Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

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What A Disgrace
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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1751 Post by What A Disgrace » Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:12 pm

There's no indication in the article that Studio Canal wouldn't license the Losey titles out to Indicator when it comes time to release them on home video, at least in the UK. But I guess I'm just being needlessly hopeful. They're not nearly as high profile as Le Cercle Rouge, The Howling or Peeping Tom.

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NABOB OF NOWHERE
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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1752 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:17 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Fri Oct 16, 2020 12:46 pm
That one’s already out on Blu from VCI
In the US sure and it looks bare bones. If available to them I'm sure Indicator would easily outclass it -no?

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Drucker
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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1753 Post by Drucker » Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:21 pm

Mr. Klein played for several sold out weeks last fall at the Film Forum. Not sure if it was a fluke, or whatever, but it was a huge deal at the time!

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1754 Post by swo17 » Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:26 pm

The Servant at least is rumored to be with Criterion in the U.S.

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senseabove
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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1755 Post by senseabove » Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:44 pm

dwk wrote:
Fri Oct 16, 2020 10:40 am
From Variety
For 2021, Studiocanal has several high-profile re-releases planned, including...Jacques Becker 1945 French classic “Paris Frills” (“Falbalas”), all of which will receive theatrical releases in at least one of Studiocanal’s territories.
Glad this is finally inching closer to the release it deserves.

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domino harvey
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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1756 Post by domino harvey » Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:51 pm

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:
Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:17 pm
domino harvey wrote:
Fri Oct 16, 2020 12:46 pm
That one’s already out on Blu from VCI
In the US sure and it looks bare bones. If available to them I'm sure Indicator would easily outclass it -no?
My apologies, for some reason my mind saw “Criterion” when you said “Indicator”!

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L.A.
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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1757 Post by L.A. » Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:53 pm

Also among Studiocanal’s 2021 releases is Ousmane Sembène’s 1968 Senegalese classic “Mandabi,” the first feature-length African-language film from West Africa. A restored version is premiering this week at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, with global releases planned for early 2021.
Very exciting news. Would this be the second Sembène on Blu-ray after Black Girl / Borom Sarret?

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tenia
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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1758 Post by tenia » Fri Oct 16, 2020 2:42 pm

Remember that the article is about Canal's catalogue, not Canal physical releases. The line-up Variety bases their article on also contained movies that are going to only be re-released theatrically, and some that have actually already been restored and released (The Servant and Terminator 2) but that are going to be re-released theatrically. It also mostly focused on France, though it touched the UK and Germany, but it'd probably jumping to conclusion to guess that the list of movies listed by the article (the Losey notably) will automatically released in the UK (1) physically (2) by Canal (3).

For instance, TF1 catalogue line-up had stuff sub-licenced to others for the physical releases, some are so far only released theatrically, and others from last year still are nowhere to be seen.

This being written, Peeping Tom is being restored by The Film Foundation, and the following are only mentioned as "French projects" : Mr Klein, Falbalas.
The Howling is an international project but seems to only be theatrical. Same for Bridget Jones.

(Disclaimer : I have watched the Canal line-up myself)

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1759 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:47 pm

swo17 wrote:
Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:26 pm
The Servant at least is rumored to be with Criterion in the U.S.
Does anyone recall if the KLInsider addressed this title?

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1760 Post by swo17 » Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:57 pm

It was among the list of SC titles returning, several of which have now happened

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1761 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Oct 16, 2020 8:21 pm

Am I missing something, when was The Servant with Criterion?

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1762 Post by Stefan Andersson » Thu Oct 22, 2020 12:55 pm

More info re: the above discussion about Canal´s catalogue and upcoming restorations as per the Variety article -- other planned restos include:
Near Dark (Aux frontières de l´aube)
La mort de Belle (1961 Simenon adaptation; Jean Desailly, Alexandra Stewart)
Vacances portugaises (Pierre Kast)
Tamango (John Berry)
La loi du Nord (1939, Feyder)
Rider in the Rain (Clément)
Source: Oct. 20 post here: https://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/viewto ... start=3945

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1763 Post by swo17 » Thu Oct 22, 2020 1:08 pm

FrauBlucher wrote:
Fri Oct 16, 2020 8:21 pm
Am I missing something, when was The Servant with Criterion?
See here

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1764 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Oct 22, 2020 2:02 pm

Thanks for the clarification. I misunderstood.

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1765 Post by Stefan Andersson » Thu Oct 22, 2020 2:54 pm

Studio Canal has received a French grant ("aide for digitization and showing of films on video and VOD) for Les Carabiniers. Could mean a Bluray is upcoming:
https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/aides ... 19_1258527

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domino harvey
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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1766 Post by domino harvey » Thu Oct 22, 2020 3:34 pm

Nice! We know Criterion has the rights, so I imagine we’ll get the resto from them

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1767 Post by JSC » Tue Dec 01, 2020 8:36 am

4K/Blu-ray review of StudioCanal's release of Le Cercle Rouge. It looks kind of... whatever.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Le-Cercl ... 27/#Review

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tenia
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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1768 Post by tenia » Tue Dec 01, 2020 10:41 am

Svet doesn't help by excessively bashing the release because of the color grading. I understand believing the new grading is wrong (which is possible) and degrading the score accordingly but this is very unlikely to deserve halving the score. It's unfairly excessive, but quite in line with how Svet can be excessive so it's nothing new.

What's interesting though is that, outside once again writing a UHD Dolby Vision review without refering once to the added value of HDR or Dolby Vision, is that his conclusion seems to suggest his issue simply is that it "does not look as it did in the past". But the past BDs (whether it was the SC disc or the Criterion ones) certainly had gradings which were products of their time, but these kind of issues, despite being as systemic and probably as unfaithful than the current grading issues are, didn't seem to bother him (and still don't seem to).

Oh well.

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1769 Post by Ribs » Tue Dec 01, 2020 12:16 pm

Lee Kline specifically said he had been told the extant Blu-ray flat out had a wrong grade on the Deakins podcast, so I would hope it looks different - though I don’t recall exactly what was the issue...

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1770 Post by tenia » Tue Dec 01, 2020 1:26 pm

Ribs wrote:
Tue Dec 01, 2020 12:16 pm
Lee Kline specifically said he had been told the extant Blu-ray flat out had a wrong grade on the Deakins podcast
I'm not surprised to learn this. His 4 color movies have been problematic on BD to some extent anyway, especially in terms of color grading, either because the BDs are derived from older HD masters that were graded in ways that were the usual one back then, or because they were graded with a certain idea of Melville's body of work rather than how the movies did look at the time (that's the case for Le samourai and L'armée des ombres, in both cases with Pierre Lhomme's input).

There's the idea Le cercle rouge, Le samourai and L'armée des ombres are supposed to be extremely cold blue-ish greyish monochrome but I wonder how much of this idea comes from the reference prints themselves and how much comes from some kind of myth around Melville's work. It's especially the case for L'armée des ombres, which had a restoration (used for the DVD) supervised by Lhomme (which, at least this time, he actually photographed and isn't just the technical referent imposed by the rightholder like on Le samourai) and then the Criterion disc also uses a restoration supervised by Lhomme but both actually have different gradings (they talk about this movie in the podcast around 41 min). About Le cercle rouge, they say it's "too colorful", but that's because Coutard told Kline he knew Decae and Melville and they would never have shot the movie like this, so again, this is not based on a reference print (Kline actually say they used a reference print for this and matched it), so who knows.

There's also Un flic, which simply is in dire need of a remaster to replace the current made-for-cathode-tube-TVs HD master.

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1771 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Dec 01, 2020 7:49 pm

I prefer the look of the Criterion, but maybe it is intended to be colder. David, are you saying that the StudioCanal blu in the Melville set is optimal in your opinion? That's the only one I own, and I haven't watched it yet, so looking forward to seeing it in motion if that's the case

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1772 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Dec 01, 2020 9:05 pm

Interesting, hopefully it's roughly the same transfer as the StudioCanal set that I think came out a few years later

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1773 Post by Rupert Pupkin » Tue Dec 01, 2020 9:26 pm

amazing X4 restoration... times are very far away were the only existential matter was if the billard Pool was more greenish than blueish.
Now it's another movie "The Yellow Circle" or "The Greenish Circle". :roll:
I even have some horrible flashes now about how "Army Of Shadows aka L'armée des ombres" could look with such "color grading"...

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tenia
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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1774 Post by tenia » Wed Dec 02, 2020 3:07 am

Le samourai's Pathé restoration was overseen by Lhomme and I've been told he didn't care for the grading prepared by the lab based on a reference print and changed everything to the point it was a completely different movie and didn't even have photographic continuity between shots. The lab had to dial back the changes behind his back because it was so bad but he actually never realised that, including when watching the finalised result to give his approval, which is quite telling.
It's unfortunate that now that he's not around anymore to pull stuff like that, labs are doing other shenanigans.

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Re: Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

#1775 Post by whaleallright » Wed Dec 02, 2020 12:44 pm

Shades of William Friedkin approving an objectively botched transfer of The French Connection and then blaming someone at the studio when reviews pointed out how miserable it looked. He probably has little idea, at this late date, of how his film should look. Telling someone they're watching a "restoration" probably goes a long way (more than half?) toward convincing people (even the film's director) it's a "better" version regardless of how it looks.

Sometimes I feel that consulting DPs and directors etc. decades after they made a film is a bad idea more often than not, and that it's best to rely instead on reference prints, historical records, etc. But I understand the deference they are afforded--borne of respect but also the desire to keep them in a label's good graces (who wants a situation, like the one Kino experienced with David Lynch, where a famous director is badmouthing your release of his/her film?).

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