28 Toni

[MichaelB]

That's why both Masters of Cinema and the BFI deliberately author their Blu-rays so that they'll play perfectly in all PS3s, not just European ones (region coding permitting).

The BFI doesn't include SD video at all on their Blu-rays, while MoC deliberately opts for 480p (i.e. NTSC) instead of 576p (PAL).

[peerpee]

We initially started off putting NTSC (480p) material on BDs, but we uprez SD stuff now, to save the annoying TV flip/pause from 1080p to 480p and back to 1080p for menus and back to 480p, etc etc

Both PAL and NTSC SD material can safely be uprezzed to 1080p, so it doesn't matter what the source was anymore really, so long as it's uprezzed properly (and the filesize used doesn't unnecessarily compromise the feature).

[Michael Kerpan]

Another of MOC's most treasurable releases prematurely out of print (purportedly) due to the warehouse fire. Another heart-breaker.

[ellipsis7]

Sadly mourned here too, Michael, a really great film that deserves to remain in print... Sadly I think it never sold particularly well, and in the Darwinian survival of the fittest that the Sony fire has visited, the weakest in the MoC pack are culled, insofar as they are not replaced through a new pressing, and any back stock is now wiped out..

[Drucker]

This doubled in price on amazon.co.uk since yesterday.

Mine has yet to ship, I hope that isn't a bad omen!

[MichaelB]

I was interviewing Aki Kaurismäki yesterday (as one does), and because he was promoting Le Havre, we naturally chatted about 1930s French cinema, and he lamented that even Renoir was being ignored by the younger generation. I told him that Toni wasn't exactly a bestseller on DVD in Britain, and he said that he was sorry to hear that, because he bought a copy himself when it came out and was delighted with it.

So there you go - what MoC's customers lack in quantity, they more than make up for in quality.

Incidentally, he revealed that he watches DVDs through a projector at home, because that's the only way he can recreate the effect of cigarette smoke curling through a beam of light - which for him is an absolutely essential part of the film-watching experience.

[ellipsis7]

Yes, it's very sad that TONI fell OOP, and totally agree that Renoir should be required viewing for younger generations... A redeeming factor is by mid 2012 there will be 6 Renoir films (BOUDU, ILLUSION, RULES, RIVER, CANCAN, & ELENA) in high quality Blu Ray editions, and hopefully more to come...

[John Edmond]

I can imagine, but it just mocks me to think about it. Plus MOC also have The Blue Angel so they could put out the entire cycle.

[tajmahal]

Of all the pantheon directors now only one is unrepesented on Blu Ray: Sternberg.

What an unbelievable situation. If MoC has a fruitful relationshsip with Universal how about they pick up the six Hollywood Dietrichs and get a repair job sorted out on Shanghai express to replace the missing 15 seconds while they're at it.
Can you imagine?

I'm reading a wonderful book at the moment:

THE IDEA OF THE IMAGE: JOSEF VON STERNBERG'S DIETRICH FILMS by Carole Zucker.

The thought of seeing these films on blu-ray after reading the richly detailed descriptions of the great filmmaker's working methods is mouth-watering.

Great book, if you can get your hands on a copy.

[ellipsis7]

Thanks David for pointing out my omission... See the SWAMP WATER Blu is only in a limited edition of 3000 units available from Screen Archives Entertainment....

(UPDATE: And duly ordered...)

A review of the disc...

It's a gorgeous disc, crisp and vivid with strong contrasts and a grey scale that almost looks painted across the screen.

Is this the first time this new company, Twilight Time, is coming up on our radar?... Sounds very interesting indeed, licensing initially 20th Century Fox & Columbia/Sony pictures mainly for limited edition BRs for collectors...

[tojoed]

Is this the first time this new company, Twilight Time, is coming up on our radar?... Sounds very interesting indeed, licensing initially 20th Century Fox & Columbia/Sony pictures mainly for limited edition BRs for collectors...

No, not all, they have their own thread.

[ellipsis7]

Missed that thread first time round.... Very useful, now I know...

[John Edmond]

You're not wrong about Angel obviously but I can never get it into my head in the same space as the Paramount Dietrich pictures. Angel has other attachments and elements that connect it so much to Weimar cinema whereas as the rest of Sternberg is so totally his own universe.

My take, feel free to shake your head at me and call me an ignorant fool:

I know it's different, but birth is different from life. I initially connected The Blue Angel to the rest of the cycle for the simple reason that Morocco is its mirror. Kehr claims Dishonored is the Blue Angel's mirror, but Dietrich isn't even dishonoured let alone humbled in Dishonored. Further more, for me Dishonored is Sternberg and Dietrich mythologising/celebrating Dietriech's new star person. And not just the fact that she became a star but her visual transformation: Dietrich's post-Blue Angel weightloss, Sternberg figuring out how to best light her (sometimes emphasising her now forgotten curves, other times the sharpness of her face - which post-Sternberg she would recreate by other less impressive means), their wealth of props, etc. Both spying and prostitution are performative careers easily linked to acting (in which case her career path in Dishonored is fairly suggestive), with spying giving Dietrich plenty of opportunity to indulge in roles - her heavy thighed* Russian Peasant strikes me as blatant reference to her prior existence as a German hausfrau. UFA and the Weimar republic is where she came from, and the rest of the cycle reflects on that.

*heavy thighed by Hollywood standards only, obviously

[John Edmond]

Should have said by film standards. Just a pre-emptive against people complaining I called Dietrich fat. Which has already happened a couple of times - sadly Dietrich is better known (by people I know at least) for her late caricature work, people think I'm crazy when I refer to her as curvy.

Love as a conspiracy against the world. I love reading about all their plotting, we must have a film studio in Austria.

[ellipsis7]

ELENA ET LES HOMMES Gaumont BR up at Amazon.fr - May 16th release....

[HerrSchreck]

Dave I always thought that you were a fan of Pabst, really liking -- and rhapsodizing here about--PANDORA, DIARY OF A LOST GIRL specifically. If you haven't already, you should really take a look at The Love of Jeanne Ney... best Pabst I've seen by a good long mile. Funny I was just babbling in my audio essay for ARNE about Stillers bringing his young protege to Hollywood ( after that brief german stop over with Pabst to make GASSE) where they were both subject to the hideous machinations of one of The Great Assholes of History, Louie Mayer.

Interestingly also, viz your avatar.. I had just a week ago pulled out the sublime PICCADILLY for the first time in at least four years and went woozy all over again for this deliriously fucking excellent film. The rough and tumble low dive dance hall scene where Wong takes the boss, remarking "This is our Piccadilly," what a knock out scene... Bravely mixing the races in a near brawl. Lovely stuff!

Dishonored incidentally is easily my least fave Deitberg film. Like the Blue Angel quite a bit, though there is an unusual sloppiness about it in spots. Far less careful and far more visceral, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just different. And I dont mind Marlene's baby fat, I think she has a hot body in that movie. I'm reminded however of William Shirers comment after coming back home to the US after his long Berlin assignment for CBS, saying that it was nice to finally see slender ankles on a woman once again. .

[HerrSchreck]

I'm pretty much with you on Pabst, bro.. I simply cannot see why certain very learned and otherwise respectable intellectuals place him up in the same lofty air as auteurs like Lang Murnau and Renoir.. completely different species of human being. Pabst was a talented recycler , at least during the Weimar era. My interest in him fades with the early sound work of LATALANTIDE , 3PENNY, WESTFRONT, etc. Once the nazis came into power and the sound era really gets rolling the man really seems to run out of ideas. My guess is it's because he was no longer surrounded by the likes of Lang Leni murnau etc to inspire and motivate him. I have difficulty sticking with GASSE, as I always seem to get kicked out of the proceedings a little bit of the day way in. I know I've already earlier mentioned that I fell asleep during the premier screening of the restoration that you were talking about at the moma. I think Eisner really nailed the issues in this film by elucidating the fact that the shabbiness is too shabby the villains are too villanous ( exemplified by Werner Krauss' lecherous butcher), th us rendering something usually such fertile territory for the expressionists, their mid twenties inflation and depression, as totally inauthentic in this film. A worthwhile comparison usually made is between this film and griffiths Isn't Life Wonderful, which was shot at the same time and in germany along with pabsts film.

DuPont is totally fabbo! I don't need to tell you where you can find excellent titles such as the sublime VARIETE, plus excellent works like DAS ALTE GESETZ, DIE GEIERWALLY, MOULON ROUGE, etc. I should say that most of his sound era work remains a mystery. Although the less said about his very late drive in schlocko NEANDERTHAL MAN, the better.

[neal]

Should have said by film standards. Just a pre-emptive against people complaining I called Dietrich fat.

Even if that were the case, you wouldn't be alone.. I used to have a pdf of this letter from Dietrich to William K. Everson essentially responding to being called fat. I'll have to see if it made it onto one of my backup drives before my last computer crapped out on me.

[peerpee]

[neal]

Sadly, in that photo they block out all the interesting parts.