Artificial Eye / Curzon Film World

[Gregory]

Good to know -- thanks.

[HerrSchreck]

Who here has seen Sukurov's THE SUN in the cinema, and seen the disc from AEye? Can one comment on the extreme amount of digital noise buzzing around like flies? And the muting of the black levels as in Hirohito's hair during the scenes of the military conference in the bunker with his generals and admirals?

Reminiscent of the extreme noise massing the image of their disc of IVAN'S CHILDHOOD.

[peerpee]

I spoke to them a while ago - basically they are waiting for the materials from France, probably a port in of the French transfer... They were hoping for this last autumn/fall... But nothing doing as yet... So until we see signs of the French release of the 3 films (A MAN ESCAPED/LANCELOT DU LAC/LE DIABLE PROBABLEMENT) it is unlikely they will appear on AE... Hopefully things will move on swiftly...

Yes, Gaumont are making them wait until the French releases are out.... but.... these are out already in the US via New Yorker?? Doesn't make any sense to make them wait - bit unfair.

[foggy eyes]

I might have mentioned this in another thread (apologies for repetition if so), but the AE disc of The Sun looked very much like what I saw on theatrical release. The muted colours and the (incredible) sound design are as suitably murky as they were in the cinema. The major difference is that AE's transfer looks terribly 'blotchy' (for want of a better word!). It is a flawed transfer, but faithful enough not to affect my experience of watching this remarkable piece of work for the second time. Hope that helps!

[What A Disgrace]

Loulou, The Son, and The Child are all majorly discounted at Amazon.co.uk (I've swiped the bunch of them for just around $45).

[sevenarts]

actually quite a bit of the AE catalog is currently pretty cheap at amazon.co.uk

[foggy eyes]

AE's Fantomas has also plummeted in price at Amazon. This a staggeringly good deal!

[JabbaTheSlut]

Thanks for the sale tip! Just purchased Loulou (I wish CC would release more Pialat soon). AE dvds also on sale at play.com.

[Oedipax]

Very good sale, thanks for the tip!

I ordered the four Ophuls titles plus The Sun and Uzak. Tempted to get a few more as well. Of course, Amazon says they're not even set to despatch until February 23rd...

Edit: Shipped today (2/9), if anyone's curious!

[criterionsnob]

The Andrei Tarkovsky Companion Amazon pre-order

[JabbaTheSlut]

The Andrei Tarkovsky Companion Amazon pre-order

...Criterionsnob, do you have any info on this one?

[criterionsnob]

Just this from a couple pages back:

Just heard back from AE about the still forthcoming Tarkovsky companion dvd that includes the Marker 'One day in the life' doc. They're hoping to "revive" it for April of next year.

[Scharphedin2]

I was visiting Benson's World's site, and noticed that there are several releases listed as coming soon that are not up on Artificial Eye's own web site yet.

For anyone interested (in addition to other titles already mentioned above):

March should see the release of Denis Descourt's The Page Turner.

In April they have a box set of Leos Carax films listed (Boy Meets Girl, Pola X and The Night Is Young), as well as Rafi Pitt's It's Winter, Patrice Chereau's Gabrielle, and perhaps most excitingly Sokurov's beautiful film Mother and Son.

For May, it is a regular Nuri Bilge Ceylon bonanza with releases of Kasaba and Clouds of May (as a combo 2-disc pack) and Climates.

[foggy eyes]

Great scouting and news! Mother and Son is long long overdue (AE's disc of Father and Son was very good and bodes well), and I imagine they will keep up their recent exceptional standards for new releases on The Page Turner, Gabrielle and It's Winter (possibly three of my favourite films to hit the UK last year).

[meanwhile]

Mother and Son appears to have gone back to the end of May.

I agree about Rafi Pitts' It's Winter - it has the measures of a modern folk tale that taps into a very deep well of human experience.

[Gordon]

I am tempted to take a gamble on AE's, Dersu Uzala, which is out tomorrow (£13.89 at Send-It.com) but I think I'll wait for the DVD Beaver screenshots. If a braver soul picks it up next week, be sure to post your thoughts on the transfer here. Cheers.

[Scharphedin2]

I second Gordon's request for people to post appraisals of this release.

However, based on the extras, this looks suspiciously like it will be a straight transfer of the Ruscico release. The film was also released recently in France by mk2, and I am sure I remember reading somewhere that the quality was identical to the Ruscico release, which again (as far as I know) is supposed to be the same print/transfer that Image/Kino already released years ago. And, which was pretty much the same quality as the laserdisc from Criterion, which I also purchased a long time ago.

I would love to be proved wrong on this, because the film is wonderful, and it would probably be "release of the year" for me, if it was released in a truly restored edition. The quality of the film that is out there already in various editions is adequate, and if this is what Artificial Eye is releasing, then I think it would still be recommendable for anyone, who does not own one of the other releases already.

[vogler]

I am tempted to take a gamble on AE's, Dersu Uzala, which is out tomorrow

Here is a DVD Times review of the AE Dersu Uzala DVD. It scores 4 out of 10 for video quality. Bloody hell, I think that's the worst score I've seen.

[HerrSchreck]

AEye can really fall down on the job sometimes. Some of their discs contain so much video noise it's almost like watching a movie thru the snow of a tv getting absolutely no signal. Examples are Sokurov's THE SUN & Tarkovsky's IVAN'S CHILDHOOD (on the recent IVAN'S thread I recall someone said they'd need to be convinced away from the AE release by copious CC extras!.. I wish I would have known the far superior MK2 was coming shortly after I grabbed the AE). From these sometime kings-of-video-noise releases you also get sublime releases like COMPLETE JEAN VIGO, their subbed version of the gaumont FANTOMAS, among others.

[MichaelB]

AEye can really fall down on the job sometimes. Some of their discs contain so much video noise it's almost like watching a movie thru the snow of a tv getting absolutely no signal. Examples are Sokurov's THE SUN & Tarkovsky's IVAN'S CHILDHOOD (on the recent IVAN'S thread I recall someone said they'd need to be convinced away from the AE release by copious CC extras!.. I wish I would have known the far superior MK2 was coming shortly after I grabbed the AE). From these sometime kings-of-video-noise releases you also get sublime releases like COMPLETE JEAN VIGO, their subbed version of the gaumont FANTOMAS, among others.

To be fair to Artificial Eye, the transfer of Ivan's Childhood wasn't theirs - they licenced it from Ruscico. Which is also the case with Dersu Uzala. Conversely, Fantomas and the Vigo set came from Gaumont.

And I suspect, arthouse DVD production budgets being what they are, the alternative to licensing the Ruscico disc (at the time, when there wasn't an alternative) was to do a vastly more expensive transfer of their own.

In fact, if I remember rightly, the Tarkovsky releases were among AE's first back-catalogue titles (if not the first), so they probably didn't have much idea of the size of the market and decided to play safe.

[HerrSchreck]

To be fair to Artificial Eye, the transfer of Ivan's Childhood wasn't theirs - they licenced it from Ruscico. Which is also the case with Dersu Uzala. Conversely, Fantomas and the Vigo set came from Gaumont.

And I suspect, arthouse DVD production budgets being what they are, the alternative to licensing the Ruscico disc (at the time, when there wasn't an alternative) was to do a vastly more expensive transfer of their own.

In fact, if I remember rightly, the Tarkovsky releases were among AE's first back-catalogue titles (if not the first), so they probably didn't have much idea of the size of the market and decided to play safe.

Both the MK2 & AEye are from the same Ruscico betas.

From the Beaver review of the MK2, and AEye:

ADDITION - MK2 - May 2005 - Well I don't know why but the MK2 - seemingly also a RusCiCo port - is vastly superior to the AE and the Spectrum. It is tighter, although still sports a think black border around the edge, is sharper and has much better contrast. The blown-out contrast boosting of the Artificial Eye and the Spectrum are quite evident. The MK2 offers the same extras as the other two and also an optional French 5.1 DUB. It does still include the mono option. It is very surprising that both Mirror and Andrei Rublev are unimproved ports yet Ivan's Childhood has gotten significantly better from its initial RusCiCo publishing.

Not sure I understand the argument on the "back title" thing. What does "playing it safe" mean? The chroma & "snow" are even worse than some of Kino's non-preconverted sound-era Russian abominations (like the Klimovs). What's the excuse for THE SUN (a recent "front list" title from Sokurov)... and now their most recent release--DERSU-- should see them with enough experience under their belt (i e "size of market") whereby they could at least better an at least 5 year old disc from Kino (which I believe is an old LD transfer?)

[MichaelB]

See the DVD Times review (or rather the fourth comment) for a plausible explanation as to why Dersu Uzala is so bad - basically, Mosfilm have the rights, but they don't have access to the best materials, and although the 70mm negative is apparently in reasonable condition they don't actually have any equipment to telecine it from that source!

As for the MK2/Ruscico thing, didn't Ruscico remaster Ivan's Childhood at some point after numerous complaints about the initial version? (I'll check my own Ruscico copy and compare it with the Beaver grabs).

It's also worth bearing in mind that Ruscico's NTSC conversions are invariably terrible - which is why the Kino discs were so atrocious.

Not sure I understand the argument on the "back title" thing. What does "playing it safe" mean?

Spending a minimum amount of money in the expectation of low sales. If you remember, foreign-language titles weren't exactly thick on the ground in the early 2000s, and Artificial Eye were one of the first to release back-catalogue titles onto the UK market.

It's very instructive looking at all the early British indie-label foreign-language efforts, as they were mostly pretty awful if I remember rightly - a lot of recycled masters originally telecined for VHS releases, with burned-in subs, no anamorphic enhancement, you name it. But back then there was such a huge cost difference between recycling an existing master and creating a new anamorphic Digibeta from scratch that it's not too surprising that corners were cut.

[Tommaso]

See the DVD Times review (or rather the fourth comment) for a plausible explanation as to why Dersu Uzala is so bad - basically, Mosfilm have the rights, but they don't have access to the best materials, and although the 70mm negative is apparently in reasonable condition they don't actually have any equipment to telecine it from that source!

This is what shocked me, too, and the further explanation that Gosfilmofond apparently doesn't lend the negative to anyone who would be able to make a pristine transfer from it. So I guess a Criterion release is out of the question. What a shame...

Talking about Ruscico/AEye releases: how is the AEye of "Mirror" compared to the Ruscico? I have the NTSC version of "Mirror" from Ruscico, which of course is plagued with all the deficiencies of their conversions, but what I find really appalling are the colours, which are completely overdone (and off, too) and make nonsense of Tarkovsky's stunning visuals. I suspect this not just a problem of the NTSC conversion, or is it? Simply because I read that the AEye "Mirror" is at least acceptable, but if the colours are off on the AEye as well, I just don't see why I should buy it again, even if it is PAL then....

[HerrSchreck]

I cant believe that GOS-- for gods sake one of the most mysteriously extensive vaults anywhere... will we ever kwow it's full post WW2/Iron Curtain hand here in the west???--cannot get their hands on, even rent time on someone else's 75mm telecine unit.

Or if they don't have enough faith in the commercial viability of this film resto in full 75, then at least take the 75neg and strike a new preservation 35 reduction interpos with restored color etc, and from this create a new commercial neg for striking touring fine grains in 35. And give us fresh telecine from the new reduction interpos. At least will provide a new generation of restored imagery for this film, to correct it's shoddy past.

Give is this day our dersu bread, and forgive us our artifacts...

[atcolomb]

Artificial Eye has released Kurosawa's " DERSU UZALA" and since i have the Kino and Ruscico versions which have a poor print of the film has anybody bought it or has any news on the picture quality of the dvd?

It's a shame that so far no dvd release of Dersu is worth showing on your hi-def tv. I am still hoping that Criterion can come to the rescue and restore it.