Studio Canal / Kinowelt / Optimum

[manicsounds]

DVDBeaver gives a very positive review of Don't Look Now

hmm...

[RossyG]

I've got the Don't Look Now BD. I'm not an expert, but it looked fine to me.

[Matt]

Gary's screencaps do look a lot better (sharper) than those at "Land of Whimsy."

[GaryC]

Just passed at the BBC is Empire of the Senses, in the shorter version also passed for cinema release in 2009. But what is interesting is the BBFC's note: "Uncut version. Previous cut (by optical reframing) waived." There's no Extended Classification Information as yet, so I would be interested to know the reason for that as I thought that that cut was enforced because of British child protection legislation.

[pro-bassoonist]

Gary's screencaps do look a lot better (sharper) than those at "Land of Whimsy."

They do not look sharper. They are very seriously filtered -- the filtering also eliminates practically all of the machine noise, just like it routinely eliminates light grain. Hence, the screencaptures look "better" to you. Unfortunately, as Michael has so many times pointed out here, they are not representative of what is on the disc.

On a side note, if you resample the screencaptures to 720p, they would look even "better", because just about all of the machine noise would be suppressed. What is under the machine noise is fine.

[rohmerin]

Abaout the Studi canal collection? Any new title is annouced? and more important: Where can I find any of them CHEAP ? When I mean cheap is 10 euros or 10 pounds, not 24 euros or 17 pounds (Spain or UK).
Gracias

[Finch]

At least they seem to be getting their recently announced Ealing acquisitions right if Went the Day Well? and now Lavender Hill Mob are anything to go by.

[Graham]

Has the Rolling Thunder bluray from Optimum been cancelled? It reads as 'currently unavailable' on Amazon while the DVD is still on schedule for a September release.

[perkizitore]

Does anyone know anything about this?

[Richard]

Abaout the Studi canal collection? Any new title is annouced?

I was wondering about that myself. It's been almost a year since they released anything new.

and more important: Where can I find any of them CHEAP ? When I mean cheap is 10 euros or 10 pounds, not 24 euros or 17 pounds (Spain or UK).
Gracias

Another good question where I would also like to know the answer to.

And to add a question of my own: is it likely that Senso will be released in the UK? I would love to own it but French/German subtitles are not what I would prefer.

[Calvin]

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Empire of Passion and In the Realm of the Senses are back on for October 17th.

[eerik]

Announcement:

From legendary Japanese director Nagisa Oshima, out on October 17:


EMPIRE OF PASSION ("AI NO BOREI") - Out on Double Play & EST
A young man has an affair with an older woman. He is very jealous of her husband and decides that they should kill him. One night, after the husband had plenty of sake to drink and was in bed, they strangle him and dump his body down a well. To avert any suspicions, she pretends her husband has gone off to Tokyo to work. For three years the wife and her lover secretly see each other. Finally, suspicions become very strong and people begin to gossip. To make matters worse, her husband's ghost begins to haunt her and the law arrives to investigate her husband's disappearance.

Extras:

• Sur Le Tournage: 2003 Interview program featuring production consultant Koji Wakamatsu and assistant directors Yusuke Narita and Yoichi Sai
• Panel discussion at Birkbeck College with Japanese film scholars
• Booklet from scholar

IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES ("AI NO KORIDA") - Out on Double Play
Based on a true story set in pre-war Japan, a man and one of his servants begin a torrid affair. Their desire becomes a sexual obsession so strong that to intensify their ardour, they forsake all, even life itself.

Extras:

• Recalling the Film: 2003 Program featuring interviews with consulting producer Hayao Shibata, line producer Koji Wakamatsu, assistant director Yoichi Sai and distributor Yoko Asakura
• Panel discussion at Birkbeck College with Japanese film scholars
• Once Upon a Time: In the Realm of the Senses
• Deleted Scenes
• Booklet from scholar or book excerpt

MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE - Out on Double Play
In 1942 British soldier Jack Celliers comes to a Japanese prison camp. The camp is run by Yonoi, who has a firm belief in discipline, honour and glory. In his view, the allied prisoners are cowards when they chose to surrender instead of commiting suicide. One of the prisoners, interpreter John Lawrence, tries to explain the Japanese way of thinking, but is considered a traitor.

Extras:

• Theatrical Trailer
• The Oshima Gang - Making of Featurette
• An Interview with Jeremy Thomas
• An Interview Ryuichi Sakamoto

[eerik]

Amazon has pre-orders for Lester's Musketeers films:
The Three Musketeers
The Four Musketeers

[MichaelB]

This is very interesting - the BBFC says that In the Realm of the Senses has had its "previous cut (by optical reframing) waived", as of its reclassification earlier this year.

Which suggests that this will be the first ever British release of the uncut version (even when it toured cinema clubs in the 1970s and 80s, projectionists were advised to cut the scene with the kids short), though the stated running time of 97 mins 51 secs suggests otherwise. The Criterion Blu-ray is 102 mins 25 secs, so even if the BBFC was working from a PAL screener that still leaves about half a minute unaccounted for. But this is definitely worth investigating further.

[RossyG]

Yes, it seems this really will be uncut this time.

It was not until 2011 that the BBFC was asked to judge the full version of the film again, with the 'penis tugging' scene reinstated. On this occasion, the Board concluded that the scene was not likely to be found indecent under more recent interpretation of the Protection of Children Act and the film was therefore passed '18' uncut for DVD re-release. The brief moment of 'penis tugging' does not occur within a sexual context and is not at all sexual or eroticised in nature.

Source: http://www.sbbfc.co.uk/CaseStudies/LEmp ... The_Senses" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[peerpee]

The BBFC clearly don't mind a bit of penis tugging now that they have to contend with sandpaper masturbation.

[swo17]

I kind of wish I didn't know what that sentence meant.

[RossyG]

Me too, but it's the usual thing with the BBFC. They think something's shocking until something more shocking comes along then the first shocking thing seems less shocking and they allow its release. ](*,)

[MichaelB]

Me too, but it's the usual thing with the BBFC. They think something's shocking until something more shocking comes along then the first shocking thing seems less shocking and they allow its release. ](*,)

In the case of this film, it's a bit more complicated than that - they were genuinely worried (and with good reason) that the scene in question might infringe the 1978 Protection of Children Act since it could be reasonably interpreted as a recording of unsimulated child sexual abuse. So it's not really a case of shocking imagery per se as potentially illegal content.

As I said above, even before the film was submitted to the BBFC for the first time in 1991, projectionists were advised to cut the scene short (handily, it was right at the end of one of the reels, and the reel change may have been put there for that specific reason), to avoid any risk of the cinema facing prosecution - because you really don't want to end up in court on something even vaguely connected to child sex abuse.

I'd love to see the BBFC's full reasoning for the change of policy - I assume they've taken legal advice on it (given that this was one of their most controversial titles, they could hardly not have done), but is their new interpretation really legally watertight?

[bigP]

...because you really don't want to end up in court on something even vaguely connected to child sex abuse.

Definately the reason I never imported the Criterion. As unlikely as it is to be caught with it, the consequences of being caught definately outweighed the risk (given that I work with children of all ages and regularly have to undergo CRB checks).

I'd love to see the BBFC's full reasoning for the change of policy - I assume they've taken legal advice on it (given that this was one of their most controversial titles, they could hardly not have done), but is their new interpretation really legally watertight?

I was wondering this - I had always thought that the key argument for the censorship was that the child was in genuine distress and on that account, under UK guidelines, this was a closed case of child abuse. Count me in as interested in reading that explanation too.

[peerpee]

<Daily Mail>The BBFC are now clearly sending out the signal that the penis tugging of young boys is legal. We have generations of people in the UK who never saw the penis tugging, and now the current generation - consisting of all these rioters - are being given the message that penis tugging is okay.</Daily Mail>

[perkizitore]

Comment of the year by far!

[MichaelB]

<Daily Mail>The BBFC are now clearly sending out the signal that the penis tugging of young boys is legal. We have generations of people in the UK who never saw the penis tugging, and now the current generation - consisting of all these rioters - are being given the message that penis tugging is okay.</Daily Mail>

Serious question: if BBFC classification wasn't compulsory anyway, would you have distributed the uncut version, given the widespread impression that it unarguably infringed the Protection of Children Act?

I was involved with screening this film before it was given its 18 certificate in 1991, and we were warned by the distributor to be very careful indeed with that scene in the absence of proper legal advice. Granted, as a cinema we were probably more vulnerable than a DVD label, because it would only have taken an upheld complaint to the local authority for our operating licence to be put in jeopardy - but it would still be a gamble.

Which is why I'd like to see the full legal advice that the BBFC received - hopefully they'll reveal it nearer the time.

[aox]

I kind of wish I didn't know what that sentence meant.

The Human Centipede 2

The film centers on an antagonist called Martin (Laurence Harvey), who becomes sexually obsessed with a DVD recording of the film within the film, The Human Centipede (First Sequence). In the DVD, a surgeon kidnaps three people and surgically connects them mouth-to-anus. Martin masturbates as he watches the film, with sandpaper wrapped around his penis. He subsequently creates his own twelve-person "human centipede" and gains sexual gratification from the pain, humiliation and suffering of his victims. He is shown to become sexually aroused whenever a member of his centipede is forced to defecate into the mouth of the victim behind them. Martin rapes the woman at the rear of the centipede with barbed wire wrapped around his penis.

EDIT: #-o You said 'didn't'; meaning you knew. My apologies. Early and hungover. I read not so good.

[Der Spieler]

Sounds like a great movie!