Is there a widescreen, quality version of FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET available anywhere? I know dvd is a big no answer, but at least on tape.

The only version I have is partially letterboxed and looks awful :(.

I think Blue Underground have secured the US rights for this (can anyone here confirm?) so we should expect a release in 2005. I really trust these guys (because of their excellent previous discs) so I expect a great release in terms of transfer & extras.

I own the Greek tape on the Sunset video label which is dubbed in French. Also I was lucky to catch a screening of it a few years ago and the print was in English (with Greek subs) andseemed complete. It was great because it was the only chance to watch 4 FLIES.. in English! Come on, hurry up BU!

Actually I think the Blue Underground Four Flies on Grey Velvet thing has been a continuing effort by BU's Bill Lustig for several years. Like he almost got the rights, and announced a dvd, but then it became apparant he had failed to secure them and had spoken too soon...I remember some people on this board ragging on Lustig for this from time to time. I don't think it's been announced that he finally got a firm license on the film yet, though I could be wrong(I think it'd be widely discussed on this board rather quickly if he had however).

I really hope it is resolved, this is the only Argento horror film I've yet to see.

It is far from resolved - I have a man working on this who has very close ties to the two companies that joint-own it (and a lot of other titles which are part of the same package).

Same here Domenick. My vhs tape is atrocious. The picture is really rough, and the audio fades in & out throughout. It's also in English & widescreen, with no subs. I can't quite remember where I got it from, but it certainly was some grey/black market seller on the internet. The only thing I can remember on the site I bought it off of, was that it said it was the best print out there of the movie. I'd hate to see the worst. :blink:

So hopefully BU will acquire this movie in 2005 or sometime shortly after? But for now all I have is this vhs tape, which I only watched once, as that was painful enough.

Dean

Speaking of this film, I just have to share the fact that we at the Lund University Film Society in Sweden screened this film at our 75th year anniversary festival!! This was going down in october during the short Mobius-hiatus, so I never got the chance to anounce it. But now I got a reason after all.
Being the curator of the society this was one of the films I really wanted to see in 35mm at a real theatre. And it actually all thanks to Mobius that I got ahold of the whereabouts of the print, since Steve Guariento (I think...?) wrote that he saw the film in Manchester. I just had to get that print! And so I did!

(small spoiler)

I have never held my eyes so wide open during a film in my life, not wanting to miss a second of the screening. It was a beautiful print and even though I've seen the car-chrash-scene before on my tape, It was like witnessing it for the first time.

(spoiler end)

check out www.filmstudion.com, soon we´ll anounce the spring program...
you can also search our database for all the films we have screened since 1950. click "sök film".

Lars D

Lars:

I was also lucky to see a pristine 35mm print of FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET projected, albeit at the small Film Forum theater in NYC way back in 1991*. Still, the print was a revelation (I had a bootleg VHS copy prior to that, apparently mastered from an anamorphic 16mm print WITHOUT an anamorphic lens attachment, so everybody looked like string beans), and to this day it's my favorite of the "animal trilogy". I really, REALLY hope a legit, HD-mastered, widescreen DVD comes along before too long, although at this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if this one doesn't surface until HD-DVD comes along :-)

Vincent

* Argento himself introduced the screening of FOUR FLIES and also SUSPIRIA (although that print looked like it had been run through a garbage disposal unit, and was the cut U.S. version, to boot) that day, and Maitland McDonagh was also there, selling and signing copies of her book "Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds".

Lars, your memory serves you well: it was I! :P

Glad that you managed to secure the print for your own screening - and it's good to know that Mobius was instrumental in helping you track it down. True, it was the slightly cut UK "X" certificated version (that nasty strangulation-by-wire is missing), but the condition of the print was remarkably good considering its age. It certainly was a thrill to see this rarity on the big screen. (Lars, is this a privately-owned 35mm print, or did Paramount themselves dispatch the reels to Sweden...? Just curious.)

Steve:

Yeah, thanks again for the info, and the people at the manchester theatre was really helpfull too.

spoilers ahead.

Yes I tought it was cut at some places, actually there was a really weird cut at the first murder scene, the one in the park before the maid gets it. This scene is one of the best in the film I think, since it shows how a beautiful green and serene park can turn into a nightmarish cold murderscene. Argento uses inovative jump cuts and makes all the people in the park "disappere" as well as the carnival music that suddely goes out. In the 35mm print this important scene was heavely cut. One wonders why? I cant remeber exactly which shots that where missing but I'm pretty sure the speaker and some of the jump cuts where missing and it was certainly not just glitches in the print. Do you remember this?

The print and the screening rights was obtained from UIP in London. They handle prints and rights for various Universal and Paramount titles. The fact that I got in touch with them for Four Flies, made it possible for us to also make a complete Coen-retro, since we also could get Barton Fink and Hudsucker proxy from them! Thanks to Mobius!

lars