Title: Eclipse box-sets
Description: Who'd you like to see given a box?
Description: Who'd you like to see given a box?
Michael Blanton - April 9, 2008 05:43 PM (GMT)
It's nice that Eclipse is releasing the early films of directors like Bergman, Kurosawa, Ozu, Fuller and rare films by directors like Louis Malle, but I'm more interested in their box-sets by directors under-represented on NTSC R1 DVDs like their upcoming William Klein release.
If I could choose some directors to be given Eclipse releases, they'd be:
Elio Petri: Only remember the OOP 10th VICTIM being released on R1 NTSC, (though there is a new Russian R0 NTSC disc available now).
Marco Ferreri: non-anamorphic discs of DON'T TOUCH THE WHITE WOMEN, BYE BYE MONKEY, LA GRANDE BOUFFE, etc., are all OOP.
Pier Paolo Pasolini: most of his R1 work has been released on really shoddy non-anamorphic releases, and much of it is OOP.
Bertrand Blier: BUFFET FROID, BEAU PERE, shoddy non-anamorphic Fox Lorber DVDs are OOP. Anchor Bay's GOING PLACES and GET OUT YOUR HANKERCHIEFS are both also OOP.
Who'd you like to see given a box?
If I could choose some directors to be given Eclipse releases, they'd be:
Elio Petri: Only remember the OOP 10th VICTIM being released on R1 NTSC, (though there is a new Russian R0 NTSC disc available now).
Marco Ferreri: non-anamorphic discs of DON'T TOUCH THE WHITE WOMEN, BYE BYE MONKEY, LA GRANDE BOUFFE, etc., are all OOP.
Pier Paolo Pasolini: most of his R1 work has been released on really shoddy non-anamorphic releases, and much of it is OOP.
Bertrand Blier: BUFFET FROID, BEAU PERE, shoddy non-anamorphic Fox Lorber DVDs are OOP. Anchor Bay's GOING PLACES and GET OUT YOUR HANKERCHIEFS are both also OOP.
Who'd you like to see given a box?
Tim Lucas - April 9, 2008 05:52 PM (GMT)
Franju.
Michael Blanton - April 9, 2008 05:53 PM (GMT)
I forgot to add Robbe-Grillet!
Jonathan Hertzberg - April 9, 2008 07:43 PM (GMT)
Alain Tanner
Reinhard Hauff
Kenji Mizoguchi
Maurice Pialat
Joseph Losey
Reinhard Hauff
Kenji Mizoguchi
Maurice Pialat
Joseph Losey
Tim Lucas - April 9, 2008 07:56 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| I forgot to add Robbe-Grillet! |
Ditto!
A Roger Vadim collection including LES LIASONS DANGEREUSES, BLOOD AND ROSES and CHARLOTTE would also be welcome.
Mark Zimmer - April 9, 2008 08:11 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Tim Lucas @ Apr 9 2008, 01:56 PM) |
| Ditto! A Roger Vadim collection including LES LIASONS DANGEREUX, BLOOD AND ROSES and CHARLOTTE would also be welcome. |
Yes indeed....Vadim seems to be horribly underrepresented on DVD, at least in R1.
John Black - April 9, 2008 09:58 PM (GMT)
Absolutely, a Roger Vadim set with BLOOD AND ROSES would be a great choice.
JEFFREY ALLEN RYDELL - April 9, 2008 11:16 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (John Black @ Apr 9 2008, 05:58 PM) |
| Absolutely, a Roger Vadim set with BLOOD AND ROSES would be a great choice. |
Don't forget - that could end up with Legend Films, who just did a bang-up job with Paramount's THE SKULL.
Tim Lucas - April 10, 2008 12:54 AM (GMT)
THE FEARSOME FELONS OF LOUIS FEUILLADE: FANTOMAS, THE NEW MISSION OF JUDEX, TIH MINH, BARABBAS.
Tim Lucas - April 10, 2008 12:57 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Don't forget - that could end up with Legend Films, who just did a bang-up job with Paramount's THE SKULL. |
What? This is out? :blink:
Lang Thompson - April 10, 2008 01:37 AM (GMT)
A Feuillade box or even just the individual films from somebody would be great.
But under-represented directors:
early to mid Oshima - at his most B-movie and Godard-like
Mario Monicelli - Big Deal on Madonna Street is well known but satires like We Want the Colonels may be even better
Marcel L'Herbier - I've only seen one of his films but it was pretty astonishing, very baroque and imaginative, reminiscent of Sternberg
Sternberg - speaking of whom, I'm guessing rights issues and perceived lack of bankability is why most of his films haven't yet appeared on DVD
Dariush Mehrjui - One of the best Iranian directors is little-known here, perhaps because his subject of the Iranian middle class doesn't quite fit even art house preconceptions
early Kiarostami - Or for that matter why not these?
Rossellini's historical films
Syberberg - he's releasing his own DVDs so couldn't Eclipse pick up those for the US?
Straub/Huillet - Another almost no-brainer of a definite market but still one not big enough for regular Criterion. Some may be tied up in rights issues.
Welles' other projects - The TV Lear, remnants of Quixote, Immortal Story, The Deep, Filming Othello, etc. Chimes at Midnight deserves a full Criterion treatment and somebody should pony up to finish Other Side of the Wind. Well it's nice to dream right.....
But under-represented directors:
early to mid Oshima - at his most B-movie and Godard-like
Mario Monicelli - Big Deal on Madonna Street is well known but satires like We Want the Colonels may be even better
Marcel L'Herbier - I've only seen one of his films but it was pretty astonishing, very baroque and imaginative, reminiscent of Sternberg
Sternberg - speaking of whom, I'm guessing rights issues and perceived lack of bankability is why most of his films haven't yet appeared on DVD
Dariush Mehrjui - One of the best Iranian directors is little-known here, perhaps because his subject of the Iranian middle class doesn't quite fit even art house preconceptions
early Kiarostami - Or for that matter why not these?
Rossellini's historical films
Syberberg - he's releasing his own DVDs so couldn't Eclipse pick up those for the US?
Straub/Huillet - Another almost no-brainer of a definite market but still one not big enough for regular Criterion. Some may be tied up in rights issues.
Welles' other projects - The TV Lear, remnants of Quixote, Immortal Story, The Deep, Filming Othello, etc. Chimes at Midnight deserves a full Criterion treatment and somebody should pony up to finish Other Side of the Wind. Well it's nice to dream right.....
JEFFREY ALLEN RYDELL - April 10, 2008 01:38 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Tim Lucas @ Apr 9 2008, 08:57 PM) |
| What? This is out? :blink: |
Sorta.
It's only available direct from the Legend Films Website, at $14.95, with $4.95 shipping. Ain't as cheap as it'll be once it hits Amazon and the like, but I really wanted to get a look at it (and Demy's THE PIED PIPER, which should get here any time now...).
I've cut down and quoted my reactions from last week to THE SKULL's transfer below:
| QUOTE |
 The source looks to me to be a conformed Techniscope internegative or interpositive, and Legend has gone about presenting it with a minimum of digital manipulation. I'm seeing a good amount of grain (expected since Techniscope is one big optical blow-up), but it's obviously film grain, and moves well. There's a fair amount of speckling, but again, I'm thankful for this, as it also indicates that the transfer's not been over-filtered to compensate. The colors may not be incredibly vivid, but they've not been over-saturated in an attempt to 'bring them out'. I've a feeling the film always looked just like this, and any delicacy in the color is - like the grain - picked up from the blow-up to anamorphic 35mm. Along with that, I have to add that there's a good deal of image instability (jitter, or 'gate weave') visible, but I think that's due to the extra optical step as well. If anybody's got the old VHS handy (or a burn thereof), I'd be curious if that transfer is as wobbly. I'll bet it is.  Any (minor) shortcomings of the presentation seem to be down to the source, and that's refreshing - especially for a company I think it can be agreed many of us were skeptical of. Great job, Legend Films! |
Dean Harris - April 10, 2008 10:49 AM (GMT)
Giuseppe de Santis, please. I want to get my mitts on "Roma Ore 11" before I die.
Doug Dillaman - April 10, 2008 12:07 PM (GMT)
Chris Marker, Stan Brakhage, Edward Yang, Masaki Kobayashi. I'm sure there are dozens more, but these are the names that immediately popped to mind.
Raymond Tucker - April 10, 2008 01:38 PM (GMT)
We could certainly use some R1 Max Ophuls including LA RONDE and LE PLAISIR. I could also go for a Criterion release of the full-length LOLA MONTES.
Wade Sowers - April 10, 2008 05:43 PM (GMT)
. . . it would also be nice to see better transfers made of all those Wellspring DVDs of Fassbinder's work . . .
Bob Cashill - April 10, 2008 08:13 PM (GMT)
Much as I like Eclipse, a full-featured EARRINGS OF MADAME DE...(Ophuls) is long-overdue as a full-featured Criterion DVD. But I like all of these ideas.
Steve Erickson - April 10, 2008 08:55 PM (GMT)
I'd love to see a box set of Manoel de Oliveira's early films. His fellow Portuguese director, the late Joao Cesar Monteiro, is also sorely in need of an introduction to American audiences.