International BLU-RAY DISCS FROM GERMANY (1 Viewer)

[moviepas]

My experience from Germany this year has been(Amazon) 7-8 days Standard Delivery.

I had been commenting of Benny Goodman Story when I had a problem and had to reset the computer and my browser then reopened this page but I lost what I was writing. The review that has now appeared is not my experience and it is not anywhere as good a quality as The Glenn Miller Story I got about 10 days ago. I ran Benny as soon as I got it yesterday and it seem off. Very dark and halos around faces. Green seemed top much on Donna Reed's eyelids. I use a Panasonic 46" Plasma. Maybe it is me??

A lost project for Universal is that they could have had some extras on these features from the shorts they made of big bands. They did a VHS of three volumes and a laserdisc issue of those. The only problem with those was that they cut off the opening and closing credits on this great shorts which was not cricket in my book. Nonetheless those shorts could have had an airing here.

Now for Paramount's The Five Pennies in Blu.

 

[Bob Cashill]

Got a package with INVADERS FROM MARS and CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF today via Amazon. Took 13 days to arrive, on the long side, and the Amazon packaging was the worse for wear.

 

[Wade Sowers]

I notice in the Amazon listing there seem to be various editions of these two - which did you get? Are these Region B locked? Is the Original INVADERS FROM MARS also presented in Blu-ray? Thanks in advance.

 

[Bob Cashill]

I got the one Blu, two DVD package; the Blu-ray and one of the DVDs have the 1986 version, and the other DVD has the original 1953 version and its alternate German cut (what's different about it I'm not quite sure, though it seems about five or so minutes longer). My Oppo is in a box waiting to be revived (soon, darling, soon) but the (handsome) packaging says Region B for the Blu and R2 for the PAL discs. I've read that Scream Factory will bring out the 86 version next year.

 

[Wade Sowers]

Thanks for the response - too bad the original is not in Blu, but so it goes . . .

 

[david hare]

Two Universal titles released in Germany worth mentioning; both legit transfers from Universal:

Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair (Universum label.) Very strong transfer, nicely textured, fine detail and solid film grain. The image is completely true to master DP Charles Lang's high contrast photography, a lot of which was filmed on location in 1948 Berlin. There is some light surface damage like infrequent vertical tramlines and one whole reel is visibly lesser dupey quality than the rest of the picture and clearly taken from another source, this reel runs from c.91 minutes to c.101 minutes and the image then snaps back to the previous high quality. I had forgotten how really personal the movie must have been for Wilder and what a great team he and Dietrich made (this and Witness for the Prosecution are their only two pictures together.) Dietrich has two big Friedrich Hollander numbers in the nightclub, the first of which, "Black Market" is a forgotten gem, with an ingenious fluid camera set up including a prominent reverse angled mirror to amplify the three way action during the sequence, while keeping the primary focus on Dietrich and the song. Also clearly visible playing the piano live accompanying Dietrich is Hollander himself. You get a real sense of collaborative esprit de corps in the sequence from the three native Berliners here playing out what must have been a very personal element to the story. Recommended despite the damaged dupe quality late reel - clearly no money for a restoration but I can easily live with this.

And Robert Siodmak'e great work of meta camp Maria Montez Technicolor fantasy, Cobra Woman (Alive AG Label.)Despite very low bitrate and movie file size (less than 10 gig!) An amazingly strong transfer delivering tight grain and very nice depth and stability with very pleasing color rendition which is a substantially wider color spacing and stronger gray scale than the earlier French Carlotta and US NTSC discs. It beats them in every department and again comes recommended for fans. There are three "versions" of the picture on the disc (one a completely pointless "widescreen zoom and crop nonsense) which I find impossible to navigate but the disc seems to default to the 1.37 non "Sidebarred" OAR version with the lossless English audio track.

Both discs are fixed Region B but both come in under 10 Euroes each after amazon.de deducts VAT.

 

[Robin9]

A Foreign Affair is, of course, the film every office junior should study in order to learn how to seduce a woman with filing cabinets!

 

[Bob Cashill]

Received the DAS BOOT series today from Amazon.de. That took 19 days.

 

[youworkmen]

Don't forget that in the last few weeks the German releases of both Fright Night (1985) and Christine have appeared and both are very good.

Gerry Andersons classic 1969/1970 show UFO also getting a Blu release in Germany at the end of November. Apparently created from full English language masters so all credits and titles will be in English and all for a 1/3 of the price of the Japanese set.

The 2 errors in the Japanese set should be corrected also

 

[Alan Tully]

I see Lake Placid is being released on Dec. 5th, & at a reasonable price too. If it looks OK I'll have this. Whenever it's been on TV in HD it looks really good to me.http://www.amazon.de/Lake-Placid-Blu-ray-Bridget-Fonda/dp/B00NDF1R56/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1413674585&sr=1-2&keywords=lake+placid

 

[cinerama10]

Please let us know what Exodus looks like. I want to dump my DVD from a great height! It's garbage!

I have the Australian bluray of EXODUS and it looks great.The music is unforgettable.It was great seeing it originally in 70mm.Those were the days.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Fleming - The Man Who Would Be Bond. Made by BBC America/Sky. I bought this on blu-ray from amazon.de because it has only been released on DVD in the UK (as with many other television series). First time I had seen it as we do not pay for Sky. Top quality production, image on blu-ray is excellent.

 

[revgen]

Coming Soon...

Sacred Ground (1983) - 02/06/2015

http://www.bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-filme/am-heiligen-grund-blu-ray-disc

Deadline U.S.A (1952) - 02/06/2015

http://www.bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-filme/die-maske-runter-blu-ray-disc

Charley Varrick (1973) - 03/19/2015

http://www.bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-filme/charley-varrick-der-grosse-coup-special-edition-blu-ray-disc

 

[haineshisway]

I have the Australian bluray of EXODUS and it looks great.The music is unforgettable.It was great seeing it originally in 70mm.Those were the days.

Exodus - looks great if you don't mind that it's not from a large format element and in the wrong aspect ratio. Certainly 1000% better than the non-anamorphic DVD of old, but this film deserves better, including a 5.1 stereo track.

 

[david hare]

One last German BD recommendation from me for the year:Jules Dassin's masterpiece, and probably the best ever performance from Richard Widmark, Night and the City. "Studio Gold Productions" licensing an excellent transfer from Fox. Single Layer BD25, Region free, ACV video and LPCM lossless mono audio. It is a major improvement over both the Criterion and BFI DVDs.The Criterion remains valuable for the extras, especially a 30 odd minute documentary on the English (missing in action) and US release versions with some different shots and totally different musical scores. Interestingly the Criterion was sourced from a restoration performed by Schawn Belston in 2005, and although this new BD is quite different to both earlier DVDs (the Crit is typically for them blackness boosted and the BFI is too bright) I would hazard a guess the new disc has been authored from Mr Belston's master (possibly by Torsten Kaiser's team) with far more faithful, and film like gray scale and grading. It really is a very fine piece of work now in 1080p showing off the exteriors which all seem to be shot during magic hour, along with the high chiaroscuro deep shadow studio sets like Googie Withers' nightclub. No extras to speak of. But keep the Crit for their extras if you already have it.

 

[youworkmen]

The German Bluray set of UFO is superb quality.
No extras unfortunately and the 16:9 error from the Japanese set remains but the B&W footage from The Long Sleep has been corrected.
Several episodes appear to have their day for night footage in it's original daytime state with no adjustments but overall this is a great release entirely in English .
Episode titles also in English on the disc labels but not on the menus

 

[revgen]

Charley Varrick (1973) is now available for pre-order from amazon.de.

 

[revgen]

Coming in May

Canyon Passage (1946) - 05/14/15


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Star in the Dust (1956) - 05/14/15


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Crossing Jordan - Season 1 - 05/14/15


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The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) - 05/21/15


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Passage to Marseille (1944) - 05/21/15


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Dark Victory (1939) - 05/21/15


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Dodge City (1939) - 05/21/15


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Ninotchka (1939) - 05/21/15


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The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) - 05/28/15


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[AshJW]

Wonderfull, more classics for my collection.

 

[Robin9]

Looks as if Germany's export boom will continue! (Although three of those titles will probably come out on Warner Archive Blu-ray discs)