Dammit, in that case I could've just ordered those BFI titles. Oh well! I already pre-ordered them anyway, but would've saved a few quid and likely wouldn't have cancelled one or two nearer release date. Reckon they're less likely to sell out than the Yoshida set so no worries, I'll probably end up getting everything in the end anyway hehe.
The BFI release has received some unfair bad press - I think it looks quite good in motion, despite its disadvantages.
I think somebody mentioned already that the MAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA version distributed by BFI to UK and Ireland cinemas is the one that Flicker Alley has released while the BFI blu-ray is a different transfer (with different score and extras, plus commentary). Last night I've seen the film in the cinema and it really looks fantastic. The Alloy Orchestra music rocks and I simply can recommend seeing he film on the big screen with good sound system. At the beginning the BFI logo and then the Lobster film logo appeared on the screen.
Hopefully today I will have my BFI disc in the mail and will watch it with the Nyman score, though the image quality is apparently inferior.
But since I'm a big fan of early Soviet cinema I will double dip simple for the extras (which are on both editions different feature length films), the scores and the commentary on BFI edition.
And over all these talks about technical issues we should not forget that this is one of the best films ever made.
Does anyone know why there seems to be more information in the Flicker Alley (I'm basing this off the screenshots at dvdbeaver) even though it's supposedly the same aspect ratio as the BFI?
Edit: This is in reference to Man With A Movie Camera.
Does anyone know why there seems to be more information in the Flicker Alley (I'm basing this off the screenshots at dvdbeaver) even though it's supposedly the same aspect ratio as the BFI?
Edit: This is in reference to Man With A Movie Camera.
Most of the missing information seems to be at left hand side of the frame - this is a clue that this print at some stage came from a course incorrectly reproduced on sound equipment. The negative area of 35mm film is different between silent and "talkie", and if adjustments weren't made errors like this left hand cropping occur. Or so I understand it.
Really? That's sort of good to hear in a way because much of the awful compression is going to be much harder to notice once the adjustment has been made.
I'm waiting to see if MoC or someone else beat the BFI to the punch with the new restoration for now though. It strikes me as bizarre that the license holder would withhold this from the BFI if it wasn't for another label already making a deal or outbidding them.
BFI just replied to my Tweet to them to confirm that Sembene's Black Girl and Borom Sarret will be from the World Cinema Project restorations! Great news, glad I pre-ordered this. Gonna ask them about The Wages of Fear and Night and the City now...
I was hoping someone else would release the new restoration with the Alloy score but perhaps the reason the BFI didn't acquire it was because the price being asked was too high. With the cutbacks, I imagine the BFI have to be more cautious. So it doesn't necessarily mean that they were outbid. There again, nobody has denied that someone else has the rights to the new restoration. So there could be hope....
Also, noticed that Vivre Sa Vie finally dropped to Ł10.99 on Amazon (in line with HMV's price), so I looked up what Eyes Without A Face was at HMV and submitted their Ł10.99 price to Amazon who have matched it! Didn't think it would drop in price any more as it had been delayed for so long, so that's great news.
Around the World with Orson Welles was Ł14.99 at HMV so I let Amazon know about that as well and they've matched that one too...
Really? That's sort of good to hear in a way because much of the awful compression is going to be much harder to notice once the adjustment has been made.
I do believe many of the compression issues would have been hidden in the blacks if the black levels were properly handled.
This is a problem the Charley Bowers set also has.
I'll try and do comparative caps with the BFI set, at least on Man with a movie camera.
I was hoping someone else would release the new restoration with the Alloy score but perhaps the reason the BFI didn't acquire it was because the price being asked was too high. With the cutbacks, I imagine the BFI have to be more cautious. So it doesn't necessarily mean that they were outbid. There again, nobody has denied that someone else has the rights to the new restoration. So there could be hope....
I think BFI have done a very good job with what they had access to, and their supplemental features such as Sixth part of the world make this a justifiable purchase, even if you own FA/Lobster.
Even though I've not seen it, I'm happy to accept the superiority of the PQ of the Lobster/FA set - but personally I actually like the battered look of the old print, which shows its age, while the caps of the FA are impressive, the sense of age and time has been stripped away. But the cropping undoubtedly does give it to the FA.
Maybe I'm missing something but why bother informing Amazon UK that an item can be found cheaper else where? Why not just cancel your Amazon pre-order and get it from the other site?
I have no loyalty to any online retailer so I don't understand why you'd do something that would make them more competitive (especially as HMV have both loyalty points and a lower free postage freshold). If customers are too lazy or naďve to use price comparison sites why should I care about saving them money?
Well for several reasons - Amazon have a much more responsive customer service if anything goes wrong with the order (cancellations, returns, replacements), and I have used promotional discounts/gift cards on a couple of the orders so will get those for even cheaper via Amazon. Plus I've already pre-ordered them (a trivial convenience, I know), and because I personally ordered them during a Prime trial they will arrive on or before the release date (and no Ł20 minimum spend at the moment either).
I'm not at all loyal to one retailer, but Amazon are much more reliable and efficient if anything does go wrong with your order - good customer service. I've had items arrive from Zavvi, for example, where items have arrived slightly damaged, but it's such a strenuous task trying to return it for a replacement that I generally don't bother with them at all anymore (unless it's a notable bargain and worth the risk). Last time I contacted HMV about cancelling an order, it took them 4 days to respond - they removed the function where you could cancel your own order, which was there when they relaunched their site but has since disappeared. Of course once my Amazon Prime trial finishes I'll probably look to HMV for the odd pre-order, but in this instance I just thought I'd let others know it'll be the same price from Amazon as HMV, as I know many people use Amazon to order stuff as they have a pre-order price guarantee - so if something you've pre-ordered drops in price before it's released (or even on release week), they'll honour that price drop, and are often actually the cheapest to order from...for example I have MoC's upcoming Cruel Story of Youth for Ł10.16 on Amazon, but it would be Ł10.99 if I ordered it from HMV (and the same often goes for most Eureka titles).
It seems HMV are just currently the price-setters for BFI titles, or at least they have been for the last year or so. Also, this very site primarily tracks Amazon prices. I usually pre-order something on Amazon first and end up going with whoever's cheapest the week before something is released - so essentially what you're implying you do yourself.
Anyone else notice the listing for Rocco and His Brothers has disappeared over at Amazon? Was just checking to see if the listing had been updated and it's gone! Even tried clicking on the item in my Order section and it says the listing doesn't exist...what's going on, BFI?
EDIT: Okay this is weird, the original post on the BFI site has been edited to remove any information about Rocco and His Brothers...see for yourself!
I wonder what happened. Do you think Eureka pointed out they still had the license for it, since the DVD edition hasn't been deleted so that might indicate they were going to upgrade it? If so I'm still happy to get it either way, from BFI or Eureka (or anyone else for that matter).
For reference, here's the original announcement from the BFI:
Quote:
This autumn the BFI will release a wide range of titles with acclaimed classics of world cinema, including Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear, a Pier Paulo Pasolini Blu-ray collection, film noir masterpieces by Otto Preminger and Jules Dassin, celebrated British TV documentaries and a selection of recent theatrical releases.
SEPTEMBER
September kicks off with the Otto Preminger Film Noir Collection (1945-50) on Limited Edition Blu-ray, a three-disc box set featuring Fallen Angel, Whirlpool and Where the Sidewalk Ends. The film noir theme continues with Night and the City (1950), Jules Dassin’s London-set baroque masterpiece of crime and corruption.
2015 marks the centenary of the controversial, yet extremely significant silent drama, The Birth of a Nation (1915) by D.W. Griffith. This re-mastered release follows the Griffith summer season at BFI Southbank.
We celebrate Halloween with DVD re-releases of chilling titles Sleepwalker (Saxon Logan, 1984), The Black Panther (Ian Merrick, 1977), BBC TV’s Schalcken the Painter (1979) and on Blu-ray is Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922), the much imitated adaptation of Dracula.
OCTOBER
This autumn is the 40th anniversary of the untimely death of controversial writer and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. To mark the occasion the BFI is re-releasing six of Pasolini’s most widely renowned films together in the Pasolini Blu-ray Collection (1968-1975) – Medea, Theorem, Salň, or The 120 Days of Sodom and his Trilogy of Life (Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights). The BFI has also announced the release of Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini (2014), starring Willem Dafoe, on both Blu-ray and DVD, following its theatrical release on 11th September.
Also out in October is the DVD premiere of The Children’s Film Foundation Sci-Fi drama Masters of Venus (1962); the Richard Hawley scored Love is All (2014), director Kim Longinotto’s collage of a hundred years of love and courtship on the silver screen, and Ousmane Sembčne’s Black Girl / Borom Sarret (1966), one of the founding works of African cinema.
NOVEMBER
November sees the release of Murder in the Cathedral (1952), George Hoellering’s film adaptation of the classic verse drama by T.S. Eliot featuring music by László Lajtha and the voice of the writer himself, and Make More Noise! Suffragettes in Silent Film (1899-1917). Released to complement Sarah Gavron’s forthcoming feature film Suffragette (2015), the collection compiles over 20 silent films from the BFI National Archive, combining gloriously anarchic comedies, newsreels and documentaries with a specially commissioned score by Lillian Henley. It presents a fascinating insight into the early 20th Century struggle for women’s suffrage.
The month also sees the releases of Luchino Visconti’s neorealist classic Rocco and His Brothers (1960), featuring a young Claudia Cardinale and an acclaimed score by composer Nino Rota (The Godfather, The Leopard) and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s nail-biting thriller The Wages of Fear (1954), on Limited Edition Dual-Format.
To coincide with the BFI Southbank TV Documentaries season, we will release two collections of documentaries from the BBC and ITV. Visions of Change Volume One: The BBC (1951-67) and Visions of Change Volume Two: ITV (1958-1967), bringing together the work of renowned film-makers including Ken Russell and Peter Morley, to give an insight into the rapidly changing British culture of the time.
And now no mention of it at all (and it also says 'Updated: 4 August 2015' on the top of the page):
Quote:
The next four months sees the BFI release a wide range of titles including acclaimed classics of world cinema (The Wages of Fear, and a brand new Pasolini collection), film noir masterpieces by Otto Preminger and Jules Dassin, celebrated TV documentaries and a selection of recent theatrical releases.
Our new releases kick off in September with the Otto Preminger Film Noir Collection (1945-50) on Limited Edition Blu-ray, a three-disc box set featuring Fallen Angel, Whirlpool and Where the Sidewalk Ends. The film noir theme is continued with Night and the City (1950), Jules Dassin’s London-set baroque masterpiece of crime and corruption.
2015 marks the centenary of the controversial, yet extremely significant silent drama The Birth of a Nation (1915) by D.W. Griffith. This remastered release follows the Griffith summer season at BFI Southbank.
We celebrate Halloween with chilling rereleases of Sleepwalker (1984), The Black Panther (1977), Schalcken the Painter (1979) and Nosferatu (1922), the much imitated adaptation of Dracula.
October marks the 40th anniversary of the untimely passing of Pier Paolo Pasolini. To mark the occasion, we’re rereleasing six of Pasolini’s most widely renowned films in the Pasolini Blu-ray Collection (1968-1975) – Medea, Theorem, Salň, or The 120 Days of Sodom and his Trilogy of Life (Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, and Arabian Nights). We’re also thrilled to announce the release of Abel Ferrara’s biopic Pasolini (2014), starring Willem Dafoe, on both Blu-ray and DVD.
Also out in October is the DVD premiere of the Children’s Film Foundation sci-fi drama Masters of Venus (1962), the Richard Hawley scored Love Is All (2014), director Kim Longinotto’s (Dreamcatcher, Divorce Iranian Style) collage of a hundred years of love and courtship on the silver screen, and Ousmane Sembčne’s Black Girl / Borom Sarret (1966), two of the founding works of African cinema.
November sees the release of Murder in the Cathedral (1952), George Hoellering’s film adaptation of the classic verse drama by T.S. Eliot featuring music by László Lajtha and the voice of the writer himself, and Make More Noise! Suffragettes in Silent Film (1899-1917). Released to complement Sarah Gavron’s Suffragrette (2015), the collection compiles over 20 silent films from the BFI National Archive, combining gloriously anarchic comedies, newsreels and documentaries with a specially commissioned score by Lillian Henley, to create a fascinating insight into the early 20th century struggle for women’s suffrage.
The month also sees the release of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s nail-biting thriller The Wages of Fear (1953), on limited edition dual-format.
To coincide with the BFI Southbank TV documentaries season, we release two collections of documentaries from the BBC and ITV. Visions of Change Volume One: The BBC (1951-67) and Visions of Change Volume Two: ITV (1958-1967) bring together the work of renowned filmmakers including Ken Russell and Peter Morley, to give an insight into the rapidly changing British culture of the time.
Do we know for sure it's incorrect black levels, or has it been willingly contrast boosted ?
sorry I didnt meant incorrect colour space but simply that the contrast is boosted, which is still incorrectly set black levels and an authoring error.
sorry I didnt meant incorrect colour space but simply that the contrast is boosted, which is still incorrectly set black levels and an authoring error.
The reason I asked is because contrast boosting and incorrect black levels / authoring errors are not the same.
In the first case, the BFI would know it because that would be their choice to tweak the color timing of the movie, but in the second they might not because it would simply be a mistake that passed their QC.
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