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.

i suspect a lot of those Kinos are going to get rereleased through Criterion, but $18 ain't bad

the Meyers are...costly

Trailer for the new Shaw Brothers set about to drop on Arrow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3SS3opyElw

Why yes I've long had it preordered.

Kino Winter Sale (through December 16th, technically 5 days before... nevermind)

https://kinolorber.com/collection/winter-wonderland-sale-2024/

Kino putting out a set containing every existing Oscar Micheaux film, with 7 new restorations
https://kinolorber.com/product/oscar-micheaux-the-complete-collection

Vinegar Syndrome Sale is Live: https://vinegarsyndrome.com/

Be sure to check their Fun City Editions Blow Out, with many early FCE titles going for $8 apiece.

What do you recommend from those? All a mystery to me

I just wrote a fairly comprehensive list but it got eaten so off the top of my head

Battle for the Post Planet (cool low budget post apoc with stop motion)
Goodbye 20th Century (Macedonian post apoc time travel nonsense with Jodorowsky edges)
Hot Snake (Mexican westerns easily peer with e.g. Massacre Time)
Mexican Gothic (100% my pick here, Rapiña is the Mexican Fargo and the VS release I loan out regularly)
Apocalypse Tetralogy (next biggest loaner, e European dystopia SF)
Spanish Bloodbath (ignore the title, these are cool 70s Spanish gialli that feel like someone like Tigon could have made them)
Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Horrible Things (like John Waters made a semi serious 'lags on the run' movie)

I was hoping for Homegrown Horror 3 to be marked down but that's for next year I guess.

Tempted by the Black Emmanuelle box at 50% off at Severin on Saturday, am getting some of the DPP List films from their Black Friday 10 in any case.

Some more VS recs

Santet is a great Indonesian horror set starring Suzanna but ymmv over whether you get on with them or not. They definitely have a specific style.

Shriek of the Mutilated is probably the most fun low budget Bigfoot movie out there.

Leather Boys is a brilliant kitchen sink gay questioning biker movie from 60s Britain. Great turns from Rita Tushingham and Dudley Sutton.

The Doris Wishman and Lost Picture Show boxes probably now have enough in them at these prices for most tastes.

Village of the Damned is probably peer with the Severin Italian/Spanish gothic sets if that floats your boat.

Voyage of the Rock Aliens is just dumb fun. It's exactly as good or bad as you think the full description makes it sound.

Just snagged Liquid Sky, Guest House Paradiso and Red Rock West at 50% off

Shriek of the Mutilated is probably the most fun low budget Bigfoot movie out there.

Yes, but does the VS version restore "Popcorn" by Hot Butter to the soundtrack?

I want to say yes but it's been a while since I watched it

Oh I love VS (and will check out all those recs for sure! i was already thinking of Santet) but I meant specific the FCE titles

Re: FCE Honestly, at those prices I'd say if it looks interesting to you, grab it, as it's unlikely any of those titles are gonna get reissued any time soon. Currently kicking myself already for missing Alphabet City, which sold out this morning.

I can strongly recommend the '70s Comedies Smile and Rancho Deluxe.

FCE is doing their own sale on the titles they distributing themselves: https://www.funcityeditions.com/shop

Went for Rancho Deluxe and Born to Win.

The Rancho disc is really nice. Has new interviews with Thomas MacGuane and Bridges, who of course has very fond memories of the shoot (met his wife), plus additional scenes from the TV cut.

Sounds a treat! Will snag a couple of others from FCE’s own direct sales too.

Separately there’s a few interesting very discounted offerings from Arrow right now; thanks to credit I’d built up I grabbed The Comic, The Possessed and Bloody Spear at Mt Fuji for just shipping and tax.

50% Off Selected Boxes TODAY ONLY At Severin: https://severinfilms.com/collections/saturday-only-box-set-sale

Also offering 75% off selected catalogue titles this weekend: https://severinfilms.com/collections/greater-than-50-off-srp

The Five Days and Private Crimes are both great, and Stone and the Devil's Game are pretty difficult to pass up at that price.

And yes, I bought the Black Emanuelle box at 50% off.

(I have all the other box sets so hmu for recs)

Aw man I've already wasted so much money, forgot about Severin. Those prices are really low, especially for them!

Warner Archive Sale at moviezyng: 33% when you buy 3 or more.

https://www.moviezyng.com/sale-items?ps=120&sort=ItemNameµstoreid=158

bought the Eureka Louis Feuillade boxset yesterday as a xmas present to myself, it was going out of stock on their website and fomo took over

That box is amazing, you won't regret it. Silent cinema was made for the serial format!

Speaking of silents, StudioCanal is hardly a boutique but this nonetheless sounds tempting:

http://diabolikdvd.com/product/hitchcock-the-beginning-studio-canal-11-disc-blu-ray-boxset-region-b-preorder/

Picked up the Severin Blu edition of Supervixen...I didn't know that a late Meyer could look so beautiful. Fantastic transfer!

I checking some other stuff out online and I didn't realize that those Severin Meyers are exclusive to their site until the end of January, so if you want 'em, buy direct now and actually save some money in the process (Amazon is offering them at MSRP, while Severin themselves are offering 33% off rn).

Supervixen is the apex of Meyer's style; his best-shot color film, his editing has evolved past impressionistic to near-abstract while still driving narrative visually, and while the plotting has tipped completely into indulgence, the dialogue and jokes (probably from an uncredited Ebert?) just hold it on the side of joy vs oof.

Vinegar Syndrome has pissed me off. I made a decent-sized order on Black Friday (the three Wishman sets, plus several of the soon to be OOP FCE titles--some of which I earmarked as Xmas gifts for friends) and as of today they still have not shipped. They sent an email out a few weeks ago stating I was in the third wave of outgoing shipments (1st wave being subscribers, 2nd being purchasers of BF exclusives) which were supposed to start going out late last week. Fortunately I've been able to cover other gifts in place of these things, but still WTF.

By contrast, I did a free shipping order with Kino on the 15th which wasn't supposed to land until Friday that arrived yesterday, and--as noted a few posts up--I bought something from Severin I wasn't even expecting until the end of January that showed up the week after I ordered it.

Eh, these are small companies who are pretty up front about how long it can take to ship from their big sales and definitely don’t make any X-mas guarantees. I didn’t order from VS this time but they’ve been 3-6 weeks in the past and my mid year Severin sale order this year took two full months to ship. I was pleasantly surprised that my Severin BF order arrived in 3 weeks this year but I definitely wasn’t expecting it before the new year.

Kino is the exception and almost every order I’ve done with them has shipped within a week, but I still had one take a month once from them. It’s just the breaks in this increasingly niche hobby.

People talk a lot about the piles of books they have but I never hear people say how many unwatched films they have. I think 60 was the highest I ever got, I buy a lot less films these days

Yeah I got my VS BF order but my Severin one hasn't shipped yet. Can't get excited about either although I have loved the VS that I've watched this far.

(Think I'm at about 75 unwatched but I have some Christmas presents to factor in such as Shawscope 3 so will probably be over 100)

yeah, VS is always pretty slow unfortunately, the BF/halfway-to-BF/etc. sales are always the worst with this

The Canada Post strike has held up my Gold Ninja order for months

Santa brought Shawscope Vol 3 and the Curzon Bela Tarr box.

Santa also delivered me a Tarr box set - a beautiful fetish object that may well be the last gasp for this kind of arthouse fare from Curzon after their recent Poundstretcher buyout. Plus the Radiance Daiei Gothic set, which looks right up my street.

Santa had a busy night as I got it too.

Strong vote in favour of Vinegar Syndrome based on one BF order: setting clear expectations via email is great policy; removing their own product from sale for the month and allowing you to add partner labels' release onto a pending shipment is incredible support and exposure for those labels; and staggering the post-sale shipping suggests that they aim to maintain full-time staff in their warehouse, and keep workload manageable even in crush times.

Santa brought Mrs aldo the Daiei Gothic set and the Severin Folk Horror vol 2, which it's taking considerable efforts on my part not to open and put Psychomania on.

I already have the Daiei set. Radiance is my fave label.

I have a large stack of Italian crime films from them I really need to get into.

Strong vote in favour of Vinegar Syndrome based on one BF order: setting clear expectations via email is great policy; removing their own product from sale for the month and allowing you to add partner labels' release onto a pending shipment is incredible support and exposure for those labels; and staggering the post-sale shipping suggests that they aim to maintain full-time staff in their warehouse, and keep workload manageable even in crush times.

On snooze/lose news, I was trying to pick up stuff I didn't get and looks like the Louis Feuillade crime serials box is oop. Also I think I got the last copy on the market of the 101 Films Stone Tape release.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/best-blu-rays-dvds-2024

I own 3 of the 10 choices here (Pharaoh, L' Amour Fou and the Feuillade box); have those Lewton films on DVD and somewhat skeptical that a blu w/ a lot of ported over features deserves its place on here tho I understand the visual upgrade might be considerable.

yeh they really underestimated the demand for the Feuillade set
got the Whistler Indicator set from my brother for xmas, score! watched the first 2 and they are better than I was expecting too.

Looking at that BFI list I own two (Haxan and Tod Slaughter) and am repeating my oft-made claim that everyone should own the Tod Slaughter box.

Your endorsement combined with the BFI inclusion have won me over.

yeh they really underestimated the demand for the Feuillade set

Kinda hoping they do a reprint!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K15A83bYrKo

release the snyder-cut of the binoche/fiennes criterion closet