Olive Films

[swo17]

I will be buying negative 20 copies, so it all balances out.

[SpiderBaby]

I take it this is the cover art (only pic I found of the 2 Godards):

[knives]

Those two films aren't just Godard.

[SpiderBaby]

Those two films aren't just Godard.

The 2 on the right obviously. That is one big picture I took from another forum.

[knives]

No, I mean the two Vertov's aren't just Godard. Given how different they are from what Godard was doing previously Gorin and Melville's contributions should never be ignored for the more famous name.

[SpiderBaby]

oh, understood.

[Hail_Cesar]

They are going to sell about eight copies of Ici et ailleurs

Hey I was waiting for these 2. I guess I'm one of the 8.

SO AM I!!!!!!

[Zot!]

Can you imagine the complaining when they start limiting the copies to 8?

[Hail_Cesar]

Can you imagine the complaining when they start limiting the copies to 8?

They could sell them 400$ a piece and people would buy them... Although I guess only collectors would get them and they'd stay in the plastic...

[Tribe]

Nice little label, Olive. DVD Aficionado lists several noir titles as "not announced," but I asume there's some basis for including them under the Olive label. In any event, Johnny Guitar is so listed. Is there any real evidence that this might be forthcoming from Olive? It would be a nice little coup if that were true.

[knives]

They have the Republic library which the Ray is a part of.

[Tribe]

They have the Republic library which the Ray is a part of.

Wow...they even have an Ophuls noir, as well as Lang's Secret Beyond the Door. Very nice to find a small label being able to get these. The little label that could!

[perkizitore]

Coming on July 17th!

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Any extras expected for Body Snatchers?

[eerik]

Any extras expected for Body Snatchers?

Making of featurette and trailer for High Noon, nothing for Body Snatchers.

[Cash Flagg]

Any extras expected for Body Snatchers?

Making of featurette and trailer for High Noon, nothing for Body Snatchers.

It's a pity they didn't port over the extensive Lionsgate extras from High Noon, other than the shorter featurette. I assume there were contractional reasons? This was posted in the HTF thread linked above:

I contacted Olive and was told that Johnny Guitar "is right around the corner."

[captveg]

Sold. Both have to be an easy improvement over my DVDs from 1999 and 2000.

[felipe]

I don't get it. If Paramount was willing to license High Noon, why didn't Criterion put their hands on it before Olive Films? Did Olive Films make a bigger offer?

[knives]

Criterion would have probably wanted only High Noon plus a few choice others and Paramount only offer it as a package deal.

[Calvin]

I've never seen High Noon or Invasion of the Body Snatchers but I'm tempted to get both. I'm hoping they release The Sun Shines Bright sooner rather than later.

[captveg]

Criterion would have probably wanted only High Noon plus a few choice others and Paramount only offer it as a package deal.

Exactly. It's an all-or-nothing deal (It's a Wonderful Life the lone exception) when it comes to the Republic catalog in Paramount's eyes. That's around 150 titles IIRC, not counting short films.

[felipe]

Does that apply to Replubic titles only or to all the Paramount calalog? I mean, when Criterion gets something like Harold and Maude or Rosemary's Baby, do they get to choose the titles or is it a package deal?

[knives]

In those cases since they are 100% Paramount titles the licensing companies are allowed to pick and choose. I believe Paramount only packages the main Republic library with everything else on a title by title basis.

[matrixschmatrix]

Damn, I got all excited when I saw that Body Snatchers was 'restored from the original negative' in the press material, but apparently that's not actually true- so still no hope of seeing it 1:33, which I understand to be the actual OAR. Oh well, still pretty excited.

[Jeff]

Damn, I got all excited when I saw that Body Snatchers was 'restored from the original negative' in the press material, but apparently that's not actually true- so still no hope of seeing it 1:33, which I understand to be the actual OAR. Oh well, still pretty excited.

1.37 was the original negative ratio, but Siegel was supposedly composing for 1.85. That seems likely since you couldn't really crop 1.37 to 2.00 without losing halves of faces. The decision to release it in SuperScope was made early in very early post production. Siegel and Walter Wanger were against it -- mainly, I think, due to the lost resolution.

I don't know if Academy ratio elements even exist anymore. I saw a new print from Paramount a few years ago, and it was SuperScope. It was, in fact, never released theatrically in anything other than 2.00. My 1998 Republic DVD says that it was restored from the "original negative" too. Obviously they're not referring to the camera negative, but some intermediate source. VHS releases were actually panned and scanned from the SuperScope elements, so you were getting only a tiny portion of the original camera image. This version is also on the Republic DVD. I believe that the Criterion laserdisc even had an early comparison showing how much picture information you lose via pan and scan!

As much as I'd like to see it opened up slightly per Siegel's wishes, I don't think there's any reason to believe that's ever going to happen, and may not even be possible.