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I think Matt was implying they didn't have to "redo" anything -- they probably just repressed the English disc from the previous two-disc release. The amount of extra work would be minimal, since the disc has already been authored and mastered.

I think Tolmides might be confused: the original comprehensive 2 disc set still exists-- for the Glamor Girls box, they needed to trim down the release to one disc, so they chose the English release. If you want the real deal Blue Angel, buy the Kino 2-discer (or the Eureka).

HerrSchreck wrote:I think Tolmides might be confused: the original comprehensive 2 disc set still exists-- for the Glamor Girls box, they needed to trim down the release to one disc, so they chose the English release. If you want the real deal Blue Angel, buy the Kino 2-discer (or the Eureka).

Not quite.

Perhaps if I elaborate a bit more. What I mean is that Love Me Tonight, The Good Fairy and the Blue Angel (and to a lesser extent the other two) are all films I'd love to see but haven't seen yet. The boxset is great value for me, but I'm missing out on the German version of Blue Angel, and from what I read in this thread and just generally, that's the superior version (although Dietrich is wonderful to listen to in English). So a must-buy boxset is severely weakened because the best version of one of the films isn't on there. I could (and probably will at some stage) buy the box set and then the Blue Angel individual release. But it's an extra purchase and I don't see why Kino is forcing me to do it; I'm sure most buyers would rather have a slightly wider box with both versions.

I wasn't a bit surprised they didn't devote more than one disc to Blue Angel, as this is a budget set, but they should have picked the German version, in my humble opinion. Some versions of films just shouldn't be released on their own. This is far from the first time this has happened with this film (the Passport DVD comes to mind) so one has to wonder if it's mainly been a case of labels taking into account the general U.S. market bias against films in languages other than English (although I'd hope that films from 1930 should be niche enough to sidestep that).
But there's not too much to complain about. The box is still a good deal, and we've got good releases on both sides of the Atlantic that include the German-language film. Much worse is the huge number of Sternbergs (and a near infinite number of other films from the same period) that remain totally unavailable.

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:I think Matt was implying they didn't have to "redo" anything -- they probably just repressed the English disc from the previous two-disc release. The amount of extra work would be minimal, since the disc has already been authored and mastered.

It was no more extra work than they put in for any of the other movies in the set. All 5 movies in the set are in slimline cases, whereas all of the single releases were in standard cases. That may well be why they went with only one disk for Blue Angel, to maintain the small footprint (and lower price point per movie listed on the cover) for the whole 5 movie set.

It would seem that they selected which of the two Blue Angel disks to put in that slimline case according to the "typical" American's preference for no subtitles. Of course, I would argue that those people aren't the target audience for this box anyway ...... but, what do I know?

If you wait for a good sale, it's still a pretty good buy for the other four films.

Kino has announced a July 7th release date for The John Barrymore Collection. The big news with this 4 disc set is the inclusion of the previously unreleased Sherlock Holmes (1922). According to Kino's press material:

"Sherlock Holmes was mastered from a 35mm restoration by the George Eastman House Motion Picture Department, and is accompanied by a score by Ben Model, performed on the Miditzer Virtual Theatre Organ."

The other three titles are The Beloved Rogue (1927), Tempest (1928) [both previously released by Image Entertainment] and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) [previously released by Kino].

The set will retail for $59.95

Btw I took advantage of the last sale and grabbed the individual 2-disc SE's of the Murnau's plus Vogelod and Grossherzog, plus the Griffith Box II, and the Ulmer doc disc. Reviews when rec'd.

I guess no one here took a bite at the remastered Wong Kar Wai discs

The lack of any response altogether to the Kino WKW releases may have something to do with the fact that AE has just released an excellent "HAPPY TOGETHER" DVD (which happens to be less expensive than Kino's, even for North American purchasers), and that most of us who are interested in "FALLEN ANGELS" have long had the R3 Alto Media release from the remastered elements.

Still, I'm a bit surprised at the complete lack of response. Despite a substantial contingent of Wong-o-philes on this forum, we can't find a single person who's purchased the Kino discs - much less a formal review and comparison to prior releases It appears that Kino is simply too late to the party and asking far too much for the pleasure of its company for anyone to care. Plus, that announcement last Fall that Kino's first blu-ray release would be "FALLEN ANGELS" renders the standard-def release to be something quite a bit less than what we were led to expect.

That said, I've held off purchasing AE's "HAPPY TOGETHER", and would pay more for Kino's disc if it's shown to be superior. I'd do the same for "FALLEN ANGELS". But am I willing to spend $50 to determine whether Kino's releases are worth that price? Sorry, no.

Anyone check out the new Faust yet? I'm wondering how it compares to the MoC edition, which had some jaggies and what not. The online trailer looks lovely…

Rich Malloy wrote:Still, I'm a bit surprised at the complete lack of response. Despite a substantial contingent of Wong-o-philes on this forum, we can't find a single person who's purchased the Kino discs - much less a formal review and comparison to prior releases It appears that Kino is simply too late to the party and asking far too much for the pleasure of its company for anyone to care. Plus, that announcement last Fall that Kino's first blu-ray release would be "FALLEN ANGELS" renders the standard-def release to be something quite a bit less than what we were led to expect.

Exactly. There's absolutely no point in me buying the current Kino discs, as the Artificial Eye Happy Together is both excellent and significantly cheaper, and I strongly doubt that the Kino edition justifies the price premium (which the exchange rate at my end exaggerates quite substantially). And since they announced Fallen Angels on Blu-ray, that makes buying the new DVD utterly pointless - the original Kino disc certainly had its flaws, but it'll do for now.

Only review I could find so far, but I guess this is of the SD from the new HD pass:

Digitally Obsessed on Happy Together:

Image Transfer Review:

Kino takes a third crack at Happy Together, and finally gets it right. Though it's always hard to judge the transfers for Wong Kar-wai's visually audacious films, the previous discs suffered from obvious problems like overenthusiastic cropping, washed-out color, softness, and incorrect color timing (the last one even had a shot in black-and-white instead of color).

This new transfer is a revelation, with a much more detailed, saturated image. Black levels are vastly improved, and film grain appears more natural than in the past. The cropping problem has been corrected as well. The box advertises this as a new HD transfer, and I can't imagine why they aren't putting it on Blu-ray, because it looks great. Maybe I've just been spoiled by the Criterion Blu-ray of Chungking Express.

Image Transfer Grade: A-

david hare wrote:Tolmides I just stumbled over this and your posts up the page. Aren't you aware there's a Madman's Director' Series double disc port of Baue Angel/Blue Angel available locally. (You are in Oz, no?)

I've given Madman's catalogue a browse in the past, but must have skipped over Blue Angel. ](*,)

Thank you!

Just rec'd the four new Murnau discs (in the case of Faust & L Laugh the more complete, non-boxset versions.. the boxset just has slimpaks of the restored German version plus the corresponding doc, and omits the export versions... plus I don't need dupes of Tartuffe and Nosferatu so I skipped the box of slimpaks): Faust, Last Laugh, Finances of..., and Schloss V.

Faust and Last L look simply dazzling-- wonderful restorations. As for the jaggz on Faust: I'm looking at it on my PC, and I may be looking too closely at it, but I think I do detect those jaggies that were present on the MoC... I can't be certain as I don't have the MoC to hand, though I'm well familiar w the release and the way the thing looks onscreen and in motion. I seem to recall Nick Wrigley saying that the digital beta he rec'd from Transit/FWMStiftung was in NTSC format-- if that's the case then this release presents this same tape in it's organic format (i e no preconversion hurdles). I seem to also remember Nick saying he released the MoC in NTSC, so the only variables in that case would be viz the US encoder for Kino vs the UK encoder for MoC.

Anyhow, rather than standard edges comprised consistently of individual pixels, when freeze-framed this transfer seems to at times present edges that are blocks of pixels, squared off in a line-by line phenom. In motion however it seems to be a beautiful HD transfer... so I don't know what it was about that telecine that caused the phenomena to appear on both discs/separate encodes. It's primarily visible on stationary objects, particularly ones with diagonal edges. Objects in motion appear smooth for the most part.

Intertitles on the Orig German (restored) Version are the original German cards, with optional available English subs.

As for the Last Laugh, it's beautiful.

Ditto The Haunted Castle (Schloss Vogelod)

Finances of the Grand Duke is a bit dodgy. As Tom already noted on the Divisa Disc of this title, the resto is older and the materials are not as heavily worked on nor with the tools available today. I think I even detected a touch of a chroma bug here & there, but it could just be my monitor. It resembles quite a bit the backchannel copy I've had of this telecine for a couple yrs.

All in all, very worthwhile releases for silent enthusiasts, and Murnau fans... in my case, short for FANatic. Greatest, most talented, and most important director who ever lived.

I also (taking advantage of that just-ended sale that put stuff like the Ulmer doc down to 10 bucks!) picked up the Griffith Masterworks II box... a preliminary look at two discs had me drooling... the MoMa/Kino HD resto of Way Down East is beautiful--totally gorgeous. The only thing I miss is-- the previous release (VHS) used as its soundtrack a 1920's recording of the original score... a wonderful experience to watch an old silent film with all of it's scratches and mold and touches of nitrate damage along with an ancient disc of the original score, replete with the fuzzy sound, pops and crackles, etc... you felt yourself reaching back, back, way back through time lightly tickling out the essence of the cinema experience of the early 1920's, and Griffith's Victorian sensibility. This new edition provides a new score compiled from vintage themes by Rodney Sauer and the Mont Alto orchestra... not a bad soundtrack at all (I happen to think Mt Alto one of the better of soundtrack options for any silent-- their work on Der Mude Tod for example is so nice that I used to put it on here & there just to listen to it). I just wish they had the vintage recording as a secondary option.

Speaking of omitted prior-edition soundtracks, the new Faust features that FWMS/Transit-supplied piano score by Perez de Azpeitia, along with a newly commissioned, edition-exclusive score from Mt. Alto... but the Timothy Brock/Olympia score is restricted to disc two-- the export version dvd (obviously owing to different running times of the two cuts). I wish they could have found a way to mcth the Brock version with the German cut of the film-- I find Brock's work superlative in all cases.

I also had a peek at the BBC/Channel Four Griffith; Father of Film doc by David Gill. Seems excellent, but that was a no-brainer, as everything these guys--Brownlow, Gill, et al-- do is fabulous.

Oh, and the equivalent of dvd crack-cocaine on one of the Murnau discs: David Kalat commentary on The Finances of the Grand Duke. A listen to the first 5 minutes revealed that usual irresistable Kalat essence. From Godzilla to Lang to Murnau, this guy probably gives the consistently best commentary inna biz....

Thanks for the first impressions on the recent Kinos, Schreck. I had fears that GRAND DUKE would be of less than recent restoration but it's nice to know for sure. Also that the Olympia/Brock would be confined to the import FAUST (and I would guess, the LAST LAUGH?). Both are superlative scores and THE LAST LAUGH is heartrending.

Amen on Kalat! I would listen to this guy read the phone book. If he hasn't answered your question on the commentary track just e-mail him and all will be revealed!

Props55 wrote:Thanks for the first impressions on the recent Kinos, Schreck. I had fears that GRAND DUKE would be of less than recent restoration but it's nice to know for sure. Also that the Olympia/Brock would be confined to the import FAUST (and I would guess, the LAST LAUGH?). Both are superlative scores and THE LAST LAUGH is heartrending.

Amen on Kalat! I would listen to this guy read the phone book. If he hasn't answered your question on the commentary track just e-mail him and all will be revealed!

Last Laugh: yeah, the restored German version presents the original Guiseppe Becce score with two options-- 2.0 Stereo or 5.1 surround. The export cut retains the Brock. I wonder where Brock has gone these days... he's probably my favorite contemporary composer for silents. His soundtrack for Berlin is incredibly moving to me. He dosn't seem to have done anything within the past 7 yrs at least. Given his degree of talent, the amount of work composing for/rehearsing/recording a full chamber orchestra (the Olympic in Wa. state)-- and the extremely low pay involved for same-- I'm not entirely surprised that he's moved on. But he's sorely missed by me.

Rodney Sauer & Mt Alto are much appreciated though-- especially vs the omnipresent R Israel and D. Sosin.

And it's true about Kalat. I've had correspondence w him, and he answered my first email, and even apologized (to a complete stranger) for a slight delay in response owing to travel. The guy is aces all round.

DVDTalk's Stuart Galbraith IV on 3 Seconds Before Explosion (Japan, 1966).

I've just watched two docs: Ulmer: The Man Offscreen, and Griffith: The Father of Film.

Both are superb.

I'm not sure where else to say this but I have to say I am appalled at Kino's treatment of The Mirror. Only half the dialog is subtitled, if even. Wh-... why would you release that? Are they out of their minds? Glad I didn't buy it. Holy hell. I thought their Stalker was bad, but this is just beyond the pale. These being my only Kino experiences, I'm hoping I can normally expect better out of them, right?

I wouldn't say I was appalled...it's the only Region 1 version I'm aware of and I'm happy to at least have seen the Kino version. It's certainly not Criterion quality, but I appreciate having it, to not having it at all. Sort of par for the course for Kino...you love the label and accept you're not buying a top of the line release with all the bells and whistles...life goes on.

If you are region-locked, this version from Ruscico has complete subtitles and is region-free. It's kind of a shabby PAL->NTSC conversion, so you're better off with the R2 AE, but it's better than the Kino if you don't have R2 accessibility.

I don't know about the Ruscico edition, but even the AE Tarkovskys have pretty awful (though complete enough) subtitles. This is especially the case with Mirror, where the long stretches of poetry are rendered near-incomprehensible by the translator, who aside from not being a native English speaker clearly has no feel for what Tarkovsky or his father are trying to say. Of course the films are more than wonderful enough to survive such mutilation, but there are so many words - difficult words, even well-translated - in them that this really is a massive problem. It would be so nice to just be able to watch these films, without having to spend so much time staring at the bottom of the screen deciphering what the characters are saying...

Re Swo's post: the Ruscico still is a far cry from what Tarkovsky intended. The black and white sequences are in sepia for whatever reason, the colours and contrast are boosted in general. It's a shame but we have to face it: there is NO acceptable version of "Mirror" anywhere in the world. Go for AE/Ruscico at the moment if you want to see the film at all, but I assume that the only way to get a good "Mirror" in the future will be that somebody picks up the rights for a Blu Ray release and does a whole new transfer in the process.

I actually own (and have watched) the R0 Ruscico version that I referenced earlier. I agree that it is lacking, both for the color scheme/PQ, as well as the fact that the PAL->NTSC conversion lends the film's many slow tracking shots a slightly jumpy feel. Knowing no Russian, I can't speak for the quality of the subtitles, but at least they attempt to translate everything. Given the options available for a region-locked US resident, I would rather at least be able to know roughly what is being said all the time than have slightly better PQ and all the poetic passages untranslated. And it's not as though the PQ is that great on the other releases. Believe me, Stalker and Mirror are my two favorite Tarkovskys, and it frustrates me to no end that there is no acceptable version of either.

Yes, and what frustrates me even more is that apparently all dvd producers the world around have had to take over the Ruscico transfers, and mostly even with the menus and the ridiculous split in the middle of "Stalker" and the endless menus you have to go through again when putting in disc 2. At least Kino's "Stalker" has the film on one disc, unlike AE, MK2, Ruscico and whatever other labels. That said, despite all its shortcomings, the "Stalker" disc at least in its PAL incarnation (codefree, I think, at least from Ruscico themselves, but better check again) is still miles ahead of "Mirror" as far as colour accuracy is concerned. That the image is very soft often is, I believe, at least partly due to the materials that Tarkovsky used. There's a nice explanation in the audiocommentary of the CC "Solaris" about the different quality colour stocks Tarkovsky had to use, and although that of course is a fine transfer, some scenes look horribly blurred in "Solaris" as well (whereas others, photographed on different stock, are razor-sharp). Not to excuse Ruscico's transfer and its occasional 'jitter' (which doesn't disturb me so much as it does others here), but probably neither of these films will ever look quite as good as you'd expect from a 70s film of American origin. So, I find the "Stalker" transfer at least acceptable, but I can't say the same for "Mirror" (and don't get me started about "Nostalghia" again, I feel like a stuck needle already when it comes to Tarkovsky discs...).