Das DVD- und Blu-ray Programm von Criterion für Februar 2010 wurde bekannt gegeben. Unter den Filmen befindet sich auch Max Ophüls “Lola Montez / Lola Montès” [F / BRD 1955], der in der von Marcel Ophüls neu restaurierten französischen Sprachfassung präsentiert wird. Die vom Münchner Filmmuseum rekonstruierte deutsche Premierenfassung wird leider nicht mit auf der DVD/Blu-ray enthalten sein, da Marcel Ophüls sich gegen die deutsche Fassung ausgesprochen hat. Mehr zu den verschiedenen Schnitt- und Tonfassungen hatte ich bereits im Februar geschrieben. 23. Februar 2010 DVD #488: “Wiedersehen in Howards End / Howards End” [GB 1992, James Ivory] 2 Discs
$29.95
2.35:1
English
The pinnacle of the decades-long collaboration between producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory, Howards End is a luminous vision of E. M. Forster’s cutting 1910 novel about class divisions in Edwardian England. Emma Thompson won an Academy Award for her dynamic portrayal of Margaret Schlegel, a flighty yet compassionate middle-class intellectual whose friendship with the dying wife (Vanessa Redgrave) of rich capitalist Henry Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins) commences an intricately woven tale of money, love, and death that encompasses the country’s highest and lowest social echelons. With a brilliant, layered script by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (who also won an Oscar) and a roster of gripping performances, Howards End is a work of both great beauty and vivid darkness, and one of cinema’s best literary adaptations.
Disc Features
High-definition digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts and approved by director James Ivory
New video appreciation of the late Ismail Merchant by director Ivory (available only on the Blu-ray edition)
Building “Howards End,” a documentary featuring interviews with Ivory, Merchant, Helena Bonham Carter, costume designer Jenny Beavan, and Academy Award–winning production designer Luciana Arrighi
The Design of “Howards End,” a detailed look at the costume and production designs for the film, including original sketches
The Wandering Company, a 50-minute documentary about the history of Merchant Ivory Productions
The hugely influential Nobel Prize–winning critic and playwright George Bernard Shaw was notoriously reluctant to allow his writing to be adapted for the cinema. Yet thanks to the persistence of Hungarian producer Gabriel Pascal, Shaw finally agreed to collaborate on a series of screen versions of his witty, social-minded plays, starting with the Oscar-winning Pygmalion. The three other films that resulted from this famed alliance, Major Barbara, Caesar and Cleopatra, and Androcles and the Lion, long overshadowed by the sensation of Pygmalion, are gathered here for the first time on DVD. These clever, handsomely mounted entertainments star such luminaries of the big screen as Vivien Leigh, Claude Rains, Wendy Hiller, and Rex Harrison.
“Major Barbara” [GB 1941, Gabriel Pascal] 1.33:1
English
Filmed in London in 1941 during the Blitz bombing, Major Barbara emerged from a troubled production to become a major success for George Bernard Shaw and producer-director Gabriel Pascal. Pygmalion’s Wendy Hiller returns, this time as one of Shaw’s most memorable, controversial characters, Barbara Underschaft, a Salvation Army officer who speaks out against the hypocrisy she believes exists in her Christian charity organization. Rex Harrison, Robert Newton, and Deborah Kerr co-star in this playfully satirical morality play.
Das “Wacky Animal” aus dem aktuellen Criterion-Newsletter:
Eindeutig ein “Dog Star Man” [USA 1962 - 1964] und somit wohl ein Hinweis darauf, daß demnächst Filme des US-amerikanischen Avantgarde-Filmemachers StanBrakhage bei Criterion auf Blu-ray erscheinen werden. Bereits Anfang dieses Jahres wurde von Marilyn Brakhage bestätigt, daß 29 weitere Filme von Criterion bearbeitet werden. 2003 wurde vom New Yorker Label das wunderbare 2-DVD-Set “by Brakhage: An Anthology” veröffentlicht.
E1 Entertainment präsentiert am 26. Januar 2010 auf DVD “King Lear” [USA 1953, Andrew McCullough], eine am 18. Oktober 1953 live von der CBS ausgestrahlte Adaption des Shakespeare-Stücks mit Orson Welles in der titelgebenden Hauptrolle. Die DVD wird ca. 80 Minuten an Bonusmaterial bieten:
Interviews and rehearsal footage with Peter Brook and Virgil Thomson
Discussion of scenes from Hamlet by Walter Kerr
Reports from the Yale University Shakespeare Festival by Omnibus host Alastair Cooke
A collectible booklet with essays and photos from the performance.
Warner Bros. hat es vorgemacht mit der “Warner Archive Collection” und nun folgen Universal und Turner Classic Movies (TCM) dem schlechten Vorbild: DVD-on-Demand scheint derzeit das Stichwort zu sein, wenn es um die Veröffentlichung von Backcatalog-Titeln geht. Gebrannte DVD-R zum Vollpreis, bei denen nicht bekannt ist, wie lange deren Haltbarkeit ausfällt. Im Gegensatz zu den Warner-Discs scheinen die Scheiben aus der “TCM Vault Collection presented by Universal“-Reihe wenigstens zum Teil mit Bonusmaterial ausgestattet zu sein. Wie es mit Lieferungen außerhalb der USA aussieht, ist bisher nicht bekannt. In dem Bereich sieht es z.B. bei der Warner-Reihe schlecht aus.
Turner Classic Movies & Universal Studios Home Entertainment Team Up to Offer Made-to-Order DVDs of Rare Films
Digitally Remastered Titles Never Available Before on DVD to Include Extensive Features from TCM Archives
New Titles Available Each Quarter, Including Five Memorable Horror Titles, Three Early Cary Grant Vehicles and a Timeless Holiday Classic
TCM to Present Special Telecasts of the Films
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and Universal Studios Home Entertainment (USHE) have entered into an extensive new partnership to offer classic movie fans rare vintage films, all digitally remastered, on DVD on a made-to-order basis. The TCM Vault Collection Presented by Universal marks USHE’s first foray into the manufactured-on-demand (MOD) arena. TCM began offering MOD featuring lost titles from the RKO library.
TCM and USHE are working to remaster a number of great titles never before available on DVD, with several never available on home video at all. The first titles made available include five chilling horror films, three early Cary Grant pictures and the unsung 1940 holiday classic Rememberthe Night, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray and scripted by the great Preston Sturges. The films will be made available by request on DVD via TCM.com for the first time during the fourth quarter of 2009. TCM host Robert Osborne will provide introductions for selected titles, which will also include supplemental materials compiled by TCM and extensive material from the TCM archives. In addition, TCM will present exclusive premieres of the movies over the next six months.
Schon seit einigen Tagen werden die DVD- und Blu-ray-Sets von “Der dritte Mann / The Third Man” [GB 1949, Carol Reed] aus dem Hause Criterion auf der Label-WebSite als “Out of Print” angezeigt. In einigen Foren wurde darüber spekuliert, ob es sich nicht nur um einen Fehler handeln könnte. Leider ist dies nicht der Fall, wie auf der Facebook-Seite von Criterionzu lesen ist:
Sadly, because it is OOP, but there are still copies in the channel. Amazon has both editions in stock. You may want to get them while they last.
Mitte jeden Monats kündigt Criterion neue Discs an, so auch heute: Das DVD- und Blu-ray-Programm des New Yorker Labels für Januar 2010 beinhaltet Fellinis “8 1/2” inklusive der vorher nicht auf der Criterion-DVD enthaltenen Dokumentation “The Last Sequence”. Diese Doku ist bereits auf der deutschen “8 1/2“-Doppel-DVD von Kinowelt veröffentlicht worden. Desweiteren erscheinen der bereits vorher in Aussicht gestellte “Che“-Zweiteiler von Steven Soderbergh, die von Peter Becker bereits genannte “Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy“-Box und Wim Wenders’ “Paris, Texas” inklusive Bonusmaterial, welches z.B. auf der deutschen “Special Edition“-Doppel-DVD von Kinowelt nicht enthalten ist. 12. Januar 2010 Blu-ray #140: “8 1/2” [I / F 1963, Federico Fellini] 1 Disc
$39.95
1.85:1
Italian
Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido Anselmi, a director whose new project is collapsing around him, along with his life. One of the greatest films about film ever made, Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 (Otto e mezzo) turns one man’s artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema. An early working title for 8 1/2 was The Beautiful Confusion, and Fellini’s masterpiece is exactly that: a shimmering dream, a circus, and a magic act.
DISC FEATURES:
High-definition digital transfer of restored film elements
Uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Introduction by filmmaker Terry Gilliam
Audio commentary featuring film critic and Fellini friend Gideon Bachmann and NYU film professor Antonio Monda
High-definition digital transfer of a new restoration of Fellini: A Director’s Notebook, a 52-minute film by Federico Fellini
The Last Sequence, a new 52-minute documentary on Fellini’s lost alternate ending for 8 1/2
Nino Rota: Between Cinema and Concert, a compelling 48-minute documentary about Fellini’s longtime composer
Interviews with actress Sandra Milo, director Lina Wertmüller, and cinematographer Vittorio
Storaro
Rare photographs from Bachmann’s collection
Gallery of behind-the-scenes and production photos
U.S. theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring writings by Fellini and essays by critics Tullio Kezich and Alexander Sesonske
Noch mehr Disney? Bitte schön: Im Frühjahr 2010 erfolgt die Veröffentlichung einer “70th Anniversary Special Edtion” auf DVD und Blu-ray des vierten Animationsfilms des Studios: “Dumbo, der fliegende Elefant / Dumbo” [USA 1941, Ben Sharpsteen]. Warum aber bereits 2010 das 70. Jubiläum des Films gefeiert wird, erschließt sich mir nicht ganz, denn in die US-Kinos kam er am 23. Oktober 1941.
Im Herbst 2010 erscheint Disneys “Die Schöne und das Biest / Beauty and the Beast” [USA 1991, Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise] auf neuer DVD und erstmals in Hi-Def auf Blu-ray. Die Veröffentlichung erfolgt in der neuen “Diamond Edition”-Reihe, deren erster Titel “Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge / Snow White and the seven Dwarfs” vor wenigen Tagen in den Handel gekommen ist. Die “Diamond Edition” löst die bisherige “Platinum Edition”-Reihe bei Disney ab. Der Trailer zur DVD/Blu-ray.
Label: Concorde | BRD | Classic Selection | DVD | PAL VÖ-Termin: 8. Oktober 2009
Regionalcode 2
Laufzeiten Originalfassung: 84:50 Min. [25 fps] Originalfassung mit “Concorde”- und “Gaumont”-Logos: 85:09 Min. [25 fps] Deutsche Kinofassung: 80:55 Min. [25 fps] Deutsche Kinofassung mit “Concorde”- und “Gaumont”-Logos: 81:14 Min. [25 fps]
durchschnittliche Datenrate: gesamt Originalfassung: 7,24 Mbps Deutsche Kinofassung: 7,59 Mbps
Kino on Video / Kino International setzt die “Avant-Garde“-DVD Reihe mit “Avant-Garde Volume 3 – Experimental Cinema 1922-1954” am 24. November 2009 fort. Auf zwei DVDs werden insgesamt 20 Filme mit einer Laufzeit von mehr als fünf Stunden geboten, wobei der Großteil der enthaltenen Filme aus den USA stammen. Nur zwei Filme entstanden in Frankreich, einer in Großbritannien. Während die Volume 1-Ausgabe den Schwerpunkt noch auf Europa legte, beschränkte sich die Auswahl des Volume 2-Sets bereits größtenteils auf die USA.
From THE Collection of THE GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE AND FROM THE RAYMOND ROHAUER COLLECTION
From the little theaters of the 1920s to the ad hoc film societies of the ’50s, avant-garde cinema knew no established form and held no predictable position. The boundaries of its history are still hotly debated, but its rough sensibilities informed and permeated the city symphonies of Alberto Cavalcanti, the visual music of Mary Ellen Bute and John Whitney, the classroom films of Sidney Peterson, the confessional film poems of Willard Maas and John E. Schmitz, the Lettrist cinema of Marc’O, and even marginal exploitation films and home movies. Drawn from the rich collections of Raymond Rohauer and the George Eastman House, Kino’s third volume of experimental films continues to illuminate the degree to which cinema’s evolution has been influenced by those filmmakers who occupy its periphery.
Eine ausführliche eMail vom Criterion-Präsidenten Peter Becker über Steven Soderberghs “Che” [USA / F / E 2008], John Fords “Höllenfahrt nach Santa Fé [aka: Ringo] / Stagecoach” [USA 1939], Roberto Rosselinis “Kriegs Trilogie” (“Rom, offene Stadt / Roma, città aperta” [I 1945], “Paisa / Paisà” [I 1946], “Deutschland im Jahre Null / Germania anno zero” [I 1948), Blu-ray Veröffentlichungen und die “Eclipse Series“. Aufgetaucht ist die Mail im Criterion-Forum.
My name is Peter Becker. I’m the president of Criterion. Thanks for taking the time to write in.
You’re right to call the Criterion schedule a juggling act, and juggling this year’s schedule has been more challenging than any since laserdisc days. I understand some of the frustration you’re feeling about the balance of new and classic titles, especially in the later 2009 Blu-ray schedule. Making the Criterion schedule is always a series of impossible compromises, and in the end, some people, some years, are going to end up unhappy. Clearly this was not a good year for you. I’m sorry about that. I know it may not solve anything, but I thought you might appreciate a quick look at some of the factors that came into play with this year’s schedule.
For what it’s worth, we’ve spent much more time on classic film this year than our announced schedule shows. The single most time consuming and expensive mastering project in the history of the company was Kobayashi’s THE HUMAN CONDITION — that is, until we started work on Rossellini’s War Trilogy, which is still not finished. We had originally hoped to have the Rossellini set ready for October release, then November, then December. Ironically the easiest of the masters, the 2007 restoration of ROME, OPEN CITY, is the one that is giving us the most trouble. PAISAN, which has never been available in awatchable video version, has taken us three straight months of digital restoration, an amount of time and an expense that will probably never come back, but the film will finally, for the first time, look good — still damaged, but with a beautiful black and white image that will be a revelation to anyone who has ever seen the old tapes and 16 mm prints that are still in circulation. Our tech director is about to make his third trip to Italy on this project, just to try to straighten out the last master, next week.
23. Februar 2010
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