Page 1 of 5
AX1 Films
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 12:55 pm
by Don Lope de Aguirre
Axiom Films
They are about to release two films by Tsai and judging by this I think we will be hearing a lot more form them in future:
Axiom Films is delighted to announce the acquisition of UK and Irish rights in all media to the majority of influential filmmaker Wim Wenders's back catalogue, including: THE SCARLET LETTER (1972); THE ISLAND and FROM THE FAMILY OF REPTILES (1974); WRONG MOVE (1975); IN THE COURSE OF TIME (aka KINGS OF THE ROAD) (1976); THE AMERICAN FRIEND (1977); NICK'S MOVIE (aka LIGHTNING OVER WATER) (1980); ROOM 666 (1982); THE STATE OF THINGS (1982); PARIS TEXAS (1984); TOKYO GA (1985); WINGS OF DESIRE (1987); NOTEBOOKS ON CITIES AND CLOTHES (1989); A TRICK OF LIGHT (1996); BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (1998); LAND OF PLENTY (2004).
This coincides with the release by Axiom on 4th January of one of Wenders' most poignant films - and winner of the German Critics' Prize in 1974 - the seminal, ALICE IN THE CITIES - the first of his films to be shot (in part) in the United States. ALICE IN THE CITIES is also the first in his famous "road" trilogy, and is followed by WRONG MOVE (1975)and KINGS OF THE ROAD (1976), both also starring Rudiger Vogler.
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:11 pm
by zedz
Wim Wenders's THE ISLAND and FROM THE FAMILY OF REPTILES (1974)
Anybody ever heard of these?
Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:05 pm
by foggy eyes
DVD Times review of
Born & Bred. The solid transfer and special features bode well for the forthcoming Tsai discs (which are available for pre-order at £11.99 from HMV
here). I remember being underwhelmed by Trapero's
El Bonaerense a few years ago, but might give this one a go. Anyone else seen it?
Received
The Wayward Cloud today, and the good news is that the progressive transfer looks absolutely superb. It even comes in a green case with a watermelon on the disc. Some captures:
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 10:44 am
by pro-bassoonist
I just commented in another thread on these guys. Yes, they tend to port the best transfers for the films they release. I assume they have a very solid "French connection" because a lot of the foreign films they release are exact replicas of the their French counterparts with added English subtitles.
Pro-B
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:40 am
by Cabiria21
It even comes in a green case with a watermelon on the disc. Some captures
sold
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:57 am
by sidehacker
Foggy eyes - thanks for the captures. I'll be ordering it really soon.
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 10:46 pm
by foggy eyes
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 2:27 am
by Oedipax
Great news that we seem to have a very good new distributor for foreign films. Maybe they'll release Syndromes and a Century in an equally superior transfer.
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 3:34 am
by sidehacker
Or more Tsai releases! For some reason, I think his earlier films will be seen in a different light once/if they are cleaned up. Once again, thanks for the screens, foggy eyes.
Mai '68-Gudie Lawaetz
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:22 am
by filmyfan
Does anyone have any further info on
this title ?
It's being released on 28th April apparently (R2) and from what I have found on the web it looks a very interesting documentary.
Thanks
Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:19 pm
by Don Lope de Aguirre
Finally, the wonderful Alice in the Cities will be released on 26th May...
Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:43 pm
by Person
Don Lope de Aguirre wrote:Finally, the wonderful Alice in the Cities will be released on 26th May...
Really? Awesome news!
Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 11:29 am
by foggy eyes
A little more
info about
Alice:
The disc includes an exclusive interview with Wim Wenders by Mark Cousins, rare interviews with stars Rüdiger Vogler and Yella Rottländer, a collectors booklet and photo galleries. The film is presented in Full Frame with German Stereo sound and English subtitles.
As for the transfer, I would assume that Axiom will use the new 35mm print that they struck for the theatrical release (which had really heavy grain but looked jolly good to me).
New editions of
Paris, Texas and
Wings of Desire are due on 09/06.
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:15 am
by Cash Flagg
Wrong Move and
The American Friend on July 14th.
DVDTimes link.
Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:19 am
by foggy eyes
And, most importantly,
Kings of the Road is coming out on 28/07 (pre-order at
Amazon /
HMV). As far as I know, this is not available with English subs outside of the Madman R4 boxset, whereas all the other Wenders films (apart from
Alice) were previously released in the UK by Anchor Bay.
No reviews of
Kings of the Road online yet, which is strange. Just had a look at the disc (which has been being lying around for a couple of weeks now), and it's a very impressive release: two discs and a nice booklet with reprinted essays, interviews, and a couple of brief pieces by Wenders. Flicking through, the transfer looks superb (I saw the film on 35mm a couple of months ago so haven't watched it all the way through):
The second disc contains a 20 minute interview compilation and a further 20 minutes of deleted scenes and offcuts. Here's hoping that Axiom can maintain this standard (the Tsai discs are great, AR issue with
Sleep Alone aside), and start releasing stuff more regularly.
Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:55 pm
by Arn777
Thanks for posting these, it looks great. Odd and annoying that it is full price at Amazon. I should receive Wrong Moves tomorrow.
Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:27 pm
by What A Disgrace
Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:48 pm
by justeleblanc
Aspect Ratio: MATTHAU, WALTER (PRES/NARR):1
Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:36 pm
by MichaelB
I can absolutely second the praise for the Kings of the Road transfer, which looks gorgeous (and the source print is amazingly clean for a 32-year-old film) - but there's one small peculiarity in that it's been framed at 1.78:1. I even tested this in Photoshop via a frame grab because I wanted to be sure.
And the reason why it's odd is that the film explicitly announces in the opening credits that the aspect ratio should be 1.66:1 - it's just about the only film I'm aware of where there's not even the slightest room for doubt because it announces the correct ratio in such an upfront way.
That said, if I hadn't known in advance that it wasn't the OAR, I wouldn't have noticed anything wrong with it - the compositions of the 1.78:1 version look fine to me. I'm assuming a small amount is shaved off the top and bottom, but it really doesn't seem to make much difference.
Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:42 pm
by domino harvey
Does anyone have the new Wrong Move? I'd like to know if it's worth picking up for the deleted scenes, which are not present on the R1, and also whether the commentary is the same
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:38 am
by GaryC
MichaelB wrote:And the reason why it's odd is that the film explicitly announces in the opening credits that the aspect ratio should be 1.66:1 - it's just about the only film I'm aware of where there's not even the slightest room for doubt because it announces the correct ratio in such an upfront way.
The only other example that I know of a film's aspect ratio being announced in its opening credits is a 1986 French film called L'unique, starring Julia Migenes. White lines appear near the top and bottom of the frame and above or below them (respectively) are words to the effect of "This film is not being shown in the intended ratio of 1.85:1." Obviously the projectionists at the National Film Theatre hadn't noticed!
I wonder how many other films there are with similar notices, that we don't know about because when we saw them the projectionists had done their job properly?
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:07 pm
by foggy eyes
MichaelB wrote:I can absolutely second the praise for the Kings of the Road transfer, which looks gorgeous (and the source print is amazingly clean for a 32-year-old film) - but there's one small peculiarity in that it's been framed at 1.78:1.
What a strange decision - I hadn't noticed when flicking through the transfer to post screen caps (as the compositions didn't immediately appear to be compromised, I didn't even think to check). Rather cheeky of Axiom to let this slide, and I hope their cavalier attitude toward aspect ratios doesn't continue (see also:
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone).
On a more positive note, they have recently acquired Guerin's
In the City of Sylvia for UK distribution.
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:21 pm
by MichaelB
foggy eyes wrote:Rather cheeky of Axiom to let this slide
Then again, given Wenders' involvement with the extras, it may have been done with his approval. After all, the rest of the transfer is so good that it seems bizarre that something so fundamental should be so overlooked. The subtitles even translate the aspect ratio request, so
someone who worked on the DVD was aware of it!
That said, the 1.66:1 notice would have been primarily intended as a warning to projectionists not to crop to 1.85:1, which would make a far more noticeable difference.
And I agree that there's no apparent sign of compositional compromise - and because I realised more or less immediately that it was in 1.78:1 (as there were no black bars at the sides), I was specifically looking for problems.
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:47 pm
by foggy eyes
MichaelB wrote:Then again, given Wenders' involvement with the extras, it may have been done with his approval. After all, the rest of the transfer is so good that it seems bizarre that something so fundamental should be so overlooked. The subtitles even translate the aspect ratio request, so someone who worked on the DVD was aware of it!
This is very similar to
Sleep Alone, where 1.85 (definitely the OAR, and how I saw it projected at the NFT with Tsai in attendance) is cropped on the DVD to 2:1 - everything else on the disc (transfer, interview) is superb. As you say, it seems impossible that Axiom could overlook the discrepancy in AR, but I'd be very surprised if both Tsai and Wenders made the decision to fiddle with their original intentions for these DVDs. Who knows what's going on!
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:52 pm
by MichaelB
It does happen, though - there was much speculation over Hukkle's non-standard 2:1 ratio (which certainly wouldn't have been the theatrical ratio), but the fact that the commentary on the Hungarian edition is delivered by both the director and cinematographer suggests that it was done with their approval.
