New Australian DVD and BD Releases

[marty]

Rivette's Histoire de Marie et Julien/Story of Marie and Julien released by Accent thru MRA September 20. Just ordered mine from ezy- they're thin on the shelves. No reviews anywhere, but I'll post caps when available. It's hopefully up to Accent's normally high standard (viz. La Belle Noiseuse.)

davidhare, I recall reading a review in The Age Green Guide a couple of months ago (4/5 stars) when it was released on rental only (don't know why they did this?) but the review was more on the film and not the DVD quality but I imagine judging from Accent's past releases, the transfer would be impeccable.

Also, Accent's La Belle Noiseuse was a direct port of the UK version but I trust that Story of Marie & Julien is not.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

How's it compare to the TF1? (There are screencaps at the Beaver.)

[Solaris]

Special Features for The Mirror (Distinction Series) -
* Interviews with Composer E. Artemyev, script writers A. Misharin and G. Yavlinsky, photography director G. Rerberg and actors A. Solonitsyn, N. Grinko, and I. Smoktunovsky
* Featurettes
* Music by Eduard Artemyev
* Arseny Tarkovsky's Biography
* Cast and Crew Filmographies
* Photo Album

[Solaris]

David, I won't be going to Melbourne until November, do you know how long they will be on sale for?
Which stores have them? I usually only go to the store and occasionally Chapel Street.

I don't have The White Sheik Criterion edition, is it a different transfer with different extras?

[Solaris]

Thanks, I'll e-mail them.

I live in Hobart - no Borders, no JB, not even a HMV in Tassie!

[Arn777]

Has anybody seen the Red Desert DVD which came out this week I believe? Are colours good, is it cropped (apparently the French one is)?

[Arn777]

Ah, merci, je vais prendre mon mal en patience.

[Solaris]

The Red Desert is in stock at ezydvd, La Commare Secca isn't.

[Gordon]

My copy of The Red Desert shipped today. Have any of our Oz members picked it up yet?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The Red Desert is in stock at ezydvd, La Commare Secca isn't.

Both titles were on the shelves at JB Hifi (Sydney City store) yesterday, so they are out.

According to ezydvd AV Channel are releasing The 47 Ronin in January. The artwork they use is for the Mizoguchi version, though it is an o/s cover and not AV Channel's artwork that is shown. The text does not indicate which version it is. Hopefully it really is the Mizoguchi one.

[solent]

The last time I pre-ordered something from Ezy it became "out of stock" on the release date and it shipped 10 days later. This was the longest wait for me. If you read their blurb on shipping/stock you will understand it is all to do with your position on their order list. If the product is at JB it must have been in Ezy's warehouse [one logically assumes].

[marty]

Solent - or anyone - correct me if Im wrong, but I assume ezy ships from South Australia. Their postage to NSW say takes around 3-5 days.

And AV Channel ships from Victoria. So the suburban metro JB Stores in Sydney at least always seem to get their product several days after the central city. Although I must say Borders as well as JB Parra are still waiting for these two. Frankly who knows? Does it all depend on who the hell's driving the truck that day?

Not all JB and Borders stores get all the same titles. Head office puts in the orders for arthouse titles and allocates them to specific stores. They tend to concentrate arthouse DVDs in the inner-city areas so those that live in the outer suburbs may not necessarily get them. It all depends how far "out" you live.

[solent]

Sorry I forgot about interstate time frames. Living in Adelaide has an advantage in terms of time. How do you explain overseas customers still waiting for CELINE & JULIE to ship from Amazon when I got my copy over a week ago, and I live in the "Arse end of the world."

Oz prices baffle me. I picked up DELIVERENCE [from the Big W regularly changing specials racks] for $7.95 last year, it is now around $35 and it is still the original bare bones release. Peckingpah's THE GETAWAY was reduced under $9 by Ezy last month and this was the new improved version with commentary which hasn't been out that long. Yesterday I got Scorsese's WHO'S THAT KNOCKING for $8 at the aformentioned Big W section. Its original price was $15? I guess you have to shop around. One thing I've never seen is any foreign films at a reduced price (apart from SATYRICON, but that is MGM not AV Channel).

[Gregor Samsa]

My local Big W had a stack of cheap copies ($8.83) of Who's That Knocking At My Door? a while back. Guess early Scorsese isn't the biggest seller in Campbelltown..

You can actually get some pretty good bargains there at times. A while back they had the films that comprise the Warner Gangster collection (with the exception of White Heat) for $5.87 each.

[wbumble]

My copy of The Red Desert shipped today. Have any of our Oz members picked it up yet?

HI Gordon - I borrowed The Red Desert Director's Suite dvd over this w-end; Its a DL disc, the film is encoded on a single layer, around 4.25gig, but it looks fantastic; the print has been restored by 'Cinema Forever', and AV Channel have really figured out how to encode properly (the Cache 2-disc is also aces)

I haven't checked the commentary, or the (apparently great) Antonioni doco on the disc, but yes - the film looks great. Great precursor to watching the trilogy Dec 2 in Adelaide as part of the italianfilmfestival.com.au - as they aren't showing Red Desert here-

Bande a Part from Umbrella also looks very nice, I prefer this transfer to the Criteiron, burnt in VHS-style non-interlaced subs aside (though nice-looking subs, reminds me of watching English vhs!)-

I look forward to Masculin Feminin and 2 or 3 things... and Seinfeld Season 7!

[Gordon]

Thanks, bumble. It's really great to finally see a superb english-friendly home video edition of this landmark in cinematography.

[Solaris]

(This would be a very bad first for AV CHannel.)

It's actually Shock.

[solent]

I wonder if BAND A PART is sourced from the BFI version which is also replete with burnt in subs. Check Beaver for a sample.

[wbumble]

re: Bande A Part

definitely burnt in subs, ported from BFI disc it seems- (I guessed that, because they're backed with 'shading', like the BFI videos... I grew up watching those videos, so I'm comfortable with them...

I guess stick with or go with Criterion if it bothers you-

and yes, davidhare is rite, Shock, distributed thru Umbrella I believe.

Cheers -

[marty]

I couldn't wait for the retail release of Accent's R4 Millenium Mambo so I rented it last night and I have to say the transfer is glorious. The film has never looked better. It's one of the most stunning transfers I have seen and WHITE subs. Although they have been quiet of late, whenever Accent does manage to release a title it is exemplary. I recently saw an add for Accent's rental release of Abel Ferrara's Mary to be released in November which I don't think has been released anywhere on DVD yet!

[Arn777]

Mary has just been released in France (by Wild Side)

[Rufus T. Firefly]

and yes, davidhare is rite, Shock, distributed thru Umbrella I believe.Cheers -

No, Bande a Part is from Umbrella and distributed by Shock.

[Solaris]

Has anyone checked out Svankmajer's Alice?
What's the disc like?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

According to ezydvd AV Channel are releasing The 47 Ronin in January. The artwork they use is for the Mizoguchi version, though it is an o/s cover and not AV Channel's artwork that is shown. The text does not indicate which version it is. Hopefully it really is the Mizoguchi one.

Based on some information that has been passed to me I think that this will be the 1962 Inagaki version, not the Mizoguchi. Still good, but not as good as ezydvd's listing would suggest.

EDIT: The artwork is now up on AV Channel's website, and it is indeed the Inagaki version.

[John Cope]

Has anyone seen the Madman Angelopoulos discs? I know that the New Star editions are the benchmark but wondered how these compared.