New Australian DVD and BD Releases

[Gator]

Good news re the Ozu's. At last I can start replacing some of those crappy Tartan UK releases. =D>

Going back a bit .. does anybody have Madman's Dark Water release (the original not the remake) & is it native PAL or another standards conversion? Thanks.

[Perkins Cobb]

Special edition of Dogs in Space from Umbrella this month, finally.

[GaryC]

Special edition of Dogs in Space from Umbrella this month, finally.

Great news. This was released on DVD in the UK years ago and was (so I gather) a pan-and-scanned abomination. I saw the film in London on its cinema release.

He Died With a Felafel in His Hand is one of my favourite Australian movies of the last ten years. Richard Lowenstein has directed just four features in nearly twenty-five years - and I haven't seen one of them, Say a Little Prayer. I guess he's too busy earning money making promo videos.

[zedz]

Special edition of Dogs in Space from Umbrella this month, finally.

Great news. This was released on DVD in the UK years ago and was (so I gather) a pan-and-scanned abomination. I saw the film in London on its cinema release.

Ah yes. This is a guilty pleasure of mine (but it's so long since I've seen it I don't know if it should even be still considered guilty). Until it turns into an INXS video at the very end, it's one of the most accurate depictions I've ever seen about student flatting life, and pretty funny to boot. When I saw the film on release, Another Green World still had that mysterious culty aura of a handed-around totem, so hearing the beginning of 'Sky Saw' banging out elicited a huge grin.

[Solaris]

Has anyone locally (or offshore) gleaned any info about the last minute withdrawal of the Beyond Home Ent Hitchcock Collection Vol. 3? I hadn't bought the first two but I understand the transfers were the restored Studio Canal/Concorde ones, and the final volume looked indispensible - Elstree calling, Waltzes from Vienna, et al. Obviously not major Hitch but essential completist box at 29 bucks for 8 titles. From restored sources.

[zedz]

Snap!

[HerrSchreck]

I'm a Tokyo Story man myself, when it comes to Ozu's "best", which to me merely means personally affecting.

What's your take on GREEN TEA, Dave?

[HerrSchreck]

I definitely agree with your assessments of the film.. hugely moving. And unlike many melodramas that get under your fingernails upon first & second viewings but inevitably are subject to a fading impact as the number of viewing increases, Late Spring like most of Ozu never loses it's impact... oftentimes increases. To become dead to Ozu you'd almost think you'd hafta become dead to the life experience itself.

The CC is very good.. there's some boosting going on but not to the degree of say the tartan or (god forbid) the Bo ying. But I'm not as big a fan of Tokyo Ga as most people are, so that never was a big selling point for me. The way the interviews are handled and translated drives me up the wall.

[tojoed]

From Madman in October - Luis Bunuel's "The Young One", with a commentary by Jonathan Rosenbaum. Also Renoir's "Une Partie de Campagne" and Ken Loach's "Family life".

[Zazou dans le Metro]

Spring is simply the most moving of all the Chishu Ryu and daughter films, which are virtually a cycle, and all of the underlying, unfiying theme of family, youth, age, separation and death Late Spring always makes me weep. I think Chishu is staggering in this (as though he isn't elsewhere.) And maybe Ozu's treatment and decoupage in this is so intense, as though he's holding the shots longer as the movie progresses, the impact is all the more overwhelming.

I re-watched this recently as a result of reading about Claire Denis' 35 Rhums and welled up at intervals (culminating in a full on nose blow during the wedding dress scene). Certainly no other Ozu yanks me in this way and my tear ducts are almost exclusively reserved otherwise for Powell and Pressburger.
Here's one of the articles where Denis talks about Late Spring..

http://www.dailyplastic.com/2009/03/int ... ts-of-rum/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
also
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPIo6Civ ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[zedz]

Here's one of the articles where Denis talks about Late Spring..

http://www.dailyplastic.com/2009/03/int ... ts-of-rum/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fantastic interview; it offers a lot of insight into Denis' highly collaborative working method. Thanks for the link.

But as for this bit:

Shortly after that sequence, the camera mysteriously tracks toward the empty entryway, a slow and subtle forward movement toward the front door, something Ozu himself would never have done.

All I can say is, the sooner Criterion / Eclipse releases Dragnet Girl, the sooner some of these silly received notions can die a natural death.

[Sloper]

I haven't seen the Denis film (or indeed Dragnet Girl), but there are quite a few tracking shots in Early Summer - slow, subtle, mysterious, and yet surprisingly attention-seeking. The effect is really wonderful, all the more so because it's used so sparingly.

[zedz]

I haven't seen the Denis film (or indeed Dragnet Girl), but there are quite a few tracking shots in Early Summer - slow, subtle, mysterious, and yet surprisingly attention-seeking. The effect is really wonderful, all the more so because it's used so sparingly.

In Dragnet Girl (and various other silents) Ozu proves himself to be a master of spectacular, unexpected tracking shots, including some mysterious 'empty room' moves that are pretty much exactly like what the reviewer is describing. The relative stillness of his later films isn't because Ozu didn't like or couldn't do Ophulsian camera movements: he'd already been there, done that.

[davisre]

All I can say is, the sooner Criterion / Eclipse releases Dragnet Girl, the sooner some of these silly received notions can die a natural death.

Actually, no need. I've seen (nearly) all of Ozu's extant films, and while my phrasing was inexact, what I meant was that Ozu would not have tracked through the interiors of the films that 35 Shots of Rum resembles, Late Spring and An Autumn Afternoon. I didn't mean that Ozu never tracks. A particular movement in I Was Born, But... always sticks in my head. In fact, bicycles are often cause for tracking in an Ozu film (a rule that Hou Hsiao-hsien applies briefly at the end of Good Men, Good Women, an otherwise very still film in which we get to glimpse those bikes in Late Spring on a TV). There's even a tracking shot of the elderly parents walking in Tokyo Story.

But agree about the need to get rid of the inaccuracies in the Ozu lore. I heard an introductory university lecture not long ago in which the speaker repeated the false claim that Ozu used very long shots. I've never been able to figure out where that one started. His shots aren't long at all. Somewhere, David Bordwell has a chart that puts the nail in that particular coffin, but I can't find a link at the moment.

[zedz]

But agree about the need to get rid of the inaccuracies in the Ozu lore. I heard an introductory university lecture not long ago in which the speaker repeated the false claim that Ozu used very long shots. I've never been able to figure out where that one started. His shots aren't long at all. Somewhere, David Bordwell has a chart that puts the nail in that particular coffin, but I can't find a link at the moment.

Welcome aboard!

There seems to be a big gulf between how people expect Ozu's films to operate, based on a scanty familiarity with his reputation (which was in turn based on a scanty familiarity with a couple of more-available-than-others films), and how they actually do. The 'long shot' canard you point out is just one of those things that all 'static, contemplative' filmmakers do, don't they? So why not Ozu?

[tojoed]

Bertolucci's La Luna from Madman on 21st October, with a commentary by Adrian Martin.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Mizoguchi's Loyal 47 Ronin from Madman in September.

Delayed to Feb 2010.

[Perkins Cobb]

Widescreen upgrade of Grievous Bodily Harm just out, and Michael Pate's Tim on 9/25.

[Perkins Cobb]

I didn't think I was going to order that one ... and now I know I won't.

[Perkins Cobb]

Persuasive, but still I think I'll save my $AUs for future releases in which Jacki Weaver or Toni Collette get their tits out.

[tajmahal]

Persuasive, but still I think I'll save my $AUs for future releases in which Jacki Weaver or Toni Collette get their tits out.

In her prime, Wendy Hughes took the prize EVERY time.

[Cash Flagg]

Are there any active Madman coupons?

[tajmahal]

Are there any active Madman coupons?

Might be worth holding on for a few months. Madman had a 50% off sale in December last year. Boxsets and most new releases were included. I don't recall the same sale in 2007, so it might have been a one-off. If you haven't already, I would suggest joining their mailing list.

[Cash Flagg]

Good to know, thanks. Hopefully the sale will be repeated this year - I'd love to pick up the Godards and Chabrols on the cheap.

[Zazou dans le Metro]

Update on above all titles are now available preorder online from JB and are a JB exclusive. They should be on the shelves Tuesday or Wednesday.

Prices are not what I quoted (wuz misinformed!) but AUD32.98 each title. About on a par with amazon UK. The difference is their covers will be Optimum (ugly ugly ugly) and ours will be the heavy paper/cardboard European version case (pretty pretty pretty) from which, I hope the fucking OLFC sticker can be unpeeled and destroyed.

Hi David
I've compared the pictures of Le Mepris at Amazons fr and UK as well as JB in OZ and they all look the same to me - where do you think the Optimums are different?