British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

How long does things take to arrive from HMV? 2 out of 5 items of my £5.99 (each) BFI order (made exactly a week ago) were dispatched last Saturday & they've not turned up yet.

Cyrano, Scandal just turned up at lunchtime

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Cyrano, Scandal just turned up at lunchtime

Thanks. How long was that from when they dispatched?

HMV says they're having touble with getting more stock of Cyrano De Bergerac & Legend of the Witches / Secret Rites & despite Room at the Top being in stock, that one has NOT been dispatched yet.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

Thanks. How long was that from when they dispatched?

HMV says they're having touble with getting more stock of Cyrano De Bergerac & Legend of the Witches / Secret Rites & despite Room at the Top being in stock, that one has NOT been dispatched yet.

Dispatched last Friday

I received 6 “An update on your order” for the other BFI titles yesterday claiming

We’re sorry for the delay with your order. We haven't received stock of this item yet but as soon as it arrives in the warehouse we'll dispatch this to you.

[nitin]

Deep End then, where to begin...

One of the all time great films in my book, Jerzy Skolimowsky’s Golden Bear winner could be reductively called a coming of age film or a London film but it is so much more. So much more.

Set largely in a London pool and bath house and focusing on two young people that work there, a young and naive boy played by John Moulder Brown and an alluring and playful woman in her early 20s played by Jane Asher, the film is structured in a loose vignette fashion that regularly shows the two main characters interacting with other clientele that frequents the pool and bath house and Asher’s character’s lovers.

Tonally, Skolimowsky plays with the audience just as easily as Asher’s character plays with Moulder Brown’s, with scenes veering from sweet to seedy, playful to dangerous, darkly comic to blackly tragic, all without skipping a beat.

The film’s centrepiece nighttime sequence set in Soho is rightly revered and one for the ages, Skolimowsky managing to incrementally build an exciting, suspenseful, touching and absolutely hilarious series of events, all set to a super soundtrack that enhances the crazy and unpredictable vibe and mood.

But I would also like to draw attention Diana Dors’ cameo which is one of the most squirm inducing scenes I have recently come across but one you still watch trying not to burst into laughter with every repetition of ‘tackle, dribble, dribble, tackle, shoot, score’!

Lastly, the look of the film also deserves a mention, and not necessarily for its cinematography (which is nevertheless excellent) but for its striking production design. The colours and design of the pool and bath house are as if Antonioni came off the set of Red Desertand worked on the set for this film.

BFI’s blu is from an older HD restoration from an IP but apart from some over sharpening that is commonly baked into such older masters and some coarse looking grain, it held up rather well on my 75” 4k Sony TV and the lossless sound is surprisingly strong, especially when any of the soundtrack by Cat Stevens and Can comes into play.

Very highly recommended.

[bigrob]

My Napoleon set from HMV for £5.99 shipped yesterday. well happy with that bargain!

[thenexus6]

I see a whole bunch of Kar-Wai Wong films added to BFI site to rent for £8.

[blujazz]

MAURICE is £6.99 on Amazon UK - I don't think this title was a part of the HMV or other previous BFI sales.

[Modman]

Originally Posted by blujazz

MAURICE is £6.99 on Amazon UK - I don't think this title was a part of the HMV or other previous BFI sales.

Got my copy from HMV about a week ago.

https://store.hmv.com/store/film-tv/blu-ray/maurice

[rapta]

Originally Posted by thenexus6

I see a whole bunch of Kar-Wai Wong films added to BFI site to rent for £8.

Yeah if you read the description they're doing it in conjunction with Criterion, and would have been touring some of these theatrically too. The box set is being released in the UK in May now according to Criterion.

[rapta]

Holy crap, just saw a listing on HMV for Powell & Pressburger's One of Our Aircraft is Missing from BFI in June. If true this is excellent news! Must be from their new Paramount deal...

https://store.hmv.com/store/film-tv/...aft-is-missing

[justwannaboogie]

Originally Posted by rapta

Holy crap, just saw a listing on HMV for Powell & Pressburger's One of Our Aircraft is Missing from BFI in June. If true this is excellent news! Must be from their new Paramount deal...

https://store.hmv.com/store/film-tv/...aft-is-missing

Take my money!

[Killer Meteor]

Originally Posted by thenexus6

I see a whole bunch of Kar-Wai Wong films added to BFI site to rent for £8.

Wong Kar-Wai, this isn't the IMDB.

Then again, everyone says Akira Kurosawa instead of Kurosawa Akira...

[rapta]

Originally Posted by justwannaboogie

Take my money!

Hoping the master used is better than the Olive release...but still, this is a good P&P title to finally see in the UK. Hoping ITV finally give us A Canterbury Tale, I Know Where I'm Going, 49th Parallel, The Battle of River Plate and Ill Met by Moonlight at some point too.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by rapta

Holy crap, just saw a listing on HMV for Powell & Pressburger's One of Our Aircraft is Missing from BFI in June. If true this is excellent news! Must be from their new Paramount deal...

https://store.hmv.com/store/film-tv/...aft-is-missing

British National Films produced it, Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors distributed it (a library now owned by StudioCanal), but the film is owned by Republic Pictures, distributed on DVD by Universal and now through Paramount.

Not sure about other P&P, but Gone to Earth has no UK BD, neither does The Small Back Room, neither does The Battle of the River Plate.

Honeymoon coming out from Network, and I think Peeping Tom 4K is heavily suggested.

[Akibiyori]

Originally Posted by Killer Meteor

Wong Kar-Wai, this isn't the IMDB.

Then again, everyone says Akira Kurosawa instead of Kurosawa Akira...

Chinese names always sound/read better in the proper surname/given name format whereas Japanese names always seem off that way, like it does with European names, as if they simply adopted the Chinese custom at some point (likely) even though linguistically it doesn’t sound natural.

But the Japanese themselves pushed the given name/surname format in western contexts, so it’s entirely appropriate.

[sjt]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

British National Films produced it, Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors distributed it (a library now owned by StudioCanal), but the film is owned by Republic Pictures, distributed on DVD by Universal and now through Paramount.

Not sure about other P&P, but Gone to Earth has no UK BD, neither does The Small Back Room, neither does The Battle of the River Plate.

This is all the more strange in the case of the war film, available these ten years and more past on BD in Germany in an edition plastered with the ITV Studios logo, and in a restoration that makes the VistaVision-shot film look remarkably detailed and breathtakingly beautiful. It's still available, though now costing considerably more than the €4 I paid for it some six years ago....

[Aclea]

Though unfortunately that version is the German version of the film, about three minutes shorter. Deleted is a scene where the crew of the Graf Spee give their British prisoners Christmas presents and the original ending with the American radio reporter (both are included as extras in English with optional German subtitles, but no seamless branching option). The German soundtrack ends with narration about the suicide of the Captain of the Graf Spee which was added for the revised ending of the German theatrical release (this is in German and not subtitled in English). Which is a shame, because it is indeed a lovely transfer...

[John Hodson]

Originally Posted by sjt

This is all the more strange in the case of the war film, available these ten years and more past on BD in Germany in an edition plastered with the ITV Studios logo, and in a restoration that makes the VistaVision-shot film look remarkably detailed and breathtakingly beautiful. It's still available, though now costing considerably more than the €4 I paid for it some six years ago....

...but sadly cut, that lovely Christmas scene relegated to 'deleted scene' status. The restoration is decent enough, but the soundtrack needs work. And yes, a domestic edition would be very welcome.

[John Hodson]

Originally Posted by rapta

Holy crap, just saw a listing on HMV for Powell & Pressburger's One of Our Aircraft is Missing from BFI in June. If true this is excellent news! Must be from their new Paramount deal...

https://store.hmv.com/store/film-tv/...aft-is-missing

Ben Stoddard says on Facebook that it has been listed in error and will definitely not be coming in June.

[Yami]

I've been continually baffled by the absence of most of ITV's Powell/Pressburger's titles from Blu-Ray. It feels at this point that ITV have no skin in the game, but you'd think if Network were allowed to release them then they would already would have.

Anyway, I see from the BFI Facebook group that this listing is in error but One of Our Aircraft is Missing may be released at some point later in the year which would be fantastic. The BFI seem to have licensed a great set of titles from Paramount and I'm excited to see what (if anything) else they've got. Alfie and Oh! What a Lovely War would seem likely candidates, given the British interest and lack of Blu-Ray releases.