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December 31, 2004
[ROUGE #5] 
The fifth issue of Rouge is now available. This special experimental edition — The Image Issue — features fifty-two images from a host of interesting folk (and some text too!).
- N.W.
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December 29, 2004
[AKI KAURISMÄKI]
There is soon to be a total of four Aki Kaurismäki box sets available in Sweden. Kaurismäki fans who enjoyed the 5 x DVD boxset released in Sweden this time last year, and the Leningrad Cowboys set in April 2004, may not have realized that a third boxset came out last month, with a fourth scheduled for May 2005.
The first box set (December 2003) contains: The Man without a Past [Mies vailla menneisyyttä] (2002), Drifting Clouds [Kauas pilvet karkaavat] (1996) and three titles from the "Proletarian trilogy": Shadows in Paradise [Varjoja paratiisissa] (1986), Ariel (1988), and The Match Factory Girl [Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö] (1990). All discs have been confirmed as having English subtitles.
The Leningrad Cowboys triple-disc set, featuring Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989), Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (1994) and Total Balalaika Show (1994) was released in April 2004 and has English subtitles where necessary.
The November 2004 4-disc set (Aki Kaurismäki Box Set #2 (referred to by most etailers as #2, but technically #3 if we're being sticklers) features Hamlet Goes Business [Hamlet liikemaailmassa] (1987), I Hired A Contract Killer (1990), La Vie de bohème [Boheemielämää] (1992), and Juha (1999).
May 2005 sees the release of the final box set (it was down for a March release but has been delayed to include Kaurismäki's Likaiset kädet [Dirty Hands] (1989) a TV adaptation of a Sartre play). The set also includes: Rikos ja rangaistus [Crime and Punishment] (1983), Calamari Union (1985), and Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana [Pidä huivista kiinni, Tatjana] (1994).
Thanks to Timothy M. and Michael B. for the headsup.
- N.W.
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December 24, 2004
[MoC DVD OF THE YEAR AWARD 2004]
Thanks for everybody's votes! Here are the results. Happy holidays!
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December 23, 2004
[ROBERT HARRIS 2004 OVERVIEW]
Robert Harris's "Classic DVD: A Report Card for 2004" article here is essential reading, even if it's shamelessly R1 only (and we wouldn't put Paramount over Criterion in a month of Sundays...) but this is a fine rundown of 2004, with some nice tidbits for 2005.
- N.W.
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December 12, 2004
[MARCEL OPHÜLS] Milestone Films (USA) have announced terrific news: they will distribute famed documentarian Marcel Ophüls' four-hour-plus The Troubles We've Seen: A History of Journalism in Wartime (1994) theatrically and on DVD, and they also hope to co-produce a third section of the film Ophüls had planned but was never able to complete.
- D.C.
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November 30, 2004
[ROBERT BRESSON]
MK2 (France) have just announced that they intend to release a DVD box-set containing three Robert Bresson films on March 16, 2005. Each film will have English, German, Italian and Spanish subtitles. Le Procès de Jeanne d'Arc will include a theatrical trailer, foreword by French journalist P. Azoury (20 mins), interview with Robert Bresson and Mario Beunat (5 mins), interview with Jean Guitton (5 mins), and an audio speech by André Malraux (20 mins). L'Argent will include a Cannes press conference (41 mins), and a sequence in which Truffaut speaks about Robert Bresson (2 mins). Pickpocket will include Babette Mangolte's Les Modèles de Pickpocket (52 mins), the French TV program Cinepanorama (7 mins), and Robert Bresson's speech at the prestigious French film school IDHEC (2 mins!). Keep an eye on MoC's robert-bresson.com for further updates.
- T.T.
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November 24, 2004
[LOACH/RESNAIS/GODARD/RIVETTE/LANG] Some more January/February releases in the UK: fresh on the heels of their impressive Bresson discs, Nouveaux Pictures plans to release digitally-restored versions of Jean-Luc Godard's Masculin Feminin, Two or Three Things I Know About Her, and Vivre sa vie, as well as Alain Resnais' Night and Fog and Hiroshima mon amour; Artificial Eye have announced Jacques Rivette's Histoire de Marie et Julien, Godard's Weekend, and Land and Freedom (Ken Loach, pictured); and Optimum Releasing will provide Fritz Lang's Technicolor Western Union and Joseph L. Mankiewicz's debut, Dragonwyck. These titles and more can be found at MovieMail (UK).
- D.C.
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November 23, 2004
[THEO ANGELOPOULOS] Artificial Eye (UK) have mentioned exciting plans to release 11 Angelopoulos films in 2005: The Travelling Players, Eternity and a Day, Ulysses' Gaze, Voyage to Cythera, The Beekeeper, Alexander the Great, The Hunters, The Suspended Step of the Stork, Days of 36, Landscape in the Mist, and Reconstruction.
- D.C.
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November 22, 2004
[MoC DVD OF THE YEAR AWARD 2004]
The Masters of Cinema DVD Award of the Year 2004 will be announced here on Xmas Eve. As usual, it is voted for by our readers. The voting period is from now until December 23.
We'd like our readers to vote for their favourite DVD released in 2004, so here are some simple guidelines that may help you decide: 1.) The DVD can be from anywhere in the world and must have been released sometime in 2004; 2.) You can vote for box sets; 3.) Choose your personal favourite release; 4.) Please don't vote for MoC DVDs, the vote will receive a glowing smile but won't be counted. Thanks.
This year, if you could also please give a sentence or two explaining why you've picked it, we'll publish a selection of your replies with the results.
Simply send your ONE title here. This is the only way to vote. If you're reading this - please vote! Thankyou! - NB. only one vote per reader please. One lucky voter will be picked out of a hat to receive copies of MoC Series #2, #3, #4 and #8 DVDs. Two lucky runners-up will be able choose any one of those discs. Good luck! and thanks for reading!
If you want to see what happened last year, click here.
- N.W.
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November 15, 2004
[JEAN-LUC GODARD] Jean-Luc Godard has embarked upon nine months of 'course-talks' in his Collages de France project at Le Fresnoy and Centre Pompidou, Paris. It sees him "meeting writers, philosophers, scientists, filmmakers and artists to conduct interviews about the movement of the world and of images... ...to show and demonstrate some of the aspects that have made and unmade cinematography". Each videoconference will be recorded and the basis of a book/DVD which will in turn infuse the second half of the project from October 2005 to June 2006.
Last weekend at Le Volcan in Le Havre, Godard spoke about his recent film Notre musique, cinema in general, and was given carte blanche to program a series of films throughout November. His choices include: Demi-Tarif (Isild Le Besco), The Brown Bunny (Vincent Gallo), The Apple (Samirah Makhmalbaf), Mr. Klein (Joseph Losey), Level Five (Chris Marker), Saltimbank (Jean-Claude Biette), Du soleil pour les gueux (Alain Guiraudie), Après la reconciliation (Anne-Marie Miéville), Les Naufragés de la D17 (Luc Moullet), and three films by his ex-Dziga-Vertov Group accomplice, Jean-Pierre Gorin. Godard held back on an intended screening of a new short work because he's decided to use it as the basis for his next feature-length, Vrai-Faux passeport (True-False Passport).
Finally, the reopening of New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) next weekend sees the world premiere of Godard's latest work, Moments choisis des Histoire(s) du cinéma, an 85-minute 35mm distillation of his video work Histoire(s) du cinéma.
- N.W. (thanks to Craig Keller)
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November 6, 2004
[ROUGE]
The fourth issue of the essential online publication Rouge is now available. Contents
include: two essays by the Spanish master Víctor Erice, one of them a fond appreciation of Manoel de Oliveira; a master-class from Erice's friend José Luis Guerin; Ozu's Women by Shigehiko Hasumi; Thomas Elsaesser's study of film and TV representations of the Red Army Fraction; accounts of a recent Antonioni short by Jonathan Rosenbaum and Enrica Antonioni; an extract from Jean-Jacques Schuhl's award-winning Ingrid Caven: A Novel; notes from Australian avant-gardist James Clayden's Marey Project; Robert Kramer's Letter to Bob Dylan; a focus on Hitchcock 1948/9 including Jean-Pierre Coursodon on Rope and Mark Rappaport on The Paradine Case; and a dossier of John Hughes on (and with) Jacques Rivette introduced by Jonathan Rosenbaum.
- N.W.
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November 2, 2004
[US ELECTION] In the spirit of editorial endorsements, we here at MoC wish to state the obvious and encourage our American readers to remove the Bush Administration from office today. This may not be the place for soapboxing, but we are part of a worldwide community, and the Administration's misdirected and invasive imperialism, dismissal of international law, strengthening of corporate media control, "Special Registration" mistreatment of immigrants (and visiting filmmakers), human rights abuses, and general promotion of fear—among other offenses—runs entirely counter to our basic mission of fostering a global dialogue. While we recognize that any election result will merely reframe our challenges, we nevertheless encourage readers to promote change, if only in small increments, and to never forget that our love for the world's cinema is inseparable from our dedication to be its citizens and custodians.
-The editors
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November 1, 2004
[WARNER / FOX] Gangsters, crime, and noir from Warner and Fox next year. First up on January 25, 2005 is the Gangsters Collection from Warner (USA) featuring: Angels with Dirty Faces (Curtiz, 1938), Little Caesar (LeRoy, 1931), The Petrified Forest (Mayo, 1936), The Public Enemy (Wellman, 1931), The Roaring Twenties (Walsh, 1939), and White Heat (Walsh, 1949).
In Feburary 2005, Fox (USA) release a wave of titles in their Studio Classics line: Leave Her to Heaven (Stahl, 1945) and A Letter to Three Wives (Mankiewicz, 1949) amongst others. Fox also have their new Film Noir series debuting in March with three titles: Call Northside 777 (Hathaway, 1948), Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Aldrich, 1964) and the superb Laura (Preminger, 1944). There is some confusion as to whether Leave Her to Heaven will appear in the Noir series or not, but this is how they've been announced.
- N.W.
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October 30, 2004
[JACQUES BECKER] The French master Jacques Becker gets strong Criterion backing in January 2005 with two consecutive releases — Casque d'or (1952) and Touchez pas au grisbi (1954). Anyone wondering who Becker is should consider picking up Criterion's already released Le Trou (1960), one of the hidden gems of the Criterion Collection. The same month, Criterion also release two Seijun Suzuki films, Youth of the Beast (1963), Fighting Elegy (1966), and the full 180-minute version of Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha (1980) with commentary by Stephen Prince.
- N.W.
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October 26, 2004
[CINEMA SCOPE] The excellent Canadian film magazine, Cinema Scope, has published its 20th issue and established a new website with several articles available online. MoC readers will particularly appreciate the esteemed critic Jonathan Rosenbaum's always fascinating Global Discoveries on DVD column.
- D.C.
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October 25, 2004
[ANDREI TARKOVSKY] MoC site nostalghia.com have posted their review of the upcoming R1 Facets DVD of Tempo di viaggio [Voyage in Time], the 1983 documentary of Tarkovsky's exploration of the Italian landscape. Unfortunately, this release suffers from several problems and adds to Facets' often technically subpar DVD catalogue. While MoC deeply appreciates Facets' longtime contributions to video distribution and cinephilia in the US, we yearn for the day when the quality of their DVD authoring will improve.
- D.C.
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October 21, 2004
[ARTIFICIAL EYE]In the latest MovieMail catalogue, Artificial Eye (UK) have announced a slate of exciting DVD releases for 2005, including Eric Rohmer's Tales of the Four Seasons, Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend, Ken Loach's Land and Freedom, Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh, Louis Feuillade's Fantomas, Derek Jarman's The Garden, and Theo Angelopoulos' The Travelling Players.
- D.C.
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October 19, 2004
[CARL THEODOR DREYER]
The Eureka MoC Series gives birth to #3 next week.
Michael [Mikaël] (Dreyer, 1924) is released on October 25, 2004. It is a R0 (region free) PAL 2 x disc set. DVDBeaver have got their mitts on a copy and have a good look at it here.
Future releases in the MoC Series include Murnau's Tartuffe (1926), Teshigahara's Pitfall (1962) and The Face of Another (1966), a reissue of Metropolis (1927) with German intertitles, and Joe May's Asphalt (1929).
- N.W.
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October 9, 2004
[MILESTONE RELEASES] To celebrate their upcoming 15th anniversary next year, Milestone (USA) will be releasing a number of DVDs, including: Legong: Dance of the Virgins (1935), filmed in Bali by Marquis Henry de la Falaise (husband of both Gloria Swanson and Constance Bennett) in glorious two-colour Technicolor and restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Extras include de la Falaise's long-lost Kliou, filmed in Indo-China (Vietnam) in 1935, and Robert Snyder's Gods of Bali (1952). Released November 16, 2004.
In February 2005, Milestone release Hindle Wakes (Elvey, 1927) which director Maurice Elvey (pictured) shot on location in textile mills in Lancashire, England, giving the film a documentary realism. "The film's moving camera — flying in and around Blackpool's famed amusement park rides — is as thrilling as any camerawork in the history of cinema". Restored by the BFI, Hindle Wakes features two scores.
The Dragon Painter (Worthington, 1919), "one of the finest independent films of the silent era", Sessue Hayakawa and Tsuru Aoki's feature now has a new score by composer Mark Izu. Extras include Thomas Ince's The Wrath of the Gods (1914), also starring Hayakawa and Aoki. Both films are from the tinted 35mm restorations carried out at George Eastman House. Available sometime in 2005.
Five DVDs featuring Mary Pickford are to be released in the first half of 2005. Through the Back Door (1921) recently discovered in a European archive; Little Lord Fauntleroy. (1921); Heart o' the Hills (1919); Suds (1920); Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) contains the documentary America's Sweetheart, narrated by Henry Fonda.
For late 2005, one of their most ambitious projects to date (and already two years in the making), is the Charley Chase Classic Comedy Collection. In collaboration with film historian Rusty Casselton and archives from around the world, Milestone has put together fifteen of Chase's films in a five-hour package.
- N. W.
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September 30, 2004
[BUNUEL / SHAKESPEARE / RABAN]
The British Film Institute (bfi) are releasing L'Âge d'or and Un chien andalou (Buñuel, 1928/1930) on DVD in late October. This is the first time that L'Âge d'or has been released on DVD anywhere in the world. This special set comes complete with a 32-page booklet containing notes on both films by Robert Short, Buñuel notes on Un chien andalou, and writing by The Surrealist Group. As well as filmed introductions and commentaries on each film by Robert Short - this set comes with the excellent A Propósito de Buñuel documentary from 2000 (also released in 2000 on Criterion's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie set.)
Also released at the same time is Silent Shakespeare, a bfi DVD made using nitrate prints of seven films from Britain, Italy and the USA archived at the National Film and Television Archive (UK). Ranging from the very first Shakespeare film ever made, King John in 1899, to Richard III (1911), these films have an introduction and commentary by Judith Buchanan. Silent Shakespeare will also be touring UK arthouse cinemas with live strings for accompaniment this Autumn.
Finally, on the same day, the bfi kick off another new series of DVDs with their first British Artists' Films collection — of William Raban's work. The series aims to feature important films and video work by contemporary British artists. Raban's work ranges from multi-screen gallery pieces to short films about his particular interests - the City of London and the British landscape. Future discs in this series will include the work of Chris Welsby and themed collections - The City and The Body.
- N.W.
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September 21, 2004
[VÍCTOR ERICE] Víctor Erice's sublime El sol del membrillo [The Quince Tree Sun] (1992) is slated for an October 7 release by a small independent Spanish DVD company. Directly involved in the production are the original producers: Víctor Erice himself, Jos Oliver, Antonio López García (the painter), and María Moreno. This is a 2xDVD set, both discs are DVD-9, the film is presented in its original aspect ratio from a brand new transfer, with audio remastered from the original sources. There are more than 2 hours of extras, subtitles in 6 languages, 250 photos from the set, and a 40-page booklet. The disc set will apparently be available "exclusively through FNAC stores" ( October 3 update: title listed here).
- T.T.
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September 8, 2004
[OVERLOOKED?]
Too many DVDs unwatched? That big pile getting you down? Then don't read our new Overlooked? article, whatever you do. A huge thanks to the army of contributors for making it so interesting to put together over the last three months.
- N. W.
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September 1, 2004
[BUSTER KEATON]
Warner (USA) is finally getting round to more TCM Archive releases, following their excellent Lon Chaney collection last year. They've just announced The Buster Keaton Collection for December 2004 release. The two disc set will include three films from Keaton's MGM period — The Cameraman (1928) with a new score by Arthur Barnow; Spite Marriage (1929) and Free and Easy (1930) Keaton's first talkie. The set also includes Kevin Brownlow's new So Funny It Hurts: Buster Keaton at MGM documentary.
- N.W.
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August 31, 2004
[KIAROSTAMI / LOACH / OLMI]
Abbas Kiarostami has just wrapped shooting his segment of a new omnibus film entitled Ticket which he's making with Ken Loach and Ermanno Olmi in Italy. With a budget of 4m Euros, the UK/Italian co-production will be released in 2005 and takes place entirely on a train. Click the photo to the left (taken last Saturday) to see an enlargement. Thanks again to Mifune film magazine in Denmark who interviewed Kiarostami for a couple of hours last Saturday.
- N.W.
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August 28, 2004
[BELA TARR] Danish film magazine Mifune interviewed Bela Tarr yesterday morning for a forthcoming issue. Amongst the many things discussed was his new film, L'Homme de Londres [The Man from London] which begins shooting in France in November. Tarr explained the film is about the Georges Simenon novel and not an adaptation of it. He plans to have it ready for possible selection at Cannes 2005.
Tarr is also working on a DVD collection of his older films, and a three DVD set of Sátántangó. Tarr was aware that English subtitles help a DVD release's sales, and talked about releasing the discs in Hungary, France, UK, Greece, Japan and the USA, with English subtitles.
Look for an article about Tarr in a future issue of Mifune magazine, and the full transcribed interview on MoC.
- N.W.
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August 27, 2004
[DVD BEAVER] Spiralling popularity and increasingly addictive content saw our friends at DVDBeaver facing a mammoth internet provider bill for 2005. Friends of the Beaver have rallied around and, in the space of what seems like only a week, enough funds have been collected to secure DVDBeaver's huge bandwidth costs are paid until this time next year.
Visitors to the site, which uses a lot of costly bandwidth because it has thousands of large images, can support the site by clicking on etailer links at DVDBeaver. Long live the Beaver!
- N.W.
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August 20, 2004
[ZVYAGINTSEV / WONG / TAVERNIER]
Kino (USA) have announced an impressive late October slate containing the much anticipated debut from Andrei Zvyagintsev (pictured), The Return (2003), with an hourlong making of docu. The film won the Golden Lion at Venice last year (as well as Best Debut) and is one of the most widely lauded world cinema releases in recent years.
Also with an October 19, 2004 release is Kino's Wong Kar-Wai Collection featuring As Tears Go By (1988), Days of Being Wild (1991), Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), and Happy Together (1997). All the films except Chungking Express (which appears in the set by special arrangement with Buena Vista) will be available separately. Happy Together features the documentary Buenos Aires Zero Degrees, and each film features optional English subtitles and new anamorphic transfers.
Two Bertrand Tavernier films are also released by Kino on the same day (October 19) - namely, Que la fête commence... (1974) and La Vie et rien d'autre (1989). -N.W.
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August 10, 2004
[LUBITSCH, SILENT TREASURES] We are excited to announce More Treasures from American Film Archives, the follow-up to a previous box set of vintage films. This all-region, 3-DVD set will contain fifty films (including Ernst Lubitsch's famed Lady Windermere's Fan) as well as a 200-page book covering the years 1894-1931, commentaries, and newly-recorded scores. Street date is September 7, 2004. Click here for details.
- D.C.
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August 7, 2004
[ANDREI TARKOVSKY]
MoC site nostalghia.com — the Andrei Tarkovsky resource — is celebrating its third anniversary this month with the usual giveaway prizedraw — "Correctly answer the following question by email before 31 August 2004, and you will be entered into the anniversary prize draw. Question: identify the two award recipients seen in this photo, and also tell us what year the photo was taken. A random draw will be conducted on 1 September, 2004." — Prize details and more info here, along with the latest Tarkovsky theatrical screening info around the world.
-N.W.
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August 6, 2004
[BOLOGNA DVD AWARDS - updated]
Il Cinema Ritrovato — the annual festival of rarities organised by the Bologna Cinematheque — announced the winners in their first DVD Awards last month. Clearly enthused by the new wave of DVD-fueled cinephilia, the festival's prestigious jury, consisting of Peter von Bagh (Finland), Jonathan Rosenbaum (USA), Jean Douchet (France), Raffaele Donato (USA) and Paolo Mereghetti (Italy) handed out these awards:
BEST OVERALL RELEASE: Pier Paolo Pasolini — Les Années 60 - Carlotta, France - French subtitles only.
AWARD FOR TECHNICAL QUALITY: Man of the West (Mann, 1958) - Carlotta, France - unavailable in US and UK.
BEST REDISCOVERY: Hiroshima mon amour (Resnais, 1959) - Arte, France - contains the 1953 documentary Les statues meurent aussi, previously censored over colonialism issues and seen only in butchered prints. No English subs on anything.
BEST COLLECTION: Chaplin Collection - MK2/Warners (Europe) - award given "primarily for its historical placements and extra materials" - presumably for the PAL versions, not the poor R1 ghosted PAL > NTSC conversions in America, even though both issues contain some films wrongly formatted in 1.33:1 instead of OAR 1.19:1 pillarbox.
BEST SUPPLEMENTARY FEATURE: The 4 Devils reconstruction, from Sunrise (Murnau, 1926) - Eureka, UK Congratulations to Arte, Carlotta, Eureka and MK2 for their well-deserved awards. We hear that the awards were not restricted to European releases and that the jury mentioned Criterion, Kino and others when the awards were announced. MoC would like to take this opportunity to urge our readers to be thinking about their vote in the MoC DVD of the Year Awards 2004 which will again take place throughout December and be announced on Christmas Eve. Last year's awards are viewable here.
- N.W.
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August 2, 2004
[LAZY MEGACORPS SCREW R2 AND R4] There is growing concern over how certain megacorps release their properties in Europe and Australia. In these territories, MGM treat almost all of its back catalogue titles with contempt. They typically strip all extras including interviews, commentaries, alternate endings, etc and release films only as barebone releases (with generic, clunky, slow menus and an unavoidable seven-minute warning in around twenty languages). These releases come months after the US release, are more expensive, and confusingly have the same artwork as their R1 counterparts. The latest films to suffer terribly from this laziness are the new R2/4 Bergman films from MGM ( Shame, Passion of Anna, Hour of the Wolf etc), which lose all supplementary material, including readings by Bergman, commentaries, interviews, and documentaries. [I suppose we should be grateful that they used the correct aspect ratio. For the full story on this please visit our Archive and check the Feb 1st 2004 entry.]
Even a company such as Warners, with a stunning DVD track record in the USA, chop their major releases down from two discs to one. Titles such as Meet Me In St. Louis and Treasure of the Sierra Madre have been neutered for Europe and Australia, and this is a growing trend. Europeans and Australians are paying more for less and the excuse that "the extra materials can't be licensed abroad" is for the most part untrue. If there are no extras, barebones is great - but if there are many interesting extras for the USA, why can't the whole world see them? (it doesn't stop much smaller companies.) It's unusual that the megacorps should treat Europe so shoddily - seeing as the population of Europe is more than twice that of the USA.
- N.W.
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July 31, 2004
[ONIBABA COMPARISON] Prof. Trondsen was not convinced that this article should have left MoC Labs. We're more interested in films than nitty-gritty technical nitpicking, but there are salient observations in his Objective Comparison of Two Onibaba DVDs and we hope some of you find it interesting.
-N.W.
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July 30, 2004
[CRITERION IN OCTOBER] Back to releasing two films by the same director as consecutive releases, the Criterion Collection bless Robert Altman (80 years old in February 2005) with two rare, topical releases in October — right before the US presidential elections — Secret Honor (1984) and Tanner 88 (1988).
Another well-timed release is Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju [left], 1960) — ready for Hallowe'en. The release features Blood of the Beasts (Le Sang des bêtes), Franju’s "graphic but beautiful poetic 1949 short documentary about Paris slaughterhouses". The fourth October release sees Criterion getting back to new cinema with Fat Girl (Breillat, 2001).
- N.W.
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July 29, 2004
[FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT] Truffaut's estate — his heirs Laura, Eva and Josephine Truffaut — have initiated legal proceedings against Time Warner Inc and its French subsidiary Warner Bros France over their DVD release for Day for Night [La Nuit Americaine] (1973).
Family lawyer Francois Zimeray alleges "illegal production and sale of the DVD" because Warners produced a new DVD of the film two months before their 30 year licence reverted to the French company Films du Carosse. The legal assignation accuses Warners of thus "becoming counterfeiters" and continuing to produce and sell it after their licence expired.
Zimeray said, "This case is typical of the difficult relations between artists and the giants of world distribution," Apparently, Truffaut himself "never made a cent" on the contracts with Warner, who said the account was in the red.
He added that Warner had also ceded the rights worldwide to television stations.
Source: AFP and Expatica.
- N.W.
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July 20, 2004
[HOU HSIAO-HSIEN]
Tony Rayns has kindly given us the lowdown on what's happening with Hou Hsiao-Hsien's new film Cafe Lumiere (the Japanese title is Kohi Jikou (literal translation: "Coffee Time Light") and previously known in the West as Coffee Time). It will premiere in Venice competition and is also likely for the London Film Festival in October. Shochiku (Japan) financed the film to mark Ozu's centenary last year, and Tony is providing English subtitles for the film. He reports, "you could certainly think of it as a modern equivalent of an Ozu film of the 1950s. It makes no attempt to reproduce Ozu's style, but it views its characters as warmly as Ozu viewed his, and it shares Ozu's attachment to Japanese railways." We look forward to its release very much.
- N.W.
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July 17, 2004
[BFI DVDs IN JULY]
The bfi (UK) are releasing La Kermesse héroïque (Jacques Feyder (left), 1935) and The Charge of the Light Brigade (Tony Richardson, 1968) at the end of this month. Click the links for their DVDBeaver pages. This is the first DVD release for the Feyder film anywhere in the world.
Those interested in the furore surrounding bfi plans to completely restructure the National Film and Television Archive will be interested to read A Vision For The Future by the bfi's Director, Amanda Nevill, and contrast this with the newly revised Film Archive Action website. We're hearing a lot of different stories from both sides, but it's clear for all to see that cutbacks are being made in funding, staff, and to commitment. As one supporter of Film Archive Action put it "Cultural resources, and culture itself, are being directly capitalised, leaving less space for things that don't operate according to the narrow logic of the market" and the evidence is here. The way that the plans have been shoehorned into being will no doubt haunt the bfi for many years to come.
- N.W.
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July 12, 2004
[INGMAR BERGMAN]
On the heels of the Film Forum's Bergman retrospective, it appears that the Criterion Collection (USA) will be releasing both the theatrical and television versions of Fanny and Alexander (1982) on DVD in November. Their release will include several bonus features, including new interviews. In addition, Bergman turns 86 on Wednesday, July 14, and the American Film Institute is planning a two-week, city-wide retrospective in Washington, D.C.
- D.C. & T.T.
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July 9, 2004
[KENJI MIZOGUCHI] Opening (France) are releasing two Mizoguchi DVD box sets in September. There are no English subtitles. Box set #1 contains: The Crucified Lovers, The Empress Yang Kwei Fei, Tales of the Taira Clan, Sansho Dayu and box set #2 has: Ugetsu Monogatari, Lady Oyû, A Geisha, Street of Shame, The Life of Oharu.
Fittingly, we have more news of a new study of Mizoguchi's films called Mizoguchi and Japan by Mark Le Fanu, author of a previously well-received monograph on Tarkovsky (BFI Publishing, 1987, new edition 1990). Le Fanu goes into the cultural roots of Mizoguchi's worldview in Japan's 1000 year heritage of literature and painting. He gives a fresh reading of all the extant films, placing them in the context of their time, and of the development of classical Japanese cinema among Mizoguchi's contemporaries. Le Fanu's is the first full-length study of the films in any language for a number of years. Projected publication date: January 2005.
David Bordwell also has a Mizoguchi-flavoured book, Figures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging, due in January 2005. It is a study of four masters of ensemble staging (Feuillade, Mizoguchi, Angelopoulos, and Hou). There is a supplement to the Feuillade chapter at Bordwell's website here.
- N.W.
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July 7, 2004
[R.I.P. ÁNGEL FERNÁNDEZ SANTOS]
Ángel Fernández Santos, the Spanish scriptwriter and critic, died yesterday in Madrid.
Fernandez Santos was a prominent Spanish film critic and columnist
for El país. He collaborated with his good friend Victor Erice on the script for The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) and also worked on El Sur (1983). He directed a short, El Último inquilino, in 1967.
Major Spanish newspapers today carried obituaries, commenting on the fact
that Mr. Santos had been deeply affected by Marlon Brando's death and was preparing to write an article on his life and work, despite being terminally ill with cancer. - T.T. & N.W.
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July 3, 2004
[DANISH FILM INSTITUTE]
The Danish Film Institute continue their impressive commitment to early cinema with two new DVD releases this month. The first release contains Benjamin Christensen's first two films Sealed Orders (1914) & Blind Justice (1916), also known as The Mysterious X and Night of Revenge respectively. The second release contains three films starring Valdemar Psilander (Denmark's Rudolph Valentino by all accounts) namely Temptations of a Great City (1911), The Great Circus Catastrophe (1913) and The Candle and the Moth (1915).
Despite Psilander's early death aged just 32 in 1917, he made 83 films in just six years with Nordisk Films Kompagni.
Both these discs are out now and available directly from the Danish Film Institute bookshop here. We'll have more on these discs soon in a new article entitled Overlooked?
- N.W.
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July 2, 2004
[R.I.P. MARLON BRANDO]
Marlon Brando 1924-2004
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July 1, 2004
[TCM/WARNER] TCM/Warner (USA) are holding another of their DVD Decision voting ploys whereby they fool us into thinking we can influence what they release.
Reader Renny wrote to MoC asking for us to publicise this vote and to persuade our readers to pick Erich von Stroheim's Greed (1924). If there's anything we can do to get Greed out on DVD we will do it. Each voter has five votes and there are interesting films like Nicholas Ray's Party Girl, Minnelli's Lust for Life, Wyler's The Letter, and LeRoy's I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang on the long list too.
Vote here. They require a name and email address to register before you can vote, but if you want to be sure of avoiding spam we've voted a few times with bogus names and addresses. Winners will be announced very soon, in August, and the winning discs (presumably five?) will appear in January 2005. To reiterate, there is a strong possibility that we could see Greed on DVD in January! - N.W.
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June 26, 2004
[CRITERION IN SEPTEMBER]
Repeatedly delivering some of the most desirable releases ever on DVD, Criterion (USA) have announced two releases in September with a combined retail price of $174.90. What on earth could cost that much? The answer: an 8 x disc John Cassavetes: Five Films box set, and a 3 x disc Battle of Algiers set, and they both look well worth it.
The John Cassavetes: Five Films box set (digipak, a la BRD Trilogy) contains new high-definition transfers of Shadows (1959), Faces (1968), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), and Opening Night (1977) and will also include the 3hr+ documentary, A Constant Forge. Both Faces and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie are two-disc sets ( Faces has a 17 minute alternate opening from a Library of Congress print, and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie features two versions of the film, the 1976 version (unseen since 1976) and the shorter 1978 version). Only A Woman Under the Influence has a commentary (by Mike Ferris and Bo Harwood).
A commentary was recorded for Shadows but has been discarded — along with the recently found 1957 version of Shadows — on the wishes of Gena Rowlands and Al Ruban. Regardless of the ongoing spat between Al Ruban/Gena Rowlands and Ray Carney - it's extremely unfortunate that the 1957 version of Shadows has been suppressed (read Carney's indepth comments here). Cassavetes fans should be deservedly spoilt by this box set but will no doubt always wonder what the Shadows disc could have been (ie. expanded to include the 1957 version and the commentary). We can't always have everything of course (but with Criterion, it's usually the norm).
- N.W.
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June 24, 2004
[ROBERT BRESSON] After almost two years of tentative and cancelled announcements (by numerous companies) it looks as if 2005 will definitely be the year of Robert Bresson on DVD.
MK2 in France have 'taken the bull by the horns' and are working on an impressive set of titles including such rarities as Les Anges du péché, Four Nights of a Dreamer, The Trial of Joan of Arc, and Une Femme Douce, amongst others, for a Coffret Bresson DVD box set in mid-2005.
It is this remastered work which will be seeded around the world (presumably to Artificial Eye, etc) but most interestingly, an MK2 spokesman has confirmed that "these DVDs will include English subtitles on the films as well as on the bonuses". (French companies have a tendency of late to promise English subtitles and then to let us down at the last minute, so we hope MK2 can stick to their word!)
Bresson's Mouchette and Au hasard Balthazar are still expected on DVD in the UK from Nouveaux Pictures, and from Criterion in the USA, sometime in the next year. Our robert-bresson.com will have all the nitty-gritty as it appears. - N.W.
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June 18, 2004
[COMPETITION WINNERS]
The winners in our recent The Holy Mountain competition are: Ravinder N, Neal K, and Jason S. - The correct answer was "a goat". Thanks to all those who entered, and all those who guessed "eagle", "panther", "puma", "snake", etc.
- N.W.
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June 16, 2004
[JORIS IVENS]
The European Foundation Joris Ivens informs us that they are hard at work on their upcoming box set of Ivens DVDs, which they hope to complete by the end of the year, although no official release date has been set. We look forward to the legendary work of this Dutch documentarian (1898-1989) receiving greater exposure. - D.C.
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June 14, 2004
[LILLIAN GISH]
Writer Daryl Chin preserves a priceless anecdote in this never before published article, Lillian Gish: A True Star Shines With Her Own Light.
We are thankful to Daryl for sending us this piece, and for allowing us to publish it.
- T.T.
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June 11, 2004
[The MoC Series, #2]
The first release in the Eureka (UK) Masters of Cinema Series, spine #2, The Holy Mountain (Fanck, 1926) is finished and back from the factory. Copies are winging their way to distributors now and preorders should be shipping shortly.
To celebrate this inaugural release we are giving away three copies to readers who can correctly answer the following question: Which animal did Luis Trenker use to describe Leni Riefenstahl to the German press at the time of the film's release?
Entrants can be from anywhere in the world, must be able to play PAL R2/4 DVDs, and, of course, must answer correctly by emailing here. Winners will be selected at random out of a hat and announced here in one week (Friday, 18 June). Contestants may also enter by giving us the answer in the original German. Good luck!
- N.W.
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June 10, 2004
[BFI RESPONSE]
The bfi have given us an official statement concerning our June 9 piece. They say:
"There is no substance to any of the claims on the Film Archive Action website. Proposals for the archive are not yet finalised and details will be available shortly."
MoC hope the right decisions can be made to properly protect and secure Britain's moving image heritage by the best possible means.
- N.W.
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June 9, 2004
[BRITISH ARCHIVE DISGRACE] A massive storm is brewing over the future of the National Film and Television Archive in England. What started with a seemingly innocuous "vision document" entitled A Good Time For Action! (which MoC described as "an identity crisis" back in Feb), has been met by a fierce reaction from some of the world's foremost film archivists, critics, makers, historians, professors, technicians, and writers (as well as many irate members of the public) via a specially constructed website Film Archive Action.
It is slowly becoming clear that the British Film Institute plea for public feedback concerning its future direction was merely a carefully managed PR exercise of smoke and mirrors to shore up support for a series of hard-hitting, ill-conceived, seriously detrimental changes to the biggest film and television archive in Europe. What appeared to be a major public consultation - in which those who emailed in their responses were wastefully snail-mailed via first class (merely to say their email had been received) - seems to have been a way to shift the blame for any future decisions. Most worryingly, as Film Archive Action outline, "the Report presented by the BFI Executive to the Board of Governors and subsequently to the Press was entirely drawn up by a small management group, with minimal consultation with qualified archive staff. The nominated sponsor and director-compiler of the review have no evident first-hand knowledge of archival work or the associated disciplines."
If you remain sceptical of the severity of the situation, please read the Film Archive Action pamphlet here.
The case is clearly explained and utterly compelling. It seems to be a recurring problem in modern societies, namely: how unfairly some accountants, bureaucrats and consultants can pull strings to perpetuate their own sorry careers at the expense of a national heritage. Without immediate reaction, the future of one of the world's leading film and television archives is in jeopardy. Please visit the site and lend your support.
Among those lending their support to Film Archive Action so far are: Jacques Aumont, Alberto Barbera, Raymond Bellour, Janet Bergstrom, Les Blank, David Bordwell, Serge Bromberg, Suresh Chabria, Bernard Eisenschitz, David Francis OBE, Mike Hodges, Jan-Christopher Horak, Edvin Kau, Adrienne Mancia, David Meeker MBE, Richard Peña, David Robinson, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Barbet Schroeder, Gavin Smith, Yuri Tsivian, Paolo Cherchi Usai, Peter Watkins, etc. We will be following this story with great interest.
- N.W.
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June 8, 2004
[ALFRED HITCHCOCK]
Warner Brothers (USA) is delivering on their promise to release more Hitchcock films. On September 7, they will release a nine-disc DVD box set with a selection of some new-to-DVD titles ( Dial M for Murder, Foreign Correspondent, Suspicion, The Wrong Man, Stage Fright, I Confess, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith), all of which will include documentaries and extra features, and be sold separately too. Strangers on a Train will also be released as a 2-disc special edition.
- D.C.
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June 4, 2004
[CARL TH. DREYER]
TCM (USA) are celebrating Carl Th. Dreyer throughout September, with each Sunday devoted to the director.
Our own carldreyer.com has the scoop and full schedule. (Thanks to Roger for the tipoff.) Meanwhile, the Masters of Cinema Series of DVDs (in conjunction with Eureka in the UK) now has a nice little microsite here. Disc #3 is a special 80th anniversary edition of Carl Th. Dreyer's Mikaël (1924), due later this year. Extras to be announced shortly.
- N.W.
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May 29, 2004
[ANDREI TARKOVSKY] One of our founding websites, nostalghia.com (dedicated to Andrei Tarkovsky) is trying to help locate the original magnetic soundtrack for Nostalghia (1983). It is proving difficult to find. Full details here. If anyone has any information please email here. Thanks.
A new book, Instant Light, Tarkovsky Polaroids
edited by Giovanni Chiaramonte and Andrei A. Tarkovsky, is published in England by Thames & Hudson on June 1 2004. Seven of these fascinating polaroids can be viewed at the Guardian website here.
- N.W.
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May 27, 2004
[BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE]
The bfi (UK) continue to excite with their brilliantly eclectic DVD titles each month. In June they have two releases in their History of the Avant-Garde DVD series. They are Temenos (Nina Danino, 1998) and Decasia (Bill Morrison, 2002).
Also on June 28, the bfi release one of the key films of British silent cinema, Piccadilly (Dupont, 1929). Starring Anna May Wong (best known as Dietrich's sidekick in Shanghai Express); with sets by Alfred Junge (who went on to work on many Powell & Pressburger films); an early cameo by Charles Laughton; and the powerful cinematography of Werner Brandes, this beautifully bfi-restored gem stylishly evokes 1920s Jazz Age London.
- N.W.
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May 26, 2004
[LUIS BUNUEL] VCI (USA) have announced Luis Buñuel's superb The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1952) for US DVD release on August 31, 2004. This was Buñuel's first film made specifically for an English speaking audience, and also his first film in colour.
VCI's release coincides with the 50th anniversary of the film's USA theatrical release. For the full press release click here.
- N.W.
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May 20, 2004
[TATI / FEYDER / RICHARDSON / BURNETT]
The bfi have announced the first DVD release in their upcoming series of Jacques Tati films, the restored version of his modernist
masterpiece Playtime (1967), with 95 minutes of extra
materials, including an audio commentary by historian Phillip Kemp,
the short documentary Au-deló de Playtime, an interview with
continuity supervisor Sylvette Baudrot, and a short biographical film
on Tati. The anamorphic disc will contain the international language
version with English subtitles and is due in stores in September. The bfi have said they're getting their materials from the same firm behind the recent French discs (which has a greenish tinge). The bfi release will be up against the forthcoming Criterion reissue. Another film where we'll have to buy both! [sigh])
Also on tap from the bfi on the same date are Jacques Feyder's 1935
satire, Carnival In Flanders [La Kermesse heroique], and Tony
Richardson's The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968). Thanks to Graeme Hobbs at Moviemail (UK) for the tipoff.
Out next week from the bfi on DVD is Charles Burnett's To Sleep with Anger (1990). This one has crept under our radar until recently.
- D.C. & N.W.
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May 13, 2004
[ROBERT BRESSON] New Yorker have kindly sent us their highly-anticipated Robert Bresson discs — A Man Escaped (1956) and Lancelot of the Lake (1974) (otherwise known as Lancelot du Lac to those outside of the USA). The films have never looked better on any consumer video format: A Man Escaped [ 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6] Lancelot du Lac [ 1| 2| 3| 4| 5]
Source material is quite acceptable, in spite of some dust, scratches and other blemishes. These NTSC R1 discs do however suffer from PAL speedup and the "ghosting" associated with PAL-to-NTSC conversions. A full review will be at robert-bresson.com this weekend. - T.T.
In further Bresson news today, Artificial Eye (UK) have again delayed their Bresson discs to somewhere in late 2004 but they are working on supplemental Bresson material. Some good news from Artificial Eye though — they have Uzak (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2002) in September; Last Life in the Universe (Ratanaruang, 2003) in November, and pencilled in also are The Apple (Samira Makhmalbaf, 1998); At Five In The Afternoon (Samira Makhmalbaf, 2003); Silence Between Two Thoughts (Payami, 2003); and Father & Son (Sokurov, 2003). - D.C.
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May 7, 2004
[MOHSEN MAKHMALBAF]
Master Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf has accused his own country's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance of refusing him a permit to make his latest film, entitled Amnesia. The director — father of filmmakers Hana, Maysam, and Samira — wrote the script "to reflect two decades of pain and suffering of Iranian people and artists". The script was completed in late 2003 when he was admitted to Mehr Hospital in Tehran due to heart problems (Makhmalbaf turns 47 on May 29, 2004).
The film was due to be shot this Spring in Tehran using professional actors and has now "lost the chance to be made" according to Makhmalbaf. Four years since his last feature film, Kandahar, Makhmalbaf blames "a new censorship strategy intending to push Iranian artists to migrate from the country." Full details can be read at Makhmalbaf's own site. A spokesman for the Iranian government in London predictably said he could not comment on Makhmalbaf's claims.
- N.W.
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May 6, 2004
[JOHN CASSAVETES] Criterion are trying to outdo themselves with the dream-like news that they're releasing a boxset of John Cassavetes films this Autumn. New high-definition transfers of Shadows (1959), Faces (1968), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), and Opening Night (1977) are in the set which will also include Charles Kiselyak's 3hr+ documentary, A Constant Forge, along with new interviews with Cassavetes collaborators Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, Seymour Cassel, Lelia Goldoni, and others.
According to Ray Carney's website, Gena Rowlands has forbidden Carney to screen the newly discovered 1957 first version of Shadows publicly, and has refused to allow the film to be released on DVD. Carney says that Rowlands has expressed a desire to confiscate the print and prevent it from being seen. Consequently, the only way to view the first version is to attend one of Ray Carney's classroom screenings at Boston University (which for legal reasons Rowlands is unable to stop). More info at his website.
Fingers crossed for Love Streams (1984) in 2005, eh?
- N.W.
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May 5, 2004
[MGM BERGMAN BOXSET REDUX]
Further to our February 7 update on the recall of the Ingmar Bergman Collection DVD boxset, we can confirm that MGM (USA) are currently shipping the revised version. Hour of the Wolf and Shame now appear in their correct 1.37:1 aspect ratio. As you will recall, these were mistakenly cropped to 1.66:1 in the first MGM release, resulting in odd compositions like this and interesting discussions as seen halfway down on this page.
The corrected MGM boxset can be identified by its UPC code and Catalog number: UPC# 0 27616 91137 7 and Catalog# 1006999. Both numbers are found on a white sticker situated over the spot where the old UPC is printed, at the bottom of the box (old UPC# 0 27616 90225 2 — old Catalog# 1005996). For those who wish to purchase the titles individually, the new UPC for Hour of the Wolf is 0 27616 91135 3 (previously 0 27616 86787 2), and in the case of Shame it is 0 27616 91136 0 (previously 0 27616 90224 5). The UPCs of the other individual titles are the same as before. MGM should be commended for their diligence in addressing and rectifying the original error. - T.T.
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May 1, 2004
[CANNES 2004]
Further to our April 22 piece, this year's Cannes Film Festival will offer a program of restored films or new prints entitled Cannes Classics. 91-year-old Michelangelo Antonioni will be on hand to present his new short film Lo Sguardo di Michelangelo [The Gaze of Michelangelo] along with Blow-Up, and there will be a special emphasis on Brazilian cinema, Buster Keaton, and documentaries. Some of the restored films lined up for DVD are The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller, 1980) from Warner; Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959) from MK2; and Ordet (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1955) from Les Grands Films Classiques.
- D.C.
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April 27, 2004
[EUREKA / MoC DVD Series] We are working with Eureka (UK) on a series of DVD releases under the Masters of Cinema banner. New releases such as Arnold Fanck's The Holy Mountain (1926), F. W. Murnau's Tartuffe (1926) and Carl Th. Dreyer's Mikaël (1924) will be released later this year. All releases in the series will have great transfers, lovely covers and specially written booklets. This is not an April Fool.
- N.W.
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April 22, 2004
[CANNES 2004]
The final selections for the Cannes Film Festival 2004 have been announced. In competition are:
2046 (Wong)
Clean (Assayas)
Le Conseguenze dell'amore (Sorrentino)
Comme une image (Jaoui)
Diarios de motocicleta (Salles)
Edukators (Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei) (Weingartner)
Exils (Gatlif)
Fahrenheit 911 (Moore)
La femme est l'avenir de l'homme (Hong)
Innocence (Oshii)
The Ladykillers (Coens)
The Life and the Death of Peter Sellers (Hopkins)
La Niña santa (Martel)
Nobody Knows (Kore-Eda)
Old Boy (Park)
Shrek 2 (Adamson, Asbury & Vernon)
Tropical Malady (Weerasethakul)
La vie est un miracle (Kusturica)
No Godard or Kiarostami — they're both playing "out of competition". A betting man would predict a win for 2046 because of the Tarantino/Wong links, but perhaps Moore's film will ride the tide of Bush dismay? — Apparently, the selectors thought that Hou Hsiao-hsien's film just wasn't any good. Unbelievable.
- N.W.
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April 19, 2004
[JEAN-PIERRE MELVILLE] Next week, the bfi (UK) release three Melville films on DVD. They are Léon Morin, prêtre (1961); Le Doulos (1963) - (both featuring filmed introduction and commentary over selected scenes by Melville biographer Ginette Vincendeau, plus a video interview with assistant director Volker Schlondorff); and, Le Cercle rouge (1970) featuring full commentary by Ginette Vincendeau and a video interview with the film's assistant director Bernard Stora.
(SPECULATION: Criterion have released Le Cercle rouge and may release Le Doulos and Léon Morin, prêtre but as Rialto haven't released them theatrically yet, Criterion DVDs could be a while off - if they're coming). - N.W.
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April 13, 2004
[BRUNO DUMONT]
Two-thirds of the directors linked to from this site are unfortunately dead. As Bruno Dumont's third film Twentynine Palms gets a slow, staggered release around the world we bring you an article about a director who is very much alive and has a promising future. Here's The Polarizing, Magnificent Cinema of Bruno Dumont. Please write and let us know which new filmmakers excite you the most. Thanks, - N.W.
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April 9, 2004
[JOHN FORD] For some strange reason, we neglected to add John Ford's Grapes of Wrath (1940) to our DVD Calendar (our anti-Murdoch radar was probably activated), but we feel it's such a long-awaited, landmark release that it deserves attention. Toland's cinematography is as strikingly chiaroscuro as we remembered and the resolution is surprisingly nice considering some of the reviews we've seen online. The Fox Studio Classics range has seen a price drop to $14.95, so this is a bargain (a loaded DVD14 flipper too, film all on one side). 2004 could be the year of John Ford on DVD... from Fox we've already had My Darling Clementine (1946), Grapes of Wrath, and supposedly coming later this year is the early Technicolor majesty of Drums Along the Mohawk (1939). Those lovely rumours that Criterion have secured a Ford also persist... meanwhile, here's some grabs from Grapes of Wrath at DVDBeaver. - N.W.
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April 2, 2004
[LOUIS FEUILLADE]
Flicker Alley (USA) release Louis Feuillade's Judex (1917) for the first time as a deluxe twin DVD set in May. It is apparently the most complete version of the film available, presented in its entirety in a newly tinted film transfer with a brand new English language translation, and a newly recorded orchestral score by silent film composer Robert Israel. We've only just heard about Los Angeles-based Flicker Alley, and Judex is only their second release, but they appear utterly committed to the preservation of classics and we think they should be strongly supported. They have Murnau's Phantom (1922) out next! Their website is here. - N.W.
Yesterday's news was an April Fool's Day prank bytheway. We seem to have caught quite a few of you out (if our email inbox is anything to go by), so apologies if we made your heart flutter! - Back to normal now.
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April 1, 2004
[WE'VE BEEN BOUGHT] It is with great sadness that we announce that the Masters of Cinema team will be leaving the current incarnation of this website for pastures new. The name, website, and URL have been bought lock, stock, and barrel by the maverick Hollywood film director Ron Howard. He has new plans for the site, a more US-centric, modern approach (or so we hear), with on-site advertising helping to fund more writers and articles. The money was too good for us to refuse, there was nothing we could do. If you'd like to email Ron and let him know what you'd like to see on the site in the future, please email him here. Thankyou. - N.W.
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March 30, 2004
[KUROSAWA / RENOIR / PASOLINI / GODARD] Criterion (USA) have confirmed their June titles. They are: A Woman Is A Woman (Godard, 1961); Mamma Roma (Pasolini, 1962) a 2x disc set including Pasolini's 35-min film La Ricotta (1963) and a 55-min documentary; and finally, Renoir's 1936 version and Kurosawa's 1957 version of The Lower Depths in a 2x disc set. The Kurosawa disc has a commentary by Donald Richie, amongst other goodies. - N.W.
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March 25, 2004
[UNWANTED FREQUENCIES] Trond's new article entitled Unwanted Frequencies highlights the audio debris present within the sound spectrum of certain DVDs. Those who can hear these frequencies find them unbearable. Basic analysis reveals the problem to be a simple case of poor audio engineering (which no doubt affects our pets too). - N.W.
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March 23, 2004
[WEBER / BADGER] Milestone (USA) have just released Lois Weber's The Blot (1921) and Clarence Badger's It (1927) on VHS (what's that?) and DVD. These two classics of the silent era were both restored by Photoplay Productions' Kevin Brownlow, Patrick Stanbury and the late David Gill. This is the first-ever DVD release of The Blot which comes complete with a brand-new chamber score and commentary by Shelley Stamp -- who is currently completing a book on the director. - N.W.
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March 9-13, 2004
[WARNER'S SLATE FOR 2004-2006] - updated Warner Home Video (USA) last night announced hundreds of forthcoming DVD titles. We've culled the MoC-flavoured titles and list them below in no particular order: "Seven new-to-DVD" Hitchcock's are due this year. Intelligent speculation suggests that they include the two RKO titles Mr and Mrs Smith (1941) and Suspicion (1941) plus Stage Fright (1950), I Confess (1953), Dial M For Murder (1954), and The Wrong Man (1956). They mentioned that Strangers On A Train (1951) was currently being restored, so this might be one large boxset with Under Capricorn (1949) and North By Northwest (1959) too? We're guessing now... but seven new-to-DVD Hitch's are on the way.
John Ford's The Searchers (1956) is "getting a full photochemical film restoration followed by a new transfer" and will be released in 2006 for the 50th anniversary along with other Wayne and Ford pictures, including Stagecoach (1939) which will be revisited.
King Vidor's The Big Parade (1925) is "being restored on film from the recently
recovered (thought lost) original nitrate camera negative".
 Ernst Lubitsch's To Be Or Not To Be (1942) has "been remastered from nitrate" and will be coming in 2005 along with Ninotchka (1939).
Gone With The Wind (Fleming, 1939) and Meet Me In St Louis (Minnelli, 1944) will be released in "ultra-resolution" (WB's proprietary process for presenting 3 strip Technicolor films with high levels of sharpness and registration, like The Adventures Of Robin Hood and Singin' In The Rain)
A host of film noir titles will be released this July, all have commentaries, including Out Of The Past (Tourneur, 1947); The Set-Up (Wise, 1949) commentary by Wise and Scorsese; Asphalt Jungle (Huston. 1950); Gun Crazy (Lewis, 1950); and Murder, My Sweet (Dmytryk, 1944).
The classic WB gangster films will get a remastered boxset later this year too.
Some George Cukor, including Dinner At Eight (1933), Camille (1936), and more.
A large Greta Garbo tie-in with her 100th birthday in 2005 including "the release of all her most beloved films".
A Busby Berkeley box set in 2005 containing David Thompson's Going Through The Roof documentary.
Cat People (Tourneur, 1942) and 8 other Val Lewton RKO productions in a box set in 2005.
A major Sam Peckinpah promotion in 2005 including The Ballad Of Cable Hogue (1970), Ride The High Country (1962), and Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid (1973).
Some Buster Keaton before the end of the year, along with some more silents...
Interesting films planned for release by Warner over the next year or so include John Huston's The Mackintosh Man (1973); John Cromwell's Caged (1950); John Sturges' Bad Day At Black Rock (1955); Ken Russell's The Devils (1971); Roman Polanski's Fearless Vampire Killers (1967); Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man! (1973) and Billy Wilder's The Spirit Of St. Louis (1957) (film elements being restored at the moment, due mid-2005). A stunning set of announcements from Warner. Great to see a major studio doing things properly and with gusto. May 2004 sees the release of the Warner Marx Bros. box set (see our DVD Calendar to the right for more details). - N.W.
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March 5, 2004
[HOU HSIAO-HSIEN] DVDBeaver celebrate their 1000th review today with a detailed look at one of the most rewarding releases from last year - the first (and so far only) Hou Hsiao-Hsien boxset from SinoMovie (Taiwan).
Optional English subtitles across the set, combined with the unavailability elsewhere of these four magnificent early Hou films, makes for a very satisfying find. Indeed, like DVDBeaver, it's one of our favourites too. Congratulations to Gary at DVDBeaver for reaching his first thousand, and here's to many more! - N.W.
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February 28, 2004
[WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES] Artificial Eye's Werckmeister Harmonies DVD has the rather unfortunate problem of missing subtitles on the very last few lines of dialogue in the final scene. We've taken the liberty of recording the last few lines, making an MP3 of it, and having friends translate it (thanks Gàbor and Réka!). We present it here for those as frustrated as us at Artificial Eye's lack of quality control. We really, really want Artificial Eye to do well and we want to support them as much as we can but their discs are occasionally riddled with problems that could easily be fixed with a little more care. This set was delayed for over eight months after all. - N.W.
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February 27, 2004
[CRITERION IN MAY] Criterion (USA) make every month a joy (except December when they deservedly have a break) and their May slate looks so good it hurts.
Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum (1979) gets the deluxe 2 x disc treatment; as does Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) (which also includes the complete alternative French shoot of the film); Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) has an introduction by Bergman himself; Visconti's The Leopard (1963) in a sumptuous three disc set; and finally Kurosawa's Stray Dog (1949) with commentary by Stephen Prince amongst other extras.
Some companies release this amount of goodness in one year. This is Criterion's slate for May 2004. - N.W.Drawing by Ingmar Bergman.
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February 22, 2004
[BELA TARR] After a silly number of delays we finally have Artificial Eye's Werckmeister Harmonies (1999) & Damnation (1988) DVD set in our sweaty palms. Aspect ratio fetishists may like to know that Werckmeister Harmonies is presented here in anamorphic 1.77:1 (cropped from its original aspect ratio (OAR) of 1.66:1) yet Damnation is presented correctly in its 1.37:1 OAR (imdb erroneously states the OAR as 1.85:1, which must be wrong). Taking everything into account, we don't think the AR problem is fatal (like the Bergman recall for example), but it is not ideal and seems to be a worrying trend (Criterion are also guilty of cropping 1.66:1 films to the size of 16:9 TVs) - and we believe this needs to change.
Make up your own mind - we've sent grabs and a technical report to DVDBeaver here. Artificial Eye have said that they will consider releasing Bela Tarr's monumental Sátántangó if sales for Werckmeister Harmonies / Damnation are good. The day that Sátántangó lands on DVD, hopefully in OAR, will be a sweet one...
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February 19, 2004
[JEAN ROUCH, 1917-2004] French director Jean Rouch died yesterday in a car crash in the remote desert of Niger. He was 86.
Niger's state radio reported that Rouch, a longtime supporter of African filmmaking, died when the Mercedes in which he was riding hit a truck stopped on a highway 550km northeast of the capital, Niamey. The crash injured his wife, Niger filmmaker Moustapha Alhassane, and Niger actor Damouri Zika.
An ethnographic documentarian, Jean Rouch's trailblazing career helped coin the term "cinema verité" but his work is still sadly missing on DVD.
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February 17, 2004
[BORIS BARNET] Image (USA) release two highly regarded Boris Barnet films, The Girl With The Hatbox [Devushka s korobkoj] (1927) and Outskirts [Okraina] (1933), on one DVD in June. The Girl With The Hatbox is a lyrical silent comedy starring Anna Sten which predates Rene Clair's Le Million by four years yet has a remarkably similar plot concerning a chase for a lottery ticket.
The later film, Outskirts, has been out of Western distribution for decades yet is a masterpiece of early sound cinema. It takes place during World War I in a remote Russian village where, through colourful and nuanced characterisation, Barnet explores a wide variety of loyalties. Author Jay Leyda wrote, "The story does that extraordinary thing so rare and valuable in films - it seems to tell itself without anyone pushing it. You can't be sure whether the next scene will be funny or pathetic, gentle or violent."
David Shepard, who prepared these releases, writes, "Surely if American film historians and critics had seen Outskirts it would claim many pages in their books."
For further reading, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote about Barnet earlier this month here, and biographical information from the recent BAM Barnet retrospective is here.
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February 13, 2004
[BRUNO DUMONT] Blaq Out (France) are the first international company out of the blocks with a DVD of Bruno Dumont's third film Twentynine Palms (2003) on April 29, 2004. This French disc will have English subtitles on the main feature. We have learnt that Metro-Tartan have the film in the UK, but they've not released it theatrically yet so we imagine Dumont fans around the world will be heading for this French Blaq Out DVD. The majority of Twentynine Palms reviews aren't good so far, but Dumont seems to always polarise audiences, and we're hoping the reviews are as offbase as most of the L'Humanité ones were.
[OTAR IOSSELIANI] - update
In further Blaq Out news they have expressed an interest in creating complete English subtitles for a future edition of their Coffret Otar Iosseliani 7 x DVD release (see MoC Feb 6). They have asked all those interested in seeing English subtitles on the earliest ten films to email this address. Please show your support for English-subtitled Iosseliani films by letting them know. Thanks.
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February 9, 2004
[FRITZ LANG] Eureka (UK) continue their stream of "A grade" German classics by releasing the 2000 restoration of Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) on March 22, 2004. We've been lucky enough to view this disc and, again - like M, Metropolis, The Last Laugh, etc - it is a jawdropper. We've sent grabs to ChiaroScuro and the comparison with the recent German DVD of the same restoration can be seen here (also linked to at DVDBeaver). Eureka have more where this came from - see the DVD Calendar throughout 2004 for more details.
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February 7, 2004
[BERGMAN BOXSET RECALLED]MGM (USA) have officially recalled the Ingmar Bergman Collection boxset (originally due to hit the streets on February 10, 2004) because of the problem with two transfers ( Hour of the Wolf and Shame). Thanks to the power of the internet and everybody who understood the problem, we'll be able to view these films properly now when the set is released in May. Kudos to MGM.
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February 6, 2004
[OTAR IOSSELIANI] - updated Blaq Out (France) are releasing a 7 x disc set of twelve Iosseliani films on February 24, 2004 named Coffret Otar Iosseliani. There are extensive documentary and interview extras but we can confirm that only two films will have English subtitles. They are Adieu, plancher des vaches! [Farewell, Home Sweet Home] (1999) and Lundi Matin [Monday Morning] (2001) which will have English subtitles on everything and also be available to buy separately. The films in the set are:
1.) Aprili [April] (1961)
2.) Tudzhi [Foundry] (1964)
3.) Giogobistve [Falling Leaves] (1968)
4.) Iko shashvi mgalobeli [Lived Once A Song-Thrush] (1970)
5.) Pastorali [Pastorale] (1975)
6.) Les Favoris de la lune [Favourites of the Moon] (1984)
7.) Un petit monastère en Toscane (1988)
8.) Et la lumière fut (1989)
9.) La Chasse aux papillons [The Butterfly Hunt / Chasing Butterflies] (1992)
10.) Brigands, chapitre VII (1996)
11.) Adieu, plancher des vaches! [Farewell, Home Sweet Home] (1999)
12.) Lundi matin [Monday Morning] (2002). To confirm: NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES ON THIS BOXSET. (Just on the two films that will be released separately).
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February 4, 2004
[BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE]The bfi (British Film Institute) (UK) are currently having an identity crisis and asking for "feedback and guidance" regarding their future direction. At the heart of the future bfi will be a re-engineered National Film and Television Archive (the largest collection of television and film titles in Europe). MoC would love to see the bfi thrive by ramping up the restoration of films in order to allow for the release of many more DVDs than the current trickle. Furthermore, this online response form can almost withstand "More DVDs please" written in response to every question. Entries must be received by Feb 20, 2004.
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February 1, 2004
[INGMAR BERGMAN] - see Feb 7 update MGM (USA) have made an appalling series of errors with their new Bergman boxset. Two films in the set have been heavily cropped from their original 1.37:1 aspect ratio to a very noticeable 1.66:1; and Persona is missing roughly 11.5% of screen information despite being 1.33:1. This is a faux pas the like of which has not been seen for a long time in DVD land. There is no precedent for Hour of the Wolf and Shame being 1.66:1 yet MGM seem to think that these films were shown theatrically at this ratio. With characters' heads chopped in half, Bergman and Nykvist's careful framing is ruined at 1.66:1 (the transfers are non-anamorphic too). R1 Bergman fans should strongly consider holding off this boxset.
DVDBeaver's enlightening examination is clear for all to see. Either MGM will withdraw the set or suffer very poor sales.
This comes only a few months after another major US studio (Columbia/Tristar) botched another respected World Cinema jewel - Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy - with a cheap set of blurry TV transfers and ingrained subtitles (when better, restored materials exist in the USA).
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January 30, 2004
[YASUJIRO OZU / ROBERT ALTMAN] | |
