Fall of the Roman Empire to be released on April 29 (1 Viewer)

[Simon Howson]

I'm 50% English, but that made absolutely no sense to me!


Sorry.

 

[John Hodson]

'Gaff' = n. Chiefly British. Slang; A house, building, or apartment, especially where one resides.

'as·pic' = noun. A savory jelly usually made with meat or fish stock and gelatin, chilled and used as a garnish and coating for meats, seafoods, eggs, etc.

Larks' Tongues in Aspic

I think you (a) have to be of a certain age and musical persuasion, and (b) appreciate the finer points of aspic.

Oh, and (c) be prepared to tie up some of (a) and (b) with the point of the thread. Ah, here it is.

Apologies to all...

 

[OliverK]

I am not very fond of the transfer quality of El Cid on the current Weinstein DVD but it is definitely better than a VHS copy of an LD.

BTW: I like your sig - I am also a big Anthony Mann fan

 

[Fabian Kusch]

On my tube EL CID looked fine to me.
Definitely better that previous DVD editions from Europe.
Guess I will pick up ROMAN EMPIRE as well.
They should cut back on overpraising Mr. Bronston, though...

 

[OliverK]

It can be considered to look better as the European versions are not very saturated and tend to look washed out compared to the Weinstein edition, plus they have more ringing. But they also have more detail - it is more like a tossup and when you correct the colors to some extant an argument could be made for the French DVD.

Still the extras on this boxset are very nice IMO and they alone are worth the price of the boxset to me, as is the sound and you are right that the praise for Mr. Bronston is a bit on the heavy side compared to the attention that Heston and Anthony Mann get. But then b
oth a Bronston biographer and his son do the commentary to the movie - it is understandable that they have more to say about Bronston and keeping that in perspective there are some interesting pieces of information in there.

 

[PatrickDA]

The box set version lists THREE discs instread of two! WOW!! I can't wait!!!

 

[PatrickDA]

 

[OliverK]

You gotta hand it to them - this looks very nice.
Looking forward to this one and will definitely go for the boxset.

 

[RolandL]

I see no mention of the extra 30 minutes. Only 179 minutes even though the version on TCM version is 188 minutes. 2.35:1 so not 2.76:1. Big deal.

 

[OliverK]

Fall has never been shown wider than 2.35:1 AR and it looks like this isn't going to change with this version due to monetary constraints as is evident in El Cid, too.

The supposedly additional 30 minutes were only found very recently and it is not impossible that Weinstein will push back the release date accordingly to incorporate them.

3 discs seem to indicate that Weinstein again will bring us some very nice extras. Let's hope the same can be said for the picture quality this time around.

 

[kenNew]

So if we can now see the cover art does this mean we are still on course for 29 April or could it yet be dealyed?

 

[OliverK]

It was reportedly pushed back even before the missing footage was found.
If this was due to less than favorable reviews of the picture quality of El Cid I don't know but as of now it looks as if Fall has been pushed back.

 

[RolandL]

According to the post on the following page - The Samuel Bronston Thread - Page 6 - The DVD Forums

"It appears that as many as 30 70mm prints were made for the US market and that in New York it was shown in full Ultra Panavision at the DeMille Theater."

 

[PatrickDA]

Wait a second, I don't think the picture quality of "El Cid" had anything to do with the POSSIBLE delay in the release of "Roman Empire."

Anyway, what's up with the running time differences????? My Image
Entertainment laserdisc is 182 mins. and I've also seen 188 mins. listed
elsewhere. Are we going to be screwed on this one?????

 

[OliverK]

The European DVD I have includes the trilemma scene and the scene where Sofia Loren brings here fathers writings before the senate, it is missing the overture though which I hope they will include.

 

[OliverK]

This is the first time I have heard about this.

All eyewitneeses who have seen Fall in a movie theater and can remember the aspect ratio say that it was projected flat. Some of them even insisted that it looked so detailed that they would have expected it to have been shot flat.

Certainly all remaining prints that are shown to this day are either flat or scope :frowning:

 

[Paul Rossen]

Of course ones' memory could be a bit faded but as I recall FOTRE was shown flat 70mm 6 track stereo at the DeMille Theatre where I saw it during the first week of the Roadshow run. Also, I recall having a pounding headache upon leaving the Theatre!

By the way BEN-HUR and Mutiny on the Bounty were indeed shown UltraPanavsion 2.76 ratio at Loew's State Theatre.

 

[OliverK]

Thanks, this confirms what I have heard so far. As Ultra Panavision was so extraordinary wide I think that mostly people would not remember these things the wrong way.

Regarding your headache: You must have felt as if the Roman Empire had just fallen onto you

 

[john a hunter]

Gentlemen, do we have a revised release date for this yet and do we know what will be on the third disc?

 

[john a hunter]

This would appear to be a cut back from the 50 or so originally envisaged.A result no doubt of its bad reception.

I think I read somewhere(perhaps at the in70mm site) that the Uk had only 2 70 mm prints which I find very hard to believe as I am aware of at least 3 70 showings contemporaneously.