UK art house fans must be pleased

[diamondfoxxx]

Pasolini's Salo, The Decameron, Arabian Nights, Canterbury Tales
Bed Sitting Room
Kenneth Anger's Shorts
Plus, many more!

I mean, come on! I never dreamed those films would ever hit Blu anywhere! But UK seems to be a step ahead of the game; while in the US, commercial crap is being released all the time.

No wonder Blu-ray is not taking off.

[demoni]

+1

Right on!!!!!!

[McCrutchy]

The UK was always well ahead of the US in terms of foreign and, obviously, British Cinema being on Blu-ray. The US has severely few foreign titles on Blu-ray (other than Criterion releases). This was the primary reason why I got a region-free player.

I already have at home:

Gomorrah
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Red Desert

All of which are not yet on Blu-ray in the US (and if already on DVD, had inferior releases) and all of these titles are Region "B" Locked.

Edit: Technically, I forgot Hidden (Caché). I picked up the Artificial Eye BD a while ago (it's region-free and a fantastic disc!)

[pro-bassoonist]

O, I am so pleased . Please, keep supporting the distributors so that we could see more important films making their way to Blu-ray!

Thank you.

Pro-B

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

O, I am so pleased . Please, keep supporting the distributors so that we could see more important films making their way to Blu-ray!

Thank you.

Pro-B

You're welcome. The only problem is, between all the releases out already and all the ones you've posted as coming soon, my wallet is hurting.

[diamondfoxxx]

I'm really thinking about selling off by Region A PS3 for a region free blu-ray player.
Honestly, the titles that are now on region B are insane :

Fellini's Casanova (France, Region B)
David Lynch's Wild At Heart (same)
Jim Jarmsch's Dead Man (same)
etc

Frankly, it'll be years before US distributors will even think of releasing those on Blu-ray.

Other than Blue Underground & Criterion no other distributor is taking any risk like in the UK.

[Grubert]

Note however that many titles (especially from France and Germany) have non-removeable subtitles when you watch the movie in its original language. That might be a dealbreaker for you.

But apart from that, yeah, UK is great for non-mainstream BD. And the prices have been pretty good lately.

[Clark Kent]

It appears many independent American distributors and even studios are still very timid with marginal releases on Blu-ray. We keep hearing whispers that catalog sales of older movies are very poor, but something does not compute when European studios are releasing many titles of limited appeal.

[demoni]

Originally Posted by diamondfoxxx

I'm really thinking about selling off by Region A PS3 for a region free blu-ray player.

I'm going to buy an additional stand alone region B player this fall. Panasonic, Sony and Pioneer are all coming out with new players.

[richieb1971]

Its simple diversity, plus the fact that the UK doesn't have much control of what American stuff comes out here. Usually we are at the mercy of politics and other crap.

We make less movies, but I think there is a higher % of good stuff here than there. Most of it wouldn't appeal to US citizens anyway.

[demoni]

Originally Posted by richieb1971

We make less movies, but I think there is a higher % of good stuff here than there. Most of it wouldn't appeal to US citizens anyway.

+1

You're my God!!

[Hugh K. David]

As a UK resident, I only have one single complaint, which is that licensing costs often prevent soundtracks and extras from leaping from the home territory. It annoys me, for example, that US editions of Black Book, Chungking Express and now Waltz With Bashir all carry commentaries, as do French BDs of Female Agents and Taken. UK distributors do try to offer exclusive interviews instead, and there are those who prefer the conciseness of a 15-minute to-camera piece from the director and/or star, but if a commentary has been recorded then, budget permitting, it would be nice to have it.

For those wondering, there are up to three costs associated with a commentary for UK distribs:

a) licensing the recording from the original studio/label
b) paying for it to be rated by the BBFC (as an extra, it has to be covered separately from the film, so the BBFC cost has just doubled before any other extras are submitted)
c) getting it subtitled when it is recorded in another language.

(b) is usually the deciding factor. Thank goodness for directors like Guillermo del Toro, who happily record brand-new commentaries for Optimum's releases of his Spanish-language films.