DVD/BluRay News

Criterion's June Releases:

Black Moon (Malle)
Eclipse Series 27: Raffaello Matarazzo’s Runaway Melodramas
Insignificance (Roeg)
Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich)
The Makioka Sisters (Ichikawa)
People on Sunday (Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer)
Zazie dans le metro (Malle)

http://www.criterion.com/library/expanded_view?f=1

Kiss Me Deadly and Blow Out, eh? Sounds good. Some Hammer and Argento titles are finally appearing on BluRay as well.

Damn. Maybe I need an all-region thingy after all...

I am still excited for the release of Taxi Driver on Blu Ray, this April.

ambler wrote:

Kiss Me Deadly and Blow Out, eh? Sounds good. Some Hammer and Argento titles are finally appearing on BluRay as well.

Damn. Maybe I need an all-region thingy after all...

Just realized that "Blow Out" is going to include "Murder à la Mod" as a bonus feature. Brand new interview with De Palma, too.

Mr. Brown wrote:

[Brand new interview with De Palma, too.

Excellent. Is he still refusing to do commentaries? Probably the most technically accomplished director on the planet and he won't discuss the way he works. :x

Yep, still seems to be refusing, unfortunately. He supposedly supervised and approved the new transfer, though. I don't know if it's just a way to get more customers, but it sounds nice.

I guess Arrow is releasing "Obsession" soon, too, but not on Blu-Ray. I imagine it'll just be a rehash of the current DVD for the film.

I imagine you were probably able to catch it on the big screen?

Mr. Brown wrote:

Obsession ... I imagine you were probably able to catch it on the big screen?

Alas, no. It's one of the films I'd most like to see on a big screen, though. It just never seems to get programmed.

The British Film Institute used to allow members to book a film to show on their birthdays and I tried to get Obsession. I was told there were no copies in the UK. :shock:

ambler wrote:

Mr. Brown wrote:

Obsession ... I imagine you were probably able to catch it on the big screen?

Alas, no. It's one of the films I'd most like to see on a big screen, though. It just never seems to get programmed.

The British Film Institute used to allow members to book a film to show on their birthdays and I tried to get Obsession. I was told there were no copies in the UK. :shock:

Yeah, they never seem to show it over here, either. I always check the papers and online calendars, but never see much of De Palma being shown. It's usually something like "Scarface", if anything.

And with his name becoming unpopular, I'm afraid it may never happen.

Mr. Brown wrote:

And with his name becoming unpopular, I'm afraid it may never happen.

You may be right. De Palma somehow managed to alienate his existing fanbase without acquiring another. The same thing happened with John Frankenheimer. Unbelievably strong body of early work in the 1960s yet 20 years later he couldn't get arrested. Now it's as though he never made anything other than The Manchurian Candidate.

I'm looking forward to the release of INSIGNIFICANCE just for the chance of seeing the film. Like a lot of later Roeg, it may not be very good, but even if it's bad, I suspect it will be bad in a very fascinating way. And, of course, the Criterion release signals the arrival of a few critical essays on the film, which are bound to be interesting.

Saw you had registered. Glad you're posting. :)

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Saw you had registered. Glad you're posting. :)

I'll be around.

http://criterioncast.com/2011/03/17/wacky-criterion-collection-newsletter-drawing-hints-at-stanley-kubricks-the-killing/

I'd be impressed if they ever did Fear and Desire. Does that thing even exist in a watchable form anymore?

FourDot wrote:

I'd be impressed if they ever did Fear and Desire. Does that thing even exist in a watchable form anymore?

Yeah. I've seen it.

Just when I was hoping to go on a DVD buying embargo - Bounty releases some cheap versions of films I've been wanting cheap copies of for ages. Including:





Theyve also released BOY ON A DOLPHIN amongst others - but only a 4:3 letterbox transfer it seems.

Nicholas Blu-ray: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/King-of-Kings-Blu-ray/18904/#Review

FourDot wrote:

Nicholas Blu-ray: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/King-of-Kings-Blu-ray/18904/#Review

Eh, KING OF KINGS is not one of Ray's better pictures.

Arkadin wrote:

FourDot wrote:

Nicholas Blu-ray: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/King-of-Kings-Blu-ray/18904/#Review

Eh, KING OF KINGS is not one of Ray's better pictures.

It's the Sunday school depiction of Christ, and the sets look even more cardboardy in Blu-ray.

Truth be told, we don't have many good Jesus films.

I wish Dreyer had been able to make his version.

What do you make of Pasolini's THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW?

Sharky wrote:

What do you make of Pasolini's THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW?

Awesome film. And I'm on the record as digging LAST TEMPTATION, too. I've never seen another Jesus film besides those two that really impressed me. There are some that are okay--Zeffirelli's JESUS OF NAZARETH has some value--but none that really deliver.

Arkadin wrote:

Sharky wrote:

What do you make of Pasolini's THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW?

Awesome film. And I'm on the record as digging LAST TEMPTATION, too. I've never seen another Jesus film besides those two that really impressed me. There are some that are okay--Zeffirelli's JESUS OF NAZARETH has some value--but none that really deliver.

I'm going to probably surprise some people and say I actually enjoy JESUS CHRIST: SUPERSTAR. Yeah, it's a cheesy musical, but it does have some merit. I guess I went in to it thinking it was going to be weird and sacrilegious, but it really wasn't too bad....

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR has camp value, but I don't think you can take it too seriously.

Arkadin wrote:

Truth be told, we don't have many good Jesus films.

I wish Dreyer had been able to make his version.

I wish Verhoeven would have made his ... as a longtime scholar of the era, he probably would have balanced his sado-masochistic tendencies with a spiritual approach, as opposed to (from what little I've seen) the snuff film angle in the Gibson movie.