So, are we all waiting for someone else to take the plunge on Tartan's "Labyrinth of Passion" and report back? Damn you all!

I have spent way too much money in the past few weeks, and there's an unbelievably gorgeous Luigi Borelli suit that's just my size hanging in Filene's Basement, and which I'm hoping drops down into my price-range within the next week or so... So, don't make me spend profligately on more DVDs, or at least not without the benefit of a positive review recommending the disc!

Price warning - the Optimum "Pepi, Luci, Bom..." has gone up from £5.97 to £11.98 in the past couple of days at amazon.co.uk. I had intended to pick up that disc, plus Optimum's "Dark Habits" and "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" - if only for the sweet cover art and spare but nice extras - after being impressed by the same in Optimum's "Kika" release. So, I went ahead and ordered "Habits" and "WHIDTDT?", which remain at the lower price point. Hopefully, "Pepi" will go back down soon.

XploitedCinema has it now, but I have to admit, as much as I like the film I'm wary of taking the plunge when it costs $32. If DVDBeaver puts up a review/comparison, then I'll decide.

I'm just gonna wait a couple of months. Tartan titles generally take a huge price dive relatively quickly. It'll be $15 in no time.

Kika is being re-released in R1 on August 28.

DVD Times reviews Tartan's Labyrinth of Passion. It looks awful.

It has every right to. This looks the same as the Pepi DVD does. I think it's down to how it was filmed at the time. Almodovar only started to use 35 mm in the next one, Dark Habits, I think.

But it does look a bit on the grainy side, though. Still, it's the only available and official DVD in the world right now for that particular movie, so I guess certain sacrifices must be made. Who owns this one in R1?

The badness you see in those screenshots has nothing to do with it being filmed in sub-35mm, it's from using inferior source materials, which were possibly transferred poorly, compounding the problem. There are any number of super-8 and 16mm films that look better.

The ringed, smeared edges and video noise wouldn't be present on the negatives, and Almodovar, who's always liked bright, gaudy colors, wouldn't have chosen such a drained, drab palette. The washed-out color also points to an inferior multi-generational source.

Yes, this disc does look quite poor (and still very expensive). On the other hand, I've never seen this film and know of no other English-subbed DVD releases. Or any coming down the pike.

I'm not buying yet - at least not at £19.99 plus shipping - but will likely end up doing so if no other, better version appears to be in the offing.

My wishes that Sony will grab the other OOP Almodovar films and pack them on a second volume are going down the drain. Oh, well.

Anyways, stopped waiting for a R1 edition of High Heels and just ordered the german edition, with english subs. It's been too long since I saw Miguel Bose in (glorious) drag and I really miss it. Not anymore, now.

These should be new transfers though, right? And the complete cut of "Dark Habits"?

I have the UK-R2 dvds of both films, both of which are of acceptable quality (wrong framing/aspect ratio on "Dark Habits" apparently). The cover art is great - as are all the Optimum Almodovars - and the sparse extras are of high quality (no "introduction" as I recall on "WHIDTDT?", which is too bad as these are typically quite good).

That said, I'm hoping the upcoming transfers will be an improvement.

Yes, I'm quoting myself quoting someone else - is there anyone else in here?

I take it that answers to each of these questions remain outstanding, or at least I haven't found any reviews. It would be great to know whether these are new transfers or retreads. And, if new, whether proper aspect ratios were utilized and, in the case of "Dark Habits", whether the complete cut of the film was released this time. Anyone?

Can't you just rent it? I think reviews for this new set will be pretty scant since these are mostly obscure Almodovar movies and budget re-releases which also doesn't bode well for them, quality-wise.

But I too would love to know more about them, especially if they're not just a repackaging of previously available material.

Yes, it's that latter part that concerns me (the likelihood that these are, once again, rather poor quality discs).

Unfortunately, both films have been released before on DVD, and Netflix generally does not upgrade to the newer release. In fact, just yesterday I received what I'd hoped was the new Blue Underground release of "The Stendhal Syndrome" released this week, and it turned out to be the same old, lousy Troma disc.

Certainly, I can take a chance that Netflix might have upgraded the Almodovars, but I think the odds are fairly slim. I'll go ahead and load them up in the queue, but I have little hope of receiving the new releases.

Just posting to confirm that Netflix is still renting the old Wellspring version of "Dark Habits". So, no news on whether the new DVD of Habits/WHIDTDT? includes new transfers.

That said, I took a brief look at Wellspring's release. Someone reported (and I have repeated) that the Wellspring release of "Dark Habits" is an edited version. However, accounting for PAL speedup, it appears to be the same length as the Optimum release (1:40:03 for the Wellspring, 1:36:03 for the Optimum).

That said, the Optimum is easily the superior release, and I shall now count the ways that were immediately apparent upon my breif comparison of the two: (1) better print source; (2) better transfer of that print; (3) white subs on the Optimum/yellow uglies on the Wellspring; (4) better placement of the subs (too high on the Wellspring).

Finally, the Optimum discs have great covers, very nice booklets, and the introductions are insightful. The ARs on these two are slightly different, with the Optimum transfer revealing a black bar on the bottom (approx. 1.95:1?) as opposed to the 1.85:1 AR of the Wellspring. I didn't compare to see whether framing/cropping was different, but I suspect it is. Regardless, the Optimum is so much superior in every other way that it's easily the recommended version, and I believe that the proper AR for this film may be more like 1.66:1.

I've got "WHIDTDT?" in my queue, but I suspect Netflix is still renting the old version of that one, as well. But I'll update once confirmed.

And I still haven't seen a review of the new 2-pack release, nor come across anyone who's purchased it. At some point, I'll be the guinea pig, but given that I'm pretty well satisfied with the Optimums, that may be a spell.

We have that Genius Almodovar 2-pack for sale at the store, I haven't seen inside one but it appears to be a cover over two separate cases, which for some reason makes me think that it's a repackaging of the old discs. The box certainly doesn't say anything about the discs being new editions. Furthermore, we got in a matching Godard box from Genius that has the old Breathless disc in it, which definitely seems to imply that this is a way of clearing out backstock.

At this point I'm basically waiting for the Weinsteins to run their company into the ground so someone else can get the rights to the films they hold and do decent editions.

Yes, a big part of my reluctance to shell out the rather paltry amount to purchase this set is my suspicion that it's only a repackaging. Well, that coupled with the repugnant notion that the Weinsteins will be unjustly enriched by my purchase (I bet you miss that $20, dontcha??? Really, no...?).

One other strike against the Wellspring release: stamping a genre identifier on the disc art, in this case ghettoizing "Dark Habits" as 'comedy/gay'. I'm just so certain that if they released "Knocked Up", it would be stamped 'comedy/hetero', "Schindler's List" would be 'drama/Jew', and "Malcolm X" would be 'biography/negro'.

And it should come as no surprise that Netflix is also still renting the old, Wellspring version of "What Have I Done To Deserve This?!!". So, even after a month or so, there's still zero info as to whether the Weinstein release has new transfers.

I may have to risk a purchase, even though I'm actually fairly satisfied with the Optimum discs. "Dark Habits" is a good flick, but IMO "WHIDTDT?!" belongs to the upper tier of significant Almodovar works. That said, is it fair to assume that the ad copy would have indicated new transfers if that had actually been undertaken?

I didn't do any significant comparison, but was surprised to find that the Optimum release had a longer runtime than the Wellspring by about 30 seconds (starting at the same point, that is, after the Optimum titles that precede the feature on their disc). Given that I presume the Wellspring is a native NTSC and the Optimum is PAL, there could actually be about a 5-minute difference. Given that the Optimum release is superior in all other regards - though the transfer isn't head and shoulders better like "Dark Habits" - it didn't seem to merit a closer look at what may or may not have been cut from the Wellspring. I compared the framing on only the opening title card ("So-and-so presents a film de Almodovar"), and the Wellspring was a tad tighter at the top and bottom, cutting off a bit of the letters which are quite tight to the frame. The Wellspring release includes an Almodovar filmography, which also notes his pre-Pepi work, but the Optimum has the theatrical trailor, a brief collection of stills of international one sheets, and a quite nice booklet. And, like all of their Almodovar releases, excellent artwork.

I believe the Wellspring Dark Habits is indeed cut, isn't it rated R?

Also, it's worth noting that when I examined the Dark Habits/WHIDTDT? 2-pack it had a Wellspring logo alongside the Genius Entertainment and Weinstein Co. logos, so I'm officially certain that these are the old versions.

But I remember reading that Weinstein will be releasing these in their Miriam label. This was mentioned in a press release at some point along with El Cid and the Kurosawa.

Which makes me wonder if their Denuves, Herzogs, and Godards will also see some Miriam action.

I have no idea what the MPAA rating is - and have returned the disc to Netflix - but if it's cut, then I can only presume that so is the Optimum disc. Again, the timing is 1:40:03 for the Wellspring, and 1:36:03 for the Optimum, which perfectly accounts for the 4% PAL speedup.

On the other hand, Optimum's "WHIDTDT?!" actually times out longer than Wellspring's by about 30 seconds. And assuming that PAL speedup is a factor here - and I'm only assuming as I'm unsure of the provenance of the Wellspring transfer (whether NTSC or a PAL-conversion) - then the Optimum "WHIDTDT?!" is potentially 4-1/2 minutes longer than the Wellspring.

A bummer if the Weinstein releases aren't an improvement, but again I'm fairly well satisfied with the Optimum releases on these two titles.

They seem to be.

Re Tartan's "Labyrinth of Passion" DVD... the worst part of this disc (or perhaps the best part, depending on how you look at it) and its dingy, drab, undetailed transfer is that you get a good idea of how the film should look in the trailor. By comparison, the colors pop, the detail is much improved, and an entire veil of haze has been lifted. In short, don't watch the trailer before the film, or your disappointment in the transfer will be heightened many-fold.

It seems to have flown under the radar that Sony will issuing Matador and Law of Desire in stand-alone versions for the first time on Tuesday. There are no supplements, but they do have nice cover art based on the original poster designs. They are also re-issuing the out-of-print All About My Mother (remastered, but without the old supplements) and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (which they appear to have taken over from MGM). Live Flesh, which was also controlled by MGM remains unavailable.

I see that Sony Pictures is doing a theatrical retrospective of Almodovar's films from the "Viva Pedro" set. I know Sony has re-released several of the films from this box set this past year. Is there any rumor that a newer, updated version of this box set will be re-released in lieu of the theatrical run. It would suck to buy the films individually and then have a Viva Pedro Part II box set be released.