Confirming earlier reports (see blu-ray.com, April 26), Optimum Home Entertainment has announced seven titles for Blu-ray release in the UK on September 13 as part of the Studio Canal Collection: Breathless(À bout de soufflé, Jean-Luc Godard, 1960); Le cercle rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970); Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, 1991); The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967); Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001); The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002); and The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949).
All will be presented with 1080p video, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks and in Blu-ray books. As to region coding, Breathless, Delicatessen and The Graduate are listed as region A and B; the others are listed as region B only.
Special features include:
Breathless
Introduction by Colin McCabe (4'42)
Godard, Made in USA (48'; in HD)
Room 12, Hôtel de Suède (1h18')
Jean-Luc According To Luc (8')
Photo gallery
Trailer (2'05)
Poster
Booklet essay by journalist Yves Alion
The Cercle Rouge
Introduction by Ginette Vincendeau (12') (SD)
Codename Melville: documentary directed by Olivier Bohler (76')
Interview with José Giovanni (15')
Interview with Rui Nogueira (author of Melville on Melville, produced by the Criterion Collection) (26')
Interview with assistant director Bernard Stora (30')
Trailer (1')
Booklet essay by professor/author Ginette Vincendeau
Delicatessen
Audio Commentary by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Main Course Pieces: brand new retrospective documentary (1h5')
The Archives of Jean-Pierre Jeunet: casting tests, rehearsals, behind the scenes, etc. (8')
Making Of: Fine Cooker Pork Meats (13')
Trailer (2')
Teasers (1')
Booklet essay by journalist Adam Woodward
The Graduate
Audio Commentary with Prof. Koebner, film historian
About the Music: analysis of music by Prof.Koebner & music professor & author Helga La Motte-Haber (7')
Analysis of the Seduction Scene (12')
Trailer (1'48")
The Graduate at 25 (22')
Interview with Charles Webb (20')
The Graduate: Looking Back (12.56)
The Music in the Film: 4 tracks as they appear in the film (HD)
(in HD):
The Sound of Silence
April Come She Will
Scarborough Fair
Mrs. Robinson
Booklet essay by writer and director Marc Webb
Mulholland Drive
Angelo Badalamenti: audio interview 10 years on (16'30; audio only)
Back to Mulholland Drive (21') (new)
Introduction by Thierry Jousse (10'; in HD)
In the Blue Box: retrospective documentary featuring directors and critics (27'; in HD)
Interview with Angelo Badalamenti (16')
Interview with Mary Sweeney (Editor and Producer) (6')
Making of (23')
Booklet essay by journalist Adam Woodward
The Pianist
Interview with Ronald Harwood (20')
Interview with Andrzej Szpilman (29')
Interview with Daniel Szpilman (2'28")
A Story of Survival: behind the scenes of The Pianist (39'43")
Trailer (1'30")
Booklet essay by journalist Anwar Brett
The Third Man
Audio commentary by Guy Hamilton (assistant director), Angela Allen (2nd unit continuity) & Simon Callow
Guardian NFT interviews (audio only):
Joseph Cotten (47')
Graham Greene (8')
Two original trailers (1'46" & 2'19"; in HD)
Stills gallery (2'24"; in HD)
Interview and performance by zither player Cornelia Mayer (4'44"; in HD)
The Third Man Interactive Vienna Tour (49'50"; in HD)
The Third Man on the Radio (an episode of The Lives of Harry Lime: Ticket to Tangiers (1951) written by and performed by Orson Welles) (28'45"; audio only)
Shadowing The Third Man: retrospective documentary (1'29")
US alternative prologue by Joseph Cotten (1'20")
Booklet essay by film historian and biographer Charles Drazin
I kind of like the art for The Graduate, but I already own the MGM version. Also, why would anyone buy Studio Canal's Breathless when Criterion is releasing one on the same day?
as the owner of 'Ran' in that 'box', it's awfully thin, smells like catpiss, has nothing of value inside and i'd rather just prefer a case like Criterion. but even Criterion's digipaks look so much better, sturdier, etc. SC's puts out a poor effort not just the film's picture quality and audio quality, but presentation as well. pretty awful all around.
iap738 - The Criterion Collection is Region A locked and North America only... these are UK releases so there are many people to whom they will be the better/only option. I'm lucky enough to have a region free player myself, and will always go Criterion if I can, I have The Third Man by them, but since I don't like Breathless it's not an issue in this case.
This is a great set of films though, I'm so so so so excited about Mulholland Drive especially. But I will definitely get all of them eventually, except Breathless and Le Cercle Rouge (Which is the only one I haven't seen, maybe I'll give it a rental)
I've got The Pianist preordered. I got in when Amazon UK priced it at 7.99 pounds. I have the HD-DVD, but I'm trying to replace all my titles on that format.
The Graduate looks interesting. It's only got a DTS HD-MA 2.0 track which is a step down from the US Blu-ray, but I'm hoping the transfer is better. The Fox/MGM one looked only marginally better than the DVD. And the extras sound interesting.
Love the Graduate and the Pianist. Mulholland drive remians the worst movie I've ever seen. I couldn't believe the high praise this movie got. If you like those pretentious art-house type movies it might be for you.
"Mulholland drive remians the worst movie I've ever seen. I couldn't believe the high praise this movie got. If you like those pretentious art-house type movies it might be for you."
I didn't like it either. Actually, I thought the first 45 minutes were decent(the TV pilot portion of the movie). It was the rest of it that stunk.
Personally, I think the packaging for these releases looks stunning. I'll be buying The Graduate and Mulholland Drive next month for sure. Possibly The Third Man, too.
I've seen the HD version of Le Cercle Rouge on Arte TV this week, which is most probably the one ending up on the Studio Canal BD. Detail and grain were nice, but the print was full of debris and the bluish palette was a bit too much, even for this movie. I was a bit let down by this restoration.
One would assume that the transfer they are going to use for Mulholland Drive is the same one that was used for the HD-DVD. How was the quality of that release?
After seeing the screen shots, they all look like shit and aren't worth a dime. Let Criterion handle remastering great films if Studio Canal is going to continue their butchering.
SO disappointed Mulholland Drive is not also Region A. It's by far my all-time favorite film and it's a disgrace we don't have it on BR yet, nor do we have a good SE DVD for it.
Please Criterion, make Mulholland Drive for the US.
Mulholland Drive will be mine for sure. and I hope that we`ll finally see a decent transfer of The Graduate. About time that`s gonna end up in my collection :P
If I live in America and own a PS3, what region discs can I watch? I never have tried to order import discs up to now, but I'd really like Mulholland Drive if it will work on my player.
Only way to get a decent transfer of The Graduate is if they re-do it from scratch. Most likely they'll just grab whatever they have handy. Time will tell soon enough.
I bought an Oppo region free for my family in Brazil. need to buy one for myself soon. i use a PS3. if you live in north america you can only watch region a discs: someone was asking. that said, i like all of these movies and will end up getting them all eventually: probably some time next year around the time i grab my region free Oppo. already have the CRITERION BD of The Third Man and love it.
I rather like the graphics for these movies, though they use the same font over and over (I think they also used it for the graphics for Ran). I've never bought a StudioCanal-Optimum BD before. I may be interested in a few of their versions of some of these titles, especially the ones playable in region A (i.e., Breathless and The Graduate), though I have the Criterion version of Breathless on preorder and the MGM BD of The Graduate is already in my collection. Too bad the quality of the packaging and the a.v. quality is not higher. Perhaps Criterion will provide the remainder of these titles it hasn't already released stateside.
I really wish The Pianist and Mulholland Drive were being released by Criterion here in the US with those special features. I'd upgrade my DVD of The Pianist in a heartbeat, and I've wanted to have Mulholland Drive for quite some time. The Criterion release of The Third Man is already in my collection and I very much like it; looks as if many of the extras are the different between Optimum and Criterion for all the ones I have on Criterion already. Too bad as I would have liked to have seen the extras on the Optimum discs that I'll be missing.
I'm not familiar with the remaining two films. Anyway I guess I should take this as a good sign that some more films I like will soon be released on Criterion Blu.
The English and French appreciate these types of films more than most Americans do (sales). Its a shame that an American movie is released on Blu-Ray in England before it hits the states.
I'd love to see Mulholland Dr. in the states but Universal is sooo slow to release these good quality artful films other examples would be Out of Sight, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Big Lebowski, Broken Flowers, Lost In Translation, 21 Grams and the Jessica Alba classic Honey (:
WTF? Why is it that StudioCanal releases the majority of these movies only in the UK but also is putting Criterion releases out of production? Both Criterion and StudioCanal should simultaniously be out so that actual competition for best VQ/AQ can take place!!! FML I only now just started collecting Blurays and I hear The Third Man is out of print for nearly a year already?
