Odeon / Screenbound

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Odeon

#51 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Nov 06, 2011 9:56 am

I certainly remember it being a very disturbing film - unfortunately (or maybe luckily!) I watched it at about 11 or 12 with my parents, expecting a Hammer film with dribbles of blood and heaving, cleavaged bosoms at the worst and was therefore made extremely uncomfortable by all of the nudity (especially I think the protracted scene where one of the girls strips naked and throws herself at the local priest!) and satanic chantic going on. Plus it was one of the earlier films I remember seeing where a cabal of children broke away from the world and started to turn on its weaker members and the adults of the community (in the vein of a later work like Children of the Corn, perhaps).

Perhaps watching it now the film would maybe be less shocking for those elements (though I remember thinking the last time I saw it that it wears its Polanski influences well in the way it is fusing the satanic elements, including an upsetting rape, from Rosemary's Baby with the historical atmosphere of Fearless Vampire Killers), but it still holds up well enough to be in the company of The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General.

Here's the section from Mark Gatiss's History of Horror programme talking about the film

Jonathan S
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Re: Odeon

#52 Post by Jonathan S » Sun Nov 06, 2011 11:25 am

I wish my parents had watched horror films on TV with me, instead of ridiculing them as they came in and out of the room! They never stopped me watching them, but my mother hated the late Saturday night double-bills in the 1970s as she felt obliged to stay up 20 minutes after they'd finished to ascertain that the TV had "cooled down" and would not "blow up". It was as if she feared Frankenstein's lab was wired into our particular set.

School was more repressive, a sneering Deputy Head - rather like the Judge in Satan's Claw - tearing the cover off the Boris Karloff biography I'd selected as a prize, so its image (Karloff as The Mummy) wouldn't offend the "celebrity" presenting it to me - an insult that still rankles after 35 years! (It wasn't enough to work hard all year to win a prize, you then had to choose something boring...)

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Cold Bishop
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Re: Odeon

#53 Post by Cold Bishop » Mon Nov 07, 2011 12:43 am

Jonathan S wrote:I find it hard to compare the two films in a political sense, since they work from different premises. Witchfinder is essentially a rationalist work
Fine. It's a Wicker Man that ends with Sgt. Howie triumphantly eradicating the town.
its "witches" are powerless and innocent victims of the law - where as Claw presents a supernatural contagion, some of whose victims are also perpetrators of rape and murder.
It's pretty easy to see early on that the witchcraft metaphor is being used for liberated sexuality - more precisely, teenage sexuality - contrasting the earthy pagans against abstinent Christianity, a common trope (Wicker Man). To me, the rape and murder, in this context, is nothing more than a paranoid amplification/exaggeration of the horrors of kids getting it on. Of course, the film does this while also oogling the young women's nubile forms.
As others have pointed out, the judge in Claw is an ambiguous figure
People say that because they want him to be an ambigious figure. And he should be! The only way for this film to work is for him to be so. When he shows up and gives his speech on how he'll use "undreamed-of-measures", but that they must follow him regardless, my ears perked up: I thought the film was about to turn great. Instead, the filmmakers take his advice, and blindly follow him.

The thoughts on the ending is a nice thought, but it doesn't work in a film where our witch-hunter casts a literal demon into fire. Any ambiguity that the last shot may invoke is unearned to me.
I agree the score - basically a brilliant set of variations on a haunting little folk theme - is its greatest asset.
The main theme sounds like what you'd get if Nino Rota and Bernard Herrmann got together to make a horror score.

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MichaelB
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Re: Odeon

#54 Post by MichaelB » Mon Nov 07, 2011 6:19 pm

I can't remember too much about it, but I seem to have written this in my capsule review:
Although it never scales the heights of Michael Reeves' earlier, not dissimilar Witchfinder General, and one has to make allowances for variable acting, clunky cod-period dialogue ("Ralph here claims he discovered a deformed anatomy in those furrows - knew you of any such?") and a final Satanic manifestation that might have worked better offscreen, this is one of the more intelligent turn-of-the-70s British horror cheapies. The deformed anatomy in question is a skull of indeterminate species whose perfectly preserved eyeball heralds the encroachment of evil into a rural hamlet at the end of the 17th century. As demonic possession exerts its grip on the populace, leading to outbreaks of rape, murder, self-mutilation and mysterious patches of thick black hair on otherwise unblemished skin, Patrick Wymark's gruffly rationalist judge is forced to grapple with the notion that his long-held worldview might have its limits.

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Murdoch
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Re: Odeon

#55 Post by Murdoch » Fri Dec 30, 2011 2:03 pm


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perkizitore
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Re: Odeon

#56 Post by perkizitore » Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:26 am


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rockysds
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Re: Odeon

#57 Post by rockysds » Sat Jun 16, 2012 6:23 am


Calvin
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Re: Odeon

#58 Post by Calvin » Tue May 21, 2013 7:32 am

They're releasing Ken Russell's Tommy on Blu-Ray on September 9th. Unlike the US Sony Blu, this won't be barebones (presuming they port over the extras from their DVD, which included a Russell commentary).

Calvin
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Re: Odeon

#59 Post by Calvin » Sun Jun 30, 2013 3:35 pm

Alan Clarke's Scum on Blu-Ray, September 9th

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L.A.
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Screenbound Pictures

#60 Post by L.A. » Mon Aug 08, 2016 8:19 am

The Roman Polanski Collection coming in November.

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What A Disgrace
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Re: Screenbound Pictures

#61 Post by What A Disgrace » Mon Aug 08, 2016 8:21 am

How come there are no reviews of any of their current discs? They released La Ronde for chrissakes.

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antnield
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Re: Screenbound Pictures

#62 Post by antnield » Mon Aug 08, 2016 8:31 am

Screenbound is the new name for Odeon Entertainment, so this thread should ideally be merged with the Odeon one here.

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rapta
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Re: Screenbound Pictures

#63 Post by rapta » Mon Aug 08, 2016 8:41 am

What A Disgrace wrote:How come there are no reviews of any of their current discs? They released La Ronde for chrissakes.
Yes, and I'd like to see what Black Orpheus is looking like too, and Wise Blood too before it gets released. A shame they apparently aren't sending out review copies to anyone who actually does a proper technical review with screencaps - I've seen a couple of reviews but they literally just talk about the film.

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dda1996a
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Re: Odeon

#64 Post by dda1996a » Mon Aug 08, 2016 9:54 am

If I was releasing a palme d'or winning film and a noteworthy French film by a major director on Blu ray I'll make sure everyone knows about it. I had absolutely no clue both were released on Blu ray and am also interested in seeing caps

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L.A.
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Re: Screenbound Pictures

#65 Post by L.A. » Mon Aug 08, 2016 10:03 am

antnield wrote:Screenbound is the new name for Odeon Entertainment, so this thread should ideally be merged with the Odeon one here.
Had no idea Screenbound was formerly Odeon. Yes, I think this is a good idea and maybe the topic name could be Odeon / Screenbound Pictures. How about it, mods?

Costa
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Re: Odeon / Screenbound

#66 Post by Costa » Thu Dec 08, 2016 2:52 pm

I would like also to find out how Black Orpheus compares to the Criterion disc, since I'd like to buy the film.
Anyone knows?

edit: oh, found here some info:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7377&p=558247&hilit ... nd#p558247

Though I'd really like to see some caps comparisons.

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JSC
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Re: Odeon / Screenbound

#67 Post by JSC » Thu Dec 08, 2016 5:28 pm

I just saw Screenbound's release of John Huston's Wise Blood. Transfer
was pretty good. Interestingly it began with the Janus Film logo
(though I don't know what that implies exactly).

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tenia
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Re: Odeon / Screenbound

#68 Post by tenia » Thu Dec 08, 2016 5:39 pm

I think they just licenced the master used by Criterion for their DVD, hence the Janus logo.

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What A Disgrace
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Re: Odeon / Screenbound

#69 Post by What A Disgrace » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:56 am

So, would anyone like to talk about the contents of the discs? I have my eye on some of their titles, but I can't find any reviews at all.

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RossyG
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Re: Odeon / Screenbound

#70 Post by RossyG » Fri Dec 09, 2016 9:31 am

They're usually pretty solid releases with interesting extras.

I have about ten of their Blu-Rays. The House of Whipcord uses a pretty worn print, but most others, such as Biggles and Horror Hospital, look very good indeed.

M Sanderson
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Re: Odeon / Screenbound

#71 Post by M Sanderson » Sat Jun 22, 2019 2:44 am

Screenbound put out a very nice upgrade from a 4k scan of BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW, which manages to correct most of the issues with the now badly dated first release. This initial release was hailed as a beautiful scan but now appears like the usual "off the shelf" MGM fare.

Finer grain, far easier to distinguish details and nuances especially outdoors (all the greens of foliage and browns of earth don't blur together now), and much better detail, and far less black crush, indoors.It's just clearer, more detailed and far more solid viewing experience. This gets a high recommendation from me, and I hope this helps due to the paucity of technical reviews around.

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L.A.
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Re: Odeon / Screenbound

#72 Post by L.A. » Fri Mar 19, 2021 6:55 am

Curious how SP’s Moonlighting (1982) fares compared to the US disc.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Odeon / Screenbound

#73 Post by hearthesilence » Fri Mar 19, 2021 11:26 am

FWIW, Odeon's BD of The Harder They Come is almost an improvement over Shout! Factory's U.S. BD, mainly because Shout! Factory did a mediocre job. The bit rate for the Odeon disc is much, much lower, but it looks like Shout! applied some very noticeable DNR that made theirs look worse. However, the Odeon BD may have stretched the 1.66 image to 1.78! Pick your poison.

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MichaelB
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Re: Odeon / Screenbound

#74 Post by MichaelB » Fri Mar 19, 2021 12:19 pm

L.A. wrote:
Fri Mar 19, 2021 6:55 am
Curious how SP’s Moonlighting (1982) fares compared to the US disc.
So am I, because I definitely need to buy one of those. Although I suspect there's only one HD master.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Odeon / Screenbound

#75 Post by hearthesilence » Fri Mar 19, 2021 1:28 pm

MichaelB wrote:
Fri Mar 19, 2021 12:19 pm
L.A. wrote:
Fri Mar 19, 2021 6:55 am
Curious how SP’s Moonlighting (1982) fares compared to the US disc.
So am I, because I definitely need to buy one of those. Although I suspect there's only one HD master.
This might be a great release. I believe Siskel & Ebert were huge fans and Siskel himself placed it on his decade's ten best list - for mainstream American audiences at the time, it was probably a significant endorsement. (When Raging Bull topped both of their lists, that was used for promotional copy far more than any other review.) I rarely hear it mentioned anymore, at least not in America over the past decade, so it could use a revival of some kind.

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