They're not strictly "Winter releases", but those listed as "coming soon" in the BFI's Winter catalogue. (A PDF version can be found at the BFI's website.) Also, note the typos: should be Robert Siodmak and Chris Welsby.

Anyhow, review for 'Highway Patrolman'/'Three Businessmen' twin-pack at DVD Times.

Releases for the 30th of January:

'Godzilla', in its original 1954 Japanese form (i.e. no Raymond Burr) complete with commentary and a trio of featurettes amongst others, and 'The Mysterians'.

DVD Times review for 'Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song' and another DVD Times review for 'Baadasssss!'

From BFI? Nice to see them expanding their horizons. Criterion, are you taking notice?

This editing of Sweet Sweeback reminds me that Channel 4 premiered the film on UK television in 1997 in their late night 'Ba Ba Zee' strand. I guess this must have been the previously certified version of the film?

This is a truly great documentary (and I've watched it maybe ten times), but it does need some updating. Most of all, they really need to work on their Gordon Willis segment. A few clips from "Annie Hall" and some badly faded full frame clips from the "Godfather" films ridiculously undermine the sheer brilliance of what he was capable of with the camera. And they also completely sidestep Sven Nykvist, who speaks very briefly early in the doc (I believe about "Sunrise") but never once returns during its durration (nor is his name uttered either).

Confirmed for 27 Feb 2006, Dreyer's Master of the House and Ordet. Also a 'Free Cinema' collection (no details yet).

The Free Cinema collection could be a landmark release depending on what will be included. It's a movement whose reputation is long, long overdue for rehabilitation. I'm hoping for a large collection with sufficient promotion to really launch it.

DVD Times review: Charlie Chaplin: The Mutual Films Volume 2

Their old VHS edition (link) contained only three titles - 'We Are the Lambeth Boys', 'Every Day Except Christmas' and 'The Saturday Men'. Hopefully DVD will allow for a more comprehensive collection.

Absolutely. I think the great overlooked film from the movement is Lorenza Mazzetti's Together - a dark, wordless film following two deaf men around London: gripping, moving, with highly innovative sound design. Independent films by women directors were pretty scarce in the 50s, and this is well overdue for reassessment.

The ideal approach would be to recreate - as far as possible - the original Free Cinema programmes. This would not only establish the historical context for these remarkable films, but have the added bonus of incorporating some bigger names (e.g. Nouvelle vague directors) that would presumably make the set more marketable. Not that we live in an ideal world, or anything.

the free cinema manifesto, is clearly very similar to Dogme 95.

looks like the english beat the danes by about 40 years.

Thanks for the link godardslave - it led me to those original programmes again: a mouthwatering prospect. I'm sure there'd be a lot of us keen to see the Franju, and the Polish programme would be great too.

Free Cinema 1
5-8 February 1956

O Dreamland (Lindsay Anderson, UK, 1953, 11 mins)
Momma Don't Allow (Karel Reisz/Tony Richardson, UK, 1955, 22 mins)
Together (Lorenza Mazzetti, UK, 1956, 52 mins)

Free Cinema 2
9-12 September 1956

On the Bowery (Lionel Rogosin, US, 1955, 65 mins)
Neighbours (Norman McLaren, Canada, 1952, 8 mins)
Le Sang des bêtes (Georges Franju, France, 1948, 20 mins)

Free Cinema 3 'Look at Britain'
25-29 May 1957

Every Day Except Christmas (Lindsay Anderson, UK, 1957, 40 mins)
Nice Time (Alain Tanner/ Claude Goretta, UK, 1957, 17 mins)
Wakefield Express (Lindsay Anderson, UK, 1952, 30 mins)
The Singing Street (Nigel McIsaac, UK, 1952, 18 mins)

Free Cinema 4 'Polish Voices'
3-6 September 1958

Dom (Jan Lenica, Poland, 1958, 12 mins)
Two Men and a Wardrobe (Roman Polanski, Poland, 1957, 15 mins)
Where the Devil Says Good-night (Kazimierz Karabasz, Poland, 1956, 11 mins)
Paragraph Zero (Wlodzimierz Borowik, Poland, 1956, 17 mins)
House of Old Women (Jan Lomnicki, Poland, 1957, 9 mins)
Once upon a Time (Walerian Borowczyk, Poland, 1957, 9 mins)

Free Cinema 5 'French Renewal'
7-9 September 1958

Les Mistons (François Truffaut, France, 1957, 26 mins)
Le Beau Serge (Claude Chabrol, France, 1959, 97 mins)

Free Cinema 6 'The Last Free Cinema'
18-22 March 1959

We Are the Lambeth Boys (Karel Reisz, UK, 1959, 52 mins)
Enginemen (Michael Grigsby, UK, 1959, 21 mins)
Refuge England (Robert Vas, UK, 1959, 27 mins)
Food for a Blush (Elizabeth Russell, UK, 1955, 30 mins)

That Franju film is already available on Criterion's Eyes Without a Face. Les Mistons is also available from Criterion in the Doinel box. The Polanski short is on disc two of the Criterion Knife in the Water and of course as part of the R2 box too.

Neighbors, from the same program as the Franju, is available on Milestone's Norman McLaren: The Collector's Edition -- which seems to have gone out of print in anticipation of the big collection (which may or may not be coming). I have Neighbors on the Japanese Norman McLaren Film Works Collection. It's a wonderfully basic and accesible film (perfect for ages 7 or 8 and up) showing the essence of war: two neighbors feud over a flower found near the border of their properties, with disastrous results for both. What makes it unforgettable is the way the seriousness of the subject and the grimness of the ending are combined with the predominantly silly feel of the film. The latter is a result of the "pixilation" technique, whereby instead of filming people normally as they actually move in real time, their movements are filmed frame-by-frame, often with hilariously different motions than people actually use. It's probably funny for the same reason Chaplin's walk was funny. Also, because the actors can't be manipulated with as much precision as the puppets or clay objects normally used in stop motion, the people take on manic twitching and jerking motions. Again, though, it remains one the most socially relevant films of McLaren's filmography but it's no less ebullient.

Anyway, I'm not sure at first glance which other ones may already be in print on DVD.

Oops. I meant the Chabrol. On the Bowery is a fascinating film as well: an uneasy fiction / documentary blend.

Further news on the February releases:


Contender for DVD of the year already?

I guess this one was made after those Covent Garden guys got unionized!

Kidding aside, this does look like a terrific package. Thanks for the great news!

I have wondered this myself but I am frequently told it has more to do with the rights availability of the older titles and sometimes they take a long time to clear up.

BFI's Ordet will feature:

- They Caught The Ferry (1948): short film
- Good Mothers (1942): short film
- Ordet Og Lyset (Dir. Helga Theilgaard, 2001, 33 minutes): a documentary about the making of Ordet featuring Henning Bendtsen, Dreyer's cameraman

March 27th releases now listed on the BFI's website:

'British Artists' Films: Chris Welsby'
Dreyer's 'Day of Wrath'
Dreyer's 'Gertrud'
'Visions of Light'

MovieMail have now updated their details on the 'Free Cinema' collection. The extras would appear to be as follows:

"3 discs; Small Is Beautiful: The Story of the Free Cinema Films Told by Their Makers, a 43-minute film consisting of specially commissioned interviews with Free Cinema filmmakers Lorenza Mazzetti, Walter Lassally, Alain Tanner and Michael Grigsby; film extracts and previously unseen photographs; 5 short documentaries from the late 1950s/early 1960s, made in the spirit of the Free Cinema movement; Fully illustrated 40-page booklet."

Should be interesting to see what the five short documentaries are. John Schlesinger's 'Terminus' for the Britsh Transport Films Unit is often cited as being heavily influenced by the movement, so that's a possibility. (Though, of course, it's also due to figure on the BFI's third BTF compilation...)

Two contemporary releases for April:

Fanta Regina Nacro's 'The Night of Truth' and Sabiha Sumar's 'Silent Waters'

Benson's World are listing Visions Of Light, for £12.99.

Play.com list this extra: The Men Who Film The World For You - Topical Budget Short Film.

There's a brief entry for that 'Topical Budget' on Screenonline. Wouldn't get overly excited though, it's only 28 seconds long.

And whilst I'm here, a plug for my DVD Times review of 'The Mysterians'

Has anyone seen the BFI disc of Rossellini's Journey to Italy? What's the picture quality like? Is Laura Mulvey's commentary of any interest? As this is the shorter English-language version, does this mean all the characters speak in English, or just Bergman and Sanders? And has anyone heard any rumours of a possible Criterion release in this centenary year (would make a great double-disc set with both the English cut and the 97-minute Italian version, Viaggio in Italia)? Any info much appreciated.

Here is Ian Johnston's Film Journal review of the Bfi DVD of Journey to Italy.

Compared to some BFI discs with serious cropping problems like Partie de Campagne and Les Enfants Terribles, Voyage is almost pristine. The image is quite acceptable, although probably not progressive (cant check this at the moment.) Certainly the English soundtrack is the preferred one also.

I shouod note a very good print of Europa 51 turned up on TCM last year (I have a copy) and there was a generally acceptable complete print of Stromboli on a British VHS a few years ago (mine transferred to DVD-R I cant remember the company.) These three sources would make an extremely good beginning for a three disc SE. Maybe the first Criterion BluRay boxset! (Not.)

Agree wholeheartedly on the English soundtrack, DH... per favore, non doppiaggio Bergman e Sanders!

Thanks, chaps, I'll pick it up. There's an interesting (for those who read French) paper by Elena Dagrada comparing the three different versions of Stromboli here, and an English review of her book on the Rossellini/Bergman films here. Would be nice to have all the different versions/languages available, as it would for The Golden Coach/Le carrosse d'or/La carrozza d'oro. Bloody unlikely it'll ever happen of course.

The English version of The Golden Coach was Renoir's fave and is/was enough pour moi! And thanks for the link to Dagrada's take on Stromboli, if not one of my favorite Rossellini films, it is one of my favorite islands.