The Official Arbelos Films Thread

[Craig-Rogers]

We are super stoked to announce the book "Belladonna of Sadness: A Companion to the 1973 Cult Japanese Anime Film" will be coming out in May, in partnership between Cinelicious Pics and JC Gabel and Jessica Hundley at Hat & Beard Publishing.

Available now for pre-order via Hat & Beard!


PS - and I promise, BIG news coming at the end of the month about our next restoration project. I've been wanting to tell you for weeks now!

[Hindustani]

Originally Posted by lolwut

I finally got Gangs of Wasseypur. Can't wait to watch it!

Dude. That GOW I, II was one wacked out Blu-Ray experience.

I loved it.

I hope Cinelicious does full justice to it once they decide to go 4K UHD HDR down the years. It'll be a Day 1 buy for me.

[Hindustani]

Originally Posted by Yami

What a tease you are, spiffnme!

Speaking of Indian cinema, I'd love to see Cinelicious restore films like Satyajit Ray's Days and Nights in the Forest (arguably his best, but not among the restorations that Criterion are undertaking) or Guru Dutt's Kaagaz Ke Phool,

The Guru Dutt Trilogy is a must

PYAASA (1957) (means PARCHED aka extremely thirsty)

SAHIB BIBI AUR GHULAM (1962) (means MASTER, MADAM and SERVENT)

KAAGAZ KE PHOOL (1959) in Cinemascope (means PAPER FLOWERS)



besides this.

Cinelicious Should look into....

SHOLAY (1975)(2014 Dolby Atmos release). Its a Kurasawa seven samurai bollywood curry wester. A landmark motion picture event in history of Bollywood. It recently was re-release after complete digital restoration, 3D tranfer and Dolby Atmos upgrade to its original 70mm 6-track stereophonic sound.



MUGHAL E AZAM (1960) (means THE GREAT MUGHALS). A BEN-HUR, GONE WITH THE WIND type epic. Brilliantly written, shot and acted. It went complete Digital Restoration in B & W and technicolor (partly shot in Technicolor) in 2004.


PAAKEEZAH (1972) in Cinemascope (means PURITY). Another early landmark, color "cinemascope" masterpiece on the courtesan culture similar to Geisha culture in east and lesser form of prostitution culture in the West. Film renouned for incredible performances, musical score and breath taking songs. Just recently went complete Digital Restoration by Shemaroo Studios based in Mumbai, India.

Criterion has been seriously missing out on rest of the Indian classics as they solely focus on Satyajit Ray's work only.

Cinelicious can make serious inroads into Classical Indian Cinema by releasing atleast 1 of the above mentioned 6 masterpieces.

There is a huge BluRay and future 4K UHD BluRay market for Classic Indian Cinema worldwide all the way upto Trinidad & Tobago in the west where there is still massive Indian diaspora.

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by spiffnme

We are super stoked to announce the book "Belladonna of Sadness: A Companion to the 1973 Cult Japanese Anime Film" will be coming out in May, in partnership between Cinelicious Pics and JC Gabel and Jessica Hundley at Hat & Beard Publishing.

Available now for pre-order via Hat & Beard!


PS - and I promise, BIG news coming at the end of the month about our next restoration project. I've been wanting to tell you for weeks now!

When will the Bluray of Belladonna be released?
By the way, I just saw that image on the top of this page; exceptional!!
I wish you could take other anime too, more mainstream, something like old TOEI films perhaps of the 60s-80s.

Looking forward to your news..
Any hints?
Is it an animation?
or if it's a live action, what genre? or what decade?
I love guessing games.

[Craig-Rogers]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

Any hints?
Is it an animation?
or if it's a live action, what genre? or what decade?
I love guessing games.

60's
Until recently thought lost.

That's all you're getting out of me.

[moviegeek1992]

Originally Posted by Hindustani

The Guru Dutt Trilogy is a must

PYAASA (1957) (means PARCHED aka extremely thirsty)

SAHIB BIBI AUR GHULAM (1962) (means MASTER, MADAM and SERVENT)

KAAGAZ KE PHOOL (1959) in Cinemascope (means PAPER FLOWERS)



besides this.

Cinelicious Should look into....

SHOLAY (1975)(2014 Dolby Atmos release). Its a Kurasawa seven samurai bollywood curry wester. A landmark motion picture event in history of Bollywood. It recently was re-release after complete digital restoration, 3D tranfer and Dolby Atmos upgrade to its original 70mm 6-track stereophonic sound.



MUGHAL E AZAM (1960) (means THE GREAT MUGHALS). A BEN-HUR, GONE WITH THE WIND type epic. Brilliantly written, shot and acted. It went complete Digital Restoration in B & W and technicolor (partly shot in Technicolor) in 2004.


PAAKEEZAH (1972) in Cinemascope (means PURITY). Another early landmark, color "cinemascope" masterpiece on the courtesan culture similar to Geisha culture in east and lesser form of prostitution culture in the West. Film renouned for incredible performances, musical score and breath taking songs. Just recently went complete Digital Restoration by Shemaroo Studios based in Mumbai, India.

Criterion has been seriously missing out on rest of the Indian classics as they solely focus on Satyajit Ray's work only.

Cinelicious can make serious inroads into Classical Indian Cinema by releasing atleast 1 of the above mentioned 6 masterpieces.

There is a huge BluRay and future 4K UHD BluRay market for Classic Indian Cinema worldwide all the way upto Trinidad & Tobago in the west where there is still massive Indian diaspora.

Sorry, but I don't agree with this. There are many Indians or South East Asians all over the world but hardly many are interested in blu-rays let alone blu-rays of the films you have mentioned.

The Indian dvd industry is already in decline to the point where a title sometimes appears on TV the same time as it's dvd release. One of the biggest distributors for Bollywood films, Eros International (who released the first Bollywood blu-ray) have abandoned blu-ray in favour of their own on-demnd website, and another giant Shemaroo are probably seeing more revenue through ads as they slowly upload their catalogue to YouTube than dvd sales for those individual titles would have attained.

To top it all off, these distributors are extremely protective of their properties and are unlikely to license out to anyone else, Mughal-E-Azam and Sholay being prime examples.

Sure blu-ray labels can make deals with more independent filmmakers after their films appear at various film festivals for a blu-ray release beyond that if the respective rights owners don't release a blu-ray of the films you mentioned themselves, then it's never gonna happen. Think of this way, over in the US, every crappy movie makes its way to blu-ray (including Syfy channel schlock) yet the total number of Bollywood blu-rays probably isn't more than 150 (if that), and that's from 2007 till now!

[Craig-Rogers]

The BELLADONNA OF SADNESS trailer is finally here! Just dropped on vice.com

They seem to be pushing the "x-rated" "porn" angle awfully hard with their write up. For sure, it's a film for adults with adult themes, but porn? No. It's not pornography.



And no, the release of BELLADONNA did not immediately bankrupt Mushi. The fate of that company was already sealed when this film was being made. In fact an argument could be made that BELLADONNA OF SADNESS is the film it is because the company's fate was already known while making it. It freed the filmmakers up to push boundaries both thematically and artistically they very likely wouldn't have otherwise.

[Hindustani]

Originally Posted by moviegeek1992

Sorry, but I don't agree with this.

Partly agreed. There are few points you made. Those cannot be denied. You havent looked at the whole picture yet.

There are many Indians or South East Asians all over the world but hardly many are interested in blu-rays let alone blu-rays of the films you have mentioned.

I cannot talk much about Pakistanis, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankans as you said South Asian. Majority of Indians are cinemagoers not just hollywood but also for regional, local movies. Its a cultural & traditional thing. There is limited interest in BluRays and definitely not the craze like Hollywood.

If there is not enough craze for bollywood, european companies (REM, ALIVE) will not be releasing BluRays for latest bollywood flicks. Do not believe me? Go check out official REM website. Both Germany and France have been releasing BluRays regularly as latest as 2015 for Bollywood

The Indian dvd industry is already in decline to the point where a title sometimes appears on TV the same time as it's dvd release.

The world BluRay industry is in decline. Fair amout of ground has been lost to VoD. Even 4k UHD HDR recent movies & classics like SAN ANDREAS, BLACK MASS and GOODFELLAS have shown up in VoD in 4k UHD HDR long before BluRay.

One of the biggest distributors for Bollywood films, Eros International (who released the first Bollywood blu-ray) have abandoned blu-ray in favour of their own on-demnd website

EROS INTERNATIONAL is the worst example of how they have treated Bollywood recent mega blockbusters and Bollywood classics heritage. Best example is EROS despite holding the rights for most popular Bollywood blockbuster (SHOLAY) an equivalent of THE GODFATHER (popularity wise, not content wise), they failed to even release properly authored DVD and never bothered to release BluRay ever. And the movie has already gone massive digital restoration and Dolby Atmos upgrade as recent as 2014.

EROS treats Indian movies fans like they do not exist. Their only real interest is distributing the movies and getting foot falls into cinemas on opening weekend and week. After that, they do not give a damn about home videos. Their DVDs were some of the worse ever aurhored with the fanciest, most expensive covers. Its like gift wrapping garbage to fool audiences to sell DVDs for $20.

and another giant Shemaroo are probably seeing more revenue through ads as they slowly upload their catalogue to YouTube than dvd sales for those individual titles would have attained.

Shemaroo is the largest rights holder of Bollywood classics. But recently, they have been very friendly. They signed deal with Eagle Entertainment to have latter release few 1970s classics or past blockbusters. I myself own few of the shemaroo titles release by Eagle. They are of average quality but definitely digitally restored (shemaroo themselves do it in-house now) 1080p.

To top it all off, these distributors are extremely protective of their properties and are unlikely to license out to anyone else, Mughal-E-Azam and Sholay being prime examples.

Yes. they are protective. But. No true overseas professional company like CINELICIOUS or CRITERION has appropached them.

They might want to do one-off business with a company like CINELICIOUS on "First to 3000" BluRays basis. Any one of the above 6 titles mentioned if released on "first to 3000 blurays" basis will sell out even at $39.99 in a year. But no Indian overseas company is professional enough. This is where CRITERION or CINELICIOUS can step in fill the gap.

Think of this way, over in the US, every crappy movie makes its way to blu-ray (including Syfy channel schlock) yet the total number of Bollywood blu-rays probably isn't more than 150 (if that), and that's from 2007 till now!

YASH RAJ FILMS (YRF) BluRay branch releases BRs for even their recent garbage releases which flopped at the boxoffice. A recent movie (GUNDAY) rated 2/10 on IMDB is released by YRF on BD with "TrueHD Advance 96k Upsampling" 5.1 audio.

Brand new Digitally Restored print of PYAASA (means Parched) (1957) has recently been screened in Europe and Canada.

Indian Classic Pyaasa Restored for Upcoming Venice Film Fest

A company like CINELICOUS can benefit big time if they release this enormously popular B & W classic on BD25 which will be much cheaper.

Silicon Valley alone has 1 million Indian diaspora and Indian diaspora is some of the richest diaspora I have seen. They are the first adoptors of HDTV, 4K, UHD stuff.

[nitin]

Hindustani,

no offence, but are pipe dreaming again.

[Andrew-Kenneth]

Originally Posted by moviegeek1992

One of the biggest distributors for Bollywood films, Eros International (who released the first Bollywood blu-ray) have abandoned blu-ray

Eros has not abandoned blu-ray.
Recent releases =>

In 2015 a total of 24 bollywood movies got released on blu-ray.
(not counting south indian cinema)

Originally Posted by moviegeek1992

the total number of Bollywood blu-rays probably isn't more than 150 (if that), and that's from 2007 till now!

Well, I own about 380 Indian blu-ray's and that's just my collection...

[Hindustani]

Originally Posted by nitin

Hindustani,

no offence, but are pipe dreaming again.

Dude.

No one is asking them to release every bolllywood hit.

CINELICIOUS has done an excellent job with GOW I,II BRD. I personally know atleast 5 indian families in North America (US and CAN)who brought GOW cinelicious BRD sets at $24.99 without hesitation. They brought this BR release after owning horrible, pathetic Eagle GOW I, II BRDs of 2013

All I am asking is they or any other professional company (unlike EROS which is opposite of professional model) catering to niche audiences to release already completed digitally restored SHOLAY with Dolby Atmos (2014 janulary re-release 3D print) as a 2017 Father Day Gift as 'first to 3000" basis only.

They will sell out even at $39.99 per BluRay.

[Craig-Rogers]

IN THEATERS

May 6-11, 2016 Metrograph New York, NY
May 6-11, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – New Mission San Francisco, CA
May 13-19, 2016 The Cinefamily Los Angeles, CA
May 13-19, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – South Lamar Austin, TX
May 13-19, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – Littleton-Denver Denver, CO
May 13-19, 2016 Cable Car Cinema Providence, RI
May 13-19, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – Vintage Houston Houston, TX
May 13, 2016 Texas Theater Dallas, TX
May 13-16, 2016 Brattle Theater Boston, MA
May 20-26, 2016 Northwest Film Forum Seattle, WA
May 20, 2016 Cinemapolis Ithica, NY
May 20, 2016 International House Philadelphia, PA
May 20, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – El Paso El Paso, TX
May 20, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – Lubbock Lubbock, TX
May 20-22, 2016 The Royal Cinem Toronto, Canada
May 20-26, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse Omaha Omaha, NB
May 20-26, 2016 Gateway Film Center Columbus, OH
May 20-26, 2016 Jean Cocteau Cinema Santa Fe, NM
May 27-29, 2016 Hollywood Theater Portland, OR
June 6-7, 2016 Trylon Microcinema Minneapolis, MN
June 10, 2016 Dryden Theatre Rochester, NY
June 15, 2016 Sun-Ray Cinema Jacksonville, FL

[Craig-Rogers]

Bigwig screening scheduled for 29feb to get their final sign off and then I'll be able to spill the beans on our next big restoration release.

[Wooden Lens]

Originally Posted by spiffnme

Bigwig screening scheduled for 29feb to get their final sign off and then I'll be able to spill the beans on our next big restoration release.

I'm anticipating that you guys are going to become one of the most exciting newer labels of the year!

[Craig-Rogers]

Our Agnes Varda two-film blu-ray package arrives TODAY!



Per numerous requests we've begun adding a spine number to our releases with this disc (#3).

Thanks for all the support.

[filmmusic]

any news about the big next announcement?

[Craig-Rogers]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

any news about the big next announcement?

Screening was enthusiastically approved, but marketing folks haven't approved any announcement yet. Believe me I want to spill the beans more than you want to know what those beans are!

Let me see if I can light a fire under their feet.

UPDATE: been told "this week".

[silverlakephil]

Originally Posted by spiffnme

Our Agnes Varda two-film blu-ray package arrives TODAY!



Per numerous requests we've begun adding a spine number to our releases with this disc (#3).

Thanks for all the support.

Thank you. I ordered this on Amazon from one of their marketplace sellers since Amazon was selling at full price. This will be a blind and my first Agnes Varda film(s).

[Craig-Rogers]

FINALLY I can tell you about our next release!

The 4K restoration will have its world premiere at the 7th Annual TCM Classic Film Festival, which runs from April 28 through May 1 in Hollywood.

Cinelicious Pics has announced that it will re-release in theaters and on VOD and Blu-ray this Summer its new 4Kdigital restoration of director Leslie Stevens' long-missing 1960 thriller PRIVATE PROPERTY, starring iconic American character actor Warren Oates (TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, THE WILD BUNCH) in his first significant screen role. A major rediscovery for noir and crime fans, PRIVATE PROPERTY has long been considered a lost feature until UCLA Film & Television Archive recently located and preserved the only known film elements.

Director Stevens, who died in 1998, was a protégé of Orson Welles, and went on to create the classic sci-fi series "THE OUTER LIMITS" (1963 - 65), and direct the wonderfully-weird supernatural feature INCUBUS (1966) starring William Shatner. PRIVATE PROPERTY was Stevens' first feature as director.The 4K restoration will have its world premiere at the 7th Annual TCM Classic Film Festival, which runs from April 28 through May 1 in Hollywood.


Following a very brief release in the early 1960s, the film had essentially vanished -- until now. Three years ago David Marriott, now Cinelicious Pics' Director of Acquisitions, sat in on an early screening of UCLA Archive's initial preservation of PRIVATE PROPERTY (which, once completed, would go on to premiere at the UCLA Festival of Preservation in March of 2015).

"I was completely bowled over by the film," Marriott recalls. "A sort of hothouse late-period film noir, PRIVATE PROPERTY is deeply bizarre and incredibly compelling. Considering the talent involved - director Stevens, cameraman Ted McCord, actor Warren Oates - it's very rare to rediscover a completely lost crime film like this."

"We're thrilled to be showcasing a discovery of this caliber at the TCM Classic Film Festival," said Charles Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for Turner Classic Movies (TCM) "Our mission at TCM is to bring audiences great classic films and to help them discover unknown classics, such as Private Property."

PRIVATE PROPERTY begins as two homicidal Southern California drifters (played to creepy perfection by Warren Oates and Corey Allen) wander off the beach and into the seemingly-perfect Beverly Hills home of an unhappy housewife (played by Leslie Stevens' real-life spouse, Kate Manx). Shimmering with sexual tension and lensed in stunning B&W by master cameraman Ted McCord (THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, EAST OF EDEN), PRIVATE PROPERTY is both an eerie, neo-Hitchcockian thriller and a savage critique of the hollowness of the Playboy-era American Dream.
Warren Oates delivers his first great screen performance here as one of the murderous vagabonds, years before he emerged as one of the finest character actors of his generation; his bizarre, voyeuristic Lennie-and-George relationship with the underrated Corey Allen (James Dean's hot rod rival in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) is fueled by a barely-suppressed homoeroticism. Shot almost entirely in the Beverly Hills home where director Stevens and lead actress Manx lived at the time, PRIVATE PROPERTY has a deeply unnerving autobiographical feel to it. (Manx tragically committed suicide several years after the film opened.)

"In considering titles for Cinelicious Pics' first round of restorations and re-releases, PRIVATE PROPERTY immediately leapt to mind as a film crying out for restoration and re-release theatrically and on Blu-ray and VOD," commented Paul Korver, Cinelicious Pics' Founder. "Working with our colleagues at UCLA Film & Television Archive and utilizing the talents of our parent company, Cinelicious, we'll be re-releasing the film using the best possible elements."

[Craig-Rogers]

http://private-property-restoration.tumblr.com/