Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

Discuss releases by the BFI and the films on them.

Moderator: MichaelB

Message
Author
User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#26 Post by MichaelB » Fri May 04, 2018 8:09 am

Here's the official announcement, although I suspect it doesn't contain any surprises now:
Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema
Blu-ray & DVD box sets released on 11 June 2018

Includes A Taste of Honey, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and two cuts of Tom Jones


This year the ground-breaking British film company Woodfall Films celebrates its 60th anniversary. After a popular season at BFI Southbank throughout April, on 11 June 2018 the BFI will release 9-disc Blu-ray and DVD box sets containing some of Woodfall’s most revered films, many newly restored.

A huge array of special features includes interviews with Rita Tushingham and Murray Melvin, archive material, shorts from the BFI National Archive and an 80-page book.

One film, THE KNACK… and how to get it, will also be released in a Dual Format Edition on 18 June. Details to follow in due course.

Woodfall revolutionised British cinema during the 1960s with a slate of iconic films. Founded in 1958 by director Tony Richardson, writer John Osborne and producer Harry Saltzman (James Bond), the company pioneered the British New Wave, defining an incendiary brand of social realism. Look Back in Anger (Tony Richardson, 1959), and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960) spot-lit working-class life with unheard-of honesty. The same risk-taking spirit led the company to find a new generation of brilliant young actors to star in their films, such as Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay and Rita Tushingham. The global blockbuster Tom Jones (1963) expanded the Woodfall slate in an irreverent, colourful direction that helped define swinging London – further securing its extraordinary chapter in the history of British film.

These box sets bring together eight of Woodfall’s early ground-breaking films, many now newly restored and on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK. Each set contains:

Look Back in Anger (Tony Richardson, 1959), starring Richard Burton as a jazz trumpeter
The Entertainer (Tony Richardson, 1960), which stars Laurence Olivier as ageing music-hall veteran Archie Rice
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960) (as previously released by the BFI), starring Albert Finney as factory worker Arthur Seaton
A Taste of Honey (Tony Richardson, 1961), legendary kitchen sink drama focusing on working-class women, with a script by Shelagh Delaney and Tony Richardson
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Tony Richardson, 1962) (as previously released by the BFI) starring Tom Courtenay at Colin Smith
Tom Jones (Tony Richardson, 1963), (both the original theatrical release and the 1989 Director’s Cut), a raucous and innovative multi-Oscar-winning adaptation of the classic novel by Henry Fielding
Girl with Green Eyes (Desmond Davis, 1964) with Rita Tushingham, Lynn Redgrave and Peter Finch in a lively adaptation by Edna O’Brien of her own novel
THE KNACK…and how to get it (Richard Lester, 1965) which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes

Special features
The Stories that Changed British Cinema (2018, 47 mins): panel discussion held at BFI Southbank during April, featuring actors Tom Courtenay, Rita Tushingham and Joely Richardson, writer Jez Butterworth, journalist Paris Lees; chaired by the BFI’s Danny Leigh;
• Five audio commentaries featuring Alan Sillitoe, Freddie Francis, Dora Bryan, Rita Tushingham, Murray Melvin, Tom Courtenay, Adrian Martin and Neil Sinyard;
George Devine Memorial Play: Look Back in Anger, The Entertainer, Luther, and Exit The King (Peter Whitehead, 1966, 39 mins): extracts from four plays written by John Osborne starring Kenneth Haigh, Gary Raymond, Laurence Olivier, Albert Finney and Alec Guinness;
Oswald Morris Remembers Woodfall (Alan Van Wijgerden, 1993, 24 mins): the cinematographer reminisces about his time with Woodfall;
Ten Bob in Winter (Lloyd Reckord, 1963, 12 mins);
O Dreamland (Lindsay Anderson, 1953, 13 mins);
• Seven short films by Mitchell & Kenyon (13 mins);
Morecambe Carnival (1 min): Topical Budget newsreel;
Lancashire Coast (John Taylor, 1957, 15 mins);
The Guardian Interview: Albert Finney (1982, 35 mins, audio only);
• Interview with Shirley Anne Field (2009, 10 mins);
We Are the Lambeth Boys (Karel Reisz, 1959, 51 mins);
• Two video essays by Walter Lassally (2002, 21 & 19 mins);
A Taste of Honey 50th Anniversary Q&A with Rita Tushingham, Murray Melvin and Walter Lassally (2002, 15 mins);
• Interview with Murray Melvin (2018, 25 mins);
• Interviews with Rita Tushingham as she looks back on her work with Woodfall (2018, 34 mins);
Holiday (John Taylor, 1957, 18 mins);
Momma Don’t Allow (Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson, 1956, 22 mins);
• Interview with Vanessa Redgrave (2017, 10 mins);
The USSR Today: Meeting to Mark the 200th Anniversary of Henry Fielding’s Death (2 mins);
• Walter Lassally in conversation with Peter Cowie (2018, 25 mins);
Film Poetry: Desmond Davis (2018, 24 mins): a new interview with the director of Girl with Green Eyes;
Food for a Blluuusssshhhhh! (Elizabeth Russell, 1959, 31 mins);
The Peaches (Michael Gill, 1964, 16 mins);
Captain Busby The Even Tenour of Her Ways (Ann Wolff, 1967, 16 mins);
Now and Then: Dick Lester (1967, 17 mins): Richard Lester interviewed by Bernard Braden;
British Cinema in the 1960s: Richard Lester in Conversation (2017, 59 mins): Richard Lester discusses his career in film with Neil Sinyard. Recorded at BFI Southbank in 2017;
Staging THE KNACK…and how to get it (2017, 2 mins): short piece with Keith Johnston, director of the original stage production;
• Trailers;
• Seven stills galleries;
• 80-page illustrated book with essays on all eight films, further writing exploring the dynamic, look, and music of Woodfall, plus notes on all the special features

Product details

Blu-ray RRP: £79.99 / Cat. No. BFIB1296 / Cert 15
UK / 1959-1965 / black and white & colour / English language with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / 921 mins (+ extras) / original aspect ratios / 24fps, 1080p / 7 x BD50 & 2 x BD25 / Blu-ray: PCM mono audio (48kHz/24-bit)

DVD RRP: £69.99 / Cat. No. BFIV2113 / Cert 15
UK / 1959-1965 / black and white & colour / English language with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / 885 mins (+ extras) / original aspect ratios / 24fps, PAL / 9 x DVD9
...and here's the trailer.

User avatar
tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#27 Post by tenia » Fri May 04, 2018 10:19 am

Would you know how the newer movies (except Tom Jones and A Taste of Honey, for which we know already) have been restored ? 2K ? 4K ? Older HD masters ?

charal
Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2008 6:36 pm
Location: ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#28 Post by charal » Sat Jun 16, 2018 10:18 pm

The transfer of THE KNACK is the same as on the older MGM DVD. You can tell because of the specks and tramlines in the opening credits. Why was this not upgraded? Did MGM refuse permission for restoration work? The other films are upgrades (2 previous BFI restorations, 2 Criterion restorations and 3 new.)

User avatar
tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#29 Post by tenia » Sun Jun 17, 2018 4:43 am

I suppose the right holders indeed didn't let the BFI access the material for a new restoration.

User avatar
What A Disgrace
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:34 pm
Contact:

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#30 Post by What A Disgrace » Tue Jun 26, 2018 11:16 am

I just got my copy. Its about 60% of the size of the Alan Clarke box, even using slime cases for each individual disc. Nice and suitably big.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#31 Post by swo17 » Tue Jun 26, 2018 11:40 am

What A Disgrace wrote:
Tue Jun 26, 2018 11:16 am
even using slime cases
Why though?

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#32 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jun 26, 2018 11:41 am

Slime cases slide in and out of tight bookshelves much more efficiently. You mean you didn't know that?

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#33 Post by swo17 » Tue Jun 26, 2018 11:54 am

Hmmm...I'll have to try that out on my collection

User avatar
Florinaldo
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:38 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#34 Post by Florinaldo » Wed Aug 29, 2018 9:46 am

A great assemblage of titles, a reminder of what a fertile era that was for British cinema. A good opportunity for me to see at least one title for the first time (Look Back in Anger) or deepen my apreciation of others (Girl with Green Eyes, which I have just watched) thanks to all of the relevant extras. Who knows, perhaps I will even revise my original negative vew of The Knack, from when I saw it a few decades ago.

Are there later Woodfall titles that would warrant similar extensive treatment on HD? I suppose The Charge of the Light Brigade is in dire need of an upgrade, while Kes already had its MoC edition. I see that in the movies, mostly directed by Tony Richardson, which came after this selection there are for example titles with Jeanne Moreau, one from a Duras novel, but I don't think I have heard or read much if anything about them.

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#35 Post by MichaelB » Wed Aug 29, 2018 10:10 am

The BFI's Ben Stoddart recently floated the possibility of a second Woodfall volume, and there's certainly enough remaining in their catalogue to be able to fill a box of equivalent size, but the rights situation starts to get messier from the late 1960s onwards. And of course The Charge of the Light Brigade would pretty much have to be included, as it's by far the most famous Woodfall title not in the existing box - and I understand that the materials situation for that is particularly messy.

Which is why, very sensibly, they didn't stick a hostage-to-fortune "Volume One" on the current box!

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#36 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Aug 29, 2018 12:01 pm

I thought about that Naruse set again and shed a tear :cry:

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#37 Post by swo17 » Wed Aug 29, 2018 12:03 pm

I wish more boxsets would brand themselves with "Volume One?" or failing that "The Final Word on This Director...Or Is It?"

Calvin
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am

Re: Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema

#38 Post by Calvin » Fri Jul 17, 2020 5:19 pm

Out of stock at the moment, but it's a bargain £22.99 at Amazon

Post Reply