Foreign/Art/Independent Film DVD Preorder List II (1 Viewer)

[Andrew_K]

Vanguard's "Tierra" is has very bad (VHS source quality) transfer> Actually all Vanguard DVDs which I saw 6-7 had bad VHS-like transfers and definitely non-anamorphic.

This is really a shame because some of these movies were excellent, especially:

"Life According To Muriel" and

"Mararia"

Another great Spanish movie starring great Carmelo Gomez (Maraira)is "Running Out Of Time".

Unfortunatelly "Running Out Of Time" was given horrible VHS-like DVD transfer. I am waiting for the Spanish DVD release of this great film.

 

[Ali B]

I've just found that Columbia have issued Tierra, Vacas and The Red Squirrel in Spain - I'm just hoping that they're anamorphic.

ali

 

[Jay E]

These titles are now up for pre-order from Wellspring:
Z - 5/21
La Buche - 5/21
Drift - 5/21
Place Vendome - 6/18
Merchant of Four Seasons - 6/18
Fox and His Friends - 6/18
Great to see Z and more Fassbinder on DVD, hopefully Wellspring will do a good job on the DVDs but you never know with them.

 

[Ted Todorov]

hopefully Wellspring will do a good job on the DVDs but you never know with them.

The current acid test is for them to release The New Waterford Girl in anamorphic OAR. If they do that, I'll give them a huge benifit of the doubt in the future.
If they produce a Pan & Scan DVD, their goose is cooked so far as I'm concerned.
Ted

 

[Jay E]

Has anyone bought Wellspring's The Circle? There is a region 2 DVD coming out and I was wondering if the region 1 DVD is OK. Thanks

 

[DonaldB]

Jay, the R1 edition of The Circle looks great and features a nice interview with Jafar Panahi. It's well worth getting.
Added:
4/23
The Juniper Tree (Nietzchka Keene, Iceland) Warner
Kurosawa (US) Wellspring
George Washington (David Gordon Green, US) BFI [R2 - UK]
5/14
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell & Pressburger, UK) Carlton Home Entertainment [R2 - UK]
5/21
La Buche (Daniele Thompson, France) Wellspring
Z (Costa Gavras, Algeria/France) Wellspring
The Kingdom (Lars von Trier, Denmark) ICA Projects [R2 - UK]
6/18
Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Germany) Wellspring
Merchant of Four Seasons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Germany) Wellspring
Place Vendôme (Nicole Garcia, France) Wellspring

 

[Jay E]

Donald, is the R1 DVD widescreen? Thanks.

 

[Brook K]

How many times is Kingdom going to get released?

Remember Ted, Yi Yi was anamorphic OAR and it still sucked.

I said I wouldn't preorder from them anymore, but for Fassbinder, I'll make an exception.

 

[DonaldB]

Jay, the R1 disc has an excellent anamorphic widescreen transfer.

 

[Jay E]

Thanks Donald! I'm going to go order it right now.

 

[Jacques]

New Yorker is supposedly releasing rated and unrated versions of L.I.E. on June 4th. It was originally announced that they were going that route with The War Zone, but they ended up only releasing the unrated version, so we'll see...

 

[Gary Tooze]

Quote:

Strong recommendation for this disc...
Cheers,

 

[Gary Tooze]

Unless I am mistaken I see that the Oscar winner for this years Best Foreign Film "No Man's Land" comes out on April 9th... no ?

 

[DonaldB]

Added:

4/9

No Man's Land (Danis Tanovic, Slovenia) MGM/UA

5/7

Raining Stones (Ken Loach, UK) Cinema Club [R2 - UK]

Riff Raff (Ken Loach, UK) Cinema Club [R2 - UK]

Shower (Zhang Yang, China) Momentum Pictures [R2 - UK]

6/4

Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa, Japan) Fox [R2 - UK]

6/18

Charlotte Gray (Gillian Armstrong, UK) Film Four [R2 - UK]

9/9

Kurosawa Collection: Ran - Masterworks Edition; Madadayo; Kurosawa (Akira Kurosawa, Japan/US) Wellspring [16 x 9]

 

[Brook K]

According to the info on Deepdiscountdvd the Russian Criterions are delayed until 4/30 and Masumura's Afraid To Die until 4/16.

 

[Pascal A]

Well, Facets' adherence to release dates tend to be spotty (I'm still waiting for the February Bimal Roy releases ), but according to their site, they are releasing Andrei Tarkovsky's rarely seen The Steamroller and the Violin on their own label in June. The DVD details only mention a Tarkovsky biography and filmography.

 

[Deepak Shenoy]

I'm still waiting for the February Bimal Roy releases

Pascal,
I just wanted to post a Caveat Emptor about the Bimal Roy releases. From the Facets site, it appears that they are simply reselling the DVDs released by the Indian company Yashraj Films.
http://www.yashrajfilms.com/homeent/homeent.htm
I see the Bimal Roy DVDs listed for $29.99 each on the Facets site, while they sell for $19.99 each on the Yashraj site. In fact, they sell for even less (as low as $12.99 each) at some of the Indian DVD sites.
Also from all the accounts I have heard, the quality on these releases is quite pathetic. The DVDs seem to have been mastered from worn out VHS tapes instead of film (despite what the Yashraj site claims) and they feature questionable audio mixes (mono sound directed to all 5 channels).
I would recommend staying away from these releases if you can (that is, if your orders haven't already shipped). They are a huge rip-off and definitely not the treatment you would expect these classics of Indian cinema to receive.

 

[Ali B]

More Artificial Eye goodness:
The Day I Became A Woman (Marziyeh Meshkini, Iran) 17 Jun 2002
La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette, France) 17 Jun 2002
Va Savoir (Jacques Rivette, France) 17 Jun 2002
ali

 

[Talal]

I regularly watch Yash raj's dvds of the classics in their library, and I agree with the above comments completely.

The source is so worn, and soft, and lacking detail for the most part, that you can't justify purchasing them unless, well, you love spending money.

I do suggest, if you can, to rent them. SOme of the movies are extraordinary, and are required viewing, despite the terrible presentation.

Films like Awara, Mera Naam Joker, and Devdas are superb pieces of cinema.

 

[Cynthia]

Does anyone know the OAR of Richard Linklater's Tape? It comes out this week, but the DVD is full frame.