British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[Judex]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9fvE0qoTMU&feature=youtube_gdata

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by rapta

I had to cancel Camera Obscura unfortunately as I can't really warrant a £60 blind-buy.

The Walerian Borowczyk set is well worth the money. It's limited to 1000 copies. I saw both The Beast & The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Miss Osborne (NOT included in the set) at the BFI Southbank last week. They are brilliant films & are Borowczyk's Masterpieces.

The set looks like the boxset release of the year. If this set sells well (ideally all 1000 copies) then it should convince Arrow to releace more (preferably another Borowczyk set with the rest of his films) of his work especially his Dr Jekyll film (it's the 2nd one to have different actors play the Hyde character. The 1st was Hammer's Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde) as it's the best version of Dr Jekyll ever made.

Overall this set is worth, in some peoples eyes, the blind buy

[Telstar]

When they were first announced, amazon uk had the Robbe-Grillet set listed at £34 and the Herzog Collection at £46. I stupidly hesitated, thinking the prices would drop, and instead they rose rather dramatically -- roughly ten pounds each! -- which is where they're currently hovering.
I'm curious if anyone thinks these sets will eventually drop to their original price (or lower), or if I should just bite the bullet and splurge now.

[Mansinthe]

same for me with the gillet and herzog set... i thought price will most likely stay the same. never was so wrong....


i will keep my Walerian Borowczyk preorder.. if i like the movies i will keep the set and hope for another release. if not i will resell it and probably make some money along the way. so its actually a no brainer.. even if you hated every movie in the set , the risk that you wont make more money with it since its OOP is probably not possible

[mattyl149]

I always pre-order titles I want as soon as they go live on Amazon. That way if the price goes up, I've locked in the lower price, and if it goes down, I'm guaranteed the cheaper price whatever it ends up being

[rapta]

Originally Posted by mattyl149

I always pre-order titles I want as soon as they go live on Amazon. That way if the price goes up, I've locked in the lower price, and if it goes down, I'm guaranteed the cheaper price whatever it ends up being

Common sense that everyone should follow. You should do what I do and keep a note of pre-orders in order of release date and where you've pre-ordered from so you can remember to cancel if necessary.

I find Zavvi are dispatching a lot of stuff earlier so you'll usually have to decide by the Wednesday or Thursday before release whether you want it or not...saying that, I tried to cancel Deadwood with them and they dispatched it anyway. Moral of that story - don't order with Zavvi unless absolutely necessary. Amazon are so much easier to cancel, return stuff, get replacements etc...and much better for pre-order price guarantee.

[Telstar]

Originally Posted by mattyl149

I always pre-order titles I want as soon as they go live on Amazon. That way if the price goes up, I've locked in the lower price, and if it goes down, I'm guaranteed the cheaper price whatever it ends up being

Thanks for all the feedback, and yes I completely agree. However, at this point I'm more interested in getting some opinions on whether people feel the prices of the Herzog and Robbe-Grillet sets are likely to decrease in price at some point over, say, the next six months or so. Any thoughts?

[mattyl149]

Originally Posted by rapta

Common sense that everyone should follow. You should do what I do and keep a note of pre-orders in order of release date and where you've pre-ordered from so you can remember to cancel if necessary.

I find Zavvi are dispatching a lot of stuff earlier so you'll usually have to decide by the Wednesday or Thursday before release whether you want it or not...saying that, I tried to cancel Deadwood with them and they dispatched it anyway. Moral of that story - don't order with Zavvi unless absolutely necessary. Amazon are so much easier to cancel, return stuff, get replacements etc...and much better for pre-order price guarantee.

I have it all logged on a budget spreadsheet, Google calendar and the Blu-ray.com app

[mattyl149]

Originally Posted by Telstar

Thanks for all the feedback, and yes I completely agree. However, at this point I'm more interested in getting some opinions on whether people feel the prices of the Herzog and Robbe-Grillet sets are likely to decrease in price at some point over, say, the next six months or so. Any thoughts?

They may do, but it's hard to tell. Prices fluctuate all the time so it's worth keeping an eye on them

This site offers a price tracking feature so you could set a price and it'll let you know when it hits that price

[ISmith1979]

Apologies if this has already been covered, but I have failed to find it upthread if so.
Will the Herzog boxset have the exact same extras as Aguirre and Nosferatu steelbook releases? I can't find anywhere that confirms all of the boxset extras.
Thanks for your help!

[Vakulinchuk]

Well, while I wait for Camera Obscura to finally arrive, I re watched the complete shorts of Jan Svankmajer. I went through the sixties and the seventies so far... Brilliant as they were the first time I saw them.

Is there any chance that BFI might upgrade this wonderful collection to bluray? More crucially, could the films themselves benefit from further scans / restorations? Non everything in the first disc looks as crisp as Jabberwocky, of course. My impression is that for some shorts a video source was all that survived?

[Vakulinchuk]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

In other words, I wouldn't hold your breath.

Well, it's a good thing that they all survive in 35mm; I can online imagine how stunning they look!

Of course, if BFI wants to try Kickstarter that'd be awesome... But yeah, when rights aren't all in one place, it's messy.

[rock, stone]

I would Kickstart the hell out of some Svankmajer.

[Judex]

According to someone on CF. Moviemail seems to confirm this with a 22 September release date.

Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face which was scheduled for a July release has moved back to September as it will now be a more extensive package.

I wonder if they're going to include more shorts. Criterion's release of Judex has a few, so wouldn't surprise me if they appear on this also.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by Judex

According to someone on CF. Moviemail seems to confirm this with a 22 September release date.


I wonder if they're going to include more shorts. Criterion's release of Judex has a few, so wouldn't surprise me if they appear on this also.

Fingers crossed! I emailed them regarding the shorts prior to the Criterion announcement and they said that they'd pass on my message to the disc producers.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by Judex

According to someone on CF. Moviemail seems to confirm this with a 22 September release date.


I wonder if they're going to include more shorts. Criterion's release of Judex has a few, so wouldn't surprise me if they appear on this also.

Dammit I was looking forward to that...July was key month for releases for me. But I can wait another couple of months I guess. I wonder what they'll be adding?

[Yami]

BFI trailer for Spring in a Small Town

It's a masterpiece. I'm looking forward to the Blu-Ray release, which I presume/hope is happening.

[Mansinthe]

chinese classics... that would be awesome , and maybe a few from Korea as well

[Yami]

Originally Posted by Mansinthe

chinese classics... that would be awesome , and maybe a few from Korea as well

It's to tie in with the BFI Southbank series A Century of Chinese Cinema.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by Yami

BFI trailer for Spring in a Small Town

It's a masterpiece. I'm looking forward to the Blu-Ray release, which I presume/hope is happening.

Yeah I really want to see this before I watch the remake, Springtime in a Small Town (which I keep seeing for sale in Fopp and other places). The original is often quoted as one of the best Chinese films of all time, so I do hope the BFI release a blu-ray.