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Out of curiosity, does anyone know what other film homages were made for the French program "Cine-Parade," like the Chabrol "M" short included on the DVD?

-BJ

How's the commentary on this? I have the Eureka. Disappointed with the visible jagged edges all over the place and much of the commentary is dominated by Bogdanovitch/Lang interview material in horrible condition. I prefer to have a scholarly scene specific commentary on a classic like this. Anyone have an assessment? Worth the upgrade on supplements alone...and is the image much better on Criterion? Tooze's comparison doesn't highlight much improvement imagewise.

The one and only thing that bothers me about the new Criterion is just that the image has been slightly over-matted. They make a point of saying that it is presented in it's original 1.19:1 aspect ratio, yet compared to the Eureka disc it's cropped more. One would assume that if all 1.33:1 transfers were slightly incorrect that the 1.19:1 would show more image top and/or bottom, but that's not the case.

How's the commentary on this?

Excellent commentary on the new edition by german scholars. More of a social commentary, than exactly screen specific. Interesting insights about Weimar issues and the impending Nazi rise. However, at times def. scene specific. I much prefer this to the Eureka commentary.

Also disagree with various comments about the video quality. This is the best the picture will ever look. I saw it on large screen projector and was impressed. Bravo Criterion!

mbalson,
As much as I love the reissue overall, the matting problem you bring up also bothers me. From the comparison, it looks like they just cropped from the left and right to bring it into 1.19:1, which means there's now even less information than with the (incorrect) 1.33:1 ratio. What are they thinking?

I don't know, but its something they do with unsettling frequency. The remastered Charade was almost pixel for pixel the same as the anamorphic transfer on the 'Truth about Charlie' disc, just with thin black bars on either side that matted out information avail on the earlier disc.
This all aside, the new 'M' set is one of my absolute favourites in the collection primarily due to the improved image and sound. I did enjoy the physical history featurette very much as well.

Have seen this film before and have seen the UK Eureka, but saw my own Criterion tonight. A very good transfer and the sound was also very clear. After seeing this remaster I started to dream about what the new seven samurai will look like seing as the film is 30 years younger than M.
But does anybody know anything about the mising 8 mins? Or do you know where I can find any info about this?

I've just gotta say:

I've just double dipped on this thing and am generally blown away, but for one thing: what in god's name is the point of restoring the 1:1.19 pilliarboxing aspect, if you're going to sloppily crop into it in telecine. See TOOZE's caps for comparison re what I mean. Look at FOX's SUNRISE, CC's own TESTAMENT OF DR MABUSE for excellently done pillarboxing transfers. You should see aperture marks on one side of the image(usually right). On my MultiVideo Labs monitor, I even have black bars above & beneath the image (I should never need zoom i e I always am able to naturally view the entire contents within the telecine gate that was encoded on disk). This makes no fucking sense! Why brag you're restoring the image to it's ultra-rare, proper format, then slice it in the end?

I hear ya. I just have this to say: Despite hundreds of outstandingly produced DVDs, Criterion are not the all encompassing God of DVD that I wished they were. But, they could be if they stopped doing these stupid little things that annoy and clearly go against what they stand for in the home video world.

Anyone knows about the DVD version coming in this book? Its going to be released on April 1st, according to Amazon.com.

Is that book any good? I love Muth, but his Dracula comic was a disappointment. Anyway, the publisher is the excellent house Abrams, but I doubt that the DVD will be anything near Criterion.

Where's the info on the sound glitch on this disc? Shouldn't it be in this thread? I got my replacement disc and want to check the scene in question, but I forget which one it is.

denti alligator wrote:Where's the info on the sound glitch on this disc? Shouldn't it be in this thread? I got my replacement disc and want to check the scene in question, but I forget which one it is.

Denti, how long did it take them to get your replacement to you after you sent it to them?

Tribe

A week and a half. I've been sitting on it forever,and finally got around to mailing it off.

So, what happened to that info on the glitch??

Denti, it's here.

Tribe

I used to be the kind of person who would put a movie, from Netflix, the library, or out of the packaging, into the little television by my desk and half-watch a film while doing something else on the computer. I got pretty good at it, even with subtitled films (I'm something of a self-professed speed-reader), and thought that I was plowing through movies pretty well. That is, until I got Les Diaboliques, watched it like I always did, and sent it back to Netflix without another thought. When I mentioned it to my friend he asked me what I thought of all the twists at the end, and suddenly I realised that I couldn't remember anything about the movie at all besides there being a pool and a woman vacuuming.

From then on, I've refused to watch a film unless I can devote all of my attention to it, and few films have proved this philosophy correct more than M. If I'd watched it on the television by my desk, I don't think I'd remember anything more about it other than the circle of children at the beginning and the fade out at the end, and wouldn't devote another second of thought to the film...I spent a good hour last night thinking about the film: Can such a criminal be cured? Is it within reason to punish him by murder if he can't possibly remember the murders he's commited? I shudder to think that, if my friend hadn't questioned me about the end of Les Diaboliques, I would have sent this back and wouldn't still be thinking about it.

The fact that this film is 76 years old is almost impossible to believe. One would think that anything 76 years old would be about as out-of-date as a Depression-era pork cutlet, but instead M is brimming with still-relevant questions, two of which I have already mentioned. I went into the film expecting a well-made-for-1931 German crime talkie about a child murderer and instead was presented with an incredibly inventive and intelligent film that raises questions about the death penalty and the insanity plea and also features a terribly witty plot about the mob and the police working on either side of the see-saw to get the criminal in the middle.

What makes films like this, from the black-and-white era so thoroughly captivating? Probably the fact that the tides of time have washed away the godawful drek that came along with films like M, The Third Man, and Citizen Kane. It's a simple fact that it's nearly impossible to predict what films will become classics and what films are simply flashes in pans.

Of course, I'm rambling, as a good film is apt to make me do so. I nearly talked my friend's ear off the day after I saw 8½ for the first time.

Got this in the mail last week.

Watched it last night. The new transfer is amazing. Its a bit squeezed with the picturebox and pillarbox image but its very clean.

Still feels so modern and enjoyable. I will be whistling all day!

MilkManX wrote:Still feels so modern and enjoyable. I will be whistling all day!

That is as frightening in its implications as LeeB.Sims's comment about whether his girlfriend should be worried about how much he liked Chopper!

colinr0380 wrote:

MilkManX wrote:Still feels so modern and enjoyable. I will be whistling all day!

That is as frightening in its implications as LeeB.Sims's comment about whether his girlfriend should be worried about how much he liked Chopper!

Yeah I thought of that as I whistled to the tune. Creepy.

What is he whistling? Night in the mountain hall or something. Classic. I wanted to take the German film class in the upcoming semester but I have to speak German, which sucks. Same thing with Japanese film. Oh well, at least I am able to take the French cinema class. Granted I own and have seen most of the films that will probably be shown, The 400 Blows, Breathless, Jules and Jim, Amelie, Rififi, Le Samourai, Rules of the Game, Hiroshima mon Amour, Children of Paradise and so on.
It would be cool if they showed Malle's upcoming Criterions, Army of Shadows or Renoirs The River.

psufootball07 wrote:What is he whistling? Night in the mountain hall or something.

you're kidding, right?
It's a major plot point.

In the Hall of the Mountain King, I was close enough. I was saying it was classic cinema. And yes it was a huge point to the plot, because that's how he was tracked down, either way it appeared he was on his last run seeing as the police officers found his home and were waiting for him.

psufootball07 wrote:Oh well, at least I am able to take the French cinema class. Granted I own and have seen most of the films that will probably be shown, The 400 Blows, Breathless, Jules and Jim, Amelie, Rififi, Le Samourai, Rules of the Game, Hiroshima mon Amour, Children of Paradise and so on.

Geez, how did Amelie get lumped in there....

Antoine Doinel wrote:

psufootball07 wrote:Oh well, at least I am able to take the French cinema class. Granted I own and have seen most of the films that will probably be shown, The 400 Blows, Breathless, Jules and Jim, Amelie, Rififi, Le Samourai, Rules of the Game, Hiroshima mon Amour, Children of Paradise and so on.

Geez, how did Amelie get lumped in there....

Thats one of the films my friend who has already taken the class says they remember seeing along with The 400 Blows and Alphaville.
Anyways seeing as you must really like the 400 Blows or just the entire Doinel set, is it worth getting if I already own the 400 Blows? I've heard that the other films dont nearly equal the original.

psufootball07 wrote:

Antoine Doinel wrote:Geez, how did Amelie get lumped in there....

Thats one of the films my friend who has already taken the class says they remember seeing along with The 400 Blows and Alphaville.
Anyways seeing as you must really like the 400 Blows or just the entire Doinel set, is it worth getting if I already own the 400 Blows? I've heard that the other films dont nearly equal the original.

Simply put - get the whole set. For me personally, my favorite is Stolen Kisses - and many people like different films in the series for different reasons. But the real benefit of the set is that you get different things out of each film as you get older/have more life experience and the relation with the Antoine Doinel character gets deeper with time.