Black Narcissus and other 6/23 ITV releases (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Scott]

First they were due on the 16th, then they got pushed back a week to the 23rd, Now Amazon UK is showing a price increase of £5 and no release date estimated other than 'currently unavailable'. I had just cancelled my order a couple days ago (at £14.99) but was having second thoughts.
Looks like it didn't after all. Even if it does make it out now, that price increase is going to put it out of my budget for a good while . $30 I would have swung- $40?... unh uh.
It's always something, ain't it.

 

[Danny_N]

The ITV releases seem to have been pushed out until July 7, at least I got an e-mail from Amazon UK with a delivery date of July 8 - 16 for my order. Hope they really show up then.

 

[Bleddyn Williams]

They might be delayed, but the Black Narcissus disc is done! Here's the review at DVD Times...

DVD Times - Black Narcissus

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

Hi-Def Release Lists - Home Page

 

[Page]

Many months ago, I preordered "Black Narcissus" and "Great Expectations" on Blu-ray from Amazon UK. Yesterday, I received an e-mail that they were having a problem finding copies of them to fill my order and wanted to know if I wanted to cancel my order. I kept the order open and today I received an e-mail that they had both been shipped to me.

 

[Page]

Received "Black Narcissus" and "Great Expectations" in the mail today from Amazon.uk. I took a quick look at both and they both looked very good, so I'm glad I traded up to the Blu-ray versions. The lack of extras is the only downside so far.

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

Comparisons between the BD versions and the DVD versions:

The Boys From Brazil - Gregory Peck Olivier
Black Narcissus - Jean Simmons

Shame that US players won't be able to play the extras, but for me BFB could be enough to buy just for the film.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

The title of this thread should be changed.
Thanks to the great Beaver for the comparison (^^^).
This release puts the simularly priced CC to shame (PQ-wise).

 

[Paul_Scott]

My copy of BN, along with the Seventh Seal, is on it's way- shipped out Monday.
It won't be hard to better the R1 Criterions of either of these as they both exhibited quite a lot of shimmer/twitter/aliasing. The extras will be missed, but the digital reproduction of the images left much to be desired.
I will be curious to see how distracting the color breathing is on BN, which is mentioned in the DVDTimes review.
And yes, the title should be changed.

 

[Jim_K]

I'm really tempted to replace my Criterion Black Narcissus but with the extras in PAL and unplayable to me I'll have to think about it some.

This is just one reason why importing generally sucks.

 

[Page]

Well, if space isn't a problem you can always keep both copies of the movie. (That's what I'm going to do.)

The only extras on the UK Blu-ray version are a short (24 minute) doc called "A Profile of Black Narcissus" and a trailer. They DO play on my U.S. Panasonic Blu-ray player and are "jerky," but not so much as being unwatchable--especially for the one time I sat through them--which is probably the only time I'll watch them.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yup, same with me, really enjoyed the HD presentation of this great film. Next up is "The Seventh Seal".





Crawdaddy

 

[Jim_K]

Yeah space is one issue, since I'm upgrading more and more of my DVD collection to BD. Too many times I've had to hang on to my DVD copy for bonus features. In theory if I had to do this every time I'd end up doubling my collection.

Another issue is that I can't sell off the DVD which lessens the sting of rebuying the same films all over again.

The last issue is the high cost of importing which I'd imagine based on past experience would cost me in the range of around $40 with shipping. Way too much for what's essentially a bare-bones disc compared to the Criterion.

Such is life.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I bought five UK BRDs for little over $25 a piece which is more expensive than their Region A counterparts, but only one of them was already released in this region.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

What was the retail price of those five releases?
(where they all "$40US" titles like "BN"?)
Are you including shipping?

 

[Paul Arnette]

Where did you purchase these from?

 

[Paul_Scott]

The bill for Seal, Narcissus, and a 50s Noir called Tread Softly Stranger (which was great BTW) came to $80 with shipping. For the two Bds alone, it probably would have been about $65-70 w/ shipping.As expected both trounce the sd Criterions. However the color fluctuations (breathing?) on Narcissus are a bit distracting, and I would say the Criterion translation on Seal was more vividly expressive than the mostly plain, matter of fact one on the Tartan bd.
I don't regret selling off the Criterions for these, but at the same time I can already envision dumping these for better releases down the line too.