DVD and Blu-ray Disc Thread For Those with Region Free players!! (No Discussion Of Region Coding)

Another interesting note about the Australian release of A Bronx Tale is that it's erroneously listed as Region B on the rear cover, but of course is region-free.
This film is a favorite of mine and I agree it deserves better treatment.

 

yes, I was thrilled to finally lay to rest my DVD edition...the Arrow BD is worth every penny!

 

And, just like that, the U.K. release of Andrei Rublev has been pulled from preorder on all the major online retail sites. My guess is that the longer version did not pass uncut by the BBFC, so Criterion has scrapped the release, rather than put out a compromised product. Can’t really blame them, although they should have checked with the BBFC before listing it. That’s twice now in recent months that Criterion U.K. has been caught with their pants around their ankles.

Looks like I’ll be importing the U.S. release instead.

 

This is still a thing in the UK, movies not passing through in their uncensored forms? I thought that only happened in Germany anymore... such a shame

 

Yes, it’s the law.

 

Wow... I know it sounds stupid, but I really thought that in the UK this only happened with those truly extreme films like Salò or A Clockwork Orange and that it basically was a thing of the past.

Well, you learn something new every day.

 

Salò passed uncut in 2000. There is a long explanation of the BBFC’s rationale on their website:

https://www.bbfc.co.uk/case-studies/salo120-days-sodom

A Clockwork Orange is a different situation entirely. It was Kubrick that didn’t want the film shown in the U.K. The BBFC never had a problem with it:

https://www.bbfc.co.uk/case-studies/clockwork-orange

One of the things that the BBFC is still hot on, in 2018, is animal cruelty, which is where the longer cut of Andrei Rublev presumably fell foul of the law.

 

Yes, I knew about those two.
Ah okay, the animal cruelty - it's what made 'Cannibal Holocaust' a candidate for censorship as well. Didn't think about that for a moment, thanks for enlightening

 

Re "animal cruelty", it is interesting then that "Wake in Fright" (which I just got from Eureka) contains the kangaroo hunt, which is certainly not pleasant to watch. Maybe, just maybe, the saving grace is that director Ted Kotcheff mentions (and the film has a credit saying so) that the hunt was done by pros and not 'for the film'; that the film crew came along to get the scenes?

Speaking of British censors, "The Other" on BR is regularly listed as 100 minutes whereas the original runtime is supposed to be 108. Is there an uncut BR of this film overseas?

 

I have Wake in Fright. Terrific film, but, good Lord, that kangaroo hunting scene is a tough watch.

The one I don’t understand is Au Hasard Balthazar. Apparently, the donkey actually suffered during the production. I don’t see how the BBFC can pass that film uncut, while the longer version of Andrei Rublev is still an issue. I’m not saying that two wrongs should make a right, but I don’t see any consistency in this particular comparison.

 

I really like "Indicator" releases. I have "Christine", "Lady from Shanghai", "The Last Detail", "The China Syndrome", "Vampires", "The Passenger" and "Hardcore". Very nice packages. I think they are every bit as good as Criterion in regard to presentation and bonus features. I only wish "The Border" and "Blue Collar" were region free as well, I'd happily add them to my collection.

 

The ones I own, I really love. No problem with the quality of their presentation.

I own:

10 Rillington Place
The Lady from Shanghai
Bunny Lake Is Missing
Fat City
The Last Detail
The Big Heat
The Front
The Passenger

 

I watched Mickey One last night. It looked very good. It has a nice set of extras. I'll get around to Ship Of Fools soon....

I've noticed that several Indicator titles were Twilight Time titles in the recent past. Are these companies related...???

 

The main man at Twilight Time is Nick Redman.

Indicator was founded by ex-Sony executives. I’m not sure if there are any joint directors between the two companies, but I don’t think so. However, both have deals to release films from the Sony/Columbia catalogue, in their respective regions. Hence, there is a good deal of crossover, and some cooperation (using the same commentary tracks, e.g.), between the two labels.

 

Indicator is gonna seem like Twilight Time Europa if they start getting a bunch of Fox titles.

I watched Ship Of Fools. It looked and sounded well enough. I have another Indicator title coming....The Wild One. I suppose I've watched the LD for the last time! It would make a nice wall hanging.

 

Two Blu rays I recently acquired :

Modern Romance - Indicator - UK
Tender Mercies - Umbrella Entertainment - Australia

 

Well, it's going to be "horror show" time here soon...two of the Ultra-Grim Ones showed up (from England and Germany) at about the same time:

"A Serbian Film", the (supposedly) uncut BR edition, a 3-disc set which includes a CD of music, from Swedish company Njuta Films

"The Melancholy of the Angels" two-disc BR, limited-edition director's cut, from XT Video, Germany.

Having seen both of these in dreadful copies at some point, I know what to expect, but the technical quality surely should be better on these sets.

I figured I might as well get them now, as true outliers of the horror genre, since I can't imagine Eureka (or anyone else) picking them up for reissues any time soon

 

Um, I thought that was the exact concern that brought up the need for this thread...?

 

No. It’s not a concern to us because we are region-free. The thread was started as a refuge, where serious collectors can discuss their international purchases without the dreary whining of region-locked members. Please read the OP in full.

 

Eeek. Those kinds of films are not for me, but they are certainly legitimate discussion for the thread.

Extreme horror/gore is not something I care for. When I do watch horror, I prefer it to be of the psychological variety.

I bought ten BDs yesterday for only £40.48. I got a bunch of noirs in the HMV Arrow Academy sale, one title from Poundland, and three more in charity shops. One was a gift for someone, but the rest I’m keeping.

 

I hear you; many of the most extreme films have nothing to say or offer beyond whatever shock they are pushing. Actual film-making is usually a distant second. Things like "The Servant", "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" or the Australian "Snowtown" are the ones that really get under one's skin with their implications.

In terms of the impact when it was released, "Serbian" generated not just word of mouth, but outrage that no publicist could have dreamt up. That film sits on the short list of works that have been not just criticized, but outright condemned on moral grounds, along with "Freaks", "Peeping Tom" and "Salo", among others. Remember the reviewer in Britain who at the time said of "Peeping Tom" that the best way to deal with the film was to flush the negative down the toilet? That was in the printed review in the paper.

It is fascinating to study the reactions-at-large when such boundary-cinema works come out; sometimes the resulting blow-up is more interesting than the films themselves.

To return to the thread, I am glad to have gotten these two in overseas BR editions as they have yet to be released uncut in the US. They both look and sound good, "Serbian" in particular. Let's hear it for Region-Free!

 

Enjoyed the Eureka BR of "Coeur Fidele/Faithful Heart" last night. An interesting and beautiful silent (1923) by a director, Jean Epstein, who was as much a film theoretician as a film maker.
The film is a wonderful collision of straight melodrama, social realism and experimental touches (Russian montage editing, poetic shots and dissolves reminding one of Maya Deren at times).

Eureka's transfer is gorgeous, as one has come to expect.

 

Yep, I have that one, too. It recently went OOP, so look after your copy!

 

Yes, "Not Region Locked" = "Region-Free".

 

The thread’s title is the opposite of what it is about. The title indicates it is about region free discs (says exactly that in the title) - but it is not. It is a thread for people with region free players who do not need to be concerned about whether or not a disc is region free.