Bluebeard's Castle

[Calvin]

As part of the BFI's major celebration of the works of Powell and Pressburger this Autumn, they will release "a Blu-ray of Powell’s bold realisation of Bartok’s only opera Bluebeard’s Castle (1964), newly restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, unavailable for many years".

[Tommaso]

Absolutely fabulous news! Finally this masterpiece gets the treatment it deserves.

Still no sign of "The Elusive Pimpernel", though, which would make for a great double bill, as "Bluebeard" is only about 60 minutes or so. Well, perhaps they'll combine "Bluebeard" with "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".

[criterionsnob]

Amazon pre-order is up for November 20.

[Matt]

I can’t imagine Criterion releasing this as anything but an extra on another Michael Powell solo release, but I also can’t imagine it being an extra on Peeping Tom (should they ever get around to releasing it). With sets by Hein Heckroth (a major part of my P&P love), I’ll risk a double-dip on this one.

[bad future]

So excited to get to see this in greater than tv-via-vhs-via-youtube quality! Hard to imagine a better feature for Criterion to pair it with than Tales of Hoffmann, which it's just barely too late for.. unless of course they decide to upgrade to UHD. I wonder how soon after the BD release they could get away with.

[What A Disgrace]

This film was restored by the WCP, so it'll probably pop up in one of those boxes at some point.

[Matt]

This film was restored by the WCP, so it'll probably pop up in one of those boxes at some point.

I believe this restoration was done in collaboration with The Film Foundation, but not under their World Cinema Project (which is mostly devoted to Asian, African, and Latin American films). So it would not be in one of those box sets.

[colinr0380]

I can’t imagine Criterion releasing this as anything but an extra on another Michael Powell solo release, but I also can’t imagine it being an extra on Peeping Tom (should they ever get around to releasing it). With sets by Hein Heckroth (a major part of my P&P love), I’ll risk a double-dip on this one.

Fingers crossed for "Oh... Rosalinda!!"

[Matt]

I have Network’s Blu-ray, and nothing could persuade me to buy that film a second time.

[What A Disgrace]

• Newly restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation in association with The Ashbrittle Film Foundation and presented in High Definition
• Optional audio track of the English translation commissioned by Michael Powell and sung by Norman Foster and Ana Raquel Satre
• Newly recorded interview with film scholar Ian Christie (2023, 21 mins)
• Picture business: Michael Powell at Dartmouth (1980, 16 mins): A short documentary depicting Powell's time as Artist in Residence at Dartmouth College in 1980
• An image gallery of production designs by Hein Heckroth
• Optional English subtitles
• **FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Fully illustrated booklet featuring writing by Michael Powell, Bertrand Tavernier, Ian Christie and Lilian Crawford.

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE
A film by Michael Powell
Adapted from Béla Bartók’s opera

Released on BFI Blu-ray on 27 November, available on iTunes and Amazon Prime from 1 December and on BFI Player Subscription from 4 December 2023

Discover a lost masterpiece from acclaimed director Michael Powell (The Red Shoes, Peeping Tom) with this stunning adaptation of Béla Bartók’s expressionist opera. Unavailable for many years, BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE (Herzog Blaubarts Burg) has been painstakingly restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, in association with The Ashbrittle Film Foundation, and is presented here – on its 60th anniversary – in both its original broadcast format and its revised 1978 edition, featuring selected English subtitles added by Powell. Its Blu-ray release is part of the major BFI season, CINEMA UNBOUND: THE CREATIVE WORLDS OF POWELL AND PRESSBURGER, launched on 16 October and running until 31 December 2023.

Starring Norman Foster, the American operatic bass-baritone as the murderous Bluebeard and Ana Raquel Satre as his doomed wife Judith, this boldly original production was made for West German television in 1963. It combines outstanding performances with spectacular production designs (by the award-winning, long term Archers collaborator Hein Heckroth) symbolising Bluebeard’s tortured soul, as Powell concocts a daring and inventive interpretation of a haunting work, equal to the creative innovation of Powell and Pressburger’s iconic The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).

Special features
• Newly restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation in association with The Ashbrittle Film Foundation, and presented in High Definition. Restoration funding provided by the BFI National Archive and the Louis B. Mayer Foundation and The Film Foundation
• Optional audio track of the English translation, commissioned by Michael Powell and sung by Norman Foster and Ana Raquel Satre
• Newly recorded interview with film scholar Ian Christie (2023, 21 mins)
• Picture Business: Michael Powell at Dartmouth (1980, 16 mins): a short documentary depicting Powell’s time as artist in residence at Dartmouth College
• Image gallery of production designs by Hein Heckroth
• ***First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet with an essay by Ian Christie; ‘Bluebeard’s Castle: A Prologue’ – extracts from Million-Dollar Movie by Michael Powell; Bertrand Tavernier on Bluebeard’s Castle; biographies of Hein Heckroth, Norman Foster and Ana Raquel Satre by Lillian Crawford; notes on the special features and credits

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1501 / PG
West Germany / 1963 + 1978 / colour / 63 minutes / German language with optional English subtitles + German language with burnt in subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.37:1 (theatrical presentation) / BD50: 1080p, 24fps, LPCM 1.0 mono audio (96kHz/24-bit)

[Michael Kerpan]

Is this Region B -- or multi-region?

[Charles]

I love the opera, but had never heard of the film until they first announced it a while back. What a treat it's going to be.

I'm just wondering how there can be an optional English language "track". Or maybe I'm misreading. Wouldn't they have had to film the thing twice?

[jheez]

Is this Region B -- or multi-region?

According to BFI's site it's region B (they put "A,B,C" if it's region free). Their site is usually accurate, but I wouldn't swear by what they put up there.

[MichaelB]

I'm just wondering how there can be an optional English language "track". Or maybe I'm misreading. Wouldn't they have had to film the thing twice?

Presumably they had separate audio stems of the singers and the orchestra, so it would just be a case of the singers re-recording their parts in sync. Which doesn't sound too onerous.

[reaky]

Intense and astounding. Though I speak as someone who doesn’t enjoy either Powell’s Tales of Hoffmann or Peeping Tom, I found this a major work. It reminded me of nothing more than the films of Mario Bava.

[Matt]

I'm just wondering how there can be an optional English language "track". Or maybe I'm misreading. Wouldn't they have had to film the thing twice?

Presumably they had separate audio stems of the singers and the orchestra, so it would just be a case of the singers re-recording their parts in sync. Which doesn't sound too onerous.

Now that I have this in hand, I can shed a little light on the language options. The disc features the original German language version of the film, presented without subtitles as was Powell’s wish. He wanted the viewer to be totally immersed in the sound and image without distraction.

Several years later, Powell decided to add limited on-screen English text (not quite subtitles, more like brief, contextualizing text overlaid on the image). The disc uses the same video for this version with a digital recreation of the titles (which is done very well—the titles look exactly like the old style of burned-in subtitles you used to see on film prints).

Finally, there is an alternate English language recording of the audio, performed by the same singers and musicians, that was intended for a separately shot English language version that ended up not happening. This is presented as an alternate audio track. The music is in sync, but the lip movements are obviously still German, so you could technically call it an English dub track.

This looks and sounds very good with a solid restoration and an encode by Fidelity in Motion. I only skipped around a bit, but it’s definitely in the style of The Red Shoes and Tales of Hoffmann in terms of sets, staging, and cinematography.

[ryannichols7]

this was an extremely fast seller - I just opened my copy and was greeted with no booklet. really disappointed as I was really looking forward to having the booklet for this title...

[TMDaines]

this was an extremely fast seller - I just opened my copy and was greeted with no booklet. really disappointed as I was really looking forward to having the booklet for this title...

In response to this, I panic ordered one from Amazon and it arrived with booklet. I'd be seriously surprised if this has sold out of a print run already.

[ryannichols7]

this was an extremely fast seller - I just opened my copy and was greeted with no booklet. really disappointed as I was really looking forward to having the booklet for this title...

In response to this, I panic ordered one from Amazon and it arrived with booklet. I'd be seriously surprised if this has sold out of a print run already.

pain. let me email Ben Stoddart and get clarification on that. I figured there was no way it could be this quick

I also ordered from Diabolik instead of my usual preferred Orbit, maybe that's serving me right

[TMDaines]

Did it have proper shrink-wrap or did it look like a rewrap?

[ryannichols7]

looked legit. I would have serious bones to pick with Diabolik if they were sending out rewrapped items

I don't think there's any way this sold through, something isn't right. considering Get Carter and other crazy in demand items are only just now getting standard editions, hopefully I'll get a good response to my email. the last title I remember being a hugely quick sell was Dance Craze, which the BFI was kind enough to make social media posts about

[TechnicolorAcid]

Perhaps you could message Diabolik about information surrounding the missing booklet and they could send you a replacement copy with the booklet in the case that it was simply an error.

[joshua]

I also ordered from Diabolik instead of my usual preferred Orbit, maybe that's serving me right

I got mine from Diabolik a month ago. I just opened it up and it came with a booklet.

[ryannichols7]

Perhaps you could message Diabolik about information surrounding the missing booklet and they could send you a replacement copy with the booklet in the case that it was simply an error.

did that, and apparently all their copies don't have booklets

Orbit sells out of their stock so fast (and already have today) that they probably won't be able to check for me if theirs do