New Australian DVD and BD Releases

[Scharphedin2]

Hello Friends,

I have enjoyed reading your posts here for a little while, and today decided to become a member myself.

Short of reading through this entire thread on Australian releases. Could some of you give me a few hints: What are the best labels, and which ones should I avoid.

What are the essential releases in Australia -- either titles unavailable in any other region, or, films released in other regions, but where the Australian version is superior.

[Andre Jurieu]

I would think for a Werner Herzog box set, the price elasticity of demand might be considered inelastic.

If that's the case, then I think it's really sad. That would mean that very few consumers are actually evaluating the films on their artistic worth versus their monetary cost, but rather just treating them as crack and are simply desperate to get their next hit. It's downright pathetic if the demand is as perfectly inelastic as you seem to suggest it is.

[marty]

On another note altogether, (but still in the blues) there is very strong rumor doing the rounds that the blighted globe-trotting management of the ACMI is going to junk their incredibly valuable 16 and 35mm collection without even any attempt to transfer the material to digital media. Among many many incredibly important holdings is a complete collection of Gregory Markopoulos' work, one of the only two intact in the world (the other held by Anthology Film Archives in NYC.)

Where did you hear that rumour from? That is terrible. Is it a reliable soruce? I have friend who works at ACMI so I will email her and find out.

[marty]

The threat to this remarkable collection is all too real. And nobody whatsoever in the Oz "Film Community" gives a flying fuck.

I have emailed my contact at ACMI and she is flabberghasted as she does not know anything about it. I will get to the bottom of this and let you know what transpires.

[marty]

Thanks for raising this, davidhare! My friend at ACMI is so outraged she is going to do some snooping for me and find out what the hell is happening. There is no excuse to junk prints that are so rare without even, as you mentioned, transferring to digibeta masters. Very inexcusable and complete contempt for these films. Hopefully, some company will help us in keeping these prints.

[Geoff]

I might be catching up late with these two alarming news items but if you ever wanted evidence of the blatant fascism of the Australian Government, these take the cake.

First, the OLFC (and by inference the Review Board) is to be abolished and all powers of classification handed over to the Attorney General. So no more charter of communtiy repesentation and the fundamental principle of "freedom for adults to view material of their choice" etc. Given the antics of State AG's like the asshole in South Australia who does the bidding of the Christian right, this move simply politicizes what had beome an independent, community function, at arm's length from the government of the day.

Second, the same Attorney geneal is about to implement the most insane copyright laws ever drafted by a Western country. Among other masterstrokes the recording of TV to tape or disc is legal, but only for one viewing! And the downloading of CDs is legal only if done to another media format. The laws will be totally unenforceable of course, and are surely nothing but a grant of wishlist from the Entertainment Industry giants, and the two media duoliths, Murdoch and Packer.

Am I alone in finding these shifts in the public polity incredbibly sinister in both intention and execution. And not a word from Labor.

This year began depressingly through some personal bad news. But the aura of politics and public policy is far more overwhelming.

On another note altogether, (but still in the blues) there is very strong rumor doing the rounds that the blighted globe-trotting management of the ACMI is going to junk their incredibly valuable 16 and 35mm collection without even any attempt to transfer the material to digital media. Among many many incredibly important holdings is a complete collection of Gregory Markopoulos' work, one of the only two intact in the world (the other held by Anthology Film Archives in NYC.)

Sigh...

I cannot agree with you more David. It's rather depressing.

[solent]

Is that "asshole in South Australia" the same bitch who jumped in on the ban-SALO-film bandwagon? The same moron who thought LOLITA was pediaphilic and should also have been banned? Forgive my ignorance but the news gives me the shits these days so I ignore it and as a consequence I don't know who is what in the Laberal Party. I can't even remember the name of the bitch I just mentioned [thank god] and she 'represents' me in Canberra!

[marty]

Wouldn't you think these cunts would at least contemplate the idea of donating the rarest of the collection to what would be - to put it mildly - a very large queue of SERIOUS Collections. Do they have ANY IDEA of the rarity of the Markopoulos titles for instance and the effort it took to secure these astonishing Ektachrome first print masters directly from Gregory himself???

Of course they simply dont want anyone to know.

I have copied all of this BTW to other fora and posters if only to alert yet another exercise in intra-cultural terrorism. Simply TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE....

My friend at ACMI just got back to me with this comment:

"Just spoke with someone in collections and thankfully it appears that this rumour isn't true there is no intention to get rid of anything, phew. but please let me know if you hear anything else and i will chase it up."

Davidhare, if you know anything else that I can let my friend know then I will but, at this stage, there are no plans to get rid of anything.

[Solaris]

Does this mean no more awful colour coded ratings?

[marty]

If you have any more info, davidhare, let me know now so I can get my friend tto takee somee action noww before its ttoo late!

[Scharphedin2]

I went back and read the R4 thread, and paid a visit to michaeldvd. It looks like there are quite a number of titles that are well served in Australia. To begin with, I think I will place an order for FALLEN ANGELS (I own the R1 Kino disc, but it is not great), LA CHINOISE, HAIL MARY, AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON and the 2-disc of OZON SHORTS. Now, do you really think THE LEOPARD in R4 is superior to the Criterion edition? And LA DOLCHE VITA? I own the Italian Medusa version of LA DOLCE VITA, and although I am tempted by the Koch Lorber SE, I think the edition I have is nice enough that I will wait a while to consider another investment. Is the R4 much nicer do you think?

That aside, I must say that reading the R4 thread was almost as horrifying as watching a third rate giallo flick. I am really surprised at the censorship situation, and the story about the potential destruction of rare film prints... I take little pride in the Danish film climate, but surely we do not have these kinds of issues to contend with. The worst was the EU ruling a few years back, which effectively made it impossible and illegal for retailers to carry import DVDs. From your thread, I understand that the situation in Australia is similar.

I am not too engaged in the Danish marketplace, but if I were to send recommendations your way for a few DK releases, there is a nice box including the first four Dogme film (including THE CELEBRATION and THE IDIOTS) with subs on all films and extras. There is another nice box with Von Trier's EUROPE TRILOGY -- at least two of the films are in English but unfortunately w/o subs. The boxes are apx. € 30-40 a piece. I also know that the Danish Film Institute is releasing a series of Danish silent films, which I have not yet personally purchased. My understanding is that the quality is high. Laserdisken is a good and reliable retail/internet store.

Thanks for your help and the thread, which I really enjoyed reading.

[Scharphedin2]

Thanks davidhare... I am compiling a list based on this and other threads... Using the internet to gain further insight and purchase DVDs worldwide has added a whole new dimension of opportunity for me. I will let you know how I fare in my Australian DVD adventure

With respect to The Leopard, can you help me understand this a little better... It is a huge favorite of mine. I bought the Criterion the moment it was off the press, and I have never seen the film look as glorious (saw it twice in retrospectives over the years and on TV). If I understand correctly, the R4 would look even better than the CC edition, since it is in transferred HD. Will this make a real difference when viewing with an older tri-panel projector?

[devlinnn]

The Wild Bunch S.E. is due this August from Warner (no other Peckinpah), as is a 6-disc collection of John Wayne (titles TBC).

[daniel p]

The Wild Bunch S.E. is due this August from Warner (no other Peckinpah), as is a 6-disc collection of John Wayne (titles TBC).

Where did you get that news from devlinnn?

[devlinnn]

The magic source bottle. Just shake once (twice for Fox), then pour.

The Umbrella Herzog box will be a direct port (lunch-time already), 6-disc, 24 film set.

[ChrisW]

I've just purchased Ulysses' Gaze by Theo Angelopoulos (R4 Directors Suite - Madman) blind, and I am very frustrated with their subtitling authoring effort.

Don't they have any quality control procedure of sitting down and going over the DVD they've just authored? I've only watched the first 5 minutes and the subtitle timing is so unpredictable that I have missed 1/3 of the subtitles already. A part of a sentence was shown on the screen and it disappeared after less than 0.5 seconds, and the rest of the sentence displayed and it remained for a couple of seconds after the character finished speaking. I had to rewind, pause, read the subtitle, and I don't know whether this effort on my part is worth it... I will get back once I finish the film and edit this post and say how the rest of it goes.

Hi Bertolt. I've been informed that this problem is being fixed and will be available during the next replication order. If you go to the Help Section on the Madman website (at the top), please contact Madman via email and report your fault and they will issue you with a replacement once it's available. Almost all of the film is in English so there shouldn't be any issues later on in the film.

[devlinnn]

Where would the studios be without Fathers Day. Throw in The Searchers S.E, The Dirty Dozen S.E., Mad Max II S.E. and Ice Station Zebra to the Warner August line-up. If only we had a day to celebrate those non-parenting, well-attired, sports-avoiding, fresh-minded guys and gals who actually go out and buy the friggin' films.

[wbumble]

The Umbrella Herzog box will be a direct port (lunch-time already), 6-disc, 24 film set.

That's great news - thanks to you & davidhare and others who've made this thread so informative for those down under!

Do any Aussies have the R1 discs of 'Little Dieter Needs to Fly' & 'The White Diamond'?

I thought I'd chip in with a couple of tips:

Tokyo Story 2-disc - is horribly done (like Early Summer), PAL-ified, jittery and squeezed into 3.56gb (?!) for a 135min film, artefacts abound.

Grizzly Man - someone asked about this a couple pages back, its fine (tho has the too-common authoring problem of 1/2 scan line missing on top/replaced on the bottom, does anyone know the cause of this?)

Recent Ghibli - (everything after and including Yamada-kun & Pom Poko - i.e. Totoro, Whisper of the Heart, Howl) are really quite good. They've adopted the reverse telecine technique for transferring; wish they'd revisit the earlier PAL-ified ones.

Other recents nice discs: Okamoto - Sword of Doom & Samurai Assassin (wishing AV channel used those same white, smaller subs for everything under their banner!); Can't wait for Red Lion & Kill! All the Ghost in the Shell franchise - 1, 2: Innocence & GITS: Stand Alone Complex 1st & 2nd Gigs.

Cheers!

[tryavna]

Does anyone have the R1 discs of 'Little Dieter Needs to Fly' & 'The White Diamond'?

I own "Little Dieter" as part of Anchor Bay's Herzog boxset (not to be confused with the Herzog/Kinski boxset, also by Anchor Bay). It's a good DVD, and I highly recommend it -- as I do for all of Anchor Bay's Herzog films. If you buy the two boxsets, you get a total of 13 films, 9 of which have commentaries. It's a good investment if you love Herzog, as so many of us here do!

[wbumble]

Does anyone have the R1 discs of 'Little Dieter Needs to Fly' & 'The White Diamond'?

I own "Little Dieter" as part of Anchor Bay's Herzog boxset (not to be confused with the Herzog/Kinski boxset, also by Anchor Bay). It's a good DVD, and I highly recommend it -- as I do for all of Anchor Bay's Herzog films. If you buy the two boxsets, you get a total of 13 films, 9 of which have commentaries. It's a good investment if you love Herzog, as so many of us here do!

thanks tryavna - I have the Anchor Bay Lessons of Darkness/Fata Morgana disc, its great! I saw Fata Morgana in the cinema couple years ago, one of my best exp.

re: Little Dieter - have you been following the 'Rescue Dawn' saga? What are your thoughts on this?

[tryavna]

Does anyone have the R1 discs of 'Little Dieter Needs to Fly' & 'The White Diamond'?

I own "Little Dieter" as part of Anchor Bay's Herzog boxset (not to be confused with the Herzog/Kinski boxset, also by Anchor Bay). It's a good DVD, and I highly recommend it -- as I do for all of Anchor Bay's Herzog films. If you buy the two boxsets, you get a total of 13 films, 9 of which have commentaries. It's a good investment if you love Herzog, as so many of us here do!

thanks tryavna - I have the Anchor Bay Lessons of Darkness/Fata Morgana disc, its great! I saw Fata Morgana in the cinema couple years ago, one of my best exp.

re: Little Dieter - have you been following the 'Rescue Dawn' saga? What are your thoughts on this?

I've been following it with some interest, but I'm not sure what to think just yet. Generally, I have faith in Herzog himself; I don't trust his producers and the other people he's working with -- especially after reading that New Yorker article. I really hope he retains the right to final cut, but we'll have to wait and see.

[Solaris]

Stomp will be releasing David Hamilton's Bilitis on 28 June.

Magna will be releasing the 1972 TV film of War and Peace on August 16.
Does anybody know the runtime of this film? IMDb doesn't have it listed. Is it shorter/longer than Bondarchuk's version?

[wbumble]

does anyone know what's up with Accent?

I'm waiting for Last Life in the Universe -

I see some 'upcoming' titles (like Millenium Mambo) listed on the distributor, MRA's website, but not that one...

Also, does anyone know why Paramount pulled Boetticher's Seven Men from Now? (just one of many which have been cancelled by various studios)

To release the Wild Bunch without the rest of the Peckinpah legendary westerns set is depressing.. here's hoping that Warner's releases the entire James Stewart collection so we can see The Naked Spur locally.

[solent]

Didn't the same thing happen with the Warners Scorsese reissues? MEAN STREETS was inexplicably left off the set.

[marty]

does anyone know what's up with Accent?

I'm waiting for Last Life in the Universe -

I see some 'upcoming' titles (like Millenium Mambo) listed on the distributor, MRA's website, but not that one...

I know that they have recently signed a distribution agreement with MRA who are handling the actual sales and distribution of their films. I believe they still do their own authoring which is a relief as well as artwork etc and also the odd theatrical release ie. Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9 at ACMI last week.

They has some interesting films coming out this year including Abel Ferrara's Mary and Larry Clark's Wassup Rockers.