Imprint

[swo17]

After the news that Mill Creek will release the whole series on Blu, Imprint is releasing Bewitched in two-season sets

I just noticed the first box has been announced for January. Also the complete series of I Dream of Jeannie. How will these compare to the Mill Creek releases, the latter of which was supposedly a bad upscale?

[Yakushima]

I don't see any reviews of Directed by Roman Polanski box set, so I share my observations here for those interested in this edition.

This was an instant pre-order for me because I had only one film from this set already in my Blu-ray collection.

As is often the case with Imprint releases, the three films in this set are presented from the dated masters.

I had only Ninth Gate Blu-ray (Lionsgate Films, 2009) on hand for direct comparison, and the Imprint version was indistinguishable, with the same damage marks and compression artifacts.

Bitter Moon looks very similar to the OOP Kino Lorber Blu-ray, but it appears that Imprint fixed the notorious sound problem.

Death and the Maiden also appears to be an older master, but I thought it looked the best of the bunch.

All three discs are perfectly watchable, but the films would greatly benefit from new transfers / UHD upgrades.

The extras are the main selling point of this set. There are some excellent interviews and amusing featurettes included, as well as a fascinating feature-length documentary that focuses on the Polansky US trial.

The box itself is beautifully produced.

This is a must-have for Polanski's hard-core fans, especially for those who do not have previous Blu-ray releases of the films included here.

Despite the steep price, I am happy with it, but will definitely upgrade if better editions become available.

[mhofmann]

I don't see any reviews of Directed by Roman Polanski box set, so I share my observations here for those interested in this edition.

(...)

Bitter Moon looks very similar to the OOP Kino Lorber Blu-ray, but it appears that Imprint fixed the notorious sound problem.

(...)

I can completely confirm these observations. Old, dates masters throughout. Watchable but not great.

Regarding the sound problem for Bitter Moon, there was nothing to fix as Kino Lorber created the problem for their disc in the first place.

[Aunt Peg]

February releases:

Lipstick
The Betsy
Lifeguard
Swashbuckler
Play It Again, Sam
The Liberation of L.B. Jones

[beamish14]

](*,) Ah, The Liberation of L.B. Jones. Part of the grand tradition of films where established directors of the 40’s and 50’s tried and failed miserably at understanding the late 60’s zeitgeist. See also Carol Reed’s Flap, George Cukor’s Justine, and John Huston’s A Walk with Love and Death

[crimlaw]

You can add to the list George Steven’s “The Only Game in Town”, along with Stanley Donen’s Staircase; Minnelli’s On a Clear Day; Kramer’s R.P.M.; Preminger’s Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon; Kazan’s The Arrangement; and Richard Brooks’ The Happy Ending. Other flops from this generation of filmmakers in 1969-1970 include Hitchcock’s Topaz; Huston’s The Kremlin Letter; Wilder’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes; and Mankiewicz’ There Was a Crooked Man, although these last four have since formed a very strong fan base.

[knives]

I think LBJ is actually a pretty good movie.

[swo17]

[TechnicolorAcid]

Glad luck putting that on your shelf.

[CSM126]

I’m trying to think of a movie I love enough to want something that obnoxiously large to commemorate it and uh… yeah. Coming up blank there.

[MichaelB]

I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is Alfred Hitchcock Presents is coming! The bad news is it’s the 80s revival and DVD only

I've already got the earlier versions (and have no particular need for them in high definition), so I'm actually more interested in this than I would be otherwise.

[beamish14]

Save your money and buy the Folio Society’s gorgeous edition of Michael Ende’s novel

[dwk]

Hot on the heels of Vinegar Syndrome's fast sell out, Imprint just announced they will be releasing The Keep on UHD.

[dwk]

March 2025 titles
Man Bitea Dog
Savior
Shattered Glass
In the Bedroom
The Weight of Water
Factory Girl

[ryannichols7]

Imprint do a good job of commissioning extras for titles I'm sure will have US/UK releases with better transfers at some point, but that make them indispensable editions of their own. this time? an Adrian Martin commentary on In the Bedroom. what a great get, even a Todd Field approved Criterion 4K is very unlikely to include the same

[Aunt Peg]

I've ordered In the Bedroom, Shattered Glass & Man Bites Dog. Will probably get Savior and The Weight of Water in a few months time.

It is a very impressive release slate and though Factory Girl is the only weak title it is not without some curiosity factors.

[domino harvey]

Imprint will be releasing the entire run of UFO, with certain restoration flaws fixed, as well as a second collection of 80s TV movies that all sound grim as hell (including one with Richard Masur as a pedophile!)

[domino harvey]

New Imprint Asia releases:

the Monkey Goes West (1966)
Vengeance of a Show Girl (1971)
the Snake Prince (1976)

[PfR73]

The After Dark Neo-Noir Collection #3 disc of Dirty Pretty Things has a burned-in German subtitle that shouldn't be there at 9:00. Chiwetel Ejiofor looks at a piece of paper that lists "Emergency Numbers" and a burned-in subtitle that says "NOTFALL - NUMMERN" appears. This wasn't on the US Blu-ray.

[swo17]

April releases:

It Came from Outer Space (4K)
Flesh and Fantasy/Dead of Night
Tales of Adventure 5 (27th Day, Night the World Exploded, This Island Earth, Devil Girl from Mars, Gamma People, Underwater City)
Tales of Adventure 6 (Counter-Attack, Abandon Ship, King Rat, Bridge at Remagen)
Bride of Vengeance
Ivy

[domino harvey]

Ivy

WOW! Can't believe it took so long for this one to come out from someone, I assumed there were rights issues. Day one for me for sure

Interested in that war-based Adventure box too-- somehow I haven't seen any of the titles, though they were all already on my radar (and frankly until I checked on Letterboxd I thought I had seen the Bridge at Remagen, but I guess it just ran together with the other big budget star spectacle WWII movies of the era)

Flesh and Fantasy is a double feature with Dead of Night btw

[swo17]

Not sure how I missed that.

I remember liking Remagen and King Rat

[therewillbeblus]

King Rat is incredible. My thoughts:

This may be the best wartime prison camp movie I've ever seen, stripped-down Hobbes vs Locke philosophies perversely presented in raw form without lending credence to either usurping the other, because that would necessitate transcending the survivalist exhaustion these soldiers have been conditioned to by their context. Forbes instead respects his characters and their predicaments, and balances several ambitions with deftness and restraint. He paints a fair and brutal portrait of the immature stages of socially-constructed systems, draws rich characterizations that develop without a clear or direct narrative structure, and concocts his pathway of delivering information around a series of wild and entertaining episodes that weave in and out, existing on their own merits of diversity that funnel into homogenous tangible sensations to indicate its umbrellaed theme. This last piece of irregularity was so effectively implemented that at times I felt Forbes was intentionally taking a surrealistic approach to temporal nonlinearity, as some running plots seemed out of order which only heightened the fever dream of Sisyphean existence we're being acclimated to for two-plus hours (and as long as this film is, the length is necessary to drench us in the atmosphere to the point where we're vicariously depleted right along with the principals in the camp).

Even in the film's last act, when it postures at taking an ethical stance, Forbes (and presumably Clavell's source) subvert their own established expectations. If anyone thinks Forbes wants us to take a particular 'side' here, notice how Courtney's character is cheekily left to the sidelines and elided from the narrative's most crucial moments only to show up as a post-incident finger-wagger. Or take Fox's final lines to Courtney, when he balks at the latter's moralism only to issue a formulation on what Segal provided Courtney that's equally obtuse if we look at it objectively. Each man is seeing in emotional tunnel vision, and neither is right nor wrong. What does right and wrong even matter when the circumstances you're in necessitate self-preservation? And -what I think Forbes and Clavell are really getting at with their coy ending of combative perspectives- when we are finally freed from that reptilian state, what do right and wrong matter when the situation demands emotional -rather than logical- release?

[Maltic]

Flesh and Fantasy extras:

NEW Audio Commentary by film historians Rodney Barnett and Adrian Smith
NEW Video Essay by film scholar Joseph Dwyer
NEW Interview with Jon Towlson, author of “The Turn to Gruesomeness in American Horror Films, 1931 – 1936”

Dead of Night

NEW Audio Commentary by critic and film historian Pamela Hutchinson
NEW Interview with author John Llewellyn Probert on the popularity and history of British horror anthologies and Dead of Night
NEW Interview with author Dr. David Huckvale on Dead of Night
Remembering ‘Dead of Night’ – documentary
Stills Gallery
Restoration Comparison

[swo17]

Stir of Echoes is getting a 4K UHD release