Non-Criterion Boutique Home Video Discussion (Kino, Warner Archive, Arrow, Indicator, Vinegar Syndrome, Code Red, etc.)

ugh hitler stans are so annoying

Just did a nostalgic search through thread titles started by his most frequent identity and that was a wild ride. I didn't realise there were just so many of them.

In actually relevant news I went to order that Czech film from Second Run but I can't check out the shopping cart. Oh well.

yeah sorry for derail (also embarrassingly realized I've figured this out before)

still, I would probably avoid releasing nazisploitation movies with that company name

I wasn't having a go except at myself because I thought I was derailing.

there are lots of WB Archives Blu-Rays with extras. Off the top of my head, a couple Michael Curtiz movies (Dodge City + Adventures of Robin Hood) have newsreels, cartoons, short films (by Curtiz!), trailers, and multiple radio broadcasts of the film in question. Usually some contemporary interviews with scholars/critics, too.

Dunno about entire extra films though, I've only ever encountered that with Criterion. They should really emphasize that more imo, I mean the Stranger Than Paradise disc for example: it has Permanent Vacation! That's hardly an extra. Stranger Than Paradise is an extra on that disc!

Gaslight at least has both the 1940 and 1944 versions of the film. I could swear I have at least one other with a bonus film.

But yeah, Criterion (and others who do likewise) should make a bigger deal about that. I bought The Front Page from Kino not realizing that it was included on Criterion's release of His Girl Friday.

Most (if not all) of the Warner Archive Blu extras are ported over from the original DVDs.

The first Gaslight with Anton Walbrook is grebt.

Wow, I had no idea about Gaslight. Yeah, I had the same reaction with His Girl Friday, tbh I didn't even know it had the extra movie when I bought it. I went to watch HGF again like 2 years ago and was like "what's this extra disc...? ...oh..... wtf?!!"

It Happened One Night has a feature length Capra silent (haven't watched yet), and the Stagecoach release has one of the best Ford silents I've seen, Bucking Broadway.

Killer's Kiss included with The Killing...The Report included with Certified Copy...yeah...

I'd imagine with Criterion that it has to do with them gatekeeping what gets the official "prestige" of being included in the Collection, which kinda makes since for stuff like De Palma's Murder A La Mod (bonus for Blow Out) or the 30s version of Magnificent Obsession on the Sirk disc, but is pretty baffling choice when it comes to Permanent Vacation.

Killer's Kiss included with The Killing...The Report included with Certified Copy...yeah...

― Motoroller Scampotron (WmC), Wednesday, February 24, 2021 1:24 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

YO

I'VE HAD THE REPORT THIS WHOLE TIME.....?

xxp Yeah that does make sense, it just feels like they should advertise them more, I mean I had NO idea Certified Copy came with The Report-- and I've had that disc for years!

But, then again, I don't read stickers!

My birthday present to you!

I love you

The studio killed the original UK Gaslight in various ways such as renaming it so as not to compete with the US remake, iirc..

Okay, MGM destroyed the negative at the time, and one or both versions were variously known as Angel Street and The Murder in Thornton Square.

Bonus films are indeed an awesome feature, though tbh I'm not sure I'll ever get around to the earlier version of Holiday

I haven't looked at the Warner Archive site in years, but I remember being wary because the DVDs (and maybe the blu-rays?) were sometimes DVD-Rs/MOD. The fact that a even some factory-pressed Warner titles from about fifteen years ago became unplayable over time helped sour me on buying Warner releases. But I also just rarely watch physical discs any more, unfortunately.

xxp Another bonus feature IIRC is The Traveler on Criterion's Close-Up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/arts/gaslight-movie-afterlife.html
J. Hoberman's overview.

xpost Warner Archive DVDs are, unfortunately, usually DVD-Rs and thusly not generally something I'm inclined to pay money for (except that I'm probably going to fold on the Forbidden Hollywood sets eventually). Their blu-rays, however, are legit manufactured discs and well worth checking out. They have so much good stuff.

I'm slapping myself just now because when I started this thread I knew I was forgetting to mention a major player and sure enough: Shout/Scream Factory is probably the most dominant boutique label in my collection. And sure enough: they're having a sale (on box sets).

https://www.shoutfactory.com/page/list/id/282131?utm_source=rejoiner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BOXSET+SALE+FEB+2021+-+FIRST+DAY&utm_content=BOXSET+SALE+FEB+2021

You see, this is how I blew through whatever stimulus money I received last year. Soooo many sales. It's a really easy way to go broke.

Olive Films puts out a lot of good stuff. Can't seem to find a proper home page.

https://olivefilms.com/

(doesn't show up on a Google search).

If you’re not buying the Maude box set from that Shout sale, seriously what are you doing in life?!

Lol

I was looking at the Barney Miller box.

Seeing that Homicide box, and remembering how ridiculously expensive the original season sets were back upon release in the early '00s: $80-$100 apiece (because of the music rights, iirc).

Wow, that is amazingly cheap, even at retail. Did they cut the music or something?

Looks like direct ports of the old discs.

When A&E did their complete series box, IIRC it was like $150-$200.

that
Tomorrow I'll Wake Up And Scald Myself With Tea film mentioned upthread fort mentioned in the guardian today in an article about a new (?) streaming service

https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/

which might be a bit off topic (being streaming) but looks interesting

(fuck autocorrect, you get the idea)

That does look great. I grumble about the big streaming services quite a bit but truth be told I could probably spend the rest of my life just watching old movies on stuff like this, the Cinephobe and assorted youtube accounts, without even getting into the Criterion channel.

the russian films are a separate (but related) website

and it has an interesting payment plan - $5 for a day, $15 for a week, $30 for a month, $100 for lifetime

you could probably get the cost per film down to $1 given a week and enough spare time (although probably avoid Satantango in that case!)

that's assuming this service lasts 2 years!

That's a great selection, quite a few I've loved and a good bunch I want to see, maybe someday.

Inspired by this thread I tracked down a complete list of Warner Archive releases, and wow! Need the third season of Young Sheldon on blu with no extras? They got you covered!

Come on, that's on par with dismissing Criterion because they released Armageddon. Every physical media company produces shitty loss leaders. Warner Archive is one of the few things I won't actively give WB shit for these days.

No man I'm not dismissing it, it's just that I mostly knew it as a purveyor of super niche old school Hollywood stuff and was surprised by their branching out.

Also Armageddon is totally Criterion-worthy what are you on about.

The Long Good Friday looks extraordinary in the new Arrow version. They even put together a fancy modern trailer which makes it look the bee's knees

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B90zNzyFk-w

Man i'd love to see this print at the movies.

xpost Ah, gotcha. Yeah, more and more they're also using WAC as a repository for tv seasons that otherwise don't get a wide physical release (I think they manufacture these things like 1000 at a time?). Which...I don't even know what tv shows are considered for a wide release anymore, since Targets and other major retail outlets have all but given up on physical media.

bought a cheap 2nd hand blu ray player recently, what are good online shops in UK to buy these kind of boutique releases?
is there a place with an upcoming release schedule?

I extensively use blu-ray.com. This is their new release calendar but you may have to tweak the settings to get UK-specific releases (hint: select yr country in the search bar, do a search, and the site should then rejigger their listings such that they're specific to your region).

Warning: that link is extremely dangerous, as I realize now that I hadn't checked it in a while and now I'm seeing a bunch of stuff that I didn't even know had been released and, well...bye bye, money.

Amazon and Dawn of the Disks both saying the Werckmeister4k is in there as far as I can see.

I am probably in for it either way though.

Umbrella announce vol 2 of Ozploitation rarities, #1 only turned up the other week.

nah I think they are saying the one in the box is from the new 4K restoration downsampled to bluray

tbh it's all kind of confusing, I mean when they say "from a new 4K scan" ... yes but from a scan of what?

Could be then. I haven't made the leap to 4k so not fussed tbh.

4K isn't really that big of a deal either tbh, I'd much rather have a quality encode on bluray done by someone who actually cares than e.g. those James Cameron 4Ks that were released recently with their AI "cleanup"

I don't have a 4K player but I bought the Blu-Ray of The Abyss and it didn't look especially slicked-up to me. It looked really good, in fact. I did see some screenshots of other movies that looked lousy. Maybe The Abyss is secretly his favorite so he worked harder on it?

I have a 4K player (My late Dad's) that we got for his 80th birthday. I look forward to this set, I better start saving up.

Umbrella announce vol 2 of Ozploitation rarities

https://shop.umbrellaent.com.au/collections/coming-soon/products/ozploitation-rarities-volume-2-1988-1987-1982-blu-ray

Warner Archive dropping Altman's A Prairie Home Companion on Blu in September.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXMD7ktUJZY

Looks like Kino Now doesn't exist anymore now that they've morphed to the Kino Film Collection.

Guess it went away back at the end of May. Had a few things in there that are not easy to see now. QUAI DES ORFEVRES for one. Good thing I've watched it several times.

didn't know Kenny Everett made a horror spoof film in the 80s, Bloodbath at the House of Death, so was v surprised to see his face on the VS store page.

my mother was telling me a fun story recently about how some v strict Presbyterian relatives were visiting and all us kids were watching Kenny Everett on the TV and giggling away.
relative: "you allow your children to watch this filth"
mother: "oh it's not that bad"
cue every sketch getting ruder & ruder & us laughing louder & my mother sweating while praying for Kenny to tone it down a bit to no avail.
I sure he would have approved.

Saw this about a year ago and loved it, the highlight for me was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance from Barry Cryer as a policeman near the beginning where it's easy to imagine him as a starring role giallo detective.

Guess it went away back at the end of May. Had a few things in there that are not easy to see now. QUAI DES ORFEVRES for one. Good thing I've watched it several times.

MVD Shop offering up to 50% off certain recent-ish Fun City Editions titles

https://mvdshop.com/collections/fun-city-editions

I didn't know FCE offered DVDs.

Finished the Jean-Pierre Mocky set, wish it had a couple more films on it, wonder why Solo was left off because it seems to be a favorite. Don't know if the most recent dvd has english subtitles or any of the french boxed sets, of which there are many.

He's a really likable actor but I got the sense he didn't put much priority on casting himself, but he's still in plenty of his own films.

Kill The Referee has a bonus feature about real violence in soccer and times that players and referees were murdered by crazy hooligans. Scary.

Severin Haunts 2 boxset has lots of interesting looking stuff on it, I remember taping Psychomania off the TV when BBC2 showed it long long ago
https://severinfilms.com/en-gb/products/all-the-haunts-be-ours-a-compendium-of-folk-horror-vol-2-13-disc-blu-ray-box-set-hardback-book

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5NLJOVVmVc

Yes, it looks better than the first but I've seen/got several of these (just seen Litan in the Mocky set of course). Thankfully Indicator has Born Of Fire, which I've never heard of before. I'll need to watch the trailer again sometime and see what is available as singles.

I've seen about 6 and love them all (although I can't understand Psychomania as folk horror).

Most excited for the Suzanne discs having seen Santet recently via the VS release.

The Cliff Twemlow documentary, Mancunian Man, is on Tubi and absolutely tremendous for people who like that sort of thing.

20 movie Capra at Columbia set coming up!

https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/091224-1234

Also today: https://variety.com/2024/film/news/russ-meyer-sexploitation-vixen-supervixens-beneath-valley-ultravixens-bluray-release-1236142787/

Did these even make it to BR in the US?

RM films did Faster Pussycat, but that was it for over here (other than the Criterion BVD).