Fritz Lang on Blu-ray

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by noirjunkie

Great thread. FYI - the link for Die Nibelungen doesn't work.

Thanks, and fixed

[dallywhitty]

Metropolis and Die Nibelungen are the only films of his that I've seen, but I loved them both and I intend to watch more of his work. Thankfully, Eureka have released a fair amount of them on Blu-ray in the UK. I may order M and Frau im Mond when I get paid.

[MifuneFan]

Cover art and extras for Spione (Spies) are now up! A little over the top, but I like it

• New high-definition 1080p presentation of the film on the Blu-ray
• Original German intertitles with optional English subtitles
• a 69-minute documentary n the film
• 40-PAGE BOOKLET including new and exclusive writing by critic Murielle Joudet and an essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum

[Bucky]

One reason why I bought Contempt was because Fritz Lang is in is.

[Edinburghoscar]

Originally Posted by mjbethancourt

To any Lang fans who have not watched Die Nibelungen, you are missing a mind-blowing experience. That movie and Metropolis show so much ambition and vision, Lang was doing things 90 years ago that most modern film fans assume were beyond the imagination of anyone working before the CGI era, it's basically Lord of the Rings. And the Gottfried Huppertz scores restored on the BDs for Die Nibelungen and Metropolis are sublime and majestic masterpieces that shiver me and cover me with goosebumps.

Lang is the reason why I can't call Hitchcock the greatest of all time, because so much of what Hitchcock did was just being a poor man's Lang.

I have every available region 1 Lang BD except Secret Beyond the Door, I believe, (Hangmen Also Die doesn't count, I think that's a September release). The ones that I most impatiently await are Testament of Dr. Mabuse (my second favorite film of the 30s after M), Frau im Mond, Spione, and his early films The Spiders Part I and II, an Indiana Jones-type jungle adventure.

I saw Die Nibelungen in the cinemaa few years ago and absolutely blown away

[dallywhitty]

It's my day off so I took the opportunity to sit (or rather lie) through four and a half hours of Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler. Brilliant stuff.

[Mansinthe]

Originally Posted by Edinburghoscar

I saw Die Nibelungen in the cinemaa few years ago and absolutely blown away

yeah really amazing movie. i did hold off on that one for a while because of the long running time for a silent movie. i think its the lang movie i did enjoy the most !

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Mansinthe

yeah really amazing movie. i did hold off on that one for a while because of the long running time for a silent movie. i think its the lang movie i did enjoy the most !

I've enjoyed all of his long, 2-parter silents, but to be honest, I prefer The Spiders and Dr. Mabuse to Die Nibelungen. I should emphasis that this actually says more about the first two than it does the last.

[mjbethancourt]

I meant to do this a few weeks ago, but didn't:

I recently had the pleasure of obtaining and viewing the latest Lang film to come to BD, Hangmen also Die! from Cohen, which has become by far my favorite of Lang's anti-Nazi films. Unlike the others, it is not the least bit censored or varnished in its depiction of Nazis and their abuses of the people of europe; in fact, a great strength of this film is the colorful Nazi characters themselves, caricatures and stereotypes of foppish arrogance, greed, and cruelty.

[Show spoiler]We are only introduced to

the title character, Heydrich the Hangman,

[Show spoiler] in a single scene, but it is more than sufficient to establish that he must die

. One of my favorite shots is one of the interior of the Gestapo building, which tracks in on a deutsch-gothic-text sign that reads "to serve Hitler is to serve Germany -- to serve Germany is to serve God." Indeed, the photography, visual composition, and atmospherics are everything you should expect from a Lang film, and more.

The film also benefits from being written by legendary playwright Bertholdt Brecht; the turns and escalations in the script keep it riveting from open to close. There can be any number of reasons why a film can seem longer than it is, and those reasons are usually bad. This film is an exception, it seems longer because the script is so compelling. At mid-film, when things look like the "good guys" are pulling it off, we are reminded that there is much more at stake than

[Show spoiler]protecting the identity of Heydrich's assassin, as we are taken to the prison camp where the Nazis are systematically murdering the very culture of the Czech people by executing the human pillars of society in a campaign to intimidate the citizens into giving up the assassin.

Suddenly we realize the film is not even close to over. The story takes a darker turn here, and urgency is tangible for the remainder of the film. In the darkness, though, the film is also at its most inspirational, as every single citizen of Prague

[Show spoiler]-- except for one lone traitor --

holds the line, every single one of them willing to give up their own life to defy the Nazis and protect one of their own, every proud one of them willing to die fighting for a future that they themselves will not live to see, a future they must save for their children. The last act is a thrilling and amusing Kafka-esque turn of events that culminates in a mostly happy ending, but one that reminds us that there is always a high cost and the struggle against evil is never over.

There's more, much more, but I've never been any good at writing a short review of a film. At any rate, this one I highly recommend.

[Richard--W]

Great idea for a thread. I've been gathering Fritz Lang blu-rays and the initial post helped. I think we'll see more of his films released in region A soon. Meanwhile, I'm buying the Master of Cinema blu's. To be honest I find Dr. Mabuse the Gambler heavy sledding, but I'm getting it anyhow because I want a complete library of Fritz Lang films on blu-ray. I will be content with my DVD set of The Indian Tomb and The Tiger of Eschnapur until an English-friendly blu becomes available.


Off-topic, and not to derail the thread, but mjbethancourt's signature --

mjbethancourt
If I boycotted morally repulsive people in the film industry, I would have to give up the films of Sean Connery, Klaus Kinski, Roman Polanski, Sam Peckinpah, Morgan Freeman, Woody Allen, just to name a few... sorry, but it's a lot more than just giving up Mel Gibson. It's too much to ask of me.

-- provokes a reaction in me. The names you mention are not reprehensible people. Do not base your judgment on what you've read in the media. Reports are contradictory, conflicting, inaccurate and dangerously incomplete. In fact, don't judge them at all. In many ways they are admirable people who've done admirable things in their personal life as well as in their work. Mel Gibson had been through quite an ordeal and rejection in business before he got drunk and lost his temper; Woody Allen was exonerated in court and in his own way a victim of manipulation, he did nothing wrong; Sean Connery used his wealth to underwrite a charity for homeless kids, to organize literacy program and advocate an independent government for Scotland; he never hurt anybody, despite what he said in an interview that was edited out of context to make the reporter look good and him look bad. And so on. Mia Farrow is an hysteric who turned against Woody Allen when her stardom no longer carried his films and he was forced to seek other actresses. The truly morally reprehensible people in the film industry are names you haven't heard of. They are usually the money-controllers who humiliate people like Mel Gibson as a condition of financing them. Believe me, there's more to these stories than you know. I would just change the signature, if I were you.

[bigshot]

You should put up the cover for Pervesidad (Scarlet Street) as an alternative to the US version. I think it's a different transfer, isn't it? Has anyone compared?

[EVERYONE LIES]

I love Fritz Lang's movies. He should be more popular than he is.

[Vinyl]

is there any word on a NA version of Testament of Dr. Mabuse coming to BD? Possibly through Criterion (if they still have the rights)?

PS: Damn you region B people with your masters of cinema versions of sooo many movies I want (like that Dr. Mabuse BD). Region A just can't hold up compared to you.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Vinyl

is there any word on a NA version of Testament of Dr. Mabuse coming to BD? Possibly through Criterion (if they still have the rights)?

PS: Damn you region B people with your masters of cinema versions of sooo many movies I want (like that Dr. Mabuse BD). Region A just can't hold up compared to you.

I don't think there's been word of a Criterion upgrade, but I'm hoping to see it next year.

[Rich Pure Doom]

A very informative read for anyone not familiar with all of Fritz Lang's work:

http://thedissolve.com/features/care...z-lang/?page=1

[mjbethancourt]

Originally Posted by Vinyl

is there any word on a NA version of Testament of Dr. Mabuse coming to BD? Possibly through Criterion (if they still have the rights)?

PS: Damn you region B people with your masters of cinema versions of sooo many movies I want (like that Dr. Mabuse BD). Region A just can't hold up compared to you.

I love that film. I think it is one of the primary influences of all things Batman. Those MoC releases are the best argument in favor of getting a region-free player.

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by Richard--W

Off-topic, and not to derail the thread, but mjbethancourt's signature --

-- provokes a reaction in me... I would just change the signature, if I were you.

[Show spoiler]... and if I were you, I would delete that post. It is both inappropriate, and flat wrong, to boot. Let's not do this here. Either learn to use your PMs, or mind your own business.

[filmmusic]

Hoe of a release of the Indian's tomb movies with English subtitles!
I had seen these in my childhood, and I was scared stiff at the lepers.

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

btw: it's tragic that MoC refuses to release an upgrade of the Indian Epic, seeing as how it is already restored and in their collection as a dvd.
(just hard to understand what the reason is, and for whatever reason Eureka seem to have no interest in saying why)
note: they claimed a bd was coming at one point, but obviously it has never materialized.

.

has someone asked them, and they said they aren't interested?

[Andrew-Kenneth]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

I know that the original Italian release looked like it had a distortion problem--either the characters looked too fat or too skinny--can't remember which one.
check out the dvdbeaver review and you'll see it in the screencaps.
so I never got that bd.
am very interested to know if the Spanish bd is distortion free because if it is, I would definitely get it. great film and I always like Sylvia Sidney.
.

The Italian blu-ray of "You Only Live Once" shows everyone too skinny.
My guess is that they squeezed an 1,37:1 image into a 1,33:1 frame. (or something like this)

I searched the net for screenshots of the spanish edition and found some on a spanish HD review site.
=> http://www.altadefinicionhd.com/134-...e-vive-una-vez

I compared the spanish blu-ray "You Only Live Once" screenshots with screenshots on the same spanish review-site of the spanish "Ministry of Fear" blu-ray.
=> http://www.altadefinicionhd.com/anal...erio-del-miedo

Conclusion => the image on the spanish edition of "You Only Live Once" looks way narrower than the spanish "Ministry of Fear" disc.
So, it looks like it's also "squeezed" like the Italian release.

[bigshot]

I got that on the three disk Spanish Lang box set.