Roman Polanski on Blu-ray

[James Luckard]

US releases





IMPORTANT NOTES
The US BD of FRANTIC has been OOP for many years. In addition, there are two identical pressings. The 2010 pressing has an audio error. The 2011 pressing has audio that I got corrected by contacting Mr. Polanski. There is no way to tell used copies apart except by playing them. You can tell wrapped new copies apart by the sticker over the barcode on the back.

The OOP US BD of BITTER MOON is incorrectly pitched. KL stated that they received a 25fps HD master from StudioCanal. They slowed it down to 24fps, but then they mistakenly thought the 25fps master had been pitch corrected, and RAISED the pitch on their new 24fps master to match the original 25fps version. Foreign BDs of the film do not have this flaw.

The US BD of DEATH AND THE MAIDEN was a Shout website exclusive, with only 1620 copies issued. (I have no idea how they chose that strange number).

The US BD of THE GHOST WRITER has all the cursing ineptly redubbed. The Canadian disc is the exact same disc, my player thought it was the identical disc and restarted from the same spot, but it does not have the atrocious redubbing.

Only available on foreign BD




IMPORTANT NOTES
I believe the OOP UK BD of KNIFE IN THE WATER is the only one with English subs, other than the Spanish one, which is a bootleg in most countries outside Spain.

The German Plaion edition of The Fearless Vampire Killers was released with 3 or 4 alternate retailer-exclusive covers. It corrects the two day-for-night scenes where WC left off the blue filter. It also includes the US theatrical version of the film (re-edited by the studio without Polanski's involvement) in SD.

PIRATES is a very confusing one. DO NOT BUY the OOP French steelbook. It was from that period when many French BDs rotted. Mine rotted. Also do not buy the 2014 Italian disc, it's apparently 1080i/50 25fps. The two Spanish Resen BDs are bootlegs outside Spain, but they're region free. The 2016 Spanish disc just has the film. The 2023 Spanish disc adds the 50-minute making-of doc. Warning, my 2016 Resen disc also rotted. The two recent Eagle Pictures Italian discs are the best bet, but beware, they're region locked. They play on Panasonic machines with the STOP-TOP MENU-TOP MENU trick.

The UK Harrison Ford set is the only way to get the corrected disc of FRANTIC in the US at the moment, though there are apparently new Scandinavian standalone releases too.

Buy a foreign disc of BITTER MOON, in order to get properly pitched audio.

Buy a foreign disc of THE GHOST WRITER, in order to get the original audio track, with cursing present.

VENUS IN FUR was only released on DVD in the US. Only the UK and Hong Kong BDs had English subs. Both are OOP.

BASED ON A TRUE STORY was never released theatrically or on home video in the US. Sony Classics chose not to exercise their US rights. The Spanish and Hong Kong BDs had English subs. Both are OOP.

J'ACCUSE (AN OFFICER AND A SPY) has not been released anywhere in the world with English subtitles. The French BD is considered the best, I believe.

UHD


IMPORTANT NOTES
The first pressings of Rosemary's Baby were faulty. They contain two audio errors:

1:57:25 - When Dr. Saperstein is supposed to have the line "We happen to be in labor here," his line is muted on the UHD, except for the final word, "here". His hands are onscreen, but his face isn't.

0:52:22 - as the nurse draws Rosemary's blood, Rosemary says to Charles Grodin "We went to see The Fantasticks." However, on the UHD, a creaking floorboard has been muted at the end of her line and the last syllable of her line is lost. She says "The Fantastic" instead of "The Fantasticks" plural.

Paramount fixed the first flaw and offered replacement discs. They did not fix the second flaw.

BOX SETS

This ULTRA-rare Polish box set is the only release anywhere in the world of Polanski's segment of the film THE WORLD'S MOST BEAUTIFUL SWINDLERS. All other home video releases of that film, everywhere in the world, have Polanski's segment removed, at his express request, for reasons unknown. The box set also has his early short films remastered.


This long-OOP boxset included the only-ever US release of Knife in the Water on BD.


This Australian boxset includes his 3 1990s films - Bitter Moon, Death and the Maiden and The Ninth Gate, along with the doc Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. It also has a decent amount of exclusive bonus features.

MISC

Written by Polanski.