Random DVD and Blu-ray announcements

[wilder]

George Stevens' Giant (1956), Elia Kazan's East of Eden (1955), and Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without A Cause (1955) are up for pre-order.




Giant (1956) - Amazon





East of Eden (1955) - Amazon





Rebel Without A Cause (1955) - Amazon

[wilder]

December 16, 2013

Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) from Arrow UK



The Long Goodbye (1973) - Amazon UK

[wilder]

December 3, 2013

Sidney Lumet's Serpico (1973) on blu-ray from Warner Bros.



Serpico (1973) - Amazon

[wilder]

January 14, 2014

F.W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) on blu-ray from Fox



Sunrise (1927) - Amazon

[samsong]

any news if they're using a transfer from a new restoration?  i have the masters of cinema blu, wondering if this is gonna be an upgrade or not.

[wilder]

No word on additional restoration work at this point. I have the MoC too and am wondering the same thing.

[wilder]

Upcoming Olive Films Releases
via blu-ray.com

Independent distributors Olive Films have revealed that they are preparing a number of titles to be released on Blu-ray in 2014. Amongst them are: legendary director Abel Gance's J'accuse! (1938), Billy Wilder's recently restored Fedora (1978), an uncut version of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Stationmaster's Wife (1977), Douglas Sirk's Sleep, My Love (1948), Max Ophüls' Caught (1949), and Leo McCarey's Good Sam (1948).

COMPLETE LIST

1. J'accuse! (Abel Gance, 1938)
2. Fedora (Billy Wilder, 1978)
3. The Stationmaster's Wife (Uncut Version) (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1977)
4. Caught (Max Ophüls, 1949)
5. Betty Boop: The Essential Collection Volume Three
6. Betty Boop: The Essential Colelction Volume Four
7. The Pawnbroker (Sidney Lumet, 1964)
8. Stranger on the Prowl (Joseph Losey, 1952)
9. Sleep, My Love (Douglas Sirk, 1948)
10. Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (Irving Pichel, 1948)
11. That's My Man (Frank Borzage, 1947)
12. I've Always Loved You (Frank Borzage, 1946)
13. Magnificent Doll (Frank Borzage, 1946)
14. Forever Female (Irving Rapper, 1953)
15. Up the Junction (Peter Collinson, 1968)
16. Home of the Brave (Mark Robson, 1949)
17. Johnny Come Lately (William K. Howard, 1943)
18. Flying Tigers (David Miller, 1942)
19. The North Star, plus the alternate shorter version Armored Attack (Lewis Milestone, 1943)
20. Operation Petticoat (Blake Edwards, 1959)
21. Distant Drums (Raoul Walsh, 1951)
22. Good Sam (Leo McCarey, 1948)
23. High School Confidential (Jack Arnold, 1958)
24. Love Happy (David Miller, 1949)
25. Sands of Iwo Jima (Allan Dwan, 1949)
26. South of St. Louis (Ray Enright, 1949)
27. Try and Get Me a.k.a The Sound of Fury (Cy Endfield, 1950)
28. So This is New York (Richard Fleischer, 1948)
29. Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948)
30. The Lost Moment (Martin Gabel, 1947)
31. Men in War (Anthony Mann, 1957)
32. The Other Love (André De Toth, 1947)
33. Cauldron of Blood a.k.a Blind Man's Bluff (Santos Alcocer, 1970)
34. Beware, My Lovely (Harry Horner, 1952)
35. Outrage (Ida Lupino, 1950)
36. Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (Freddie Francis, 1965)
37. Man on the Roof (Bo Widerberg, 1976)
38. Adalen 31 a.k.a The Adalen Riots (Bo Widerberg, 1969)
39. Elvira Madigan (Bo Widerberg, 1967)
40. Raven's End (Bo Widerberg, 1963)
41. Ophelia (Claude Chabrol, 1963)
42. The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers (Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Ugo Gregoretti, Hiromichi Horikawa   , Roman Polanski, 1964)
43. Guilty of Romance (Sion Sono, 2011)
44. Himizu (Sion Sono, 2011)   

[wilder]

November 19, 2013

William Lustig's Maniac Cop 2 (1990) from Blue Underground



• Audio Commentary with Director William Lustig and Filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn
• "Back On The Beat - The Making Of MANIAC COP 2" (A newly-produced retrospective documentary including interviews with most of the cast and crew)
• Cinefamily Q&A with Director William Lustig
• Deleted Scene (The Evening News with Sam Raimi)
• Theatrical Trailers
• Poster & Still Gallery
• Isolated Music Track
• Enhanced for D-Box Motion Control Systems

• Gorgeous new 4K High Definition transfer from the original camera negative supervised by Director of Photography James Lemmo
• Blu-ray features upgraded 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (as well as original Dolby Surround track)
• Blu-ray and DVD feature numerous subtitle options, including English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish

[wilder]

Masters of Cinema Q4 2013

October 21, 2013

Late Mizoguchi (1951-1956) on blu-ray



Contains:

-Oyū-sama
-Ugetsu Monogatari
-Gion Bayashi
-Sanshō Dayū
-Uwasa no Onna
-Chikamatsu Monogatari
-Yōkihi
-Akasen Chitai



October 28, 2013

Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922)



Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922) - Amazon UK


Howard Hawks' Red River (1948)



Red River (1948) - Amazon UK



November 18, 2013

F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922)



Nosferatu (1922) - Amazon UK



November 25, 2013

Martin Scorsese Presents: World Cinema Foundation: Volume One on blu-ray




Individual covers:










Martin Scorsese Presents: World Cinema Foundation: Volume One - Amazon UK

[wilder]

February 24, 2014

Don Siegel's The Killers (1964) on blu-ray from Arrow UK



The Killers (1964) - Amazon UK


March 10, 2014

Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels (1941) on blu-ray from Arrow UK



Sullivan's Travels (1941) - Amazon UK

[wilder]

Singulus Technologies Develops Replication Line for 100GB Blu-ray Discs
via blu-ray.com

Singulus Technologies AG announced that it has successfully developed BLULINE III, a new replication line capable of manufacturing triple-layer Blu-ray Discs with a storage capacity of 100GB. The BLULINE III will allow the production of next generation optical discs using the current BLULINE II machines for dual-layer Blu-ray Discs.

Following the announcement Dr.-Ing. Stefan Rinck, Chief Executive Officer of Singulus Technologies AG, commented: "Just in time for the market introduction of the new ultra-high definition television technology (4K or Ultra-HD), we completed the development of the production technology for the new triple-layer Blu-ray Discs with 100GB storage capacity. For Singulus Technologies AG, in the Optical Disc segment the year 2013 has been very positive overall. Until the end of this year's August we received significantly more orders for Blu-ray Disc production machines than in the prior-year period. We also see good opportunities for the sales of our Blu-ray production equipment in the future. The positive life cycle of the Blu-ray Disc will continue for some years with the launch of the new ultra-high definition television format".

The following information was also provided with the official announcement:

"The further advancement of today's Blu-ray Discs, the triple-layer Blu-ray Discs with 100GB storage capacity, is the preferred playback medium for the new 4K technology. With the realization of a new and specifically designed data compression method for the ultra-high definition technology, the storage volume per information layer can be increased from 25GB to 33GB. In its committees, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is currently discussing the specifications of new, global standards. Singulus Technologies already completed the marketable concept of a new replication line.

At the IFA 2013 media and technology companies provide insights into the future of television: Sky, Astra, Sony, Harmonic, the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institute and the German TV-Platform present ultra-high definition. The new generation of high definition television provides four times the resolution (3,840 x 2,560 pixels) of HDTV. 4K will become less expensive: in Berlin a Chinese manufacturer is presenting new Ultra-HD TVs with a price tag of less than €2,000.

In the 1st half of 2013 Blu-ray Disc sales increased by 41 % compared with the same period one year ago (German Association of Audio-Visual Media (BVV), August 2013). With a share of more than 90 %, physical media (Blu-ray and DVD) also continue to dominate sales in the home entertainment market in 2013. Blu-ray Disc sales in the U.S., the international key market, will expand with a double-digit growth rate in 2013. This favorable trend is amplified by the market launch of the new ultra-high definition television technology and the upcoming market introduction of the new gaming consoles Playstation PS4 by Sony and Microsoft's Xbox One. Both gaming consoles are even expected to be equipped with a Blu-ray drive with 4K support to win the consumers' favor. At several gaming conventions and the IFA, the two new consoles were a highlight."   

[wilder]

Classic Films Get a Market of Their Own
via Variety

Already featured at Cannes and Venice film festivals, classic pictures were overdue for a dedicated market, and now they have one at Lyon’s Lumiere festival.

Launched by Lumiere fest director Thierry Fremaux (who is also Cannes film fest topper and creator of Cannes Classics), the three-day market is conceived as “a new meeting point for classics’ right-holders, sales agents, producers and laboratories looking to show what they’re up to, promote their work and/or conduct business deals,” says Fremaux.

Lyon’s oldies market in the Lumiere Village, running Oct. 16-18, is the first of its kind in the world and it is attracting such international players as Japan’s Shochiku Eiga, which restored Yasujiro Ozu’s films.

“Our goal is to show that there’s a market for classics,” Fremaux says.

In the U.S., the classics biz has been hurt by the collapse of homevideo revenue. “The ability to amortize the preservation costs through a DVD or Blu-ray release is becoming less and less likely,” says Jan-Christopher Horak, director of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

To balance out that homevideo decline, Fremaux says, “VOD presents a viable distribution avenue for classics, even if we still need to come up with a better way to monetize streaming. Television is another interesting avenue.”

Classics are big in Gaul. “France hosts over a dozen distributors of classic films and more than 100 theaters that show classics because there’s a cinefil audience for these films.”

The U.S., France and the U.K. are the top three markets for these treasures of the past, says Vincent Paul-Boncour, topper of Paris-based classics’ distributor Carlotta Films, which recently bowed an international sales division in France and will soon create a distribarm in North America.

“The spotlight drawn by prestigious international festivals like Cannes or Venice on classics and the digital switch have energized this industry, and especially in the U.S.,” says Paul-Boncour.

[wilder]

The Visitor (1979) - January 2014 TBD
via Blu-ray.com



Drafthouse Films has announced the Blu-ray release of the full-length cut of the 1979 sci-fi/horror hybrid The Visitor, starring John Huston, Shelley Winters, Glenn Ford, Lance Henriksen, Franco Nero and Sam Peckinpah. The film is also being re-released in theaters for a limited engagement in major markets this Halloween. The Blu-ray edition is set to follow in January, 2014.

Official Synopsis: Legendary Hollywood director/actor John Huston (The Maltese Falcon; Treasure Of The Sierra Madre) stars as an intergalactic warrior battling alongside a cosmic Christ figure against a demonic eight-year-old girl and her pet hawk, as the fate of the universe hangs in the balance.

In the dawn of '70s American blockbusters, European production companies emerged stateside, attempting to recreate box office gold by cloning Hollywood. The infamous Supreme Court-banned Jaws copy Great White, The Exorcist-esque Beyond the Door and countless others were packaged for export and the burgeoning drive-in circuit. Producer Ovidio G. Assonitis and director/alleged bodybuilder Michael J. Paradise's TheVisitor stands as perhaps the most ambitious of all, taking its inspiration by artfully fusing The Omen, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Birds, Rosemary's Baby, The Fury and Star Wars alongside a baffling cast that includes Shelley Winters (Night of the Hunter), Glenn Ford (Superman), Lance Henriksen (Aliens), Franco Nero (Django) and Sam Peckinpah (director of The Wild Bunch).

The result is not so much a carbon copy of these films, but rather an entertainingly hallucinatory and inscrutable mash-up that repertory cinema programmers around the country have rediscovered for late-night bookings. "Just when you think you've nailed down which direction the film is heading in, it completely shatters your notion of the time-space continuum," says LA art-house The Cinefamily. The Village Voice also calls the film "ridiculously entertaining [and] a schizophrenic mother of all '70's drive-in oddities."

"This film is from another time, another place and a wholly different dimension," says Drafthouse Films Creative Director Evan Husney, "and contains the highest JDPM (jaw-drops-per-minute) ratio out of any movie we've ever encountered. The Visitor is a repertory mainstay at the Alamo Drafthouse and is truly one of the most joyfully delirious theatrical experiences we've unleashed on our audiences. The world wasn't ready for this film in 1979, and it still may not be. Regardless, we are ecstatic to reintroduce cinema's most colossally bizarro achievement. Ever."

The Blu-ray release of The Visitor features a new HD restoration from the original film materials. Complete tech specs and special features have yet to be revealed.

[jenkins]

The Visitor (1979) - January 2014 TBD

coming to la in november, i'd like to also offer cinefamily's description (quoted in wilder's article) and clip from the movie. all i needed was "John Huston stars as an intergalactic warrior battling alongside a cosmic Christ figure against a demonic eight-year-old girl and her pet hawk, as the fate of the universe hangs in the balance" and there appears to be much more to say:
(i've bolded things)

To celebrate Drafthouse Films’ release of our all-time favorite cinematic slab of insanity, it’s a weekend’s worth of the movie 1979 couldn’t handle! The holiest of all Holyfuckingshits, The Visitor has the highest JDPM (Jaw Drops Per Minute) ratio of any film of its era, Italian ripoff or not. It’s a wonderful mishmash of The Omen and Close Encounters, but that barely hints at the whacked fervor with which director Giulio Paradisi hurls his hastily assembled “all-star” cast (John Huston, Glenn Ford, Shelley Winters, and, yes, Lance Henriksen) into the cinematic void, showering them with what the Alamo Drafthouse has called “a blackhearted blowout of interplanetary possession, telekinetic avian assault, exploding basketballs and ecclesiastical laserstorms.” Just when you think you’ve nailed down which direction the film is heading in, it completely shatters your notion of the time-space continuum with enough force to rival a thousand screenings of Zabriskie Point. If you miss out on this one, then you have as much regard for cinema as you do for a discarded toenail clipping.
Dir. Giulio Paradisi, 1979, 35mm, 108 min.

[wilder]

Carlotta Films Enters the U.S. Market
via blu-ray.com

Paris-based Carlotta Films has announced that it is launching a U.S. distribution company, which will be known as Carlotta Films U.S. The new company, which will be run by Calantha Mansfield, will focus on bringing classic and little seen independent films to the American market.

The first films Carlotta Films U.S. will distribute theatrically are restored prints of Leos Carax's Boy Meets Girl (1984), starring Denis Lavant, Mireille Perrier, and Carroll Brooks, and Mauvais sang a.k.a The Night is Young (1986), starring Michel Piccoli, Juliette Binoche, and Denis Lavant, as well as Charles Lane's Sidewalk Stories (1989), starring Charles Lane, Nicole Alysia, and Tom Alpern.

Preliminary release dates for upcoming Blu-ray and DVD releases have not yet been revealed.