Titles include:

the link below says that the DVDs will be 16x9

El Cochecito
The Seed of Man
La Grande Bouffe
Don't Touch the White Woman
Bye Bye Monkey
Seeking Asylum Tales of Ordinary Madness
The House of Smiles
Documentary: "Marco Ferreri: The Director Who Came From The Future"


http://www.kochlorberfilms.com/product.asp?ID=KLF-DV-3163

BYE BYE MONKEY is listed as running 108 minutes - hopfully it'll be the longer version of the film (if I remember correctly, Brad Stevens reported in Video Watchdog sometime ago that the UK video [and the US DVD, which I have seen] was a shorter cut of the film).

Yes, these versions completely eliminate William Berger's character.

It's a pity LIZA isn't going to be included. I really liked this one, which stars Catherine Deneuve.

I'm sure you probably know it, but it's available as LA CAGNA in Italian with optional English subtitles from Minerva as a 16x9 R0 PAL DVD, so you do get to hear Marcello Mastroianni in his original Italian. The Extras, two interviews with Adriano Aprà & Mario Vulpiani are in Italian with optional English subtitles. I picked up my copy from Xploited.


I'd like to have seen DILLENGER IS DEAD with Michel Piccoli included. It's also available from Minerva, but there's been a rumor for a while that Criterion has the rights to this. I also picked up the Infinity R2 PAL version of THE HAREM ,with Carrol Baker, which I didn't know had a strecthed anamorphic transfer (see DVD Beaver review below for example).

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews24/harem.htm

Another problem with Infinity Arthouse's disc of THE HAREM is that it doesn't include an English soundtrack. The film was made in English, and Carroll Baker's performance loses a lot of its warmth by being dubbed into Italian.

THE LAST WOMAN is the major MIA Ferreri (it isn't even on DVD in Italy), but there are so many Ferreri films which aren't available with English subtitles - STORIA DI PIERA, THE FUTURE IS A WOMAN, L'APE REGINA (which has now been restored to its full length, with all the material originally cut by the Italian censors put back), LA DONNA SCIMMIA, etc. - that it's disappointing to see Koch Lorber mainly relying on titles that have already been released. Still, the rarely seen THE SEED OF MAN is quite remarkable, and I'll certainly be buying this set, if only to get EL COCHECITO (which I've never seen), and THE HOUSE OF SMILES (which I've only seen in unsubtitled form), as well as the documentary. An uncut BYE BYE MONKEY would be nice, but I'll be absolutely astonished if this set actually includes it.

Would I be right in saying that all available English-language versions of BYE BYE MONKEY are the shorter cut, and the extra footage only appears in foreign-language releases (such as the German version)?

Yes, as far as I'm aware. The only uncut version I've seen is the German-dubbed one shown on German television.

I've been put off buying this DVD for this reason - if you reset your DVD machine to screen 16X9 would the film play back correctly on a 4X3 TV?

Yes, if you set you DVD machine to 16:9, THE HAREM should play perfectly (correctly letterboxed at 2.35) on a non-widescreen television.

On my Sony 16x9 LCD, I have to switch it from full to normal. Full gives a stretched image, normal fixes the problem, but the image is simultaneously pillar- and letter-boxed.

Annoying, to say the least. :angry:

It should play perfectly fine on a CRT 4x3 screen, but if your 4x3 screen has anamorphic capability, you may need to turn it off.

Not sure why this is happening on your set. On my 16:9 television, all I have to do is select the 16:9 expand function (the one I normally use to watch letterboxed videos and widescreen DVDs that aren't anamorphically enhanced).

I think "expand" on your set is "zoom" on my set. When I zoom a non-anamorphic disc it works fine, but when I zoom THE HAREM it cuts off lots of info the right and left.

Only normal fixes the stretching problem, but as mentioned earlier, the unstretched image is smaller due to the simultaneous pillar- and letter-boxing.

Thanks!