Flicker Alley

[swo17]

I finally got around to watching Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno (I blame Netflix and Blockbuster for not stocking it) and can't recommend it highly enough. Not only does Clouzot's unfinished film (the rushes from which are shown here in snippets) look like some sort of alternate dimension lost masterpiece, but the film made around it is pretty great in its own right, simultaneously honoring the great director, providing a fascinating look into the creative process, and functioning as a case study in what can go wrong with a film production. The score by Bruno Alexiu is a nice touch as well. If blind buying this is your only way to see it, I could think of much worse ways to spend your money.

[domino harvey]

I haven't watched my copy yet (it's deep in the unwatched Blu-ray pile-- how sad that I've differentiated), but keep in mind Chabrol eventually made the film and while I can't yet compare it with a film that doesn't technically exist, L'enfer's still fantastic in its own right

[zedz]

I'm pretty sure my kevyip isn't as fathomless as yours, domino, but even I've resorted to a forced march through an alphabet of unwatched films, in order, no exceptions, picked out to maximise diversity and clear out things I'd been avoiding for no good reason. Tonight is N (No One Knows about Persian Cats), and maybe O (One of Our Aircraft Is Missing) if I'm feeling ambitious.

I'm itching to check out the unseen films in that Angelopoulos box but it's a no-go until I've hurdled Zmluva s diablom!

[Matt]

keep in mind Chabrol eventually made the film and while I can't yet compare it with a film that doesn't technically exist, L'enfer's still fantastic in its own right

There's really no comparison between what Clouzot set out to make and what Chabrol did make. Chabrol's film is a fine realistic psychological thriller, but what Clouzot was making was the work of an ecstatic visionary.

[Sarky]

Looks like we have ourselves a republished (and a little cheaper) George Méliès set coming out just before Christmas. No Encore though, so that'd have to be bought separately. Anyways, totally pre-ordering a copy and I am excited. Glad they are re-releasing it.

[John Edmond]

Just wish I could spot Inferno going for something somewhat cheaper than $35.

[Gregory]

I don't understand why most retailers I've checked (Amazon being the exception) have the list price of Inferno at $60 and are charging in the $45-55 range. The best price overall seems to be from the Flicker Alley site ($29.96) but that still strikes me as just a little too much for me to want to blind buy.

Good news on the Melies set having a $20 lower retail price, but I wonder what they mean by "more economically packaged edition." Maybe keepcases instead of the long digipak fold-out. Looks like runtime is the same 13 hours as the first edition.
When demand for the set shot through the roof recently, I sold my like-new set on Amazon for its list price ($90). Probably could've gotten more, but I wanted to avoid gouging. I'll put the $90 toward the second edition of the Melies plus Landmarks of Early Soviet Film.

[MichaelB]

Looks like we have ourselves a republished (and a little cheaper) George Méliès set coming out just before Christmas. No Encore though, so that'd have to be bought separately. Anyways, totally pre-ordering a copy and I am excited. Glad they are re-releasing it.

Well, they'd have been daft not to. They know better than anyone that opportunities like this come around once in a generation.

[Jonathan S]

I don't understand why most retailers I've checked (Amazon being the exception) have the list price of Inferno at $60 and are charging in the $45-55 range. The best price overall seems to be from the Flicker Alley site ($29.96) but that still strikes me as just a little too much for me to want to blind buy.

For a long time I've noticed there's something odd about Flicker Alley's distribution generally that makes their releases difficult/impossible or expensive to buy through the channels I normally use, such as Amazon UK Marketplace. Most of those aren't available new at the moment (which is odd in itself) but even when they are the prices are double or triple what the same commercial sellers charge for, say, Kino releases at similar list prices, and they are like that pretty much all the time. Their more recent releases including Inferno are found under Emphasis Entertainment. I know there are other suppliers of course, and so far I've managed to get everything I wanted at a reasonable price, though the lowering of the UK import limit to £15 has made it more difficult.
(Edit: second link corrected!)

[What A Disgrace]

A Trip to the Moon DVD/Blu-ray

[Finch]

A Trip to the Moon DVD/Blu-ray

Ordered! thanks for the heads up

[Calvin]

I've also ordered it, not sure if it's available now or if it's a pre-order though. One thing I can tell you is that this place hurts my wallet.

[eerik]

Very interesting. Waiting for more details. Hopefully it will be Blu-ray sized steelbook and Air's soundtrack is in lossless.

[Finch]

Calvin, it's a preorder. The email from Flicker Alley says the disc won't be shipped until 27 March. It is on the expensive side so I'm hoping it goes past customs unopened as it's £11 over the import VAT threshold.

[Calvin]

Thanks. I think I'll cancel and hope that PlanetAxel stocks it so I don't have to deal with import charges.

[videozor]

A Trip to the Moon DVD/Blu-ray

Can we get more details?

The French DVD I have includes 3 soundtracks: silent w. music score, voiice over narration of Melies' text and commentary.What we have here?

By taking a look at the web page you are under impression that this 2DVD set. Are there more shorts or just 2 Voyages?

Or it's a DVD/BR combo?

[SamLowry]

Just wish I could spot Inferno going for something somewhat cheaper than $35.

I think I picked up mine for about $15 - 17....It's the main reason why I keep a B&N membership, their infrequent 50% off one item coupons are useful for these titles that never seem to get discounted.

[eerik]

A Trip to the Moon DVD/Blu-ray

Can we get more details?

The French DVD I have includes 3 soundtracks: silent w. music score, voiice over narration of Melies' text and commentary.What we have here?

By taking a look at the web page you are under impression that this 2DVD set. Are there more shorts or just 2 Voyages?

Or it's a DVD/BR combo?

A Trip to the Moon (1902)

The material for A Trip to the Moon is sourced from a restored color version that had been considered lost for several decades and is presented with an original soundtrack by the French band, AIR.

In 2010, three experts in worldwide film restoration - a private collection Lobster Films, and two non-profit entities, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage - launched the most complex and ambitious restoration in the history of cinema, over 12 years, using advanced digital technologies to reassemble and restore the fragments of the 13, 375 frames.

The restoration print premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011 and made a worldwide tour of international festivals including Telluride, Pordenone, Rotterdam, and the MoMA Festival of Film Preservation.

Now, one of the most technically sophisticated and expensive restorations in film history, A Trip to the Moon can thrill home video audiences in its original 1902 colors.

The Extraordinary Voyage (2011)

The Extraordinary Voyage chronicles the journey of A Trip to the Moon from the fantastical Méliès' production in 1902 to the astonishing rediscovery of a nitrate print in color in 1993, to the premiere of the new restoration on the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.

The story of Moon's restoration to its original 1902 colors unfolds as Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange acquire a severely damaged color print from the Filmoteca de Catalunya in 1999 and then begin the tedious task of peeling off and unrolling the nitrate prints to be able to digitize them. It took two years to discover the images on those fragments, which were then stored on a hard drive for 8 years as the technology available at the time did not allow Lobster Films to continue the landmark restoration.

The documentary includes interviews with contemporary filmmakers, including Costa Gavras, Michel Gondry, Michel Hazanavicius, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet on Méliès' enduring significance to cinema.

Bonus Features

This limited-edition 2-Disc BD/DVD SteelBook Edition also contains A Trip to the Moon in a beautifully restored black and white edition from original 35 mm elements with two separate audio tracks of music: An orchestral score by Robert Israel with the original English narration written by Melies; and a second track produced by Russell Merritt consisting of a troupe of actors voicing the various characters as performed in the U.S. in 1903, with piano music by Frederick Hodges. There is also an interview with the group AIR on the restored soundtrack, and two lunar-related shorts by Méliès - The Eclipse and The Astronomer's Dream.

Please Note: Due to our licensing arrangement, this release has been encoded for Region A: East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas and their dependencies.



It's all on Flicker Alley's webpage.

[eerik]

And this is from their Facebook:
A TRIP TO THE MOON and THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE will be available on Tuesday, March 27, 2012. This publication will be presented in a limited 2-Disc BD/DVD G2 SteelBook Edition. The pre-release price is US $29.96.

[Gregory]

Just wish I could spot Inferno going for something somewhat cheaper than $35.

I think I picked up mine for about $15 - 17....It's the main reason why I keep a B&N membership, their infrequent 50% off one item coupons are useful for these titles that never seem to get discounted.

I'm not a member anyway, but even if I were, I haven't been able to find out where Barnes & Noble even sells Inferno.

[videozor]

Thanks, Eerik for the info!

[Minkin]

For those of you with Amazon gift cards to spare (like myself), here's a pre-order for the new Trip to the Moon Blu.

Am I correct in assuming that the Amazon listing is also for the Steelbook? Or is that limited to only the Flicker Alley site?

[eerik]

A Trip to the Moon has been delayed until April 10th.

[manicsounds]

Original pressings have a manufacturing error on the audio track. By the way, are there any other online stores besides Amazon stocking this?

Dear Flicker Alley Customer: Please note that one of the bonus feature audio options on the Blu-ray disc of our limited SteelBook edition -- A Trip to the Moon in B&W Audio Option 1, featuring Robert Israel's orchestral score and the original English narration written by Georges Melies -- is currently missing its narration track and only features Robert Israel's orchestral score - All Blu-ray discs shipped at this time will be with this orchestral score only configuration.

This only affects the Blu-ray disc of this set. The DVD disc in this publication contains the audio for this bonus feature as described on the packaging.

We are in the process of remastering and remanufacturing a Blu-ray disc which will have the English narration/Robert Israel's orchestral score configuration for this particular bonus feature. If interested, we will make it available, by request, to customers who fill out our on-line Disc Replacement Form below.

Please complete the following form with as much of your original order information as possible (to verify your purchase) and we will contact you once the replacement discs have been manufactured and are ready for shipment.

[Minkin]

Beaver takes a Trip to the Moon.

Not surprisingly, Tooze loves the AIR score.

I wonder how long the wait will be until the replacement discs are manufactured? Wondering whether to wait or buy it now (so that the steelbooks don't run out).