Fritz Lang on DVD/Blu-ray

Discuss North American DVDs and Blu-rays or other DVD and Blu-ray-related topics.
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Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#301 Post by Der Spieler » Wed Jul 20, 2011 6:32 pm

Also received the disc today. It doesn't look that good to be honest. It does the job on my computer but I imagine it won't look very pretty upscaled.

jbaart
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#302 Post by jbaart » Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:23 pm

RobertAltman wrote:
matrixschmatrix wrote:Has anyone checked out the Optimum Woman in the Window? The MGM one is out of of print, so if it's the same transfer I'd rather get that one.
Looks good, as far as I recall. The cover has the MGM logo, so I assume it's the same transfer.
Can anyone confirm this? Also, am I right in assuming the MGM has subtitles but the Optimum hasn't?

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#303 Post by matrixschmatrix » Thu Jul 21, 2011 12:13 am

I've got the Optimum and I've seen the MGM- I didn't do screenshots or anything, but there weren't any print differences I noticed, and the Optimum definitely looks fine. No subtitles, though.

If you're looking to pick that up, Amazon wound up shipping me two copies, if you want to contact me via PM about it.

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Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#304 Post by Der Spieler » Sun Jul 24, 2011 11:51 pm

Just watched Beyond a Reasonable Doubt on my TV (32 inches HD) and it looked OK. Not mediocre, but not too good either. It was a little on the soft side, overly bright and interlaced, with quite a few instances of combing. The print itself was not in the best of shapes, but certainly watchable. I doubt very much though that anyone seeing this on a bigger screen will get a good image. This transfer is very inferior to While the City Sleeps by the same company. Still glad we got a release at all (that's not 25$ for a shitty CD-R).

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#305 Post by matrixschmatrix » Mon Jul 25, 2011 12:23 am

Could you take a screenshot to compare with the Warner Archive ones on DVDBeaver?

Frankinho007
Joined: Tue May 26, 2009 6:45 pm
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#306 Post by Frankinho007 » Mon Jul 25, 2011 12:56 pm

A friend of mine took the screengrabs and i made a comparison between the Exposure disc and the WAC disc.

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Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#307 Post by Der Spieler » Mon Jul 25, 2011 1:15 pm

I don't know what your friend used to take the shots but I sure know it didn't look THAT shitty on my screen.

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antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#308 Post by antnield » Tue Aug 16, 2011 2:15 pm

The Digital Fix on the Exposure edition of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.

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Der Spieler
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#309 Post by Der Spieler » Tue Aug 16, 2011 4:23 pm

The review sums things up pretty well: not the best release in town, but still worth checking out.

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perkizitore
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#310 Post by perkizitore » Tue Aug 16, 2011 5:43 pm

Compared to the other editions it is the best!

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The Elegant Dandy Fop
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#311 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Wed Aug 17, 2011 2:13 am

But wasn't this one of his films made in SuperScope? This DVD is 1:33. The odd amount of headspace over the characters leads me to believe this wasn't exactly made for Academy ratio, no?
Last edited by The Elegant Dandy Fop on Wed Aug 17, 2011 2:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

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domino harvey
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#312 Post by domino harvey » Wed Aug 17, 2011 2:14 am

Open matte, no?

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Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#313 Post by Der Spieler » Wed Aug 17, 2011 11:20 am

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:But wasn't this one of his films made in SuperScope? This DVD is 1:33. The odd amount of headspace over the characters leads me to believe this wasn't exactly made for Academy ratio, no?
I don't believe it was, even though Exposure are very firm about it.

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HJackson
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:27 pm

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#314 Post by HJackson » Fri Sep 02, 2011 10:46 am

Der Spieler wrote:I don't know what your friend used to take the shots but I sure know it didn't look THAT shitty on my screen.
I'll second that. I just got done watching it and it was fine; not perfect, but adequate.

I'd just like to mention that the Region 2 Cornerstone release of Human Desire isn't as terrible as Gregory assumed it would be a while back. The picture quality is below that offered by the two versions samples on dvdbeaver (it is still very watchable though), but it is presented in 1.33:1 and has more information on the top and bottom of the frame than the Sony and the Japanese Columbia.

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gcgiles1dollarbin
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 3:38 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#315 Post by gcgiles1dollarbin » Fri Sep 02, 2011 7:12 pm

Der Spieler wrote:
The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:But wasn't this one of his films made in SuperScope? This DVD is 1:33. The odd amount of headspace over the characters leads me to believe this wasn't exactly made for Academy ratio, no?
I don't believe it was, even though Exposure are very firm about it.
David Bordwell has a Lang post in the middle of which he briefly discusses BARD's AR and by way of experiment, vertically crops the 1:37 to 2.0:1 to see if it was possibly made to accommodate both ratios. As he writes, at first quoting Jacques Lourcelles in the first paragraph:
"For both this film [While the City Sleeps] and Lang’s next film, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, the format poses a thorny problem that can be resolved only by considering aesthetic matters. The film, not shot in CinemaScope, was exhibited in Superscope (a wide format used at RKO and created through laboratory processes), and then in a normal format. Which is better? In my opinion, the wider one. Only there, for instance, do the camera movements and the newspaper-office set have their true impact. Even if the Superscope version was 'manufactured' in the lab, Lang knew that the film would be seen on the wide screen and his direction was conceived as a function of that. The same goes for Beyond a Reasonable Doubt; to cite just one instance, the first sequence showing the condemned man walking toward the electric chair is obviously conceived for the wider format."

This does lead to some intriguing speculation on how “misreadings” of films can have positive consequences. The French celebration of Lang’s 1950s films led American and British critics to reevaluate them.

The case of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt is quite parallel to that of While the City Sleeps. Released in September 1956, it too was reviewed in Variety as a non-anamorphic picture. Its U. S. publicity makes no reference to a widescreen format. But its overseas posters claim that it is in “RKO-Scope.” Huh?

By the end of 1956, the Tushinskys had split from RKO and were selling SuperScope generally. So in November 1956 RKO simply announced that it had developed “a new widescreen, anamorphic process” that would carry a ratio of 2.0:1. Historians of widescreen have assumed that this is SuperScope by another name. The same publicity announced that soon all the studio’s films would be in RKO-Scope. But RKO ceased making movies on 1 January 1957. Universal took over distributing the remaining pictures.

Again, on the basis of the posters and Lourcelles’ comments we can be confident that Beyond a Reasonable Doubt was shown in a 2.0:1 aspect ratio in some overseas markets.
Perhaps this has been well-documented elsewhere; I'd be curious to know if it has.

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tojoed
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#316 Post by tojoed » Sat Sep 03, 2011 5:13 pm

Image

From Exposure on November 2nd , apparently it's digitally restored and remastered, with a booklet of essays.

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Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#317 Post by Der Spieler » Sun Sep 04, 2011 11:03 am

That's awesome news!

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#318 Post by TMDaines » Mon Sep 05, 2011 4:22 am

Can't complain about these Langs. Been waiting for someone to plug the holes with decent, fairly priced releases.

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HJackson
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:27 pm

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#319 Post by HJackson » Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:47 pm

Moviemail has the release date for Secret Beyond the Door as September 15th, and an exclusive notice on their main page. I hope it isn't a mistake, as I'd like to get my hands on the film as soon as is humanly possible.

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knepo
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#320 Post by knepo » Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:42 am

I am very happy to see so many new DVD releases of Lang films. I have ordered all three Exposure titles and today I got the Scandinavian edition of You Only Live Once. I am very curious about the quality of the Scandinavian version. I wanted to find out some more about Exposure DVDs. The only info I can find on the homepage is that a new site will come soon, and that the warehouse has been on fire.

I would like to find some info on Exposure titles. Is there a list somewhere?

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Forrest Taft
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:34 pm
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#321 Post by Forrest Taft » Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:17 am

knepo wrote:I am very happy to see so many new DVD releases of Lang films.
I have ordered all three Exposure titles and today I got the Scandinavian edition of You Only Live Once. I am very curious about the quality of the Scandinavian version.
It's excellent. Identical to the Studio Canal version I believe, with a very solid transfer, and a terrific featurette with Claude Chabrol as a special feature.

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knepo
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#322 Post by knepo » Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:20 pm

RobertAltman wrote:It's excellent. Identical to the Studio Canal version I believe, with a very solid transfer, and a terrific featurette with Claude Chabrol as a special feature.
The transfer was great, and it was the Studio Canal edition. Will check out the featurette later.
I have had a long break from hunting movies and it is such a joy to find all these great releases now :)

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NABOB OF NOWHERE
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2005 12:30 pm
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Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#323 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Sat Sep 24, 2011 5:05 am

Coming next year from Wild Side France Big Heat on Blu and Human desire on DVD. Amongst others Nightfall/Tourneur and an edition of Night of the Hunter that threatens to supercede the Criterion with even more extras. Will update when there's more news.

rainerc
Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:32 am

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#324 Post by rainerc » Sat Sep 24, 2011 1:09 pm

The restored Metropolis will get a German release on Oct. 28 according to the F.W. Murnau Stiftung (see http://www.metropolis2710.de/de/index.html)

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HJackson
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:27 pm

Re: Fritz Lang on DVD

#325 Post by HJackson » Fri Sep 30, 2011 4:33 pm

The picture quality on Exposure's Secret Beyond the Door is practically identical to the Wild Side edition, judging by the caps from the Wild Side on DVDBeaver. I'm not complaining though, since it's a wonderful film and I'm glad I've finally seen it. And I'm very grateful for the booklet - it isn't on the same level as something provided by Masters of Cinema, nor was I expecing it to be, but it's better than nothing.

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