how can we force companies to issue stuff on DVD?

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or "when will O Lucky Man! be released on DVD in the US?" i mean why the hell is Britannia Hospital on DVD but not if.... or OLM?

criterion ignores my emails, though i hear of other people getting reponses. fuckers.

― j fail (cenotaph), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

The short answer: buy multiple copies of your favorite movies when they come out on DVD.

The long answer: it's very difficult to get rights and adequate materials to produce DVDs and still turn a profit. During economic downturns, studios don't want to spend much of their money on preserving or restoring archival material let alone releasing it to video.

We need more state-sponsored institutions putting out DVDs, like the Danish Film Institute. Alas, that will never happen in the USA.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 17:44 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, the BFI seems to do pretty nice work. why can't there be an american equivalent?
oh wait, because our country is run by fanatical rightwingers hellbent on eliminating all arts spending and building up the military. whoops!

― j fail (cenotaph), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

why can't there be an american equivalent?

There is the AFI (coughs).

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 17:56 (twenty-two years ago)

The BFI earns my devotion for their "Early Cinema" series, especially their ten-volume "Early Russian Cinema" series of videos. Interestingly, when they chose to make a DVD of three Evgenii Bauer films, they included different films from the ones that appeared on the videos, a generous gesture since it's probably safe to presume that a significant chunk of the audience for the DVD already owned the videotapes.

They've also released Dreyer's Master of the House, John Ford's The Iron Horse, and Ernst Lubitsch's Lady Windermere's Fan to video.

See

Early Cinema - Feature Films
Early Cinema - Non-Features

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

What region are these? Shit, I gotta get me one of those multi-region players.

― slutsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Most of the titles listed there are PAL VHS only, meaning you'll need a PAL or multiformat VCR. (If anyone knows how to get one of those in the USA for a reasonable price, let me know.) I've watched several of the "Early Russian Cinema" videos, and Master of the House, in archives.

The DVDs--The Iron Horse, the Bauer disc (Mad Love), etc.--are all region 2.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 18:22 (twenty-two years ago)

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