Artificial Eye / Curzon Film World

[foggy eyes]

AE are usually exceptionally reliable for contemporary films, but this transfer looks very below-par. No great loss all the same - on the scale of recent abortion films, I'd say that this languishes far behind 4 Months, perhaps somewhere between the The Silence of Lorna (good) and Juno (excruciating).

[manicsounds]

So far no specs on the upcoming Wong Kar Wai discs?

[colinr0380]

Here's the Moviemail listings for Ashes of Time: Redux, Chungking Express, Happy Together, and the box set of the three films.

It looks as if Ashes of Time and Chungking Express have interviews and Happy Together has no extra features.

[kekid]

Any confirmation on the region-coding of the Blu Ray of Ashes of Time Redux?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

It looks as if Ashes of Time and Chungking Express have interviews and Happy Together has no extra features.

This seems pretty ridiculous if true, since even their previous (horrible) release of Happy Together managed to cough up Buenos Aires Zero Degree -- a fantastic extra IMO.

[pro-bassoonist]

I just wanted to leave a quick note addressing the quality of the print AE used for The Banishment:

It is very strong, and, as far as I am concerned, lovely-looking for a standard-def replica of the theatrical presentation. Yes, as Noel notes, there are a few tiny compression issues, but in motion this print is probably the best you could expect to get in standard-def.

Also, the Russian disc for Aleksandra, which has been out for almost a year now, is very strong. It is English-friendly as well.

Pro-B

[ellipsis7]

Just viewing AE's disc of Rohmer's ASTREA AND CELADON - barebones package, transfer a bit soft, colour a little desaturated, otherwise fine...

[foggy eyes]

Just viewing AE's disc of Rohmer's ASTREA AND CELADON - barebones package, transfer a bit soft, colour a little desaturated, otherwise fine...

The digital projection (theatrical release) I saw of this was top notch - very sharp and clearly defined. Wonder why it's a bit soft (by DVD standards, presumably) - surely a digital to digital 1.37 transfer wouldn't present much of a problem...?

As for The Banishment - perhaps it's just charaluta's caps, but the transfer looks very compressed (hazy and blotchy) to me, more like a sub-standard avi file than a 35mm print. A good DVD transfer should be closer to the latter, and this looks very little like what I saw in the theatre...

[ellipsis7]

Just viewing AE's disc of Rohmer's ASTREA AND CELADON - barebones package, transfer a bit soft, colour a little desaturated, otherwise fine...

The digital projection (theatrical release) I saw of this was top notch - very sharp and clearly defined. Wonder why it's a bit soft (by DVD standards, presumably) - surely a digital to digital 1.37 transfer wouldn't present much of a problem...?
...

Yes, you'd think so... Just popped it up on my projector - definitely below par sharpness-wise I'm afraid, and colour saturation not as good as the stills on AE's site...



... come to think of it the softness of this still is heading towards that of the DVD but not quite there, detail is not good on the DVD...

[zone_resident]

DVD Times on Alexandra

[bearcuborg]

Just viewing AE's disc of Rohmer's ASTREA AND CELADON - barebones package, transfer a bit soft, colour a little desaturated, otherwise fine...

The digital projection (theatrical release) I saw of this was top notch - very sharp and clearly defined. Wonder why it's a bit soft (by DVD standards, presumably) - surely a digital to digital 1.37 transfer wouldn't present much of a problem...?
...

Yes, you'd think so... Just popped it up on my projector - definitely below par sharpness-wise I'm afraid, and colour saturation not as good as the stills on AE's site...



... come to think of it the softness of this still is heading towards that of the DVD but not quite there, detail is not good on the DVD...

I saw this at the NYFF, and to be honest the movie was awful...not just aesthetically, but technically too. The sound and image were sup par for a major production. It never got a full theatrical release if I recall... In fact, I spoke with someone associated with the film and they said they had gotten zero bites for distribution.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Koch Lorber picked up the U.S. distribution rights. Their DVD comes out February 10th.

[domino harvey]

Koch Lorber picked up the U.S. distribution rights. Their DVD comes out February 10th.

The running time is identical to the Artificial Eye, so expect a horrible PAL->NTSC conversion

[StevenJ0001]

I saw this at the NYFF, and to be honest the movie was awful...not just aesthetically, but technically too. The sound and image were sup par for a major production. It never got a full theatrical release if I recall... In fact, I spoke with someone associated with the film and they said they had gotten zero bites for distribution.

Is this the first Rohmer film you've seen? A lack of "technical" sophistication is par for the course in Rohmer's work--it's not a failing of his films; it's simply not the point. And I'm not sure how this qualifies as a "major production." I imagine Rohmer works with very low budgets.

This film didn't appeal to me greatly on first viewing, although I'm interested to see it again, as I love Rohmer's films in general. Slick pieces of eye and ear candy, they're not, though. Their pleasures lie elsewhere.

[MichaelB]

Is this the first Rohmer film you've seen? A lack of "technical" sophistication is par for the course in Rohmer's work--it's not a failing of his films; it's simply not the point. And I'm not sure how this qualifies as a "major production." I imagine Rohmer works with very low budgets.

I read an interview with him once when he said low six figures (€100,000 or thereabouts) was typical - but that he kept costs low by working with as small a crew as possible. On some of his 1990s films, this could be as little as two: a cameraman and sound recordist.

Aside from the films shot by Nestor Almendros in the 1960s and 1970s and one or two others, Rohmer has never seemed overly concerned with how they look.

[ellipsis7]

Rohmer certainly works outside the (unionised) conventional production model, and I think he also self distributes in France... Remarkably he has maintained his independence, and solvency, throughout his career... In the appendix of Derek Schilling's book (in Manchester University Press' French Film Directors series) on Eric Rohmer, there are very interesting theatrical viewing figures for all his features from Le Signe de Lion to Triple Agent, both in Paris and France as a whole... Predictably My Night at Maud's scores highest, but the stats also emphasise the commercial and creative logic of the film series (Six Moral Tales, Comedies & Proverbs, Tales of the Four Seasons) which inspire loyalty, and maintain strength and consistency of the audience...

[colinr0380]

I suppose that is logical - after all even if you detest something you may want to see all of a series before making a judgement just in case the final film pulls everything that came before together or turns out to be best of the series in its own right. Cf: the Star Wars prequel films.

Plus a series lets you work from an already built base rather than having to lay the foundations again. The audience has some idea beforehand of what kind of film to expect and then the excitement comes from seeing how films tackle different but semi-related subject matter that pushes beyond previous films in the series (perhaps as in the Bergman trilogy), or the way ideas are manipulated to reveal new facets of characters or the subject such as in Rohmer's Moral Tales films where it is the cumulative effect of seeing a lot of different portrayals of a rather ethereal subject that builds into the larger picture of the variety of responses people can show when placed in difficult situations.

[MichaelB]

Any confirmation on the region-coding of the Blu Ray of Ashes of Time Redux?

One of them is explicitly marked ABC on the back, but I forget which (I glanced at them in a shop yesterday).

But it's probably safe to assume that if one is, they both are, since they'd have come from the same source.

[Rich Malloy]

Any confirmation on the region-coding of the Blu Ray of Ashes of Time Redux?

One of them is explicitly marked ABC on the back, but I forget which (I glanced at them in a shop yesterday).

But it's probably safe to assume that if one is, they both are, since they'd have come from the same source.

AsianBlu-RayGuide.com has reported that both are "ABC" coded per info from other sources. Not an airtight confirmation, but I can't imagine we'll have to wait too much longer for an actual review of these discs (I'm surprised one hasn't yet surfaced).

UPDATE: finally, some good info from another forum, including a good number of screenshots: http://forums.highdefdigest.com/blu-ray ... -uk-2.html

All region, but SD extra features are PAL. AR is 1.85:1 (box erroneously indicates 2.35:1).

[MichaelB]

Even a vaguely passable transfer of Ashes of Time would be an improvement on the calamities released by Mei Ah (crap) and World Video (the single worst DVD I've ever seen in my life) - and it looks as though it's a fair bit better than that!

Anyway, my copy's on order.

[Michael Kerpan]

Even a vaguely passable transfer of Ashes of Time would be an improvement on the calamities released by Mei Ah (crap) and World Video (the single worst DVD I've ever seen in my life) - and it looks as though it's a fair bit better than that!.

The US release of Ann Hui's Story of Woo Viet (ludicrously re-named God of Killers) was probably worse (though it becomes hard to judge as one approaches absolute zero so closely).

[domino harvey]

Excuse me fellas, but the R1 Repulsion is untoppable (unbottomable?)

[MichaelB]

I've never seen that, but does it have a quarter of the image cropped off the bottom by a black bar, onto which has been printed semi-literate subtitles?

[domino harvey]

It's a cropped VHS transfer that also sports one of the biggest disconnects between cover art and the film within

I guess though, on the black bar tip, we're all forgetting the original worst DVD ever: the Image Vampyr

[Cold Bishop]

Repulsion at least looks like what you'd expect from a PD release. That same company would be embarassed about releasing Ashes of Time (although lord knows they'd slap a glamour photo of Maggie Cheung on the cover, looking like Ted Turner used her for coloring practice, and try).

MichaelB is not exaggerating when calls Ashes of Time the worst DVD release ever.