Imprint

[swo17]

May announcements:

Olivier's Shakespeare (Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III)
Carroll Baker set (Something Wild, Sylvia, Harlow)
David Lean Vol. 1 (In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, Blithe Spirit, Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist)

[Matt]

I wonder if the two David Lean Dickens films are new restorations or are the same ancient transfers used for ITV's Blu-rays back in 2008.

[andyli]

They didn’t mention one 4k restoration for the Lean box, as opposed to all 4k restorations for the Shakespeare one. But we know that at least Brief Encounter and In Which We Serve are 4k restored in Criterion’s set, so I guess we’ll find out when it’s available.

[domino harvey]

Carroll Baker set (Something Wild, Sylvia, Harlow)

Haven’t seen Sylvia but the other two are amongst the worst films of the decade, so it would have to be an all out masterpiece to support a purchase!

EDIT: They got Foster Hirsch to talk about all three films! Now I’m intrigued, dammit

[swo17]

Imprint Asia announcements:

Shaw Bros. Horror Vol. 1 (Oily Maniac, Seeding of a Ghost, Sex Beyond the Grave)
Portrait in Crystal
The Lost Bladesman

[swo17]

June announcements:

Raging Bull 4K
New York, New York
The Man Who Would Be King
The Wind and the Lion
Leadbelly
J.W. Coop
The Onion Field

[JSC]

Been waiting for Leadbelly for years!

[ryannichols7]

the Raging Bull release is comically pricey and superfluous considering there's not a single new on disc extra there

[tenia]

the Raging Bull release is comically pricey and superfluous considering there's not a single new on disc extra there

It's just the usual trick from australian boutique prices : overcharging through adding a disc that has no reason to exist (75% of Raging Bull extras are in SD, everything would fit along the movie disc), and adding an inflated booklet that will actually be 80% screencaps and 20% text hence $15 extra for 5 minutes of reading time.

I guess not enough people are fed up by these obvious price-gouging practices, since they keep happening.

There's nothing in this $75 release that wouldn't fit into a $30 Arrow release : drop the extra disc by fitting the extras on the Blu-ray along the movie (they do fit), and drop the crapload of pictures to reduce the booklet to 40 pages (I mean, come on, the specs only talks of "an essay", which I doubt has 30 pages of text), and there you go.

[dwk]

Been waiting for Leadbelly for years!

I recall the Kino Insider saying it is under license to someone in the US. So I'd expect that one to get a domestic release later this year.

[domino harvey]

Hadn't heard of J.W. Coop but interesting to see its a modern day rodeo film released the same year as that more well-known modern rodeo film, Junior Bonner (wonder if it contributed to Peckinpah's film underperforming, since it came out around the same time?)

[crimlaw]

I saw J.W. Coop when it came out in the spring of ‘72 in some small art house theater in NYC. It barely got a wide release even though Cliff Robertson was on every talk show for weeks promoting it since it was his first major post-Oscar effort, which he directed. The reviews were respectful and decent. Immediately thereafter, another rodeo film was released, James Coburn’s The Honkers, which came and went within one week without any fanfare in NYC. Finally, Junior Bonner in July of ‘72, which actually fared the best at the box-office due to the Peckinpah/McQueen collaboration.

[nicolas]

Raging Bull will be encoded by Fidelity in Motion and comes with Dolby Vision.

[dwk]

One would assume that the lack of DV on Raging Bull was Scorsese's choice (all the other UHDs of Scorsese films that Criterion has done have DV.) So, at least to me, a label deciding to add their own DV grade isn't exactly a selling point.

[tenia]

It's possible Dolby Vision will only refine the HDR treatment by having more detailed metadata and that's it. It shouldn't be, in any case, a vastly different grade.

[nicolas]

I’d be surprised if anyone but David M takes care of the DV pass just like when he works for Arrow. I hope that the real advantage of his involvement leads to the 2.0 audio being improved over the Criterion 4K as they used a filtered mix compared to their LaserDisc track from back in the day.

[dwk]

Blue (1968)/ Fade In (1973)
Hud(1963)
The Property is Condemed (1966)
Track of the Cat (1955)
You Only Live Once (1937)
The Juggler (1953)
Jet Storm (1959)

[andyli]

Hasn't someone else already issued Hud on blu-ray in Australia?

[dwk]

I have no idea, but I dont know why anyone would buy this when a UHD is probably coming sometime this year.

[sabbath]

Isn't Track of the Cat a Batjac property, or is the right situation different in Australia?

[senseabove]

You Only Live Once might be from a new restoration done by StudioCanal in 2020, fwiw. It looks like there was a French release in 2023, but I've never seen any comparisons.

[tenia]

There is a review of the French BD here : https://www.dvdclassik.com/test/blu-ray ... lu-ray-dvd

[andyli]

Ah, the French branch of Studio Canal surely don’t like to promote their 4K restorations. This one has completely flown under the radar. Here’s hope someone in the UK/US will pick this restoration up.

[tenia]

It was released through the Jean-Baptiste Thoret helmed collection called Make My Day, which is even more awful at expliciting this than the Canal standard releases within their mainline. I don't understand why not using this as a sale point (I mean, it's what is used, why not stating it ?), but they pretty much never do.

[hearthesilence]

There is a review of the French BD here : https://www.dvdclassik.com/test/blu-ray ... lu-ray-dvd

The "original negative" that's in France ("négatif original qui était conservé en France"), is that definitely the actual OCN or a dupe negative?

FWIW, ClassFlix's restoration (per their disc's supplement) was done on a 35mm element provided by the BFI.

Track of the Cat is an amazing looking film, glad someone's upgrading that.