Excellent news. Good-looking extras as well.

The website's all over the place like a mad woman's shite but tantalisingly a box set of Ophuls keeps flickering into view but I can't grab the image for long enough to see what's on it.

I was actually looking for details on the Franju 'Eyes' but there are no extras listed whatsoever, whereas some suppliers say 50 min Franju the Visionary others a 10 minute interview. So if any one definitively knows??

Definitely and definitively 10 minutes, unless they remastered the DVD after they sent out my review copy.

But I believe this was the only Franju material in the original 50-minute programme - certainly, it doesn't look trimmed. It's not so much an interview as a masterclass in which Franju (filmed weeks before his death) talks us through a couple of scenes while watching them on a Steenbeck.

The Patrice Leconte Collection in July (DVD Times)

On their website it says that to be confirmed are Wise Blood and Lola Montes. No more information as yet, but great news, yes?

Not to mention a three-disc Texas Chainsaw Massacre from the Dark Sky restoration, a DVD/Blu-ray Baraka and a new special edition of The Rutles: All You Need is Cash. Wow!

And on top of that, The Takeshi Kitano Collection boxset, featuring Violent Cop, Boiling Point, A Scene at the Sea, Sonatine, Getting Any? and Kid's Return.

Wonderful news! I've had to survive off the Tokyo Bullet Box Set for such a long time that a new set with, touch wood, superior transfers (not to mention the inclusion of A Scene at the Sea, Kid's Return and Getting Any?) will be, for me, one of the releases of the year. Second Sight are really starting to make a huge impact upon the DVD scene with their excellent releases of the Ophul's films, their stunning treatment of Picnic at Hanging Rock, and their great release of Berlin Alexanderplatz.

The 3-Disc set of TCM does look tempting and Wise Blood, if confirmed, is another potential buy as well as Baraka. At this rate and with their recent track record (licensing films no one else would touch like THE BLACK CAT and BLACK ORPHEUS, putting out PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK and the Ophuels in very good to great editions), Second Sight have to be considered among the best UK labels alongside MoC and the BFI. Now if only Optimum would follow suit and put more effort into the releases of their catalogue..

That's great news about the Kitano set, I still have Kids Return on VCD. I need an upgrade.

I like that the prices for Second Sight are very affordable, I have the Ophuls DVD's plus Hellzapoppin', and they were all about 10-12 dollars each on amazon.co.uk.

Special features according to MovieMail.

WAR REQUIEM - November 10
- Remastered from a new High Defintion transfer
- Remastered audio of original Decca recording
- The Making of War Requiem; Features interviews with Tilda Swinton, Nathaniel Parker and Don Boyd
- Audio commentary with producer Don Boyd

BARAKA - November 10, two disc
- Fully restored in 70mm HD
- Soundtrack restored and remixed in DTS 96/24 5.1 & Dolby Digital 5.1
- Documentary: Baraka - A Closer Look
- Restoration Featurette.

TAKESHI KITANO COLLECTION - October 6
- Documentary - Takeshi Kitano: The Unpredictable\
- Audio commentaries
- 5.1 Audio

TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE - Noveber 3, three disc, Steelbook packaging
- Disc 1: High Definition transfer from the 16mm camera originals
- 5.1 English and 2.0 Stereo Surround Soundtracks
- Digitally Remastered Original Mono Soundtrack
- Feature-length commentary with actors Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Allen Danziger, and art director Robert A. Burns; Feature-length commentary with director Tobe Hooper, cinematographer Daniel Pearl and actor Gunnar Hansen
- Disc 2: ˜Off The Hook™“ an interview with Teri McMinn; Interview with production manager Ron Bozman
- ˜The Shocking Truth"™ documentary; A tour of the TCSM house with Gunnar Hansen
- ˜The Shocking Truth™
- Outtakes
- Disc 3: ˜Flesh Wounds™ documentary
- Interview with director Tobe Hooper
- Interview with writer Kim Henkel
- Deleted Scenes, Alternative Footage and Outtakes
- Trailers, TV and Radio Spots
- Stills, Posters and Lobby Cards Gallery.

This is an excellent film from the French Cinéma de notre temps series. It features an amusing sequence in which Kitano's interviewer, Shigehiko Hasumi of the University of Tokyo, is represented by a pendant dangling close to the camera, adorned with Hasumi's official portrait as university chancellor. (Hasumi had prepared questions for Kitano but was unable to attend the interview.) The interview proceeds by racking focus from Kitano to the pendant and back, etc.

Second Sight have just had passed the first ever uncut release of Last House on the Left, apparently coming out in October.

I have this set. The Hairdresser's Husband is widescreen, anamorphic. I haven't measured it, but it looks around 1:2.35.

DVD Times on Caught

I just received the Takeshi Kitano box set. I have to say that I am quite disappointed. Not with the quality of the films, from what I saw the image is quite nice on all 6 films, the subtitles are optional (there is no option to turn them on and off on the menu but they can be turned off from the remote) and the discs come inside a nice and sturdy box. No, I am disappointed with Second Sight's quality control. 4 out of the 6 discs are scratched with 2 out of those quite badly. And no disc became loose in the mail.

Now, I am a dvd collector since 1999, I have many dvds from all over the world and I have quite a few slightly scratched discs. In fact, as you all know, it is quite common to see one or even two scratched discs inside a box set but not 4 out of 6. 1 out of 6 is almost expected, 2 out of 6 is bad luck but 4 out of 6 is definitely bad quality control.

Thankfully, the scratches, while numerous, are not deep so I don't think that any disc is unreadable. And since I don't have enough time to see the films one after the other I used the "deep analysis" option of dvdshrink on the 4 scratched discs to check if there are any unreadable errors. Fortunately, none was found so the discs should be OK.

However, I found the whole experience quite "disturbing".

Could you post some screenshots of at lest "Violent Cop" and "A Scene at the Sea"?

I've now watched Second Sight's Baraka in full, and aside from their logo at the start and the fact that it comes in a standard Blu-ray case as opposed to a cardboard eco-friendly one, it appears to be a clone of the US MPI edition - technical/content specs appear to be absolutely identical. (I can't check this myself, but I understand that MPI is locked to Region A and Second Sight is Region B, so which label you go for is a bit of a no-brainer)

Anyway, believe the hype - this must currently be a front-runner for Most Spectacular Blu-ray Demonstration Disc Yet Released. Sourced from the original 65mm negative, scanned at 8K and extensively cleaned up and colour-timed, the picture has all the uncanny sharpness of an HD source but also has a wonderfully filmic feel. And if there's a single shot on any Blu-ray that's quite as spellbinding as the slow track into the Shiraz mirror mosque, I'd love to hear about it. And the soundtrack is extraordinary too - even through my TV speakers, the dynamic range of the DTS HD 96kHz recording made most other discs sound anaemic.

For once, the featurette is well worth watching too - nearly the length of the main film, it's crammed with fascinating details, including the startling revelation that Ron Fricke had to build his own 65mm camera because the cost of renting one proved prohibitive (given the length of time he'd need it to traverse the world doing elaborate time-lapse photography).

According to Moviemail, Lola Montes (The restored edition) will be released on February 23 2009. It includes a making of.. documentary and commentary by Susan White, author of a biography of Max Ophuls.

Oh great. CC better hurry up with their release of "Lola", as extras on the Second Sight look fine and it seems that at least their new "La Ronde" is practically as good as the CC version imagewise, so I have high hopes for this new release as well. But somehow I have a feeling that CC will really pull all the registers in the extras department on this one.

Also coming on February 23rd 2009 John Huston's Wise Blood. That's two beauties from Second Sight in February. Bravo.

Whoa, excellent

Excellent indeed, but like Lola Montes it's also coming from Criterion sometime in the future. Blood has been rumored for a long time (It's likely that CC picked it up from Micheal Fitzgerald's Ithaca Films at the same time as Under the Volcano) and given that the SS edition looks to only have a Making-of, the CC might be worth waiting for (if one cares about extras, that is)...