limited edition difficult to finance and hardly profitable. Despite the difficult and long journey we are proud to present a high-quality collectors edition with exciting content and packaging.

DVD UND BLURAY EDITION SPECIFICATIONS:
This digital restoration recreates the original color tinting scheme in accordance to the only surviving projection print fragments. This release makes the original orchestral score available for the first time ever on recorded media.

Special features:
- Digibox packaging
- Booklet: 20. pages, color. Texts and images relating to the film and the restoration: Introduction by Thomas Bakels, personal message to the fans from Ms Nicola Lubitsch, Essay by Kristin Thompson, Interview with Frank Strobel, Text by Egyptology expert Bernt Müller- Trailer: English, German- Production documentation: location shots, photos of missing scenes, programme booklet - Filmkurier Berlin 1922 (BluRay disc only)
- The Return of Lubitsch’s Pharaoh: A documentary about the restoration of The Loves of Pharaoh, depicting the complex restoration project in pictures and narration about the making of the film, interviews with contributors and scene comparisons. Information about color selection, technical procedures and source material is provided as well as a context to the new recording of the original music score. (35mins)
- Film concert: A high-class program in its own right is this HD recording of WDR Rundfunkorchester performing the music score in Cologne, Germany, on 14th and 15th September 2011. This program was produced by ALPHA-OMEGA digital especially for this release. Assembled using footage from 16 cameras strategically placed within the orchestra, the music takes center stage and the film becomes the supporting act. The outstanding performance of the orchestra under the direction of Frank Strobel finally completes the film and can be experienced in full length and from close-up with this first ever recording of Künneke’s score. (100 mins)

Language Versions:
German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, ArabicThe film is presented in 10 selectable language versions. The title cards are re-created as full screen intertitles as was common practice for foreign releases in the silent film era. The titles were translated by colleagues and friends who came to the project with a profound subject expertise. For the German, English, French and Italian versions the original type face could be used. The Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Arabic versions exhibit a different appearance due to their unique characteristics.

Technical Specifications:
DVD Edition: 1*DVD9 + 1*DVD9
BluRay Edition: 1*BluRay50
Duration: Main Feature: approx. 100min, Additional Material: approx. 144min
Frame Rate: 20 f/s
Resolution: PAL, 720×576 (DVD) | NTSC, 720×480 (DVD) | HD 1920×1080 (BD)
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (1,33:1) (main feature)
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 (DVD) | PCM 2.0 Stereo (DVD & BluRay)| DTS-HD 5.1 (BluRay)
Source Material: Original Russian and Italian nitrate release prints

You can place the order on the Alpha-Omega digital online shop:
http://www.alpha-omega.de/doku.php?i...oom:pharao_dvd

We hope you enjoy the restored version of this long lost Lubitsch spectacle!

Your ALPHA-OMEGA digital Team

http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/...393892#p393892

[McCrutchy]

Excellent news.

[oldtexan]

I'll be placing an order for this soon.

[Arkadin]

will it be available to order from other places later on?
anyone know?

[TheDoug]

Here's a great extensive review of this German film by John Sinnott at DVD Talk:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/57141...ib-des-pharao/

[Arkadin]

wow, great review.
definitely think I'm going to get this bd even though it's pretty pricey.
this bd is clearly a very special release.

[oldtexan]

Just got mine today. Great film and transfer.

[jacobb1313]

When. In the World. Did this happen, and how did it fly under my radar?!

OK. Will buy soon.

[Arkadin]

ordered a copy yesterday.
wonder if some entity in the US will license this bd for a NA release.

[pro-bassoonist]

The Loves of Pharaoh Blu-ray REVIEW

[toddly6666]

Anyone think that this will also become out of print? Pretty pricey Blu-ray, totalling around 50 bucks (including shipping), but restored old flicks are my weakness, so I placed the order too!

[galactus84]

I'll have to wait and hope that Kino or somebody else is going to release this in the future, using the same source elements, but with less digital tampering. Too much scratch removal and frame stabilization in this edition.

[Arkadin]

I got my copy today!
it's a shame this company didn't use a box with a locking disc hub, as mine was a floater. It can easily get jostled around in the box because the box is actually bigger than it needs to be even with the booklet. Oh well, I only noticed a few light scratches.
Hopefully no playback issues.
looks like a grand release.

[Aristide Massaccesi]

I had the same thing Arkadin, luckily the disc played fine. Wonderful movie.

[TBak]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

ordered a copy yesterday.
wonder if some entity in the US will license this bd for a NA release.

Hi there ... I felt like making clearer to this forum why there has not been a 'normal' release policy for this restoration (like Criterion, Flicker Alley, Milestone, Kino or else). There are numerous reasons:
A distributors have simply turned us down with this project
B distributors have only offered to do a SD release, they said BluRay 'no way' ! (btw: 4 out of 5 disks we sold so far are BluRays)
C distributors have offered to release it, but with conditions that required 100.000 silent film buyers to ever make the investment back on our end. There aren't that many, considering that some even call themselves 'silent film lovers' but download the 720-Rip for free, in complete ignorance of the far beyond reasonable efforts to go through to bring a lost film back to the screen; it has been years of work.

We are working on a release option for NA with a guy who is a true film lover but that's not settled yet. In the meantime please know, that we have sold to 18 countries from Korea to Canada and people have received their disks directly from us. We do the job just like anyone else would, but we are here in person in case of some complaint, no "don't answer to this..."-email acct.
-Alpha-Omega digital-

[TBak]

Originally Posted by galactus84

I'll have to wait and hope that Kino or somebody else is going to release this in the future, using the same source elements, but with less digital tampering. Too much scratch removal and frame stabilization in this edition.

Galactus, there will hardly be ANY other release of this film, since the only materials found in years of research have been so destroyed that 90% of the footage needed frame-by-frame scanning. Your statement shows that you have not done any research on this film, a "lost film" for good reasons = no material existing that was in a condition that could be handled until now.

About 'digital tampering' you wouldn't know what it needs to restore a very damaged image sequence except if you actually did this sort of work before. Having been in charge of the 2001 and 2010 Metropolis restoration as well as the restoration of numerous other very difficult tasks over 12 years, I can tell you that nobody would be able to do a more careful and thoughtful restoration on this film as what you can see on the BluRay now.
It has been some years since this project began in 2003 (!) and not everything is perfect, I agree, but several scenes I didn't like have even been tried to get better in 2010 and 2011 before the release, but going back to what the raw scan was, the result wouldn't be much different.
Also I wish to point out that lots of the 'vertical line' scratches have not been tampered with, since it showed that every attempt to get rid of them was not near perfect, so we left the 'traditional' defects instead of replacing them with 'a digital something'.

Frame stabilisation: if a film comes with vast perforation missing (some >100ft) you have image sequences with no stability at all after the raw scans. To get them stable you need to stabilise them perfectly, for you can't tell a computer to stabilise 'a little'. The perfect stabilised sequence would then represent what was going on in front of the camera really, for rooms wouldn't shake or rock or pulse up-down or left-right. Some have made the point that perfect stabilisation is seeming 'unnatural'. But if I give you the option to put a new instability behaviour on the shots, what would you decide to put on them ? A left-right movement ? What speed, what impulse ? Or a light random shake ? .... let me ask you: on what would you base your decision ? There is no 'typical movie print shakyness of a 1920s movie - in 1920 labs could do a perfectly stable copy and some acutally did.
I have personally scanned some Hal Roach movies from 1st answer nitrate prints of the late 1920s. Their image stability was striking and didn't call for any digital work right after the scanning. It was possible, and all the bad shaky projection prints that you base your 'knowledge' of stability on, are second-, third-, and fourth-best lab-jobs. Simple as that.

This is from someone who actually does this work and knows from experience. No offence, friend, just putting what you wrote in a professional context.


If someone would like to check these images in large resolution, please download from here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2803731/material_condition.jpg