The Seafarers
One of the longest running titles in our "to be announced" list has to be Stanley Kubrick's The Seafarers, the late master's 1953 industrial documentary commissioned by the Seafarers International Union of merchant mariners. Made only a few years before his impressive feature films "Killer's Kiss" and "The Killing," The Seafarers has the distinction of being Kubrick's first film in color.
Some years ago, Pietrzak Filmways, headed by Alexander Pietrzak, gained distribution rights to the documentary and a VHS edition was officially released. Work on a remastered special edition DVD of "The Seafarers" was said to have been underway, with only sporadic rumors on its progress. After a near four-year lull in news, we here at davisdvd.com decided to contact Mr. Pietrzak to find out the status of the project.
We are now happy to report that "The Seafarers" is moving forward after being shelved for budgetary reasons. According to Mr. Pietrzak, the editors of the TV show "Grey's Anatomy" are now footing the bill for getting it released.
Among the extras that will be included on the disc are commentary tracks by filmmakers and Kubrick fans Keith Gordon and Roger Avary, a text interview with one of Kubrick's daughters and more to be announced. There still is no release date unfortunately, but Mr. Pietrzak promises some more solid news for us after the editors return from their seasonal hiatus.
The Seafarers (Kubrick, 1953)
- Antoine Doinel
- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
- Location: Montreal, Quebec
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From DavisDVD:
- Oedipax
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 8:48 am
- Location: Atlanta
- miless
- Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 9:45 pm
what I really want is new restored version of the MGM titles (Killer's Kiss, The Killing and Paths of Glory)... the current releases are okay to terrible (and I believe The Killing is cropped). The Killing is one of my favorite Kubrick films and I just hope and pray that this new deal that MGM made with Fox will either allow Fox to restore the films (like their film noir series) or let Criterion handle them.
one can dream
one can dream
- Gregory
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm
Special editions of The Killing and Paths of Glory would be very nice. Still, the picture quality on the current editions of Killer's Kiss, The Killing, and Paths of Glory seem very good to me and are certainly above and beyond the transfer quality of the average MGM release. I'm not aware of any cropping on the MGM DVD of The Killing. Can you elaborate?
- Barmy
- Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 3:59 pm
Seafarers as a standalone is a bit of a ripoff. I mean, really. That's like putting Antonioni's rayon film on a DVD (particularly since no one suffering from existential ennui would be caught dead in rayon). Day of the Fight at least had some relevance to Killer's Kiss, but it's a bit silly to look for hints of future greatness in Seafarers.
- miless
- Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 9:45 pm
I was wrong about the cropping in The Killing, as it was filmed full-screen. I was confused because it was originally projected at 1.66:1, but they must have matted it for projectionGregory wrote:Special editions of The Killing and Paths of Glory would be very nice. Still, the picture quality on the current editions of Killer's Kiss, The Killing, and Paths of Glory seem very good to me and are certainly above and beyond the transfer quality of the average MGM release. I'm not aware of any cropping on the MGM DVD of The Killing. Can you elaborate?
- Antoine Doinel
- Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
- Location: Montreal, Quebec
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Phil Hall over at Film Threat has a nice review of the film here.
- LightBulbFilm
- Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:11 pm
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Alright guys, who can tell me anything about this? Is this legit or would buying it be a waste of time?
- The Fanciful Norwegian
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Teegeeack
I think it's legit -- Pietrzak said the DVD was being bankrolled by some Grey's Anatomy personnel (who'd have thunk it), and a search for "Indian Relay Films" turns up this profile.
Re: The Seafarers (Kubrick, 1953)
Correct, the Grey's Anatomy Editor and Alexander Pietrzak are responsible for bringing The Seafarers to DVD. There are two editor's on Grey's, the one someone had linked to is the "other" editor (Susan). Ed Ornelas is the guy though, he's also a director.
It looks really quite good. They obviously spent some money on this project.
You can see the description on Amazon, or elsewhere. It looks much better than anything you may have seen of this title, it has been digitally remastered. There's also an audio track with directors Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction screenwriter) and Keith Gordon (Dexter).
It looks really quite good. They obviously spent some money on this project.
You can see the description on Amazon, or elsewhere. It looks much better than anything you may have seen of this title, it has been digitally remastered. There's also an audio track with directors Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction screenwriter) and Keith Gordon (Dexter).