Lionsgate

[PillowRock]

I'd have to agree that if you have anything more than a cursory knowledge of cinema the mass majority of commentaries are going to be a waste of time.

I find good commentary tracks useful on foreign films where they can fill in info about cultural norms or historical context that I might have missed. Granted that even in a *good* track this is only a sparse scattering of information through the movie.

One recent example was the chopsticks stuck vertically in the rice in Drunken Angel. That was something that I hadn't realized the full significance of when I first watched the movie.

[Cronenfly]

I think that, if they're even on their radar at all, most mainstream studios seem to view them as too much work.

They shouldn't be, provided they're planned intelligently.

And therein lies the rub: the studios seem to be so used to churning out docs/interviews/commentaries as features that, however easy they might be to produce, video essays and the like just aren't happening. Maybe the majors will catch up someday to the independents; one can only hope.

[skuhn8]

I'm looking forward to these Bunuels, commentary or no. I've been interested in Nazarin (even if it doesn't have a commentary) ever since I saw it excerpted in one of the Discreet Charm docs (not commentary).

[tryavna]

Now that this thread is back to the Bunuels, I just wanted to point out that, even if these upcoming Lionsgate releases turn out to be straight ports of the Mexican Alter discs, they're not too bad. I have three of the Alter discs, and there's no need to fret too much about A/V quality. I'd say that they're clearly superior to Yume's NTSC-PAL monstrosities and a little better than the recent Facets releases, too.

Now, the question becomes: Does anybody know where one can find This Is the Dawn, Death in the Garden, and Fever Rises in El Pao with English subs? Those will be the last Bunuels that I have never seen -- or indeed that are still unavailable anywhere (even the bootleg market) with English subs, to the best of my knowledge.

[jesus the mexican boi]

Now, the question becomes: Does anybody know where one can find This Is the Dawn, Death in the Garden, and Fever Rises in El Pao with English subs? Those will be the last Bunuels that I have never seen -- or indeed that are still unavailable anywhere (even the bootleg market) with English subs, to the best of my knowledge.

Back in the dark days before DVD (ah, the 90s), I picked up two of these from Facets on VHS. I believe La Fievre Monte a El Pao and Cela s'appelle l'aurore both had subs. Fievre was poor quality, near unwatchable with those white subtitles on the print itself. Mort en ce Jardin got a legit release, if I remember correctly, and was pretty good beat-up sister to Clouzot's Wages of Fear; definitely the most colorful of Bunuel's output at the time, with a great performance from Simone Signoret. I wish I knew what happened to the tapes I had. I must have pawned them off at some point in the road. Of the three, Death in the Garden is by far the best, followed by Dawn and then El Pao, the latter being a political film that never really gelled for me. Atypical Bunuel.

I take it, then, that you've seen La Hija del Engaño? That was one I found languishing unrented on a Mom-and-Pop videostore rack on unsubbed Mexican VHS back in the day and really enjoyed (I tried to convice the videostore owner to sell it to me, but she said no dice, so I duped it). I know it's gotten a release on DVD, but to my knowledge, no subs.

[tryavna]

I take it, then, that you've seen La Hija del Engaño?

No, but it will be one of the six that will get released by Lionsgate in April. So I will have seen it by then. Same goes for River and Death.

I was just thinking ahead to the three that seem to be totally off the radar at the moment.

[HerrSchreck]

What do you gents (and gals) think of Robinson Crusoe? I've had this thing laying around on VHS for years and never gotten to it. Should I plunge?

[mteller]

What do you gents (and gals) think of Robinson Crusoe? I've had this thing laying around on VHS for years and never gotten to it. Should I plunge?

It's not bad at all, but of course not much like a "typical" Bunuel film.

[HerrSchreck]

Yeah, thats pretty much the reason I kept putting it off.

[jesus the mexican boi]

What do you gents (and gals) think of Robinson Crusoe? I've had this thing laying around on VHS for years and never gotten to it. Should I plunge?

It's not bad at all, but of course not much like a "typical" Bunuel film.

I agree. I would much rather have had Bunuel direct his first choice for a Daniel Defoe novel, Journal of a Plague Year. His scriptbuddy Jean-Claude Carriere did a bang-up job on a similar project, Jean Giono's [url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0113362/]The Horseman on the Roof.[/url]

[jurples]

Los Olvidados / El Río y la muerte

La Ilusión viaja en tranvía / Nazarín

El Gran Calavera / La Hija del engaño

I managed to pick up Alter Films' versions of 5 of these when I was in Mexico the year before last. Unless there's some huge improvement in quality (which, given the prices I highly doubt) I'll just be picking up the set with La Hija del engaño.

[Gigi M.]

Interesting set coming on 5/27. Includes:

- The Sound Barrier (David Lean, 1952)
- King & Country (Joseph Losey, 1964)
- Angels One Five (George More O'Ferrall, 1952)
- The Captive Heart (Basil Dearden, 1946)

[What A Disgrace]

King and Country, The Captive Heart, and The Sound Barrier? The awesome train has come to town.

[Person]

Wow, usually WWII boxed sets feature a real rag-bag of films, but this one looks good!

King & Country will hopefully be 1.66:1 anamorphic. The Captive Heart is a sadly overlooked classic, with Michael Redgrave giving a superb performance. Doug Slocombe was the DP. Basil Deardon made some great films.

[tryavna]

The Captive Heart is a sadly overlooked classic, with Michael Redgrave giving a superb performance. Doug Slocombe was the DP. Basil Deardon made some great films.

I recently bought the R2 Optimum release of this title. (I assume that Lionsgate will use the same print.) And it looks fantastic. Slocombe's cinematography is exquisite at times; the film is good, but it really comes alive artistically with Slocumbe's on-location work. It's also got to be one of the very few POW films with absolutely no time dedicated to escape plans. It's all about the tedium of imprisonment, which -- let's face it -- was the realistic experience of 99.9% of all POWs. I second Gordon's hearty recommendation.

[John Hodson]

As part of a recent restoration of 10 Lean films, a new transfer of 'The Sound Barrier' will be released in the UK in August - I wonder if this will be that new restoration?

BTW, the artwork screams 'don't mention the British!'

[Cronenfly]

Guess we know now where Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), et al. will be coming from for certain.

[Cinephrenic]

Perhaps Johnny Guitar will be finally released.

[What A Disgrace]

Gimme Rio Grande and Quiet Man, too.

[Jeff]

I imagine that Lionsgate will start with the films that Paramount has already done restoration work for. This list hasn't been updated in two years, but it is a place to start. I also suspect that the Republic titles that Paramount announced, then quickly canceled two years ago will turn up quickly too.

[Person]

Sheesh, I had forgotten about Letter From An Unknown Woman. Bring that one on, pronto!

[Buttery Jeb]

Here's an article from Home Media Magazine, regarding the launch of Lionsgate's new arthouse label, The Meridian Collection. As noted in the Rumors and News section, the first two titles, "Diva" and "The Red Violin," pop out in June.

I get the sinking feeling that a Meridian edition of "It Always Rains on Sunday" will be out in September (seeing as the only Ealing film with Criterion, "Kind Hearts and Coronets," was licensed from StudioCanal by way of Anchor Bay). That said, it'll be nice to see a couple of long-suffering Lionsgate or Artisan titles get nice double-dips in the near future.

-BJ

[pro-bassoonist]

Thank you for posting it. This is nothing but excellent news as I imagine there will be plenty of Studio Canal product that will likely be channeled through it.

Ciao,
Pro-B

[kekid]

This is very good news. However, I wonder why they would choose two films that have been around on DVD rather than break some new ground.

[tryavna]

I get the sinking feeling that a Meridian edition of "It Always Rains on Sunday" will be out in September (seeing as the only Ealing film with Criterion, "Kind Hearts and Coronets," was licensed from StudioCanal by way of Anchor Bay).

Actually, Criterion have released two Ealing films so far, counting both Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Proud Valley (which is in the Paul Robeson boxset).