Les Félins (Joy House) & Image DVD questions? (1 Viewer)

[carl.k]

Great movie, one of my favorites from the 60's, but the Image DVD could have looked and sounded much better. It also left me wondering if it was incorrectly matted, the dvd is 2.35:1, but at times it almost looked like a pan and scan version that had been matted at 2.35. Does anyone have any information about this dvd or know if Image might restore it?

 

[Ted Todorov]

Image is second only to Fox-Lorber on the worst DVD studios ranking scale. If I remember their Joy House, the credits were getting chopped off on the sides? The AR of 2.35:1 would be correct according to the IMDB, but how they framed it, whether they zoomed in, who knows.
Still Image has done much worse:
Christiane F. has NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES! What they were thinking is beyond me. Also a bad non-anamorphic transfer with some of the picture on the sides obviously missing. And they continue to release non-anamorphic stuff like it's going out of style...
Ted

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

While I'm not going to give accolades to Image for quality, they are at the mercy of their licensors, and what they are supplied with, and given the number of titles that are available to a company like Image, they may not have the option of opting out of whatever they can get, despite horrible quality (check out some of the Metzger titles if you want bad). The chances of a reissue of Joy House are between slim and none.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Quote:

??? Isn't Anchor Bay, just as much at the mercy of their licensors as Image is? Then why is Anchor Bay releasing one superb DVD after another, while Image spews crap? There is absolutely no excuse -- if Anchor Bay can do it, Image can do it. The difference is that Anchor Bay actually cares about the quality of their product and Image does not.
Ted

 

[carl.k]

Image is definitley a few notches below Anchor Bay, there must be 10-15 dvds they've released I'd like to buy but the transfers are just not good, do they even reply to email questions?
Jeff, just saw your review, right on the money, an "A" film and "C" transfer. That jazzy score by Lalo Schifrin really was cool and would be great without the dvd hiss, Schifrin is amazing, I really like Bullitt, Cool Hand Luke, and The Cincinnati Kid from his other 60's work.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

While Spirits of the Dead is a Fonda picture, the reason it got a rerelease is primarily due to Vadim's participation in its production - Home Vision has been releasing a lot of his work recently. It doesn't hurt having Fellini (another HVE favorite) or Louis Malle in there either.

It will be nice to see Clement's Purple Noon get a decent release soon, but I wouldn't hold my breath on Les Felins, at least not in the immediate future. Who knows, I could be wrong.