Palisades Tartan have announced 6 new Blu ray titles for November 2nd, the most significant being Park Chan-wook’s “Sympathy for Mr Vengeance”. No word yet whether they are region-locked…
Also, Criterion will be bringing out Fellini’s 81/2 on Blu ray in January
Is anyone aware of whether an American distributor has picked up Mesrine: Killer Instinct for release in the States. I’m debating whether to pick up the French DVDs, wait for the upcoming UK release, or an upcoming Region A Blu ray.
Jon, I hadn’t opened this section of the forum for a long time and thought I’d take a look, I’m glad I did. I wasn’t familiar with this French film till you brought it to my attention. It doesn’t seem like any American distributor has acquired it (yeah, like there are no significant actors or kudos for this noteworthy film!!). It was shown at the Seattle Film Festival in the fall but that’s about it. Now I have yet another dvd to add to the must get list!!! (I’d go with the UK myself)
Is anyone aware of whether an American distributor has picked up Mesrine: Killer Instinct for release in the States. I’m debating whether to pick up the French DVDs, wait for the upcoming UK release, or an upcoming Region A Blu ray.
Jon, I hadn’t opened this section of the forum for a long time and thought I’d take a look, I’m glad I did. I wasn’t familiar with this French film till you brought it to my attention. It doesn’t seem like any American distributor has acquired it (yeah, like there are no significant actors or kudos for this noteworthy film!!). It was shown at the Seattle Film Festival in the fall but that’s about it. Now I have yet another dvd to add to the must get list!!! (I’d go with the UK myself)
Thanks for doing my homework, Doug! I went ahead and ordered the French boxset (I couldn’t wait till January )
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (Werner Herzog) Blu ray is slated for release on Feb. 23
Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank is up for preorder and will be released on DVD in the UK on Jan. 25
Koji Wakamatsu’s United Red Army will be released on Nov. 17 (French subs)
Marco Bellocchio’s Vincere, about Mussolini’s secret first wife and son, is available on DVD from IBS.it (Italy), with optional English subtitles
While Artificial Eye is releasing Andrea Arnold’s second sophomore film, Fish Tank in January, Verve is following suit with a Blu ray of the director’s outstanding feature debut, Red Road. The original release on DVD looked superb, and I would expect the new hi-def transfer to be nothing less than fantastic. Unfortunately, the disc is region B encoded, meaning that it won’t play in my PS3.
Hong Kong director Ann Hui’s “Night and Fog”, based on a true story of domestic abuse and murder involving a mainland Chinese woman (Zhang Jingchu) and her violent husband (Simon Yam) is one of the better things I caught at PIFF this year, and is now available on DVD. You can read a review here: http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/night_and_fog.html
Palisades Tartan have announced a North American release of Park Chan-Wook’s Vengeance trilogy on Blu ray in March 2010—no word yet if they’ll be available separately. (Blu-ray.com)
I didn’t care for it at all, but I know many at Twitch did, so they’ll be happy to learn that Refn’s Bronson will arrive on Blu ray via Magnolia (Region A) on February 9th. A better film about a sociopath is Jean-Francois Richet’s Mesrine - Killer Instinct (parts 1 + 2), to be released in the UK by Momentum on January 25th. While not the masterpiece that some would claim, it is fast-paced and features Vincent Cassel in the lead role. Some say it is Cassel’s finest moment, which might be true, but it isn’t the best film he’s performed in—that would have to be Kassovitz’s La Haine, which looks spectacular on the French Studio Canal Blu-ray (region-free with English subs), or the breezy L’appartement, which has never received an acceptable (legit) transfer.
THE FOUNDING OF A REPUBLIC (60th Anniversary Edition) (Hong Kong Version) arrives on December 3, 2009. This set comes with following price $69.99 and items:
- Photo Album
- Mouse Pad
- Ball Pen
- Paperweight
- Note Book
- 3DVDs
* Disc 2 Special Features (DVD-5)
1. Trailer
2. Behind The Scene
3. Music Video
* Disc 3: Documentary DVD about the 54 figures in film (DVD-5)
(Mandarin, Chinese Subtitles)
Director : Han San ping, Huang Jian xin
There are available a reasonably priced three-disc HK edition (blue-ray edition) as well as a low-priced singled disc Chinese edition. Link to YesAsia.com to see pics etc.
Synapse films have announced they will be releasing 27 roman porno films on DVD (different from the ones recently announced by French distributor Wild Side)—no release dates yet. (Wildgrounds.com)
Evokative films will be releasing Adrift in Tokyo on DVD December 22nd. The disc will have both French and English subtitles. Independent filmmaking in Japan is all but dead, so I’ll have to pass on this one.
Fantastic Planet (Blu-ray): Already released in France without English subs - no surprise there.
Will be release in the UK by Masters of Cinema next year. It is hinted at in their recent catalog:
Can’t help feeling Europe really got screwed on Bluray Region allocation - no north american or asian friendly discs. Bullshit! Thankfully the GITS 2.0 boxset was kind enough to work on my PS3, but otherwise…bullshit!
