BD 140-144 Early Murnau: Five Films, 1921-1925

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Tommaso
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BD 140-144 Early Murnau: Five Films, 1921-1925

#1 Post by Tommaso » Wed Mar 30, 2016 6:31 am

Blu-ray upgrades of all of MoC's remaining Murnau titles coming together on August 22

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This thread is for discussion of the release of the boxset. There are separate threads for each film included in the box here:

Schloß Vogelöd

Phantom / The Grand Duke's Finances

Der Letzte Mann

Tartuffe

Jonathan S
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Re: MoC Forthcoming, Wishlist and Random Speculation

#2 Post by Jonathan S » Wed Mar 30, 2016 6:59 am

Tommaso wrote:
TMDaines wrote:I was hoping that the early Murnau set would include the early, non-lost works that are yet to be released, but I'll still gladly sell my DVDs and upgrade.
The question is what exactly they mean by 'early' Murnau. "Nosferatu" is already out on a separate blu, so probably it means "Vogelöd", "Phantom" and "Großherzog". Which still leaves space for two more films, which would naturally mean "Gang in die Nacht" and "Der brennende Acker". Only that I don't think there are new restos of these two. Let's not forget that there's also a 14 min. fragment of "Marizza".
Eureka's Twitter announcement has already specified the other two as Der letzte Mann and Tartuffe... not exactly "early" works!

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Telstar
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Re: MoC Forthcoming, Wishlist and Random Speculation

#3 Post by Telstar » Wed Mar 30, 2016 8:38 am

So what are the odds of Der letzte Mann getting a stand-alone release at some point?

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rapta
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Re: Forthcoming: Early Murnau - Five Films

#4 Post by rapta » Wed Mar 30, 2016 11:29 am

Is this now being called "F.W. Murnau: Five Films" instead of "Early Murnau: Five Films"? That seems to be the case according to today's announcement, so presumably the Amazon listing is wrong - some have pointed out that a couple of these can't really be called 'early Murnau'.

Also, Amazon seems to say it'll be a 2xBD set whilst everywhere else is saying 3xBD. I'm assuming it's the latter for the time being, as this will involve five films plus extras!

Great stuff though - luckily I only have Phantom / Die Finanzen des Großherzogs on DVD already so the overlap isn't too bad for me!

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L.A.
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Re: Forthcoming: Early Murnau - Five Films

#5 Post by L.A. » Wed Mar 30, 2016 11:38 am

rapta wrote:Great stuff though - luckily I only have Phantom / Die Finanzen des Großherzogs on DVD already so the overlap isn't too bad for me!
Likewise.

I understand there was a fragment found of a lost Murnau film some time ago. Would love to see that included as an extra.

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Drucker
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Re: Forthcoming: F.W. Murnau: Five Films

#6 Post by Drucker » Wed Mar 30, 2016 11:46 am

Also here's hoping they toned down the color a bit on Phantom's tinting, which is very strong on the DVD.

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swo17
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Re: Forthcoming: Early Murnau - Five Films

#7 Post by swo17 » Wed Mar 30, 2016 11:46 am

rapta wrote:Is this now being called "F.W. Murnau: Five Films" instead of "Early Murnau: Five Films"? That seems to be the case according to today's announcement, so presumably the Amazon listing is wrong - some have pointed out that a couple of these can't really be called 'early Murnau'.
I mean, we're talking about five out of six of his earliest available films, but point taken--"Early" is likely to conjure false hopes for all those lost or undistributed films that came before. I guess the title from the Facebook announcement is more likely.

AK
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Re: Forthcoming: F.W. Murnau: Five Films

#8 Post by AK » Wed Mar 30, 2016 12:32 pm

Such great news! For some reason I never got to buying these on DVD, and on top of that Der letzte Mann is the only one I've seen, so happy me!

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Der Spieler
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Re: MoC Forthcoming, Wishlist and Random Speculation

#9 Post by Der Spieler » Wed Mar 30, 2016 1:12 pm

Telstar wrote:So what are the odds of Der letzte Mann getting a stand-alone release at some point?
I would say extremely likely based on the film's high profile.

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rapta
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Re: Forthcoming: Early Murnau - Five Films

#10 Post by rapta » Wed Mar 30, 2016 3:36 pm

swo17 wrote:
rapta wrote:Is this now being called "F.W. Murnau: Five Films" instead of "Early Murnau: Five Films"? That seems to be the case according to today's announcement, so presumably the Amazon listing is wrong - some have pointed out that a couple of these can't really be called 'early Murnau'.
I mean, we're talking about five out of six of his earliest available films, but point taken--"Early" is likely to conjure false hopes for all those lost or undistributed films that came before. I guess the title from the Facebook announcement is more likely.
I would have accepted 'Early Murnau', as it indicates they're from his career in Germany prior to his later work in America, but yeah you can see they changed their mind. The Amazon listing states 'Early Murnau: Five Films' and also that it's a 2-disc release, but the official announcement on Facebook and Twitter (and a press release sent to DVDBeaver) calls it 'F.W. Murnau: Five Films' and that it's a 3-disc release.

In fact, I'd rather they went back and called it 'Early Murnau' so it matched the 'Late Mizoguchi' title formatting. Watching those two sets back-to-back might actually be an ideal marathon!
Der Spieler wrote:
Telstar wrote:So what are the odds of Der letzte Mann getting a stand-alone release at some point?
I would say extremely likely based on the film's high profile.
I get the impression they were set to release Der Letzte Mann but then caught wind of being able to upgrade the others, and have decided to go all-in for a box set rather than separate releases which would further split potential sales of titles most already have on DVD. I think the box set is a safe bet, and if they do release Der Letzte Mann at a later date it will only be because the box set has sold so well (maybe even waiting for it to go OOP first).

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TMDaines
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Re: F.W. Murnau: Five Films

#11 Post by TMDaines » Wed Mar 30, 2016 3:53 pm

swo17 wrote:
rapta wrote:Is this now being called "F.W. Murnau: Five Films" instead of "Early Murnau: Five Films"? That seems to be the case according to today's announcement, so presumably the Amazon listing is wrong - some have pointed out that a couple of these can't really be called 'early Murnau'.
I mean, we're talking about five out of six of his earliest available films, but point taken--"Early" is likely to conjure false hopes for all those lost or undistributed films that came before. I guess the title from the Facebook announcement is more likely.
Two of his earlier films are also available, just unreleased and restored: Der Gang in die Nacht and Der brennende Acker. You can find them in reasonable quality online with fansubs.

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swo17
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Re: F.W. Murnau: Five Films

#12 Post by swo17 » Wed Mar 30, 2016 4:04 pm

That's what I was getting at when I said "lost or undistributed." I guess I meant that of the 10 Murnau films that we know have been made available to Eureka, this box will cover five of the six that came first chronologically (even if the last one of them came out just five years before his death!)

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TMDaines
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Re: F.W. Murnau: Five Films

#13 Post by TMDaines » Wed Mar 30, 2016 5:23 pm

Yeah, anyway, as much as I got my hopes up for some previously unreleased works, it'll be great to have five Blu-ray world firsts of Murnau all the same! It would great to see if Kalat would do another commentary or two!

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domino harvey
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Re: F.W. Murnau: Five Films

#14 Post by domino harvey » Wed Mar 30, 2016 5:46 pm

I have all of these on MoC DVD already, but some new Kalat commentaries would definitely prod me to act quicker!

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Re: F.W. Murnau: Five Films

#15 Post by markhax » Wed Mar 30, 2016 7:56 pm

Why doesn't someone release Murnau's earliest surviving film, Der Gang in die Nacht, on DVD? If I am not mistaken, it's his only surviving film that has never been put on DVD. It can be seen on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwb3Jffj74c" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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DeprongMori
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Re: BD 140-144 Early Murnau: Five Films, 1921-1925

#16 Post by DeprongMori » Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:25 pm

I'm hoping to see some detailed specs on the "Early Murnau" release at some point. Eureka has done an impeccable job with the other Murnau films on Blu and the vast majority of their releases. I'm very surprised to see that these five films are going to be released on only two BluRay discs. That doesn't bode well, especially for retaining the extras from the DVDs, possibility of future standalone releases, or coming with a substantial book/booklet retaining all the material from the separate DVD releases.

Fortunately since I have the DVDs I can wait to see how this all shakes out.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: BD 140-144 Early Murnau: Five Films, 1921-1925

#17 Post by EddieLarkin » Tue Apr 19, 2016 6:38 pm

The Amazon listing is incorrect, the set will be 3 discs. I'd be surprised if any extras were dropped and I don't see why there would be reason to believe any of the booklet stuff will be dropped; it'll surely all be collected in a large bound book a la the Mizoguchi set.

But yes, I certainly wouldn't hope for any individual releases.

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Re: BD 140-144 Early Murnau: Five Films, 1921-1925

#18 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Jun 16, 2016 5:13 pm

Special Features:
-New high-definition presentations of all five films, created by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung
-Uncompressed PCM audio on all five scores | Original German-language intertitles with newly translated optional English-language subtitles on all films
-The Language of the Shadows: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and His Films, a 31-minute video piece by Luciano Berriatúa on the early works of Murnau
-Audio commentary by film scholar David Kalat on The Grand Duke's Finances
-The Making of The Last Laugh, a 41-minute documentary by Murnau expert Luciano Berriatúa
-Tartuffe: The Lost Film, a 37-minute documentary by Berriatúa | A 100-page book featuring writing by Charles Jameux, Lotte H. Eisner, Janet Bergstrom, Tony Rayns, and archival imagery

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rapta
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Re: BD 140-144 Early Murnau: Five Films, 1921-1925

#19 Post by rapta » Thu Jun 16, 2016 7:31 pm

All the same extras as the separate DVD editions then, minus contributions from R. Dixon Smith. Unless that omission is just a typo, it could be that there were rights issues with those particular pieces/extracts?

Calvin
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Re: BD 140-144 Early Murnau: Five Films, 1921-1925

#20 Post by Calvin » Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:45 pm

Der Gang in die Nacht and Der brennende Acker are conspicuous by their absence; does anyone know why MoC have never picked them up? This seems like an ideal opportunity to get them out there

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Tommaso
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Re: BD 140-144 Early Murnau: Five Films, 1921-1925

#21 Post by Tommaso » Fri Jun 17, 2016 3:22 am

Because neither of these two films have been transferred to HD by the German institutions so far, though I've read that "Der Gang in die Nacht" has recently been restored by the Munich film museum. But they have nothing to do with Murnau-Stiftung (from whom MoC usually get their German silents). I'd say it's possible that this restored "Gang in die Nacht" might come out on Edition Filmmuseum; in five or eight years or so, given that label's snail pace...

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What A Disgrace
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Re: BD 140-144 Early Murnau: Five Films, 1921-1925

#22 Post by What A Disgrace » Sun Jun 26, 2016 8:57 pm

Amazon UK lists "What Will You Be Tomorrow? A new video essay by filmmaker and critic David Cairns" as an extra on the set.

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rapta
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Re: BD 140-144 Early Murnau: Five Films, 1921-1925

#23 Post by rapta » Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:58 am

Apparently this is being put back a month with a new release date of September 26th. No word as to why but I imagine it'd just be manufacturing delays.

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Drucker
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Re: BD 140-144 Early Murnau: Five Films, 1921-1925

#24 Post by Drucker » Thu Sep 08, 2016 4:11 pm

DVD Beaver.

It seems there's been a bunch of tinting changes, and overall a huge upgrade in PQ across the board.

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Tommaso
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Re: BD 140-144 Early Murnau: Five Films, 1921-1925

#25 Post by Tommaso » Thu Sep 08, 2016 4:45 pm

Yeah, looks fantastic. Especially "Phantom" seems to be a huge upgrade, though I never had any problems with the old version. But just comparing that shot of Lil Dagover standing at the window... amazing. The tintings on the new blu versions also seem to look better in comparison.

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