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

The notion was floated a while back of starting a thread to cover the myriad of non-Criterion boutique physical media distributors, and this bit of (potentially sad? although opinions are divided as to what it actually means) Warner Archive news finally prompted me to undertake the daunting process of clicking 'New Question':

QUE SERA SE-SAVINGS!
2021 is here, and with it comes change. So we and our friends at the Araca Group that manage WBShop wanted to say thank you for your support with a final 4 for 44 sale! Start your lists and get ready to save on the weekend of March 12th, 2021! See you then!

Oh good, that sale's still like three weeks away.

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

https://www.deepdiscount.com/olive-films/b236587

A small and arthouse-centric Kino sale started today alongside Criterion's: https://www.kinolorber.com/list/view/code/feb-brrr-ary-sale_2021

xpost I appreciate the titles that Olive releases but I'm not crazy about the fact that they're mostly bare-bones releases (usually just the film itself).

Agreed. Olive releases tend to make me frustrated Criterion or someone else didn't get them.

Sometimes I stream from Kino Now, does that count?

Weekend before last I watched some Hungarian mind game thriller that I liked, title is really long and hard to remember.

Huh, I didn't even know they had their own streaming service. It seems like a lot of their physical releases wind up streaming on Criterion Channel.

Wait, I misspoke. Kino Lorber does have its own streaming service called Kino Now, but I streamed PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME from Film Forum.

Really hope that's not really the final Warner Archive sale! I didn't buy that often, but it was a nice thing to have around.

Streaming the latest Philippe Garrel from Film Forum now before it goes away.

xpost My understanding is that WB is parting ways with the company that runs WB Shop. There has been speculation running the gamut from 'so this is just the final 4 for $44 with that particular distributor' to 'so this means that WB is shuttering Warner Archive altogether'. Given that WB often demonstrates the sound business acumen of a downed power line whipping madly across a roadway, the real answer could fall anywhere within that continuum.

I recommend this Philippe Garrel film.

I'm sad about the possible demise of WB Archive but to be honest I could never be bothered with bare bones releases, even if the transfers are very good. Without the contextualization I'd rather just stream it or, in the before times, wait until it hits a repertory cinema.

Can heartily recommend the first volume of Indicator's Columbia Noir boxes. Bought it kinda expecting scraps, but the overall level is actually pretty good, and Drive A Crooked Road might make it on a hypothetical list of my all-time fave noirs.

Second Run is another one to look out for - they specialise in Eastern European cinema, so I end up giving them less of my money than I should because I'm just not very savvy on that topic yet. But a recent release that I loved is Tomorrow I'll Wake Up And Scald Myself With Tea, which is a nazi time travel comedy (!) from Czechoslovakia. Very much official state cinema, not a Czech New Wave kind of thing, but really clever with its time travel conceit; can't think of another movie that uses it so well this side of Back To The Future.

Finally, 88 Films, headed by Nicky Wire in a banana suit, have just had British censors refuse them permission to release a blu-ray for some Italian nazisploitation orgy thing, which is dumb but also very funny if you immediatley think of dude's ilx days.

i've been eyeing up the Second Run dvds for a while now, always meaning to buy more, but i only have the Jancso box.

(and Daisies. but then everyone has Daisies)

I'm sad about the possible demise of WB Archive but to be honest I could never be bothered with bare bones releases, even if the transfers are very good.

Huh. Are the latter regular Warner DVD releases that went OOP?

Some are. They just released Curse of Frankenstein which I think got a crummy snapcase DVD release 20 years ago in the US but was otherwise only ever available in multipacks. The new blu-ray is a two-disc set with the film in three different aspect ratios and a whole lot of new features.

Looking over my recent purchases (Curse, Shop Around the Corner, Meet Me in St. Louis, Best Years of our Lives), only Best Years is fairly stingy with the extras.

Second Run's Goodbye Dragon Inn might be my favorite release of the last year. Or at least my favorite movie that finally got a decent set.

Didn't realise Nicky Wire Bananaman actually ran 88 Films, but did watch one of his documentaries on a release - might have been Massacre In Dinosaur Valley? - so it makes sense.

I have never understood what "nicky wire in a banana suit" means and had no idea he was a poster...is there some reasonable reason his company has that name?

Big Hitler fan and cinephile

One of those more believable than the other.

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.

And I've just spotted they've misspelled Paul Verhoeven's name on the new Showgirls slip.

Arrow will release the Golden Princess library in the UK starting next year
https://www.screendaily.com/news/arrow-films-acquires-hong-kong-classics-for-uk-re-release/5205400.article

This is great news, from what I've seen of those Shout boxes I think us R2 peasants will def get the better packages.

In the future, every boutique label will have released a limited edition of the Breathless remake:

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/frontpage/products/breathless-2025

That Future Is Now

― Lithium Just Madison (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 23 May 2025 05:46 (fourteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Looks a bit Grange Hill.

*sausage enters from side*
feels a bit scummy of VS to release Breathless after former OCN label released it just 2 years ago

...and that has only been OOP for about a year (FOMO got me to buy one of the last copies of the. FCE editions of it and Cutter's Way during the Memorial Day sale last year).

a brand new, VS created 4K restoration of the never-before-accessed original negative

doing a better version of something that's out of print is not inherently scummy

This probably falls into general film industry ridiculousness, but the FCE Blu (released 2023) was from a New 2K Restoration from its 35mm Interpositive (presumably carried out sometime in the last 5 or so years), and featured some then-exclusive extras like deleted scenes & alt. ending with commentary that have been ported over to the 4K; a commentary by Glenn Kenny that was not; and some video pieces with Jim McBride that have been replaced on the new edition with newer videos (and a moderated feature commentary) with Jim McBride.

On top of that, this is a film that's seen several different domestic Blu releases, including a apparently still in-print edition from MGM. There was a rumor that the 4K was coming from Criterion, and believe me if that had happened we wouldn't be having this discussion right now.

Arrow US is selling their Blu of Visconti's Ludwig for $5: https://www.arrowvideo.com/ludwig-blu-ray/13434622.html

In the future, every boutique label will have released an edition of Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia:

https://shoutfactory.com/products/bring-me-the-head-of-alfredo-garcia

xp amazing deal but be warned even after it was restored to its full-length (they cut out an hour for the original U.S. release), this remains a polarizing film. Lincoln Center screened a 35mm print of the restored 4-hour version, and it looked beautiful and Romy Schneider was terrific...but I was still very disappointed.

Does anyone have that Shout Factory Herzog Collection blu-ray set from several years back? I've read mixed things, but I can't tell how much is legit and now much is just snobs sniffing at perceived flaws or imperfections.

Shout Factory usually doesn't have the best encoding and they were open about degraining films, something they prefer. That could be the case there. If you're region-free, the BFI's releases are preferable.

Alas, I was region free in the DVD era, but my primary these days is my PS5, and it's pretty limited when it comes to switching regions.

Supposedly Herzog signed off on the Shout set, but I don't always trust these endorsements.

Most inexpensive option is to buy a mod chip on eBay and install it yourself. Cost varies depending on the player, but IMHO it's been totally worth it. (Or you can buy a pre-modified player for a little more - sometimes it can be a real hassle to install.)

With endorsements and approvals, it varies wildly - they're human so it means it can be anything from a director who remembers the film well and is a big help, or someone who is a constant revisionist who wants to make more changes, or someone who doesn't remember or maybe doesn't care and are just like "looks fine to me." There are tons of examples across that spectrum.

A non-movie example - Bob Mould needed to approve that live Hüsker Dü CD for Warner, and he didn't bother to listen to it. He just let his tech listen to it and signed off.

Don't think I can or should mod the PS5, guess I can find a cheap premodded player. My budget go to in the DVD era was an OPPO.

this place gets good reviews for region free Blu Ray and 4K players
https://www.220-electronics.com/region-free-blu-ray-players.html

but when I read up on the reasonably priced ones the players themselves didn't get good reviews, noisy motors and seeking, etc..

I ended up unwilling to spend $1k+ to watch Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy & Smiley's People in high quality. (or $200 to watch them in high quality and be constantly annoyed by noise)

Wow. My local big-box store was clearing out a bunch of region switchable blu ray players for $30 so I bought three for when they inevitably fail. The first has been going strong for six years so I’m probably good

It’s a cheap player but inside a cabinet you can’t hear it. A lot of the low end players from China have region switching buried in their tech setup menu (or accessed by a hidden code).

and once it decodes the bits and spits them out the HDMI it’s exactly the same quality as any other player (barring those that process or upscale the images but I don’t do that)

Most 4Ks are already region free, so in theory the PS5 could stick with those and I could get a region-free player for blu-rays, but I know myself well enough that I think I'm not going down the region-free route. I appreciate the artificial limitation/restriction of only region A stuff, because otherwise it would just be too tempting to load up the shelf with sets I'll never really spend the time with. If I was going to spend $100+ I'd probably do it on a blu-ray/4K burner.

for $30

Region jumping is legal in Australia, though (and discs labelled as 4 or B are often not actually locked)

Might be worth it for Statesiders to buy a cheap player from somewhere with 110V mains to take advantage of such freedoms.

I bought a region free 4k Player last year and haven't looked back.

was a pain having to see what R1 blurays were region locked and which weren't, in online sales such as VS/Criterion etc.

now I know it'll play everything, just gotta hope it holds out.

noise wise, its in a cupboard, but as the remote is infrared, I have to keep the door open.

<sad trombone noise>

It’s cheaper to buy a blu-ray drive capable of ripping 4k discs and dump them to disk if you’re got space, I hear

That's what I said. Honestly, for me it's ultimately an ethical debate. Getting copies of most anything isn't really an issue, the question is whether I want the physical media for collector purposes.

A non-movie example - Bob Mould needed to approve that live Hüsker Dü CD for Warner, and he didn't bother to listen to it. He just let his tech listen to it and signed off.

― birdistheword

idk if that's necessarily a bad thing! i mean i'm getting older, i'm not necessarily gonna be able to look at things with the most precise critical eye, listen to things with the most precise critical ear. if mould has a tech he trusts enough to do that, i'd say that counts!

50%-off "Cult Films" at Barnes & Noble through 7-13

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/50-off-cult-films/_/N-31ki

Includes titles from Indicator US, Vinegar Syndrome, MVD and other labels.

2 for £16 sale including Arrow Video, BFI, Studiocanal, Radiance, Signal One etc
https://www.rarewaves.com/collections/collectors-multibuy?

2 for £30 on 4K if anyone is into that
https://www.rarewaves.com/collections/2-for-30-offer?

that is a handy sale if you've just discovered tai kato and are buying up the recent radiance issues

10% off code on the site too which is tempting.

Pity I'm skint.

Radiance have a sale on now too

Summer starts now.
From today until July 6, we'll be running a summer sale across our site. Over 90 items are on sale, including low-stock Limited Editions (like The Landlord) and recent releases (like Underworld Beauty). Standard Editions are priced as low as £7.99 and certain LEs start from £9.99.
Plus, we will have limited stocks of US editions included in the sale, designated by the (US-LE) suffix, including copies of our recent 'Hardboiled' boxset. These are only viewable for our International (non-UK) customers.
Treat yourself while stocks last.

this sales is more annoying if only because i have the bounty hunter and shinobi boxes that i paid full price for sat over there...

I know what you mean, I buy all the releases each month now. Got a big pile to watch.

Vinegar Syndrome doing this thing where they ask online stores not to carry competing versions of films they've released. Orbit DVD guy apparently not on board for that.

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

Wonderful to have so many options to buy the same ffs movies with different labels

A couple of cracking films in this sale https://eurekavideo.co.uk/promotions/japanese-sale/

i rewatched samurai wolf 1 and 2 at the weekend. the speed with which yojimbo influenced leone which then obviously influenced these is amazing. b-movies but very stylish

revenge also very good.

4 things on my wants list in that sale but the last time i tried to use the eureka site it wouldn't accept 3 of my cards and i ended up buying the thing i wanted from hmv via ebay (the peony gambler box)

What's your 4 wants this time?

I treated myself to:

Yakuza Wolf 1-2
Samurai Wolf 1-2
Red Peony Gambler 1-3

wants list would be cure, all the Honda, Abashiri prison (which has been mentioned a lot in recent commentaries), and the gosha. pretty much everything there i don't have, although i don't really feel the need for any more fukasaku.

i will try my card again - it did work last year, just not the last time. i think it was their side

I already have Cure. I was tempted by Abashiri Prison, but couldn't afford it.

First Abashiri Prison film is pretty great, black and white, Hokkaido snow. It's remaking The Defiant Ones but without the racial angle. The sequels quickly go downhill, also they're not in prison anymore! Third one has a kid in blackface to make an Important Point about Tolerance.

there are like 18 abashiro prison films. and 8 peony gambler films.

Yes. But both Eureka sets only feature entries 1-3, because they're COWARDS.

i think tasters like those are more sensible - nobody's going to buy 18 films unseen. but i do hope they continue, like the Radiance shinobi boxes.

eureka liked my card today, so i ordered the honda double bill and cure from there (order cut down significantly when i realised it said £70 and i've a rareview order in the post and the new radiance kato / wakayama ghost thing due next week)

Still waiting on this months Radiance order. It was delayed at the manufacturers for some reason.

Radiance US 50%-off sale at B&N through 8/3:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/50-off-radiance-films/_/N-31ly?Nrpp=20&page=1