Non-Criterion Boutique Home Video Discussion (Kino, Warner Archive, Arrow, Indicator, Vinegar Syndrome, Code Red, etc.)

I'm sad about the possible demise of WB Archive but to be honest I could never be bothered with bare bones releases, even if the transfers are very good.

Huh. Are the latter regular Warner DVD releases that went OOP?

Some are. They just released Curse of Frankenstein which I think got a crummy snapcase DVD release 20 years ago in the US but was otherwise only ever available in multipacks. The new blu-ray is a two-disc set with the film in three different aspect ratios and a whole lot of new features.

Looking over my recent purchases (Curse, Shop Around the Corner, Meet Me in St. Louis, Best Years of our Lives), only Best Years is fairly stingy with the extras.

Second Run's Goodbye Dragon Inn might be my favorite release of the last year. Or at least my favorite movie that finally got a decent set.

Didn't realise Nicky Wire Bananaman actually ran 88 Films, but did watch one of his documentaries on a release - might have been Massacre In Dinosaur Valley? - so it makes sense.

I have never understood what "nicky wire in a banana suit" means and had no idea he was a poster...is there some reasonable reason his company has that name?

Big Hitler fan and cinephile

One of those more believable than the other.

ugh hitler stans are so annoying

Just did a nostalgic search through thread titles started by his most frequent identity and that was a wild ride. I didn't realise there were just so many of them.

In actually relevant news I went to order that Czech film from Second Run but I can't check out the shopping cart. Oh well.

yeah sorry for derail (also embarrassingly realized I've figured this out before)

still, I would probably avoid releasing nazisploitation movies with that company name

I wasn't having a go except at myself because I thought I was derailing.

there are lots of WB Archives Blu-Rays with extras. Off the top of my head, a couple Michael Curtiz movies (Dodge City + Adventures of Robin Hood) have newsreels, cartoons, short films (by Curtiz!), trailers, and multiple radio broadcasts of the film in question. Usually some contemporary interviews with scholars/critics, too.

Dunno about entire extra films though, I've only ever encountered that with Criterion. They should really emphasize that more imo, I mean the Stranger Than Paradise disc for example: it has Permanent Vacation! That's hardly an extra. Stranger Than Paradise is an extra on that disc!

Gaslight at least has both the 1940 and 1944 versions of the film. I could swear I have at least one other with a bonus film.

But yeah, Criterion (and others who do likewise) should make a bigger deal about that. I bought The Front Page from Kino not realizing that it was included on Criterion's release of His Girl Friday.

Most (if not all) of the Warner Archive Blu extras are ported over from the original DVDs.

The first Gaslight with Anton Walbrook is grebt.

Wow, I had no idea about Gaslight. Yeah, I had the same reaction with His Girl Friday, tbh I didn't even know it had the extra movie when I bought it. I went to watch HGF again like 2 years ago and was like "what's this extra disc...? ...oh..... wtf?!!"

It Happened One Night has a feature length Capra silent (haven't watched yet), and the Stagecoach release has one of the best Ford silents I've seen, Bucking Broadway.

Killer's Kiss included with The Killing...The Report included with Certified Copy...yeah...

I'd imagine with Criterion that it has to do with them gatekeeping what gets the official "prestige" of being included in the Collection, which kinda makes since for stuff like De Palma's Murder A La Mod (bonus for Blow Out) or the 30s version of Magnificent Obsession on the Sirk disc, but is pretty baffling choice when it comes to Permanent Vacation.

Killer's Kiss included with The Killing...The Report included with Certified Copy...yeah...

― Motoroller Scampotron (WmC), Wednesday, February 24, 2021 1:24 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

YO

I'VE HAD THE REPORT THIS WHOLE TIME.....?

xxp Yeah that does make sense, it just feels like they should advertise them more, I mean I had NO idea Certified Copy came with The Report-- and I've had that disc for years!

But, then again, I don't read stickers!

My birthday present to you!

I love you

The studio killed the original UK Gaslight in various ways such as renaming it so as not to compete with the US remake, iirc..

Okay, MGM destroyed the negative at the time, and one or both versions were variously known as Angel Street and The Murder in Thornton Square.

Bonus films are indeed an awesome feature, though tbh I'm not sure I'll ever get around to the earlier version of Holiday

I haven't looked at the Warner Archive site in years, but I remember being wary because the DVDs (and maybe the blu-rays?) were sometimes DVD-Rs/MOD. The fact that a even some factory-pressed Warner titles from about fifteen years ago became unplayable over time helped sour me on buying Warner releases. But I also just rarely watch physical discs any more, unfortunately.

xxp Another bonus feature IIRC is The Traveler on Criterion's Close-Up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/arts/gaslight-movie-afterlife.html
J. Hoberman's overview.

xpost Warner Archive DVDs are, unfortunately, usually DVD-Rs and thusly not generally something I'm inclined to pay money for (except that I'm probably going to fold on the Forbidden Hollywood sets eventually). Their blu-rays, however, are legit manufactured discs and well worth checking out. They have so much good stuff.

I'm slapping myself just now because when I started this thread I knew I was forgetting to mention a major player and sure enough: Shout/Scream Factory is probably the most dominant boutique label in my collection. And sure enough: they're having a sale (on box sets).

https://www.shoutfactory.com/page/list/id/282131?utm_source=rejoiner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BOXSET+SALE+FEB+2021+-+FIRST+DAY&utm_content=BOXSET+SALE+FEB+2021

You see, this is how I blew through whatever stimulus money I received last year. Soooo many sales. It's a really easy way to go broke.

Olive Films puts out a lot of good stuff. Can't seem to find a proper home page.

https://olivefilms.com/

(doesn't show up on a Google search).

If you’re not buying the Maude box set from that Shout sale, seriously what are you doing in life?!

Lol

I was looking at the Barney Miller box.

Seeing that Homicide box, and remembering how ridiculously expensive the original season sets were back upon release in the early '00s: $80-$100 apiece (because of the music rights, iirc).

Wow, that is amazingly cheap, even at retail. Did they cut the music or something?

Looks like direct ports of the old discs.

When A&E did their complete series box, IIRC it was like $150-$200.

that
Tomorrow I'll Wake Up And Scald Myself With Tea film mentioned upthread fort mentioned in the guardian today in an article about a new (?) streaming service

https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/

which might be a bit off topic (being streaming) but looks interesting

(fuck autocorrect, you get the idea)

That does look great. I grumble about the big streaming services quite a bit but truth be told I could probably spend the rest of my life just watching old movies on stuff like this, the Cinephobe and assorted youtube accounts, without even getting into the Criterion channel.

the russian films are a separate (but related) website

and it has an interesting payment plan - $5 for a day, $15 for a week, $30 for a month, $100 for lifetime

you could probably get the cost per film down to $1 given a week and enough spare time (although probably avoid Satantango in that case!)

that's assuming this service lasts 2 years!

That's a great selection, quite a few I've loved and a good bunch I want to see, maybe someday.

Imagine Tim Robinson shouting into a fast food intercom "6000 COSTUMES, 30,000 WEAPONS, 800 CHARIOTS, 8000 HORSES..."

Arrow Video is putting out a really nice package of both Conan movies (they're also being sold separately) and I'm seriously considering it.

https://www.arrowvideo.com/the-conan-chronicles-conan-the-barbarian-and-conan-the-destroyer-limited-edition-blu-ray/14976087.html

not in the uk. searching for 'conan' turns up 'children of the corn'

Yeah, Arrow doing a lot of North America only releases these days.

They’re essentially handling Universal’s legacy home releases on this front from what I can tell.

lol no

Happy to be wrong. Dr W kind of likes to give the impression.

yeh I bet he does!

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/frontpage/products/little-darlings

Complete with the original theatrical soundtrack!

I got the huge VS Lost Films set for Christmas and have loads of opinions but the overriding one is this is not for normal people. (By which I mean even trying to explain some of what's in it is only possible by invoking other non-mainstream film makers so essentially only in its own language.)

With 2 to watch I genuinely think Rare Blue Apes might be my favourite though.

yeh that set is for people really deep down the rabbit hole!
in "I didn't know they were still going" news, Something Weird is closing down later this year.

It's also for people who aren't scared to say they didn't like things. I actually fell asleep during my first go at the hobo doc and didn't rate it much on the second go, and from limited reviews I'm not the only one (with one person saying they had a third go with the commentary which was worthwhile).

I'll have a go at trying to explain the films later.

in "I didn't know they were still going" news, Something Weird is closing down later this year.

― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Friday, 5 January 2024 11:57 (one hour ago) link

It's sad! I'm glad I picked up some of their physical releases over the past couple of years, as they've been slowly phasing those out. It seems like they might have some sort of deal with Kino, though (as the latter has been releasing a bunch of SW's old exploitation titles under the Forbidden Fruit banner), so hopefully their font of Weirdness will remain available in some form or another.

I think all these Deaf Crocodile films are region a only
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zca9nCm8McY

https://www.indiewire.com/features/craft/blu-ray-labels-film-history-physical-media-1234950671/

Seems hard to argue against the notion that Vinegar Syndrome has moved right up alongside Kino in terms of the breadth and quality of their output

Would happily agree. Thanks to their partner labels alone I'm usually picking up four or five new releases a month.

I tell myself I have reined in my home video buying frequency (and am shoring up for the spring Criterion flash sale since I've got at least three codes and am pretty close to the $50 credit), but a glance at my shelf of recent acquisitions tells a different tale.

VS's Showgirls was probably the fastest I've preordered a disc, um, I guess ever?

Hahah right there with ya. Can't wait for the Phase IV one.

I know its rights etc. but VS discs are sometimes region free and sometimes Region 1 only.. and it follows no logic or reason across films.

I got around this by buying a multiregion DVD/Bluray player, so now there is no stopping me.

will likely spring for Phase IV for the new cut, but in the UK, shipping is not great unless I go for a few titles at once, and I am still going through my last order.

also now I'm multiregion, teach me about criterion flash sales and where to look for buying a bunch of their stuff to send to UK. ( I dont think they have a UK sale and no criterion channel here either)

Ohhhh, did not know about Phase IV. That is rad.

I would give so much more of my $$$ to these boutiques if they would take a page from Kino's book and occasionally have more for-real deep discount sales. The frankly unnerving volume of Kino titles in my collection is a testament to this.

Tsk, Old Lunch, I revived the thread the other day! :-D

Phase IV

That Indiewire article is great for sure but I would add to it the interesting and kinda more grassroots efforts focusing on silent films in particular, especially now that nearly all of the silent era is in the public domain. (I'm sure the silent movie thread on here has noticed this!) There are boutique labels there as well like Undercrank but also near individual efforts or very limited releases via a lot of Kickstarter efforts, and while some are more dedicated to basic preservation, a lot of them are remarkably good with higher end treatment, notes and supplements, etc. Redwood Films out of France has been really solid about all kinds of horror/horror adjacent titles in particular:

https://www.instagram.com/redwoodcreekfilms/

While Dave Glass's silent-era comedian collections have been awfully good too:

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/reelcomedy/created

The frankly unnerving volume of Kino titles in my collection is a testament to this.

Now that the Kino imprimatur doesn't automatically mean "dodgy if not outright shitty video transfer" (at least on silent film landmarks), the biggest roadblock I have with them is the seeming total lack of curation. I get people being more completist with a Criterion or an Arrow or a Vinegar Syndrome. But I look at some people's Kino libraries and think, "You can't possibly want/need every single one of those titles ... can you?"

Well, when they do those sales with discs running from $5-10 apiece, and you need to drop $50 on an individual order so you don't get screwed on shipping...an they can't always be all winners.

Yeah, their offerings are all over the place but I've had pretty good luck by doing some research before diving into the sales. I've gotten a ton of great stuff from them that I probably would've never even known about or had a chance to see if they hadn't put out a dirt-cheap Blu-ray of the thing. It probably helps if you have an affinity for both fine cinema and total garbage.

The Big Bus, Moving Violations, and Blind Fury are definitely all winners!

I mean, I consider The Apple a winner so

I enjoy kino's chaotic neutral approach

The Big Bus, Moving Violations, and Blind Fury are definitely all winners!

kinda surprised they haven't released Midnight Madness on Kino yet

I enjoy kino's chaotic neutral approach

Heads up for people buying the Phase IV 4k/blu- the guy at Vinegar Syndrome who reassembled the original cut(s) says that the Saul Bass shorts that VS didn't carry over from the 101 Films UK release are being cleaned up and should be released within the year by another, as yet unnamed label

Kino Lorber March Madness Sale: https://kinolorber.com/collection/march-madness-sale-2024