BFI (British Film Institute)

[caminoreal]

Yes, you can download all the sample copies as PDF files. However I cannot download the latest issue to my computer even though I have a subscription to the journal. This is made clear in the FAQ page which states that downloading is only possible on an iPad not a computer.

I have, however downloaded the yearly collections of MFB's. I can't stop reading them!

[John Doe]

Mon Oncle & Jour De Fete (Blu-ray/DVD) - October 22nd.

[Calvin]

The BFI have launched their five-year plan which looks pretty darn good. Priority three is the one that will probably interest most folks here, with over 10,000 films being digitised and (seemingly) being made available online.

[Bürgermeister]

BFI stop printing "dual format edition" on the cover. ](*,)

[peerpee]

Wondering if there are plans to release Laurel & Hardy's ATOLL K (1951) and other stuff on Blu-ray?
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/bfi- ... ardy-print" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jonathan S]

For many people, including myself, the biggest obstacle to enjoying Atoll K is Laurel's exceptionally unhealthy appearance (due to illness - he looked much better a decade later)... which will be even more obvious in 35mm (or HD)! I haven't seen the recently issued Gaumont DVD - with French only audio?

The gags do tend to revive more of their 1930s charm than the brash 1940s films they made for Fox and MGM, though there's also a new element of political satire, which (as I suggested in my book on their films) seems inspired by Passport to Pimlico.

[antnield]

B.S. Johnson's 1969 short Paradigm has just been classified by the BBFC and also recently uploaded to watch in full at The Space.

To quote the National Film Archive's catalogue: "Experimental film. A paradigm (exemplar, demonstrative example) of one view of the writer's condition: the older you get, the less you have to say and the more difficulty you have in saying it. By extension, it is also a paradigm of the human condition."

[htshell]

Is there any list of what has screened in The Flipside slot at BFI?

Thanks for the link to Paradigm, a very interesting short. Is this perhaps teasing a BFI release of this artist's short films? His biography is intriguing.

[MichaelB]

I believe someone from the BFI let slip that they have a B.S. Johnson project in the works at the last Missing Believed Wiped event.

[GaryC]

I believe someone from the BFI let slip that they have a B.S. Johnson project in the works at the last Missing Believed Wiped event.

Yes, that was Sam Dunn and I was in the audience, The reason for this was that he was introducing one of the items being shown at Missing Believed Wiped: Johnson's half-hour TV play Not Counting the Savages from 1972 (directed by Mike Newell), which was found as a homevideo recording (in b/w - the play was made in colour though) in the Johnson family's possession.

[antnield]

And I see that William Hoyland (in a shot that looks to have been taken from Johnson's You're Human Like the Rest of Them) is currently serving as the Flipside's avatar on their Facebook page.

[MichaelB]

Well, B.S.Johnson would be an obvious candidate for a Flipside release (and then some!)...

[kieslowski]

Out on 15 April, according to BS Johnson biographer Jonathan Coe:
http://www.jonathancoewriter.com/blog.php/?p=334" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

will include, among other things, fully restored and cleaned-up versions of You’re Human Like the Rest of Them, Paradigm and Fat Man on a Beach; rare TV documentaries by Johnson on his novel The Unfortunates and his namesake Samuel Johnson; and a recently recovered b/w home video recording of his long-lost television play Not Counting the Savages.

[antnield]

John Krish's Captured has been classified by the BBFC for video release.

Set in the Korean War, the film shows British prisoners enduring brainwashing, revealing what a soldier could expect when captured and how he might find within himself the strength to resist. The film was designated 'Restricted'.

[zedz]

John Krish's Captured has been classified by the BBFC for video release.

Set in the Korean War, the film shows British prisoners enduring brainwashing, revealing what a soldier could expect when captured and how he might find within himself the strength to resist. The film was designated 'Restricted'.

That sounds great, wherever it ends up, but fingers crossed for a John Krish Vol 2 Blu!

[RossyG]

That sounds great, wherever it ends up, but fingers crossed for a John Krish Vol 2 Blu!

I'll second that, especially if it contains Friend or Foe and Out of the Darkness.

[MichaelB]

John Krish has long said that Captured is one of the films that he's proudest of - but it's been almost impossible to see until now.

I think its public premiere was at a Krish retrospective in 2003, but until then it had been classified as 'Restricted' by the Ministry of Defence because of its subject matter - which meant that even within the Army it could only be screened in the presence of an officer of suitably high rank. This applied as much to private as to public screenings, with the result that Krish was unable to show the film to producers as a calling card.

Presumably the MoD finally decided that since the film is over half a century old, it's less sensitive than it was.

[antnield]

Captured will be Blu.

[tojoed]

I haven't seen this mentioned, so apologies if I'm wrong, but
there's a Michael Powell/Cavalcanti box sceduled in June.

[Tommaso]

"The Boy who turned yellow"! Lovely, I'd never thought someone would put that one out. Of course it's a children's film, low budget et al. But it has wit and charm, and it exudes quite a bit of the fun that P&P must have had working together again on this one.

[MichaelB]

It's covered in the Children's Film Foundation thread - full specs will be posted there when they're confirmed. On the evidence of the first two CFF volumes, transfer standards should be top-notch, as the BFI is now looking after all the CFF materials so has access to the best available elements.

[Kauno]

New release dates according to Amazon:

Cría Cuervos - May 27
Theorem - May 27
Opening Night - May 27
Chronicle of a Summer - May 27
Stromboli - June 17
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie - July 15

Then again some pre-order prices are quite attractive: Cría Cuervos £12, Opening Night, Underground and Stromboli £12.50 each.

[RossyG]

Street date? Sounds like a prostitute.

I only hope Cria Cuervos is worth the wait. I usually don't bother with tax-dodging Amazon, but I put in a £10 pre-order last summer. Seemed rude not to.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Michael do you know when we can expect autumn announcements that hopefully confirm the Ozu mop up titles and if we will see Vol 3 Humphrey Jennings this year?

[Forrest Taft]

I see the BFI is screening Boorman's The Newcomers (I think Tom Stoppard appears in some of the episodes) as part of their current Boorman retrospective. Any chance they'll release this on DVD/BD? I've been interested in checking out his television works since I read Suburban Boy, and this is considered among the very best of his earlier stuff, I believe.