Kino

[Tommaso]

Still, the all-time award for Pathetically Premature Press-Realease TriggerPulls must go to WB for chatting multiple times on HTF that those Metro silents (Greed, The Wind, The Crowd, Chaney box two, Scarlet Letter, etc) were just around the corner... first slated for '06, then "rescheduled" for late 07. Now slated for the year two-thousand-and-never.

Well, only two years passed since then. I still have the promotional flyer from CC's first printing of "Jeanne d'Arc" from 2001 announcing that "Vampyr" was 'coming soon'....

[HerrSchreck]

Me too on the Vampyr flyer. Can't tell you how excited I was after reading that back then.

On WB: the fact that they came out after missing the first proclaimed streeting date, and announced the "real" streeting date-- and missed that-- then went so utterly silent for well over a year (going on two now if I'm not mistaken since the last HTF chat which mentioned these)-- throwing not only the release date but the very release of the films into question now-- and the fact that this is WB, not a small company dependant on third parties to license and sometimes provide transfers for films (I mean, they own the reels and the primary distribution rights for these classics of world cinema)-- just irks me to no end. It just gets under my skin. Criterion and Kino didn't have the reels to themselves, and were dependant on foreign restos and licensing agreements coughing up elements.

Another film Kino has been advertising a new edition of, then seems to have quietly dropped, is the new edition of Walsh's Regeneration. I have the old Kino VHS of this (same Shepard transfer used for the Image dvd) which is quite good, so I'm surviving. The main thing a new edition of this title would correct is some pretty heavy cropping in the old edition... you can especially see it in the title cards.

[Matt]

I know some of us, myself included, have been very harsh on Kino in the past. However, I want to urge everyone to support them in any way we can; they are really struggling right now. They are laying off employees, in one case someone who has been with them for 18 years and who is, in my opinion, not expendable. If you've been holding off on buying a Kino release and you have the money, now is a good time to buy. Even if they are not always up to Criterion standards, they are still an important independent distributor and worthy of our support.

You can order directly from them. Prices are fair and shipping is free when your order is over $25.

[swo17]

Finally, the justification I've been awaiting to double-dip on The General. I've also been meaning to pick up Come and See. Does anyone have any other recommendations for high quality Kino titles?

[domino harvey]

Even their harshest critic DVDBeaver gives them points for their Griffith discs, and the Edison boxed set is also essential.

[HerrSchreck]

Finally, the justification I've been awaiting to double-dip on The General. I've also been meaning to pick up Come and See. Does anyone have any other recommendations for high quality Kino titles?

The Annotated Kino Catalog

[Matt]

Love Me Tonight is a must-own, and I'm sure Herr Schreck would argue the same about The Man Who Laughs. There are many more collected recommendations in that thread linked just above.

[HerrSchreck]

Oh jeez, I could go on and on. The Fairbanks Box, Applause is a must-own, as is Edison, Love of Jeanne Ney, The Blue Bird, Waxworks & Warning Shadows, everyone should own a copy of Dementia by JJ Parker, their Nosferatu is the best image out there (Potemkin is very good despite the frame-rate combing), the Mauritz Stillers, particularly Sir Arne... Sjostroms, Hands of Orlac, Secrets of a Soul, Alibi, Contraband, They Made Me A Fugitive (the preceding two are older transfers but still the best out there so far.. even new editions of the Cavalcanti use the same british digibeta), The Long Night, Lubitsch's, the Avant Garde's (particularly One with the Epstein and Kirsanoff), Caligari, Sex In Chains, Foolish Wives & Queen Kelly, She, the Morris Engel films, the Klimovs, the Kieslowski, the Mann's, House By The River & Scarlet Street.

I love Boetticher's Behind Locked Doors. And I've worn the plastic shine off my Maniac/Narcotic double... even has a (gasp) Bret Wood commentary.

These are all decent to excellent presentations of films that are total masterpieces (Except Maniac/Narcotic, which are I guess masterpieces of ineptness), while avoiding some of the earlier FWMS silent transfers, and much of their grottier sound catalog.

[Gregory]

Those wanting points of entry into the best stuff Kino has released, and at a good value, should go for some of the box sets they've done, which include many of the titles HerrSchreck mentioned.
The two Film Noir sets, German Experssionism Collection, American Silent Horror, and Glamour Girls (which features Love Me Tonight, The Good Fairy, and Sirk's Lured, but only the English version of Blue Angel, frustratingly). They've done other good box sets, of course (most of which Schreck has listed), but these are the slim-case repackages that are such a fine value that they're a little frustrating to those of us who bought the standalone releases. But they're a great boon to everyone else -- very little dead wood in them, too.

[domino harvey]

Scarlet Street is another winner-- Kino rescued the film from Public Domain hell and gave it a killer commentary by my boy Kalat

[tojoed]

Scarlet Street is another winner-- Kino rescued the film from Public Domain hell and gave it a killer commentary by my boy Kalat

Absolutely. And I echo the ones mentioned above. I would do anything to support Kino, but they don't ship to the UK, so I have always bought their stuff from other places.
Is there any other way a UK resident can do anything useful?

[Gregory]

Have Gary Tooze bumped off?

[Murdoch]

Is the Chabrol box worth picking up? I've only seen La Cermonie and want to get see more of his films.

[domino harvey]

Is the Chabrol box worth picking up? I've only seen La Cermonie and want to get see more of his films.

The films are definitely worthwhile but the transfers are typically shoddy.

[cinemartin]

Has anyone else seen their disc for A Double Tour? I had to stop watching it the transfer was so bad. I actually thought it was a malfunctioning disc or dvd player. I ruled out the player, but I still have no idea if it was the transfer. If it was, it was the worst PAL to NTSC transfer I've ever seen.

[Matt]

Has anyone else seen their disc for A Double Tour? I had to stop watching it the transfer was so bad. I actually thought it was a malfunctioning disc or dvd player. I ruled out the player, but I still have no idea if it was the transfer. If it was, it was the worst PAL to NTSC transfer I've ever seen.

The same happened to me with Betty. I assumed all of the Chabrols were as bad. I blame Kimstim and not Kino, though. I think Kino is just the distributor for these titles.

[Murdoch]

Wow, well I was planning on getting this since it was such a great deal, but now I think I'll pass. Thanks for the heads up.

[Yojimbo]

Oh jeez, I could go on and on. The Fairbanks Box, Applause is a must-own, as is Edison, Love of Jeanne Ney, The Blue Bird, Waxworks & Warning Shadows, everyone should own a copy of Dementia by JJ Parker, their Nosferatu is the best image out there (Potemkin is very good despite the frame-rate combing), the Mauritz Stillers, particularly Sir Arne... Sjostroms, Hands of Orlac, Secrets of a Soul, Alibi, Contraband, They Made Me A Fugitive (the preceding two are older transfers but still the best out there so far.. even new editions of the Cavalcanti use the same british digibeta), The Long Night, Lubitsch's, the Avant Garde's (particularly One with the Epstein and Kirsanoff), Caligari, Sex In Chains, Foolish Wives & Queen Kelly, She, the Morris Engel films, the Klimovs, the Kieslowski, the Mann's, House By The River & Scarlet Street.

I love Boetticher's Behind Locked Doors. And I've worn the plastic shine off my Maniac/Narcotic double... even has a (gasp) Bret Wood commentary.

These are all decent to excellent presentations of films that are total masterpieces (Except Maniac/Narcotic, which are I guess masterpieces of ineptness), while avoiding some of the earlier FWMS silent transfers, and much of their grottier sound catalog.

I probably have all their Von Stroheims, and most of those silents you listed Schreck, although I know I was waiting for the price to drop to get a good bargain in 'Jeanne Ney'
I think Kino also released Eisenstein's 'Que Viva Mexico', which I highly recommend.

[domino harvey]

Has anyone else seen their disc for A Double Tour? I had to stop watching it the transfer was so bad. I actually thought it was a malfunctioning disc or dvd player. I ruled out the player, but I still have no idea if it was the transfer. If it was, it was the worst PAL to NTSC transfer I've ever seen.

The same happened to me with Betty. I assumed all of the Chabrols were as bad. I blame Kimstim and not Kino, though. I think Kino is just the distributor for these titles.

I believe all of the "Tales of Deceit" titles are available on MK2, but I don't know about English subs-- none of the transfers are that great to begin with but they'd be 100X better without the conversion problems. A Double Tour is out on Optimum in the UK, and the first Lardvin movie is in the first Arrow Chabrol box, but otherwise slim goings.

[Perkins Cobb]

Believe it or not, A Double Tour is one of the better Chabrol PAL->NTSC conversions from Kino ... all the ones that came out on the KimStim sub-label are far worse!

I made it through A Double Tour (which is terrific) but I wish I'd known about the Optimum.

[Jonathan S]

I would do anything to support Kino, but they don't ship to the UK, so I have always bought their stuff from other places.

I've bought many DVDs, and previously VHS tapes, direct from Kino, thought not for a year or two (Amazon Marketplace now usually beats even Kino's discounts). Unless they've changed their overall policy since then, it's only the licensed titles that are "Not for sale to customers outside US and Canada" which they won't ship to the UK. Of course, there are a lot of such titles now - a few years ago they were very much the exceptions.

One advantage of ordering direct from them is that, in my experience, they are customs-friendly.
I also got one parcel from them on which they wrote on the customs declaration "NON-PORNO" though I expect that made our dedicated customs officers more suspicious!

[kaujot]

Now, I know that they have some other quality products, but the only really excellent DVD that I've bought from them has been The Return. Both The Sacrifice and Those Who Love Me can Take the Train have terrible quality and cost far more than they were worth. Well, at least The Sacrifice has that documentary, but still.

[swo17]

This brings up something of a conflict of interest for me--if Kino were to go under (heaven forbid), would we finally be able to get quality Criterion editions of Sacrifice, Stalker, and Mirror?

[HerrSchreck]

We can't even get a CC-quality edition of the CC Rublyov! And they couldn't be convinced by one of their producers to put out Mirror back before Kino did.

If it came to trading all those silents and other Kino titles, just for a bump in the image for those Tarkovsky's, I'll take the other Kino titles thanks. If they go, I'm fucked interms of semi-annual fixes. He's a cheap and measured man, and he seems very reticent, but of all the disc producers in the world I've got to say Donald Krim's taste matches my own almost exactly. Much more so than even CC or MoC.

Mr_sausage, the Tartuf will be the same (it was a great edition anyway, with the original vintage subs in tact, and a documentary on FWM), The Last Laugh & Faust will be the new restored editions, plus the two new titles... plus a single disc version of the newly restored NOS.

have gary tooze bumped off?

[swo17]

Well, I wouldn't trade all of Kino's catalogue for a few improved Tarks either, and I certainly wish them no ill will. I guess I was just asking in a roundabout way if the only thing holding up Criterion from putting out those films was the fact that Kino owned the rights. I guess they don't even seem that eager to get Rublev right yet though, so, to answer my own question, probably not.