Did anyone else think that press release was written by a grumpy person on an off day? I think most people are aware of the business problems and the fact that Show Me Love was not going to be the next Incredibles in terms of sales, but "frankly" was it really necessary for the patronising tone of the release? It seems a lot like sour grapes to me.
Especially when it seems understandable that buyers would be concerned about the quality of Show Me Love when it is only being released in a box set with reissues of other already individually available releases. I think it is more understandable that people would be more concerned than normal about Show Me Love if they were even going to consider double-dipping.
Metrodome seem to be becoming notorious for devaluing the quality of their box sets. They have gone in completely the opposite direction (from releasing individual films and then the boxset) with the Nick Broomfield boxset. The boxset itself is really good, with some interesting modern day interviews an interesting retrospective documentary and a couple of commentaries, but at the same time there are obvious business decisions that insult the potential purchaser, such as the decision to only include the 47 minutes or so of extra material on the Fetishes DVD that is separately released, with a bare bones version of the film in the boxset. It seems to me a very cynical move in trying to make sure that people who want to see everything have to buy the single release as well.
I can understand that it is a relatively well known and notorious film, and worth including in a Broomfield retorospective, but the presence of Fetishes seems stupid when the individual release is available with more extras! Surely another Broomfield film (like Too White For Me, which would be a good companion to The Leader, His Driver and The Driver's Wife) would be more worthy of inclusion, as there must be many Broomfield films that it would not be economically viable to release separately?
If I was being cyncial I might think that Fetishes was included simply to bump up the BBFC rating to an 18, as it is the only 18 rated film in the set.
But it is a horrible situation for a purchaser to be in, as the boxset is worthwhile at the same time as being horribly manipulative in the way it has been produced. I bought it, but felt a horrible mixture of happiness and being ripped off while doing so. I'm afraid I'm drawing the line at the Moodyson box - I might try getting the VHS of Show Me Love instead!
It is obvious that they need to make money from limited potential releases but they should do that by trying to make it easy for the purchaser to choose between single or boxset releases and by stressing the quality of their releases.
If they cared then it might be good to have a press statement that was not so combative and that was not so confusing about correct ratios etc. I'm afraid I'm putting them in the same category as Tartan for their reaction to the Chinese Odyssey disc (see Tartan Video thread).
It certainly makes me glad and very respectful of the major companies like Masters of Cinema or Criterion that allow a form of dialogue with the public, let us annoy them with requests and questions about their releases and seem to take a pride in being able to release the films themselves, rather than only being interested in the films for how much money they can milk out of them (although I completely sympathise with how difficult that balance must be to achieve). It is a small, but extremely significant, philosophical difference (or a brilliant marketing move!
).
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