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Some Tartan titles added (via Amazon.co.uk):

Dumont's Twenty-nine Palms

Bonello's Tiresia

Limousine's Novo

Tartan have been sat on TWENTY-NINE PALMS for over 18 months.

The French Blaq Out disc (PAL with Tartan idents) came out in March 2004.

What happened to the Mario Bava boxset that was going to be released this week? Is it still on?

This second Ozu set finally seems to be emerging in a couple of weeks. Interestingly, the new issue of Sight And Sound carries an ad for the upcoming third and fourth volumes in this line: the third features TOKYO TWILIGHT, EQUINOX FLOWER and GOOD MORNING (scheduled for August 2005), and the fourth LATE AUTUMN and - hard to see because the cover is obscured, but it looks like - AUTUMN AFTERNOON (for January 2006).

Now what the hell happened to the DVD of TIREZ SUR LE PIANISTE they announced about two years ago?

DVDBeaver's review of Tartan's Ozu Boxset 2

All I can say is, "Tartan, you did it again!" When are you going to get things right? Don't know how to handle NTSC sources? How many more Ozu films are you going to mess up with your releases?

I thought delaying the release of this boxset by a few months would have allowed them to take care of their transfer (ghosting, etc.) issues. Apparently not!

Hang on to those videos till the CC gets round to releasing more Ozu...

ben d banana wrote:Are you in North America? Old Boy is getting a theatrical release by Tartan USA so I'm assuming an R1 DVD will follow.

Right you are, benny, ol' chum. Tartan will release theR1 DVD of Oldboy on August 23rd.

A mere four days after their North American theatrical release of Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance. Let's hear it for planning.

I do wish that Tartan USA would release proper NTSC transfers of their films on DVD, particularly Asian ones. Where's the logic of NTSC to PAL to improper NTSC conversion? They managed to get the UK R0 NTSC Battle Royale right.

Lars Von Trier's Europa Trilogy, due on the 22nd of August.

All things point to it being a port of the allegedly excellent Danish release, but, knowing Tartan, they'll cock it up, somehow, like they always do. Scumbags.

Yes, they have a special job position at tartan, its called "person who screws something up on an otherwise perfectly good dvd release".

Has anyone compared their release of Bergman's Autumn Sonata with the CC version?

Two new r2uk Bergman releases for 11/14:

Music in Darkness

Prison

Bergman's, Fängelse (Prison) is one of his most underappreciated films, I feel. It hasn't always been easy to see, of course. I have not seen Musik i mörker (Music in Darkness) - is it good? I'll definitely rent both of these.

But where the hell are the Bava films that Tartan are supposed to have been acquired early this year?

Bergman has so many brilliant films, some (if not most) of them are bound to be underappreciated. But Prison/Devil's Wanton is a particularly good one. I haven't seen Music in Darkness, but it's contemporary with his more social realist films (like Port of Call and It Rains on Our Love), so I would imagine it's in that vein. These are not really among Bergman's best films, but they're quite interesting and have some interesting continuities with the later films.

Are these two titles on their way from Tartan? Is there an announcement I missed? Also, speaking of the underappreciated, I thought I saw that Waiting Women had been released, but I couldn't locate it on Amazon UK. Any ideas?

leo goldsmith wrote: Also, speaking of the underappreciated, I thought I saw that Waiting Women had been released, but I couldn't locate it on Amazon UK. Any ideas?

There's a review, prices here.

I contacted Tartan about these Bergman titles and was told they've been bumped to May. Saraband looks like a February/March release but I wouldn't advise breath holding. Also the previously announced 'After the Rehearsal' has fallen off the radar but it might of course accompany Saraband as Tartan seem to like releasing this series in pairs.

Tartan continues its Ozu releases with the third boxset fetauring three of the master's later films, all in color: Tokyo Twilight (1957), Equinox Flower (1958), and Good Morning (1959). Release date is 24 April 2006, and the set is priced at £39.99. No extras to speak of, except for liner notes by our own Nick Wrigley (peerpee) and Doug Cummings (deepysea).

Details at DVD Times.

Given the harsh criticism that greeted Volumes One and Two of this series, I can only hope that the third time is a charm for Tartan. I'm excited at the possibility of an improved DVD of Good Morning (compared to the Criterion, which suffers from a hazy transfer and has inaccurate color timing that is well documented). But you can be damn sure I won't place an order until the Beaver has put this set through its paces.

Whilst adjusting my anorak, I feel compelled to point out that Tokyo Twilight is in black and white--Ozu's last, I believe. This would almost be worth buying for the subtitles--I've got the Panorama versions of these now.

jguitar wrote:Whilst adjusting my anorak, I feel compelled to point out that Tokyo Twilight is in black and white--Ozu's last, I believe. This would almost be worth buying for the subtitles--I've got the Panorama versions of these now.

Thanks for that correction. Tokyo Twilight is one of the few Ozu films I haven't seen. Shoulda checked my facts.

I would argue that "Tokyo Twilight" is by far the most important of the neglected late Ozu films. I wish the source had been preserved better -- as the full tonal range seems to have been lost. This is especially unfortunate since so many of the scenes are shot in relative darkness.

This makes a perfect companion to "Equinox Flower", which stars the same wonderful young actress (Ineko Arima) -- as the later film is (in some ways) a comic remake of the earlier tragic one. (The central theme of both is "Father definitely doesn't know best).

I have to agree with Michael here. Tokyo Twilight affected me powerfully. It's been accused of melodrama by some, but I think it's one of his finest films. There are wonderful performances by Ryu and Hara as well as the standout Arima performance cited by Michael. Nick Wrigley's Ozu website had linked to a fascinating article about Arima from Asahi--sadly, the link appears to be now broken.

What is stunning about "Tokyo Twilight" (and one reason why it failed on its initial release) is Ozu's audacity (and Ryu's and Hara's braveness) in presenting dark (and largely unlikeable) inversions of the normal film portrayals of these most beloved of performers.

It is also interesting to contrast Isuzu Yamada's performance here with her Lady Macbeth of the same year. Ironically, though superficially the archetypical bad mother in this film, she is in fact the most perceptive and caring relative of the unfortunate heroine (Arima).

Specs on the Moviemail product page for Ozu Collection #3 lead us to hope..

Three discs; Mastered from the best materials available; Newly-created subtitles; Original theatrical trailers; Film notes.

But I too will be waiting for Gary the Beaver's review/comparison...

Advert in May edition of 'Sight and Sound' states for Tartan Ozu#3, "Digitally restored and remastered with newly created subtitles", so they may have at last got the transfers right!

Tartan Video have announced the UK DVD release of The Proposition for 17th July 2006 priced at £19.99. Sparsely evocative and brutally dramatic, The Proposition is a powerful study of the edges of civilization and man's ability to shape his own destiny. Directed by John Hillcoat, it was scripted by Nick Cave, and together they have shaped an elegiac Australian Western in the same violent mould as Peckinpah and Anthony Mann. Whilst the landscape and atmosphere has been lovingly captured by cinematographer, Benoit Delhomme, the film also benefits from a stellar ensemble cast including Guy Pearce, Danny Huston, Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Emily Watson.

There are over two-hours of bonus material on this release…
Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
English DD2.0, DD5.1 & DTS 5.1 Surround
English HOH subtitles
Tartan exclusive inerviews with Guy Pearce and Danny Huston
Cast and crew interviews with Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, David Wenham, Nick Cave, and John Hillcoat
Behind the scenes features, including scene focus on Mickey's flogging

i am quite excitied about this one

I received the box this morning and have watched about twenty minutes worth of Good Morning, to compare it to the Criterion edition which I also have. Unsurprisingly perhaps, the transfer looks very like the Shochiku transfer in Gary's comparison of the three previous editions. In other words, it is very sharp but has a slight greenish cast. It may be that this is due to the character of the original film stock, but never having seen a print of the film I couldn't say.

What I did notice was a green/red shift in playback. If you look at the skin tones carefully they seem to move back and forth between those two colours. I'm not sure you'd notice terribly if you were paying attention to the film rather than focusing on the quality of the transfer, but I found it slightly irritating.

I'm dying to have a look at Tokyo Twilight and Equinox Flower, neither of which I have seen before, but I didn't want to spoil the movies for myself by running through a part of them just to check the transfer. It's not every day I get to see a new Ozu. Maybe somebody who has seen them before or who has the chance to watch them right through can comment on their condition.