Image Entertainment

Vinegar Syndrome, Deaf Crocodile, Imprint, Cinema Guild, and more.
Post Reply
Message
Author
Wittsdream
Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:00 pm
Location: Chicago

#51 Post by Wittsdream » Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:48 pm

Haven't seen it posted anywhere so I thought I'd do it. The long-unavailable D.W. Griffith masterpiece to debut soon.
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ ... 40406.html

Barrie Maxwell writes:
A future Image release will be a Film Preservation Associates (David Shepard) effort on the D.W. Griffith film True Heart Susie (1919) which will be mastered from the original 35mm nitrate print at the BFI, with score by the Mont Alto Orchestra. It will likely be accompanied by Hoodoo Ann (1916), a film written by Griffith and directed under his supervision. The source material on it is a 35mm fine grain master made from the camera negative. There's no news yet on a specific release date.

User avatar
Donald Trampoline
Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2005 3:39 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

#52 Post by Donald Trampoline » Sat Apr 29, 2006 3:57 pm

Wittsdream wrote: The long-unavailable D.W. Griffith masterpiece to debut soon.

Barrie Maxwell writes:
A future Image release will be a Film Preservation Associates (David Shepard) effort on the D.W. Griffith film True Heart Susie (1919)
(delayed reaction/just came across this)

This is excellent news! I've seen it two or three times now, once in a theater, and it's pretty good. I think Godard oversold its quality (to me) a bit, but its rarity on VHS/DVD is still greatly unjustified. (Although Grapevine Video has a DVD-R copy http://www.grapevinevideo.com/Griffith_Films.htm , but I'm not sure of the quality.)

Then again, I also want to see Griffith's "Isn't Life Wonderful" on DVD.
(At least that has a Kino VHS)
(Who else loves seeing Neil Hamilton in silent films and making the connection to the commissioner in Batman?!? You gotta love that.)

Good news about the Chaplin Mutuals as well!

Will there be a Chaplin Keystone set ever?

User avatar
htdm
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:46 am

#53 Post by htdm » Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:42 pm

Donald Trampoline wrote:Will there be a Chaplin Keystone set ever?
I think so. The BFI and Cineteca del Comune di Bologna are said to be restoring the Keystone Chaplins. Here's a link to ABC's Nightline reporton it.

User avatar
HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

#54 Post by HerrSchreck » Sun Apr 30, 2006 12:57 am

Donald Trampoline wrote:[
Then again, I also want to see Griffith's "Isn't Life Wonderful" on DVD.
(At least that has a Kino VHS)
I have that VHS and suspect that's the last we'll have on this unless another element is found (it's a 16mm reduction print in very good condition). And the film is quite good, not least because it succeeds (coincidentally) where in my opinion JOYLESS STREET fails in portraying the miserable conditions in Berlin, postwar, by Pabst's exaggerating the misery so heavily that it feels like artifice devoid of effect. Much of the reason I feel Griffith succeeds was that this was a sort of pre-neorealist experiment, along the lines of GREED from the year before, whereby he actually went to Germany to film on the streets of decaying Berlin's cruddier neighborhoods, using many of the hard-wrought folks hanging around in lots of crucial scenes.

User avatar
Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

#55 Post by Gregory » Sun May 28, 2006 3:50 pm

Are there any grounds to expect a new release of Chaplin's Essanay films to go along with the 90th anniversary release of the Mutuals? They already missed the 90th anniversary of the Essanays, but I think such a companion set would still make sense in any case. I don't know if better elements of these have surfaced since the Shepard DVDs.

User avatar
Scharphedin2
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 7:37 am
Location: Denmark/Sweden

#56 Post by Scharphedin2 » Mon Jun 26, 2006 6:03 am

Gordon McMurphy wrote:I, too would love to order the Films of Charles and Ray Eames set,
but I am too scared. I doubt that many people will have bought it.
Each DVD was available seperately, but only Volume 1 was in print
until this box and OOP titles went for between $50-130 on Amazon's
marketplace, Ebay, etc, which prevented from buying them. But I'd
buy this set if my mind was put a ease - not an easy task, of course!
I do not think anyone ever commented on this... Volume one and two of this six-disc set were released by Criterion (Voyager) on Laserdisc. They are without question some of the laserdiscs that I have played the most over the years.

Charles and Ray were extraordinary people, whose filmmaking was only a small part of a huge life's work that included design of everything from toys and chairs to homes and exhibitions. They were amongst the first to introduce the concept of "multi-media" in their exhibitions, and as such they were the grandfolks of the kinds of "special edition LDs and DVDs that we all love :wink:

There is a nice introduction to their films in the Faber book "Schrader On Schrader," and there is a huge tome cataloging their work called "Eames Design" (a book that I own and often consult, if I feel low -- the imagination and enthusiasm for life and creation shines from every page of it), and information can be found at this site:

http://www.eamesgallery.com/cart/detail_prod.php?id=513

Personally, I will purchase this 6 DVD collection very soon, and post my thoughts here... In the meantime, if anyone else owns this release, it would be nice to hear some comments.

User avatar
Joe Buck
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:59 pm
Location: New York

#57 Post by Joe Buck » Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:38 pm

Does anyone have more info on the Chaplin set? Is it 4 discs? I see conflicting info on the web.

Reckon I'll have to trade in my old one for the new set.

And I am happy to hear the long mistreated Keystone's are getting worked on.....

User avatar
FilmFanSea
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:37 pm
Location: Portland, OR

#58 Post by FilmFanSea » Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:38 pm

Review by Mark Zimmer of Image's Chaplin Mutuals, 90th Anniversary Edition has been posted at DigitallyOBSESSED!. About the video quality (which he rates a B+), Mark has this to say:
The full frame picture looks pretty good on the whole; disc producer David Shepard advises that these are the same transfers as on the old discs, with added footage and some substantial additional digital cleanup. There seems to be quite a bit less speckling and scratching than on the old versions. Since some of the original nitrate materials have decomposed since those transfers were done in 1994, this may be about as good as these pictures will ever look. Depending on the source material, they vary from excellent, with plenty of detail and texture, to slightly dupey and somewhat soft. The use of dual layer discs allows for a somewhat higher bit rate. The transfers are thoughtfully windowboxed, since the action tends to go to the very edge of the screen.

And about the new musical accompaniment:
One of the biggest improvements over the prior release is that the nasty synth scores have been replaced by full orchestral scores by the esteemed Carl Davis. The effect is huge, giving these films a sense of importance that they deserve, and dropping the cheesiness that often made them seem tawdry. The audio quality is excellent throughout, with no noise or hiss. There are occasional sound effects, but they're restrained (and thankfully, slide whistles are totally absent).

User avatar
htdm
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 3:46 am

#59 Post by htdm » Mon Jul 10, 2006 5:49 pm

Arggh, this is getting to be like the White album - having to rebuy this every couple of years. I bought two previous versions on laser, and now two on DVD...

richast2
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:49 am

#60 Post by richast2 » Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:46 am

wait, there's more than one edition of the White album?

User avatar
lubitsch
Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:20 pm

#61 Post by lubitsch » Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:34 am

Jacques Feyder 3 silent movies DVD edition!!!
http://www.image-entertainment.com/deta ... ctID=54838

User avatar
Ashirg
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:10 am
Location: Atlanta

#62 Post by Ashirg » Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:00 pm

This is actually Home Vision release.

User avatar
Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

#63 Post by Matt » Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:10 pm

Ashirg wrote:This is actually Home Vision release.
And is discussed here.

User avatar
HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

#64 Post by HerrSchreck » Sun Dec 10, 2006 12:32 pm

For those interested in getting a huge rebate on what was formerly an expensive release of a sublime old sci-fi classic from WC Menzies, Invaders From Mars, the price has come down to 10 bucks on it's own (with both US & brit versions, as well as a host of goody extras).. but for an extra couple bucks you can grab the Mission Mars Collection, which also includes ATTACK FROM MARS & MISSION TO MARS.

Nice orig review from Glenn E., with an appropriately fanatical article linked in, at the Savant

User avatar
Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

#65 Post by Gregory » Sun Dec 10, 2006 2:56 pm

It's also available inexpensively packaged with The Crawling Eye.
HerrSchreck, how do you rate all these films against each other? I'm thinking about making a blind buy of just Invaders From Mars (partly to fill out an order) unless I'd be missing out on something by only getting that one. From the reviews I've read, though, the other films it's been packaged with don't have that certain je ne sais quoi.

User avatar
Gordon
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 8:03 am

#66 Post by Gordon » Sun Dec 10, 2006 4:59 pm

HerrSchreck wrote:Invaders From Mars

Nice orig review from Glenn E., with an appropriately fanatical article linked in, at the Savant
Ah, Invaders From Mars, one of the great Brechtian films! I finally got around to acquiring the DVD a few weeks ago and I had been planning on trying to open up a discussion on it. Menzies brought with him the cream of Hollywood's craftsmen:

Set decorator Edward G. Boyle - Gone with the Wind, And Then There Were None, Body and Soul, Force of Evil, Cyrano de Bergerac, Sudden Fear and later Sweet Smell of Success, The Apartment, and Seven Days in May;

Art director Boris Leven, who later work magic on Giant, Anatomy of a Murder, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, The Andromeda Strain and Scorsese's, New York, New York.

Cinematographer John F. Seitz was a Hollywood veteran who shot The Patsy (1928) and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) in the silent days and Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend and Sunset Blvd., as well as This Gun for Hire and Sullivan's Travels. Great DP.

Mort Glickman's ethereal music remains very spooky and underscores the nightmarish images perfectly, though the poor chap goes uncredited for some reason. Must have been a union thing.

So, this was a movie with solid, imaginative talent behind it. DVD Savant's review is out-the-window with enthusiasm and he contextualizes this magnificent oddity of American Cinema beautifully. The influence of this film is huge, yet it is seldom given much credit for being so. It is hard to imagine most alien visitation films - even Close Encounters - without Invaders from Mars, along with The War of the Worlds, of course, released the same year. Blimey, what nightmares did manifest in the child's mind that year! The way that Leif Erickson hits his kid is very vicious and seems uncharacteristic of how violence towards children was displayed in movies of the period - he really whacks him! It's a very disturbing film when seen through the eyes of a child, no question, though today it probably wouldn't have such a strong effect as it did in the past. Visually, though, it remains very powerful. It was shot using the two-strip Cinecolor process - actually Super-Cinecolor with the prints by Eastman. Over the years, the prints degraded in quality and the rich reds and greens (blues were hard to achieve) were badly faded, but the newer DVD was transfered from the best surviving 35mm print, but it needs digital clean-up as the scratches and lines plague the film throughout, but could be easily removed today, but as Wade Williams is a bit of a tight-ass, he probably wouldn't do it. It's a landmark film and should be in the National Film Registry.


Another Image Entertainment 50s sci-fi film that I have wanted to check out is the 1957 black and white scope film, Kronos. Cinematography by the great Karl Struss (Murnau's Sunrise, Niblo's Ben-Hur, Island of Lost Souls
Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Ace Outer Limits set decorator Chester Bayhi and legendary Walter M. Scott (All About Eve, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Planet of the Apes, The Sound of Music, The Gunfighter, The King and I, The Fly, Journey to the Center of the Earth) fashioned the impressive, expressionistic sets. DVD Savant's review of the good, but sadly non-anamorphic 2.35:1 DVD. Another small gem for the wish list, but when will I get round to ordering it?! :wink:

User avatar
carax09
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 2:22 am
Location: This almost empty gin palace

#67 Post by carax09 » Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:21 pm

I'd like to applaud Image for releasing (some) of the Celestial Picture's restorations of the Shaw Bros. classics. Of the first batch, Super Inframan seems like fun, and I'm also intrigued by The Cave of Silken Web. Has anyone seen 'em?

User avatar
HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

#68 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Dec 11, 2006 1:57 am

Gregory wrote:It's also available inexpensively packaged with The Crawling Eye.
HerrSchreck, how do you rate all these films against each other? I'm thinking about making a blind buy of just Invaders From Mars (partly to fill out an order) unless I'd be missing out on something by only getting that one. From the reviews I've read, though, the other films it's been packaged with don't have that certain je ne sais quoi.
Will report on these other two discs in a couple hours greg.

User avatar
HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

#69 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Dec 11, 2006 5:52 am

Will just report on FLIGHT TO.. as ATTACK from is 80's doof material (which I didn't realize upon buying the box), and INVADERS is pretty much an obvious given as a masterpice far beyond it's means.

FLIGHT, for a movie from that early in the 50's, is an admirable, melodramatic piece of sunday popcorn with some wonderful set design, cinematography, ambience, attempts at special effects.. overall a satisfactory 50's sci fi experience, Some of the matte inserts & models on Mars reminded me of menzies in THINGS TO COME. The print itself is partially better, sharpness and color wise (same great 2-strip red orange/blue-green too) than INVADERS, but in places the damage is terrible, even splicing out half-seconds of dialog. A lot of talk went on about the appearance of the miniskirt in FORBIDDEN PLANET before the miniskirt actually existed. Well, in the Mars sequences in this chronologically preceding flik, the miniskirts are higher, hotter, and reveal excellent ass cheeks supported by long legs in huge heels... the zips in the audience must have been creaming in their haberdashery looking at these girls.

Also liked seeing Cameron Mitchell, who cracks me up in the obscure MONKEY ON MY BACK, the story of the real life war hero/boxer morphine-addict, Barney Ross. I like collecting old school-- therefore very rare-- tales of hard core druggies.

For the extra 4 or 5 bucks, I'd grab this set, but then again, I havent seen CRAWLING EYE in a long long time, so, if that's a really fabulous film, you may wanta go for that. But on the strength of the above two, and the wildcard unknown of the ATTACK 80's kitsch, if you like 50's sci fi as much as I do, you couldn't go wrong.

User avatar
solaris72
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:03 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

#70 Post by solaris72 » Mon Dec 11, 2006 7:19 pm

carax09 wrote:I'd like to applaud Image for releasing (some) of the Celestial Picture's restorations of the Shaw Bros. classics. Of the first batch, Super Inframan seems like fun, and I'm also intrigued by The Cave of Silken Web. Has anyone seen 'em?
I ordered Super Inframan a few days ago, and will have it very soon. I can tell you now that the film itself is as good as B-movies get without aspiring to change their letter (Roger Ebert wrote a review which does a better job describing the film's greatness than I ever could, you can read it here); as to the quality of the disc, I'll report on that in a few days when it arrives.

User avatar
Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

#71 Post by Matt » Mon Dec 11, 2006 10:04 pm

carax09 wrote:I'd like to applaud Image for releasing (some) of the Celestial Picture's restorations of the Shaw Bros. classics.
It seems like a good idea on paper, but in reality, the discs are PAL>NTSC conversions and are also more expensive than the Taiwanese discs of the same films.

User avatar
Cold Bishop
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 9:45 pm
Location: Portland, OR

#72 Post by Cold Bishop » Tue Dec 12, 2006 5:02 am

While I could agree, I also have to mention that, while I'm not certain of these films, Image stated they plan to reinsert the original soundtracks to several films which the Celestial DVDs did not include. That, and I'm still hoping that either Image or Dragon Dynasty (if they in fact retained the rights to the Shaw Brother films bought while at Miramax) will release the international cut to Chinatown Kid, along with several other films Celestial released cut.

So while I may agree somewhat price-wise, do beware that it's quite possible that some of the recent or future titles may be different or more complete from their actual Celestial counterparts (which I'm assuming the Taiwanese discs are a port of). Also, I'd be willing to support Image if it means if future releases may be the full cuts of some films (and if they include extras).

And with that said, while I'm uncertain of DVD Quality, I can wholeheartedly recommend the film The Water Margin and their upcoming releases of The Magic Blade, Legendary Weapons of China and The Intimate Confessions of A Chinese Courtesan.

User avatar
solaris72
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:03 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

#73 Post by solaris72 » Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:39 pm

Matt wrote:It seems like a good idea on paper, but in reality, the discs are PAL>NTSC conversions and are also more expensive than the Taiwanese discs of the same films.
That link shows Inframan at $16; I got it from DDD for $13.29. It's a shame that these are PAL-NTSC'ed, but the NTSC Taiwanese discs must be as well, and the Image disc of Inframan at least has more features (including the hilarious english dub track, which is essential in my opinion, and a DVD-ROM PDF interview with the director).

User avatar
Rufus T. Firefly
Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2004 4:24 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

#74 Post by Rufus T. Firefly » Tue Dec 12, 2006 5:12 pm

Matt wrote:
carax09 wrote:I'd like to applaud Image for releasing (some) of the Celestial Picture's restorations of the Shaw Bros. classics.
It seems like a good idea on paper, but in reality, the discs are PAL>NTSC conversions and are also more expensive than the Taiwanese discs of the same films.
What's your source for the statement that these are PAL->NTSC conversions? Celestial are based in Hong Kong, where the TV standard is NTSC. All of the HK Celestial/Panorama Shaw Bros releases I have are native NTSC. It doesn't make sense that these would be PAL to NTSC.

seferad
Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: United Kingdom

#75 Post by seferad » Sat Dec 23, 2006 5:10 pm

Does anyone know if Image are still issuing their old DVDs in snap cases? I really wanted to buy their release of Cecil B DeMille's 'Carmen/The Cheat', but it's still listed as being in a snap case. As I live in the UK, I can only order it from online sellers, and, with the exception of individual sellers (none of which are selling this isoteric disc), they all house their stock in warehouses and cannot tell me one what kind of casing it comes in.

It's not the first time I've had this problem with Image, Warner do this as well. They only seem to have 'The Shop Around the Corner' in a snap case. Maybe I'm being too neurotic, but i really hate snap cases!

Post Reply