Oh, thanks. But I don't see myself paying 20$ for this.
Updated checklist if anybody cares.
Der müde Tod (1921) - Image DVD
Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922) - MoC DVD
Die Nibelungen (1924) - Kino DVD (upcoming MoC and Kino Blu-rays)
Metropolis (1927) - MoC and Kino Blu-rays tie for PQ, but MoC has more extras
Spione (1928) - MoC DVD
Woman in the Moon (1929) - MoC DVD
M (1931) - Universum, Criterion and MoC Blu-rays tie
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) - Criterion and MoC DVD tie
Liliom (1934) - Extra on "Carousel" DVD
Fury (1936) - Warner DVD
You Only Live Once (1937) - Studio Canal DVD
You and Me (1938) - Koch Media DVD
The Return of Frank James (1940) - Fox DVD
Western Union (1941) - Optimum DVD
Man Hunt (1941) - Fox DVD
(Moontide) (1942) - Fox DVD
Hangmen Also Die (1943) - e-m-s DVD
Ministry of Fear (1944) - Optimum and Carlotta DVD tie
The Woman in the Window (1945) - MGM DVD
Scarlet Street (1945) - Kino and Odeon DVD tie (same transfer, but the former is not progressive while the latter is)
Cloak and Dagger (1946) - Republic DVD
Secret Beyond the Door... (1948) - Wild Side and Exposure DVD tie
House by the River (1950) - Wild Side DVD
Rancho Notorious (1952) - Warner Archives DVD
Clash by Night (1952) - Warner DVD
The Blue Gardenia (1953) - Arthaus DVD
The Big Heat (1953) - Sony DVD
Human Desire (1954) - Sony DVD
Moonfleet (1955) - Warner France DVD
While the City Sleeps (1956) - Exposure DVD
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) - Warner Archives DVD (proper ratio)
The Indian Epic (1959) - MoC DVD
1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) - MoC DVD
You may add these:
- You Only Live Once (Sono innocente) - Eagle Pictures Blu-ray,
- The Return of Frank James (Rache für Jesse James) - Koch Media DVD.
I'd happily review this disk but I got Amazon to send it to my wrong address so I won't have access to it until December. I'm sure someone else preordered it also.
Last edited by TMDaines on Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Exposure are doing a real good job with their releases and long may it continue with them hopefully filling even more of the American Lang gaps up. As the review points out they're absolutely putting the major labels to utter shame with the complete shameful rip-offs that are the DVD-R lines. We need more companies like this is who put out releases at a decent standard, who take some care in the presentation of the film and extras and put the release at a very fair price point.
TMDaines wrote:Exposure are doing a real good job with their releases and long may it continue with them hopefully filling even more of the American Lang gaps up. As the review points out they're absolutely putting the major labels to utter shame with the complete shameful rip-offs that are the DVD-R lines. We need more companies like this is who put out releases at a decent standard, who take some care in the presentation of the film and extras and put the release at a very fair price point.
As much as I love Exposure (and I've bought two of their three Langs so far) I still bought the Archive version of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt- it's the better print, in the correct aspect ratio. Honestly, I care way more about the movie than I do whether the DVD is burnt or pressed
TMDaines wrote:Exposure are doing a real good job with their releases and long may it continue with them hopefully filling even more of the American Lang gaps up. As the review points out they're absolutely putting the major labels to utter shame with the complete shameful rip-offs that are the DVD-R lines. We need more companies like this is who put out releases at a decent standard, who take some care in the presentation of the film and extras and put the release at a very fair price point.
As much as I love Exposure (and I've bought two of their three Langs so far) I still bought the Archive version of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt- it's the better print, in the correct aspect ratio. Honestly, I care way more about the movie than I do whether the DVD is burnt or pressed
Didn't people come to the conclusion that the aspect ratio they plumped for wasn't wrong but that there's two ratios which are both arguably correct and, moreover, the academy ratio gives you the option of watching it either way anyway?
What I've read suggests that While the City Sleeps was composed for 1.33 (or 1:66) and cut down to 'Scope for some showings, and it looks it- the 'Scope version has a lot of heads and feet cut off- while Beyond a Reasonable Doubt was composed for 'Scope all along. There a fair number of reasons why an open matte print of a widescreen movie doesn't give you the option of watching it either way- I mean, a.) I'm not a fan of getting out cardboard and a ruler to watch a movie properly, and b.) it's an anamorphic release so you don't wind up wasting a lot of screen space on a widescreen monitor (and it gives you a higher bitrate for the film itself.)
Having seen While the City Sleeps many times in 4:3 over the last 35 years, I experimented with projecting the Exposure disc in 16:9 (zooming in) and the compositions made much more sense to me in widescreen (not quite SuperScope's 2:1 of course). I think there's far too much headroom throughout if viewed in 4:3 and it emphasises the almost TV-style cheapness of the Hughes-era RKO sets (the big multi-media New York news service always looks to me more like a parochial newsroom!) This softened the image of course but then, as Beaver notes, the Warner Archive widescreen transfer is "significantly softer" too.
Expanding the central section of open-matte transfers doesn't usually work as they always seem to have small amounts of picture missing at the sides compared to proper widescreen transfers, resulting in heads being clipped (zooming into the R1 4:3 Dial M for Murder doesn't yield the same satisfying compositions as the 16:9 R2 transfer, for example). But I suspect it works reasonably well with While the City Sleeps because the allowance for 2:1 SuperScope grants a bit more leeway. That said, I'm glad to have the option of watching it in 4:3 too.
Yeah, the DVD Savant article suggested that Lang was probably expecting to have City matted to 1:66, so it makes sense that both 1.33 and 2 are off. Obviously, in that situation, having more information is preferable to having less.
If anyone's looking for screenshots or anything from Secret, my copy showed up today.
edit: Glancing at it, it looks a little softer in parts than the Digital Fix review would suggest, but still generally excellent and worth getting. The booklet is neat, too, it's actually pretty good and the essays seem to have been written specifically for this release. Honestly, I'd think this was an MoC release if I didn't know better.
I'm pretty certain they are identical. I looked through the caps Beaver has of the Wild Side back when I got the Exposure, and couldn't spot the difference at all. Not gonna complain though since it's a fine release.
