Flicker Alley

[Ashirg]

Here is how my order looks like:

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME US $22.37
This is Cinerama + Windjammer C US $46.66
The Late Mathias Pascal (Feu Ma US $23.76

[TMDaines]

Maybe I've missed this but a Google search didn't throw up anything: what language intertitles will The Late Mathias Pascal have? Original French or has it been Kinofied?

[triodelover]

Maybe I've missed this but a Google search didn't throw up anything: what language intertitles will The Late Mathias Pascal have? Original French or has it been Kinofied?

It likely will depend on the contractual arrangements and funding. If TCM is involved in any way as they were on the two Gances, the intertitles almost assuredly will be in English.

[YnEoS]

Maybe I've missed this but a Google search didn't throw up anything: what language intertitles will The Late Mathias Pascal have? Original French or has it been Kinofied?

It likely will depend on the contractual arrangements and funding. If TCM is involved in any way as they were on the two Gances, the intertitles almost assuredly will be in English.

But J'Accuse had French intertitles.

[triodelover]

But J'Accuse had French intertitles.

You are quite correct. i just went back and looked at the first disc. My memory failed me. Strike my comment, then.

[JonasEB]

Maybe I've missed this but a Google search didn't throw up anything: what language intertitles will The Late Mathias Pascal have? Original French or has it been Kinofied?

The TCM broadcast had original French intertitles, no alterations.

[Gregory]

Another question: I understand that Mathias Pascal was restored to its full length a couple decades ago, but the version I've seen was under 2 hours in length, not 170 minutes as seen on TCM and the future Flicker Alley disc. Is this simply a matter of different frame rates? The shorter one didn't strike me as too fast.

[neilist]

Another question: I understand that Mathias Pascal was restored to its full length a couple decades ago, but the version I've seen was under 2 hours in length, not 170 minutes as seen on TCM and the future Flicker Alley disc. Is this simply a matter of different frame rates? The shorter one didn't strike me as too fast.

I can't say for definite, but if the forthcoming blu-ray has the film at just under three hours and the version you saw was less than two, then unless there's some crazy differences in frame rates, I think it's very likely that the version you saw had less footage than the forthcoming.

[TMDaines]

Maybe I've missed this but a Google search didn't throw up anything: what language intertitles will The Late Mathias Pascal have? Original French or has it been Kinofied?

The TCM broadcast had original French intertitles, no alterations.

Looks like this may well be my second Flicker Alley then!

[Jonathan S]

Another question: I understand that Mathias Pascal was restored to its full length a couple decades ago, but the version I've seen was under 2 hours in length, not 170 minutes as seen on TCM and the future Flicker Alley disc. Is this simply a matter of different frame rates? The shorter one didn't strike me as too fast.

Although I haven't seen that latest version yet, I do have the earlier 159-minute restoration and that definitely includes material (particularly towards the end) not seen in the previous version that was under two hours. I believe some of the extra time was due to a slower frame-rate, however.

[Gregory]

EDIT: Linked video has been deleted

[fdm]

Anyone receive their Cyber Monday order yet?

[matrixschmatrix]

Yeah, a few days ago. It got sent out Media Mail, so it might take a while.

[fdm]

Yeah, a few days ago. It got sent out Media Mail, so it might take a while.

Picked it up today. Apparently it bounced from one coast to the other, and then made it back to the middle on Saturday. Sans 2 of the 3 blus. I am so disgusted with mail order these days.

Edit: And now they say they aren't going to do anything about it.
Edit: And now, after much back and forth, they did. I think.

[Calvin]

Nanook of the North / The Wedding of Palo (and Other Films of Arctic Life) Blu-Ray - February 26th

[neilist]

Has anyone watched the blu-ray of 'The Late Mathias Pascal' yet? I can't see any reviews online, what's the picture quality like and can we confirm the language of the intertitles? Thanks.

[sinemadelisikiz]

I haven't had a chance to watch the whole film yet, but I did a quick check and don't see any obvious problems with picture quality. I can confirm that the intertitles are in French, and the English subtitles are removable.

[Finch]

The film looks mostly excellent but there is heavy damage in the scene at the bonfire festival where Michel Simon's character takes the mother of the girl he fancies for a ride on the carousel. I thought the film was extremely good, perhaps a bit too long but a very worthy addition to the Flicker Alley catalogue. I even prefer it to the also very good L'Argent, and hope we get to see more Marcel L'Haubier films, either from MoC or FA or perhaps Kino. Would also love to see more films with Igor Mosjoukine who cuts such an impressive figure in Mathias Pascal.

[triodelover]

Beaver on Feu Mathias Pascal.

[Tommaso]

Aargh... yellow subs. Thank God they're optional. Otherwise it looks fantastic, of course.

[peerpee]

Also very shocked by the yellow subs. Thought we'd seen the back of those on DVD. Have never seen a Blu-ray with yellow subs. A terrible decision.

[MichaelB]

I can understand why they put yellow subs on NTSC VHS releases, but there's absolutely no need to do it even on DVD, let alone Blu-ray.

[triodelover]

OTOH, in this particular case we have a L'Herbier masterpiece (which has AFAIK never appeared on DVD or BD before) in a stunning Blu-ray issue from a small, specialty label and we are whinging about subtitle color - subtitles which only appear against the black background of intertitle cards and are there only because Flicker Alley have provided those intertitles in the original French (when failure to do so is a hanging offense around here). Gratitude abounds. ](*,)

[McCrutchy]

I haven't gotten round to my copy yet, but count me as another one perturbed by the yellow subtitles. And not to fan the flames, but I also thought we were past the lossy audio encodes as well. I realize full well that this is score for a silent film, but even with the long feature, they still had plenty of room for a lossless 2.0 track, and given the prices they charge, it's pretty lame that we're back to bog standard 192 kbps Dolby.

[Ashirg]

Listed on Amazon for April 16:

French Masterworks: Russian Emigres in Paris 1923-1929 - 5 Iconic Films Albatros Productions

The collection of Russian filmmakers who made up the core of what came to be known as Films Albatros arrived from Moscow after the October 1917 revolution by way of Yalta, Constantinople and Marseilles, establishing their base of operations in an old Pathé greenhouse-style studio in the Paris suburb of Montreuil. From it flowed some of the finest French films of the 1920s variously experimental, spectacular, charming, witty; and always beautifully executed. The five exciting features in this collection, each restored to excellent condition by the Cinematheque Francaise, are all U.S. home video premieres, accompanied by outstanding new music scores by Timothy Brock, Robert Israel, Neil Brand, Antonio Coppola and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. Three of the films showcase the multi-faceted talents of Ivan Mosjoukine, who left a starring career in Russia for even greater glory in France. He wrote and directed The Burning Crucible (Le Brasier ardent, 1923) in which he also plays eleven parts. Of this film Jean Renoir said I was ecstatic ... I decided to abandon my trade, ceramics, to try to make films. Mosjoukine also collaborated on the script and plays the title role in Alexandre Volkoff's lavish Kean (1924), dramatizing the later life of Edmund Kean, the greatest Shakespearian of the early 19th century. In The Late Mathias Pascal (Feu Mathias Pascal, 1926) -a nearly three-hour super-production based upon a Pirandello Novel and brilliantly directed by Marcel L Herbier Mosjoukine inhabits the dual lives of the eponymous main character. To see him in action is to be mesmerized; he combines the theatrical skill of John Barrymore with the élan of Valentino or John Gilbert. Alexander Kamenka, the head of Albatros, thought Jacques Feyder the greatest French filmmaker, and secured his talent for the dazzling comedy-dramas Gribiche (1925) and The New Gentlemen (Les Nouveaux messieur, 1929). Jean Forest (Faces of Children, Crainquebille) is Gribiche, a working-class youth who allows himself to be adopted in the hope that his widowed mother can marry a man unwilling to take on a step-son. The New Gentlemen, one of the wittiest, most sophisticated comedies ever to come out of France, describes a tug-of-war over a pretty young actress between an aging aristocrat and a young left-wing union organizer. For each film, the original French titles are retained with optional English subtitles. In acknowledgment to on-going, serious archival restoration, a scene from Gribiche not in the set's current restoration but only in the foreign negative, is presented as a bonus feature. Also presented is a new essay on Films Albatros and notes on each film by historian Lenny Borger.