Mr. Bongo Films

[MichaelB]

Well, I have the Kino DVD, and believe that it's the same transfer as the Image DVD (the running time is the same, anyway) - so I'll try to do a shot-by-shot comparison, ideally in time for my review deadline on Friday.

[Doug Cummings]

Michael, I'm doing the same thing--we'll have to compare notes.

[jsteffe]

The Kino and Image R1 NTSC discs are the same transfers. David Shepard produced the original "Red Silents" VHS series released by Kino, and both parties retained rights to it.

[stephenp]

I'm a bit confused as to Earth's price. DVD Outsider gives a £12.99 list price, which is in keeping with previous Mr. Bongo pricing, but the Amazon pre-order has a list price of £17.99, on sale for £13.99.

Mr. Bongo's own site has it at £9.99, so in time I would expect the other prices to come down too...

[Doug Cummings]

I've compared the two versions. The Bongo disc definitely plays at a slightly slower rate than the Kino/Image. The Kino print actually says it's the 1971 Moscow version, and it includes English intertitles after the Russian ones (Bongo subtitles the Russian ones), sometimes edited in a slightly different manner than the Bongo version. Otherwise, both versions contain the same footage.

As you can see from Michael's stills, the Bongo image is way, way better than the Kino, in terms of clarity and framing.

The Bongo score is very good and much more high-fidelity.

[drdoros]

I've compared the two versions. The Bongo disc definitely plays at a slightly slower rate than the Kino/Image. The Kino print actually says it's the 1971 Moscow version, and it includes English intertitles after the Russian ones (Bongo subtitles the Russian ones), sometimes edited in a slightly different manner than the Bongo version. Otherwise, both versions contain the same footage.
As you can see from Michael's stills, the Bongo image is way, way better than the Kino, in terms of clarity and framing.
The Bongo score is very good and much more high-fidelity.

Just to point out, I produced the Red Silents series with David Shepard. It was my last job at Kino and I left about a week after completion. (In fact, I called it Red Silence: Scenes from the Unseen Soviet Cinema, but it was changed after I left.) David probably remembers this one better than I do but I think the EARTH transfer was indeed done from a stretched print at 24fps because it had the soundtrack already on the print. And this was 1989, we had $30,000 to bring out the ten films -- that included transfers, subtitling and a few scores -- so the new edition BETTER be better!

[jsteffe]

My dream would be to see someone like Kino or Flicker Alley license the restored version of EARTH for the R1 market... but I'm still really pleased to see that Mr. Bongo has picked it up.

[MichaelB]

I wish I knew who wrote the score on the Mr Bongo edition, as I thought it was excellent - as Doug has already observed, the recording is fully up to contemporary standards (as opposed to the crackly sound of what I assume is the early-1970s optical print that the Kino was derived from), and I also thought it fitted the film very well: it's clearly been composed specifically for it rather than shoehorned à la the Shostakovich symphonies on Battleship Potemkin.

I asked Mr Bongo's PR company if they knew, but they couldn't help me.

[otis]

The score on the German Arte edition is by Alexander Popov. Presumably this is what's on the Mr Bongo.

[Doug Cummings]

Dennis, I certainly don't mean to disparage your or David Shepard's efforts! But this is certainly a more definitive treatment. Kino seems pretty good about updating their catalogue when new materials become available, so it wouldn't surprise me if they re-issue Earth at some point.

And yes, Michael, what's up with Mr. Bongo's silence on these technical matters? It's as if their digital master just showed up on their doorstep one day. No music credits on the DVD+R I received from them. And since I haven't seen the Arte disc, I'm not even positive this new version comes from them.

[drdoros]

Dennis, I certainly don't mean to disparage your or David Shepard's efforts! But this is certainly a more definitive treatment. Kino seems pretty good about updating their catalogue when new materials become available, so it wouldn't surprise me if they re-issue Earth at some point.

And yes, Michael, what's up with Mr. Bongo's silence on these technical matters? It's as if their digital master just showed up on their doorstep one day. No music credits on the DVD+R I received from them. And since I haven't seen the Arte disc, I'm not even positive this new version comes from them.

No slight taken. The series was done 20+ years ago when there were very, very few Russian/Soviet films produced on VHS. It was fun to do but even then, it was produced with some excellent work and titles, but not much of a budget to work with.

[peerpee]

Wasn't the 70s score for EARTH overseen by Ovchinnikov (IVAN'S CHILDHOOD / ANDREI RUBLEV)?

[MichaelB]

Yes.

[Cash Flagg]

Mr. Bongo is releasing The Brute and Susana on September 30th.

[perkizitore]

I'm a bit confused as to Earth's price. DVD Outsider gives a £12.99 list price, which is in keeping with previous Mr. Bongo pricing, but the Amazon pre-order has a list price of £17.99, on sale for £13.99.

Mr. Bongo's own site has it at £9.99, so in time I would expect the other prices to come down too...

Here is only 7£

[MichaelB]

I have a checkdisc of Casanova, which has an excellent source print, the Italian soundtrack, optional subtitles...

...but a non-anamorphic transfer.

Granted, this might not reflect the final production version, but my copy is fully authored in every other respect. To add insult to injury, the menus are anamorphic!

[perkizitore]

The French blu-ray is quite stunning, go for it!

[peerpee]

It's pretty odd that there are no details anywhere on the Mr Bongo release of EARTH concerning where they licenced it from. If this is the Arte restored version, as it appears to be, it should at least have mention or logos on the case?

There's also no BBFC certification number on the disc, and no record at the BBFC website of them certificating it, which suggests that Mr Bongo aren't putting things through the BBFC and are simply hoping no-one notices? As much as I hate the BBFC, I don't know of another UK label who simply wings it like this.

It looks to me like this is a very cheeky bootleg.

[MichaelB]

Tellingly, when I rang their PR company to find out who did the score (as I wanted to single it out for praise in my review), neither she nor anyone from the company could tell me.

[GaryC]

I've mentioned this before on this site, as I've wondered about the certification of their DVDs for a while. The only title that comes up on a distributor search of the BBFC is I am Cuba.

[Peacock]

Tellingly, when I rang their PR company to find out who did the score (as I wanted to single it out for praise in my review), neither she nor anyone from the company could tell me.

Perhaps the PR couldn't tell you, but it's on the back of the dvd. (Alexander Popov 1997)

[Jonathan S]

Yes, it's definitely the same Popov score used on the 1997 ZDF/Arte broadcast (and presumably the German DVD which I don't have). As to the certification, I was amazed when I saw the "18" on the Mr Bongo box. The old Hendring UK VHS edition I used to own actually got a U certificate, according to the BBFC site, and as far as I recall it still included all the "controversial" shots. Indeed, as the Mr Bongo case (and the Arte broadcast) confirms, this is still from the same basic 1971 Mosfilm restoration we've seen before, albeit presented differently (speed, score, intertitles) and with much improved print quality.

[MichaelB]

Tellingly, when I rang their PR company to find out who did the score (as I wanted to single it out for praise in my review), neither she nor anyone from the company could tell me.

Perhaps the PR couldn't tell you, but it's on the back of the dvd. (Alexander Popov 1997)

The PR woman apparently contacted Mr Bongo, and they couldn't tell me. (I had no information on my copy, as I was only sent a DVD-R checkdisc and a press release). They also assured her that the 18 certificate was correct - I'd asked for confirmation about that too, since I didn't have a copy of the final box artwork.

The latter left me with a bit of a dilemma, because as a journalist my next step should have been to contact the BBFC directly to ask for clarification into what was clearly an erroneous classification - as confirmed above, there's no way this could get more than a 12, and a PG or even a U is much more likely. But as it was already pretty clear to me what was going on, it seemed overkill to risk a distributor's entire financial well-being just for the sake of some petty fact-checking on a capsule review.

[peerpee]

Forgetting the BBFC for a while (and I wish we all could), the key thing here is, if this is a cheeky bootleg, it's directly affecting the chances of any other label doing this film properly (HD, 1080p, Blu-ray, with some decent extras/booklet).

I hope to be proved wrong about their business practices, but regardless, the way it's been released really does whiff of bootleg, Mr. Pongo!

[colinr0380]

The Humberto Solas film Lucia has also been released with a suspicious 18 certificate, and does not seem to be among the (three) films that the BBFC website say that they have classified by the director.

Bizarrely Beloved has a PG certificate on DVD and is only mentioned on the BBFC website as having a 12 certificate from its video release! Either this edition (by another DVD company) is also unauthorised or the BBFC aren't updating their website properly!

Anyway peerpee, I thought a few years ago that you were calling for distributors to defy the draconian BBFC! Couldn't this be seen as a good thing if it gets films out that otherwise would be impossible with the classification costs, even if it has to be kept quiet!