Is Lang's Nibelungen coming to the PAL region? (1 Viewer)

[Frederic_A]

The irony of the international market: North America gets a great release of Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen, with the help of the Berlin Film Museum, no less, and in Germany, they release the campy 1960s remake, almost simultaneously. I'd be surprised if the Lang film doesn't get the same treatment as Metropolis, which has had a decent German release by all accounts, but so far, I haven't heard anything yet.

Does anyone know whether the new edition of Lang's film will be released in PAL in the near future?

 

[Mark_vdH]

Well, you can tell anyone that wants to see it that the current Kino release is region 0 encoded. As most (modern) TV's in Europe can display an NTSC-signal, I think there shouldn't be any troubles for most European people that need to get this.

And I'd call the Kino release "good" but not "great". There are just too many little audio defects in the soundtrack...

Also, The Laser Examiner reports that:

Die Nibelungen (both Siegfried & Kriemhild's Revenge) is on the market in a far superior and longer version [the Kino version] than ever before, also authorized by the Murnau Foundation. But, and this is unique to the realm of silent film, recent discoveries of better and longer materials as well as corrections that had to be made in the continuity of the prints now have lead to the fact that Die Nibelungen DVD release is missing footage that (so far) is only available on the re-discovered 35mm elements.

So there is still room for the defenitive version...

 

[Frederic_A]

Thanks Mark, that is interesting information. Maybe the newly discovered elements are responsible for the delay in Germany. What kind of audio defects, by the way?

When it comes to silent film, I think PAL wins out over NTSC hands down. The frame rate is unconventional anyway, and usually below 24 fps. Also, because the film is silent, there is no need to worry about PAL speedup, whereas the higher resolution makes it the better choice for a 4:3 picture. I don't know about you, but I get visible scan lines whenever viewing a non-anamorphic picture in NTSC (I have a conventional, that is non-progressive TV set). Lastly, I don't know about the Kino release, but many German silent films have the intertitles replaced in American DVD releases, so I generally look for the German version.

Here's hoping!

 

[Danny_N]

When the German DVD of Metropolis was announced in Germany in February it was said that these films would also be released by the same company:

Die Nibelungen
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari
Nosferatu

No release dates were given but they are coming.

 

[Mark_vdH]

What kind of audio defects, by the way?

Well, there is a pop/crack/bleep (can't really categorize in English ) every few minutes.

Nothing something really dramatic that should stop anyone from buying it for that reason, but annoying nevertheless.

And yes, the intertitles are in English instead of German.
Although I'd strongly prefer intertitles in their original language, like Criterion has done so far, it won't stop me from buying interesting titles....

I also see scan lines with NTSC material, but only when I stick my nose against my little 28" TV.
Seriously, I do have a problem with non-anamorphic widescreen NTSC titles. I would buy the new release of Giant in the PAL format, for instance.

The German dvd of Metropolis that Danny mentions does have German intertitles and optional English subtitles BTW. Let's hope they will continue this policy with their forthcoming releases.