Some good (if pricey news) for fans of FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS (THE SILENT STAR)... (1 Viewer)

...and German Cinema in general:

The University of Massachusetts- Amherst, in cooperation with DEFA have transfered and subtitled the complete, uncut film, along with various essays, to NTSC DVD. The film, from a story by Stanislaw Lem (Solaris) titled 'The Astronauts', concerns an International expedition to explore Venus-and is a true marvel considering it was produced in 1959..coming in March, 2005

And check out their complete catalog-plenty of gems there, too.

http://defafilmlibrary.com/product_i...products_id=68

'Fraid $189.95 is a little too high for my pocketbook.:frowning:

For mine, too. I have e-mailed them to tell them this. I recommend everyone follow suite who knows and loves this movie and who would like to own it without having to take out a second mortgage on their homes.

I was thinking it may be a typo, since most of their other films for sale seem to be normally priced-or more reasonable, i should say...

$189.95... wow, and I thought Japanese DVDs were expensive. They're just beggin' to have this bootlegged (not that I condone that in any way, shape or form...).

I love the movie but not at 189$.

Ive written again to get some things clarified. but here is the answer I recieved from UMA-DEFA:
-----
Mark:

To answer your technical questions: the film stock was 16:9, which the
German DVD release claims to still be, but the digital material used for this
DVD is a slightly trimmed full screen version.(???) That is the same for both versions, and I am not sure of the exact ratio. (must be a mistake)

In regards to your price questions: 20 Euros seems good for a DVD, it's
true. Most DVDs are remarkably underpriced to make them commericially
available -- most DVDs are also produced by a large (often Hollywood)
corporation that sells huge numbers of DVDs - this means they can bankroll
smaller, sometimes even profitless projects to maintain a satisfied customer
base. The DVDs we produce are bankrolled by us -- the DEFA Film Library --
which is a non-profit organization devoted to the study of DDR film run out
of a state university. We cannot afford to sell at commerical prices,
especially within the first year of release.

Fortunately this is standard in the industry -- we sell to educational
institutions primarily, and academic libraries are used to paying much more
for DVDs for this reason. Also, this makes the film available to students
and faculty for the life of the DVD -- these rights, as well as the rights
to show the film publically are included in the $189.95 price. If you desire
the film for only research/home use, we will consider selling to you at
$99.95. If you are affiliated with a university, however, we strongly
encourage you to get them involved -- German, Film, Judaic Studies
Departments, etc. are all often excited about our films.

Your other option of course is the German release -- bear in mind that it
has very little in the way of special features, if that is important to you,
as well as NO SUBTITLES in any language. (Important if your German is rusty
or nonexistant!)

I hope either way you get what you're looking for. Good luck and the very

Best,
Scott

So it's $100 for a pan & scam version? Anybody know the OAR for this (I'd guess 1.66:1)? "The film stock was 16:9..." - what's that supposed to mean?

You'd think a co. that claims to be all about academics would have their facts nailed down.

Der Schweigende Stern (THE SILENT STAR) was filmed in some manner of Panavision-2:35x1...(Totalvision)
I think this note is from a marketing guy who dont know his stuff-I find it hard to beleive that DEFA would go to the trouble of remastering, and subtitling, only to crop this picture...

I think you're right. This person doesn't seem to know what they're taking about.

I was thinkin': they oughta' license this or something to Criterion. I would pay SRP $39.95 (less than $28 at deepdiscount - ). But, alas, not $100.

from DVD Savant:

Several readers pointed me to an NTSC special edition disc of the original East-German version of First Spaceship on Venus, at an exhorbitant price. This has been a Savant wanna-have for ages, ever since seeing a PAL disc of the same original version, but without English subtitles. A friend who contacted DEFA by E-mail was told that there will be a more affordable domestic special edition this fall; I was asked not to mention the specific company yet....
----


Anchor Bay?



CRITERION?


I hope it is true...

It's most likely going to be First Run Features since they released all other DEFA titles.