Seven Samurai is still not up on Amazon uk. Hasn't it been officially announced?
Yeah and no sign of any Herzog pre-orders yet either...hope Aguirre's out before the end of the year. I have the Seven Samurai steelbook pre-ordered but if the amaray is cheaper I'd be happy to switch to that, especially if it's dual format.
Maybe with Seven Samurai part of the exclusivity deal with Zavvi is that there is a period where the steelbook is the only version available to order (and of course only through them), and the regular amaray version won't be available to order until after the steelbook's released - although as I'm typing this the more unlikely that seems!
Maybe with Seven Samurai part of the exclusivity deal with Zavvi is that there is a period where the steelbook is the only version available to order (and of course only through them), and the regular amaray version won't be available to order until after the steelbook's released - although as I'm typing this the more unlikely that seems!
It's unusual for BFI to do a steelbook as well as release through Zavvi rather than their own Filmstore, so it might just be a steelbook-only deal...as I said though if there's an amaray and it's cheaper, especially if it comes with a DVD copy too, then I'd opt for that. Let's just hope they announce it before the steelbook release date (if there is one)!
It's unusual for BFI to do a steelbook as well as release through Zavvi rather than their own Filmstore, so it might just be a steelbook-only deal...
They have confirmed there will be an amaray version (don't know about dual format but I'd be surprised if it isn't) - it's just frustrating that there isn't any news about when the regular one will be released, although to be fair I probably wouldn't pre-order. I only recently bought the Kurosawa "Samurai" DVD set!
They have confirmed there will be an amaray version (don't know about dual format but I'd be surprised if it isn't) - it's just frustrating that there isn't any news about when the regular one will be released, although to be fair I probably wouldn't pre-order. I only recently bought the Kurosawa "Samurai" DVD set!
Fair enough! I only have Sanjuro on DVD and the Optimum release of Rashomon...ever since I've started buying Blu-Ray's I've been waiting for Kurosawa's to come out so I don't have to double-dip!
Blu-ray and DVD premiere release for the newly remastered version of Thorold Dickinson s dark and menacing psychological 1940 classic.
Based on Patrick Hamilton's celebrated stage play Gaslight is a harrowing and claustrophobic film about domestic fear. Anton Walbrook (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes) stars as the terrifying husband who puts the sanity of his fragile and tortured wife (Diana Wynyard) under siege.
The success of Gaslight on stage and film encouraged Hollywood studio MGM to buy the remake rights in the early 1940s, with a clause insisting that all existing prints of Dickinson's British version be destroyed. Unseen for many decades, this definitive version has been digitally restored by the BFI
Special Features
- First ever High Definition presentation
- Newly remastered by the BFI National Archive
- Extras to be confirmed
- Fully illustrated booklet with original essays
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (3-Disc Dual Format Edition)
A film by Rupert Julian
BFI Video proudly present this definitive three-disc Dual Format Edition of this celebrated classic of the silent era and horror cinema.
Lon Chaney, 'the man of a thousand faces', gives his most famous performance in this first version of the oft-filmed tale. Based on Gaston Leroux's novel, Chaney stars as the Phantom, who lives in the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera, and falls in love with the voice of a young opera singer. Infatuated, he kidnaps her, dragging her to the depths below where she will sing only for him.
Directed by Rupert Julian, this lavish 1925 production launched the Hollywood Gothic style which would become the trademark of Universal horror films.
Original prints of the film were fully tinted, with some sequences in Technicolor, and a rooftop scene using a special process that enabled the Phantom s cloak to show red against the blue night sky. This Photoplay restoration replicates all these effects, and is accompanied by Carl Davis celebrated score that draws heavily on Gounod's Faust, which is the opera being performed in the film.
Special Features
- Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition
- Newly restored presentation of the tinted and toned 1929 version, with Carl Davis score
- High Definition presentation of the 1925 version, with newly-commissioned piano accompaniment
- Original trailers from the 1925 and 1929 versions
- The Man with the Lantern sequence
- Sequences from the sound version
- Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000, Kevin Brownlow, 86 mins, DVD only): Kevin Brownlow's definitive documentary
- Fully illustrated booklet with essays, films notes and credits
World premiere of this highly sought-after ghost story from the BBC, released in the BFI's acclaimed Flipside series.
Based on a short story by Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalcken the Painter was originally shown in the Omnibus strand on BBC 2 during Christmas 1979. The story follows a young seventeenth century Flemish painter Godfried Schalcken, who forsakes love for ambition, but discovers that there is still a terrible price to pay for his choice.
One of the most frequently requested programmes in the BBC archive, Schalcken the Painter is an exquisitely shot, atmospheric horror film which explores the uneasy, dark relationship between art, commerce and erotic desire.
The superb cast includes Jeremy Clyde, Maurice Denman and Cheryl Kennedy.
Newly transferred to High Definition from the film materials preserved in the BFI National Archive, the release includes such as the rare, experimental Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, The Pit (1962), assistant directed by Peter Collinson.
Special Features
- World premiere release on DVD and Blu-ray
- Part of the BFI's celebrated Flipside series
- Interview with Director Leslie Megahey
- The Pit (1962, Edward Abraham, 25 mins): experimental film based on the classic Poe tale The Pit and the Pendulum
- Fully illustrated booklet
I've never seen Schalcken the Painter but my curiosity has been sufficiently piqued for me to consider blind buying it. It's great to see a BBC Omnibus film hit Blu-Ray - I'm hoping/dreaming/praying that we'll someday see Ken Russell's composer 'biopics'.
It's equally great to see the package that the BFI has put together for Phantom of the Opera. It's been gestating for a while - as has their release of the Photoplay version of The Birth of a Nation which hopefully won't be too far behind.
OK, thanks, but I'm not sure what that means for the quality. (Who's Photoplay? Sorry, I don't know.) I have the Park Circus release; how will they compare?
OK, thanks, but I'm not sure what that means for the quality. (Who's Photoplay? Sorry, I don't know.) I have the Park Circus release; how will they compare?
I'm confident in saying that it won't be inferior to the Park Circus. I'd be guessing if I were to say if it would be any better. Photoplay Productions is run by Kevin Brownlow - the first (and so far only) individual to be awarded an honorary Oscar for film preservation - and has restored many silent films and produced documentaries on silent cinema.
It bests the Park Circus BD quite easily, with the original version of the film in HD (it is in terrible SD quality on the Park Circus disc), and with a Carl Davis score for the shorter '29 version.
The British Film Institute will add three titles to its Blu-ray catalog in November: Thorold Dickinson's Gaslight (1940), Leslie Megahey's Schalcken the Painter (1979), and Rupert Julian's The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
Gaslight
Based on Patrick Hamilton's celebrated stage play Gaslight is a harrowing and claustrophobic film about domestic fear. Anton Walbrook (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes) stars as the terrifying husband who puts the sanity of his fragile and tortured wife (Diana Wynyard) under siege. The success of Gaslight on stage and film encouraged Hollywood studio MGM to buy the remake rights in the early 1940s, with a clause insisting that all existing prints of Dickinson's British version be destroyed. Unseen for many decades, this definitive version has been digitally restored by the BFI.
Content:
First ever High Definition presentation
Newly remastered by the BFI National Archive
Extras to be confirmed
Fully illustrated booklet with original essays
Schalcken the Painter
World premiere of this highly sought-after ghost story from the BBC, released in the BFI's acclaimed Flipside series. Based on a short story by Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalcken the Painter was originally shown in the Omnibus strand on BBC 2 during Christmas 1979. The story follows a young seventeenth century Flemish painter Godfried Schalcken, who forsakes love for ambition, but discovers that there is still a terrible price to pay for his choice. The superb cast includes Jeremy Clyde, Maurice Denman and Cheryl Kennedy.
Newly transferred to High Definition from the film materials preserved in the BFI National Archive, the release includes such as the rare, experimental Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, The Pit (1962), assistant directed by Peter Collinson.
Content:
World premiere release on Blu-ray
Interview with Director Leslie Megahey
The Pit (1962, Edward Abraham, 25 mins): experimental film based on the classic Poe tale The Pit and the Pendulum
Fully illustrated booklet with original essays
Extras to be confirmed
The Phantom of the Opera
Definitive three-disc Dual Format Edition of this celebrated classic of the silent era and horror cinema.
Lon Chaney, 'the man of a thousand faces', gives his most famous performance in this first version of the oft-filmed tale. Based on Gaston Leroux's novel, Chaney stars as the Phantom , who lives in the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera, and falls in love with the voice of a young opera singer. Infatuated, he kidnaps her, dragging her to the depths below where she will sing only for him.
Directed by Rupert Julian, this lavish 1925 production launched the Hollywood Gothic style which would become the trademark of Universal horror films.
Original prints of the film were fully tinted, with some sequences in Technicolor, and a rooftop scene using a special process that enabled the Phantom s cloak to show red against the blue night sky. This Photoplay restoration replicates all these effects, and is accompanied by Carl Davis celebrated score that draws heavily on Gounod's Faust, which is the opera being performed in the film.
Content:
Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition
Newly restored presentation of the tinted and toned 1929 version, with Carl Davis score
High Definition presentation of the 1925 version, with newly-commissioned piano accompaniment
Original trailers from the 1925 and 1929 versions
The Man with the Lantern sequence
Sequences from the sound version
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (2000, Kevin Brownlow, 86 mins, DVD only): Kevin Brownlow's definitive documentary
Fully illustrated booklet with essays, films notes and credits
That BFI version of Phantom does look great; I've never seen Schalcken (though I've read the story and heard a BBC radio adaptation); and I haven't seen this version of Gaslight, only the Boyer/Bergman version. (Is it fair to call the US version a remake?)
So thanks for the heads-up and info on these, Pro-B!
Hey guys, sorry to ask such an annoying question but I've never bought any of the BFI releases. Can I ask for some recommendations? (e.g. the best films with the best transfers)
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
(e.g. the best films with the best transfers)
Linear Mode
