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What A Disgrace
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Flicker Alley

#1 Post by What A Disgrace » Thu Jun 09, 2005 10:48 pm

Flicker Alley is releasing a described "deluxe edition" of F.W. Murnau's Phantom this Fall, restored from the original negative.
F. W. Murnau's PHANTOM - The Authorized Restored Edition

Flicker Alley (www.FlickerAlley.com), in partnership with the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation, Wiesbaden, Germany is pleased to announce the DVD release of Phantom, which marked a major turning point in the influential career and the groundbreaking style of cinema poet F.W. Murnau. In this beautifully reconstructed and restored edition from an original 1922 negative, Alfred Abel (Metropolis, Dr. Mabuse) plays Lorenz Lubota, a man obsessed with his own desires to achieve fame and wealth, who must confront the barriers of class keeping him from a woman (Lya de Putti) with whom he has had a fateful encounter. Featuring a magnificent new orchestral score by Robert Israel, this powerfully expressive and surprisingly insightful film is a triumph of German Weimar cinema and a wonderful collaboration of many of its most skilled artisans and recognizable performers.

DVD FEATURES:
- A beautiful new, speed-corrected NTSC film transfer, restored with original tints
- A new, digitally recorded orchestral score by renowned silent film composer Robert Israel
- A new, English language edition of the film prepared for and in collaboration with the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation, Wiesbaden, Germany

SPECIAL BONUS FEATURES:
- Invitation To Phantom – A new 15 minute examination of the artistry and production history of Phantom by UCLA film historian Janet Bergstrom
- The Colors of Phantom – Film restoration experts Luciano Berriatúa and Camille Blot-Wellens discuss their process for color tint identification and restoration in a 12-page booklet essay
- Cast and Crew Biographies – Over 80 pages of biographical information and unique photographs of the major performers and technicians involved with the film
- Special Documents Gallery – A image gallery containing many rare and never-before-seen historical documents (Special thanks to Werner Sudendorf, the Filmmuseum Berlin, and Deutsches Filminstitut)

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tryavna
Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:38 pm
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#2 Post by tryavna » Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:28 am

I caught Phantom on TCM about a year ago, and it's visual style is quite dazzling for a film made in 1922. It more than makes up for Thea von Harbou's somewhat melodramatic adaptation of the novel. It's also notable as the film Murnau made immediately following Nosferatu. I highly recommend that people at least rent this film.

Since this release is in conjunction with Transit Film (and the Murnau Foundation), which usually releases in R1 via Kino, I wonder if this means that Flicker Alley will be releasing more German silents. If so, I hope they avoid the PAL-to-NTSC trap that Kino has fallen into.

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whipsilk
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#3 Post by whipsilk » Sun Jun 12, 2005 5:37 am

Also listed on Flicker Alley's web site as upcoming: three early films produced by Howard Hughes. Two of them (Two Arabian Knights and The Racket) were directed by Lewis Milestone. The third, The Mating Call, was directed by James Cruze and starred Evelyn Brent. I'm not familiar with any of the titles, but they sound interesting, as Hughes was cultivating his "bad boy of Hollywood" image.

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Ashirg
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#4 Post by Ashirg » Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:34 am

From Barrie Maxwell column:
Flicker Alley's proposed release of F.W. Murnau's Phantom has been delayed until February in order to include some new supplementary materials that have become available.

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tryavna
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#5 Post by tryavna » Wed Dec 14, 2005 5:21 pm

Ashirg wrote:From Barrie Maxwell column:
Flicker Alley's proposed release of F.W. Murnau's Phantom has been delayed until February in order to include some new supplementary materials that have become available.
The updated release date is now reflected on Flicker Alley's homepage.

No updates yet on the three Howard Hughes-produced silents, though. Anybody know anything? I've become rather keen on seeing the two Lewis Milestone films now that I reaquainted myself with The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.

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htdm
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#6 Post by htdm » Wed Dec 14, 2005 5:33 pm

On the old website at the end of the article on the restoration there was a brief mention that these titles were being prepared for DVD. Now on the revamped website, the article is still there but there is no longer any mention of the films coming to DVD.
I don't think I imagined it...

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HerrSchreck
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#7 Post by HerrSchreck » Sun Dec 25, 2005 7:36 am

It mentions some of the collaborators in putting together the extras unearthed, here http://www.flickeralley.com/fa_phantom_02.html
An impressive & respectable source list.

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HerrSchreck
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#8 Post by HerrSchreck » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:07 pm

OBVIOUSLY BEEN UPDATED SINCE LAST WEEK:

now pushes the already-postponed-from-Fall-05 release date of Murnaus PHANTOM from "late February 2006" to COMING SPRING 2006.
tryavna wrote:
Ashirg wrote:From Barrie Maxwell column:
Flicker Alley's proposed release of F.W. Murnau's Phantom has been delayed until February in order to include some new supplementary materials that have become available.
The updated release date is now reflected on Flicker Alley's homepage.

No updates yet on the three Howard Hughes-produced silents, though. Anybody know anything? I've become rather keen on seeing the two Lewis Milestone films now that I reaquainted myself with The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.
and don't forget to get yourself acquainted with ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

unclehulot
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#9 Post by unclehulot » Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:31 am

Well, it's basically a one man operation, of films with little commercial potential, and I suppose they want to get it right. Personally I don't understand your apparent anger at someone trying to put out product that you are interested in, but then I guess I have enough of a stack of unwatched dvds to keep me busy until they get around to releasing it, and those Howard Hughes films too.

I think I'll go watch Judex again..........

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HerrSchreck
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#10 Post by HerrSchreck » Wed Apr 26, 2006 10:30 am

I spoke to Massino @ Flicker Alley again and it appears they're shooting for mid-june on PHANTOM.

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HerrSchreck
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#11 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Jun 19, 2006 12:48 am

Speaking of the difficulty of sustaining a company maintaining high quality while selling a catalog emphasizing silent films (see the Asphalt thread, the Silent Film thread, and the ongoing Kino discussion as well), our friends at Flicker Alley are apparentl in trouble... enough trouble where the R1 release of the PHANTOM restoration is being threatened. I don't want to divulge too much of a private discussion but these dudes need support.

Guys... buy up the DVDs you may have wanted but held back on for this or that reason. No reason to skip JUDEX, that's for sure.

peerpee
not perpee
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#12 Post by peerpee » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:26 pm

Monday, July 31, 2006

Dear Friends of Flicker Alley,

Thank you for your on-going support and interest in Flicker Alley editions of classic and previously little-seen films. Your feedback and inquiries have been genuinely appreciated and inspiring, proving that there is real dedication and passion for the type of material we produce in a very competitive broadcast and home entertainment market.

After many production delays, I am pleased to finally, and officially, announce that the Flicker Alley DVD release of PHANTOM, a film by F. W. Murnau, is ready for pre-order. To all those who have e-mailed previously, I offer my sincere thanks for your patience during this time.

This restored edition is from an amazingly detailed, original 1922 negative, and features a magnificent orchestral score by Robert Israel, which I personally believe to be among his best recorded work. I have listed the DVD features below and have attached a j-peg image of the packaging art.

DVD FEATURES:
* A beautiful new, speed-corrected NTSC film transfer, restored with original tints
* A new, digitally recorded orchestral score by renowned silent film
composer Robert Israel
* A new, English language edition of the film prepared for and in
collaboration with the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation, Wiesbaden,
Germany

SPECIAL BONUS FEATURES:
* Invitation To Phantom - A new 15 minute examination of the artistry and production history of Phantom by UCLA film historian Janet Bergstrom
* The Colors of Phantom - Film restoration experts Luciano Berriatúa and
Camille Blot-Wellens discuss their process for color tint identification and
restoration in a 12-page booklet essay
* Cast and Crew Biographies - Over 80 pages of biographical information and unique photographs of the major performers and technicians involved with the film
* Special Documents Gallery - A image gallery containing many rare and
never-before-seen historical documents (Special thanks to Werner Sudendorf, the Filmmuseum Berlin, and Deutsches Filminstitut)

The national street date for PHANTOM is Tuesday, September 12th; however, orders placed directly through Flicker Alley will be available for shipment the week of August 21st. The price of the PHANTOM DVD will be $29.95. There will be an introductory 15% discount PLUS free shipping within the United States for any order placed directly through Flicker Alley by August 31, 2006. The total cost of this offer will be $25.46 (or $27.56 for any order shipped to a California address including the 8.25% sales tax). Please contact us for shipments outside of the United States and please remember that this introductory discount only applies to orders placed directly through Flicker Alley.

Check or money orders can be accepted through our post office box at the following address:


Flicker Alley LLC
P O Box 931762,
Los Angeles, CA 90093


On-line payments may be made via PayPal (www.paypal.com). When making an on-line payment using PayPal, please enter the e-mail address
"info@flickeralley.com" at the prompt "Recipient's Email."

Thank you very much again for your interest in Flicker Alley productions and products and please feel free to contact me with any comments or questions.

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denti alligator
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#13 Post by denti alligator » Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:03 pm

Without original intertitles I won't be buying this. Sad. So, peerpee, MoC is definitely NOT releasing this Murnau?
Last edited by denti alligator on Mon Jul 31, 2006 12:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

peerpee
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#14 Post by peerpee » Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:12 pm

MoC plan to release PHANTOM next year.

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HerrSchreck
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#15 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Jul 31, 2006 12:08 am

Yes I received the same email from Jeff today but Nick beat me to it.

Finally.

I couldn't possibly in a thousand years wait. I love the film far too much and am helpless before the release to ever restrain myself. Just grit my teeth and pretend I'm alive back in the 20's when regional intertitles was the norm.

Dent have you seen LES VAMPIRES or JUDEX?

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HerrSchreck
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#16 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Jul 31, 2006 12:18 am

Mine works like a charm, never had a problem.
denti alligator wrote:Without original intertitles I won't be buying this. Sad. So, peepee, MoC is definitely NOT releasing this Murnau?
You don't hafta stand still for that sound, Nick. Dent you're a sinister ol' prof, you are...

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Rufus T. Firefly
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#17 Post by Rufus T. Firefly » Mon Jul 31, 2006 3:58 am

davidhare wrote:Schrecko I inherited the Judex discs from a friend whose player couldn't manage them - they froze up and/or started to pixellate in a couple of sections. I haven't had a chance to play them yet (they are in a queue of 120 , literally) but I wondered if anyone else had the same problem with Flicker Alley's Judex?
It was widely reported shortly after release that there were issues with the discs freezing at the layer change on some players.

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Tommaso
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am

#18 Post by Tommaso » Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:12 am

peerpee wrote:MoC plan to release PHANTOM next year.
This is the best thing I have heard for ages. Sorry, Flicker Alley, I'm with Denti on this.

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HerrSchreck
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#19 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:24 am

Be glad you guys were born during the sound era-- all that flying & sailing around to source countries would have bankrupted you pre-1929! :wink:

Let me explain a little further my philosophy beyond my maniacal refusal to wait to get my hands on this resto, as there is something that I feel strongly about on this particular release:

Jeff Massino struggled to get this project out as a real labor of love, and the co is in dire straits... I'm releived the dude got the thing out at all. I thought his co might sink, which would be bad news for all of us. He preconverts his masters to NTSC, he takes bonko risks here in america on superdeluxe 2-discers for no-name-recognition titles like JUDEX; I feel it my obligation to show support, and therefore, the news of this release coming out-- i e the company is surviving-- I could never ever see it as sad. I'm overjoyed, and couldn't turn my back on his desire to get silents out to the US market.

That said, I'm with you guys on the desire to see the original intertitles for mood & posterity's sake. But this guy told me in an aside he's dreaming about DIE CHRONIK VON GREISHUS by von Gerlach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :shock: :shock: (It's being restored as we speak). With that kind of hardcore love, I've just got to support the guy. He's more than a little bit of alright, as they say.

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Tommaso
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#20 Post by Tommaso » Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:35 am

HerrSchreck wrote:. But this guy told me in an aside he's dreaming about DIE CHRONIK VON GREISHUS by von Gerlach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :shock: :shock: (It's being restored as we speak). With that kind of hardcore love, I've just got to support the guy. He's more than a little bit of alright, as they say.
Aaaah, THAT sounds like something great again! I basically feel like you, Schreck, about that company and the care they put into their releases with all these extras etc. But if he's such a maniac and hardcore lover of these films, why, oh WHY did they replace the intertitles then??? Isn't one Kino enough? I begin to guess it must be a licencing thing, after all... So not much hope for the Gerlach, then...

Hate to say it, but I cannot always buy the same film twice, and if MoC are doing it, this must be my choice (even if I have to wait for some more months). It also shows that it is good for a company to announce their projects early on (just as an aside about the current debate about the three-month span with Criterion anouncements); if Nick hadn't told us, I would have bought the flickeralley, although with some teeth grinding....

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HerrSchreck
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#21 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:40 am

I think they're catering to the average dummy, who looks at foreign languages as something to lose their lunch over. I think these average viewers see the new intertitles as a groovy replication of the vintage era experience. That's my guess... like the windowboxing thing w CC-- catering to the average knucklehead. I wanted to show M to an electrician here @ Universal; the guy would not even brook the idea of watching a "film with subtitles".

Amazing.

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Lino
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#22 Post by Lino » Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:54 am

Shrek, with due respect: no "average dummy" would ever buy a silent film. And I agree with Tommaso -- if they're catering for the silents lovers, why can't they be faithful to the original version of the film? This is a way of thinking that I will never understand. The least they could do was like Divisa is doing in Spain: to offer two choices of viewing by way of seamless branching (one with the original intertitles and the other with translated ones).

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Tommaso
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#23 Post by Tommaso » Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:01 am

HerrSchreck wrote:I think they're catering to the average dummy, who looks at foreign languages as something to lose their lunch over. I think these average viewers see the new intertitles as a groovy replication of the vintage era experience.
Don't think so, really. The 'average dummy' who would not even watch 'M' with subs would certainly not even have heard of a film called 'Phantom' by a guy called Murnau, let alone buy the dvd (even with English titles). To use one of your analogies, it would be mere Paradjanov for him.

I would still assume that licensing the film with the original titles would have been more expensive. On the other hand, creating new intertitles costs money, too (definitely more than creating subs). If it was a VHS tape where one would have to decide on one language, okay, but the dvd medium offers the chance to have multiple languages and titles. Don't know whether anyone from Flickeralley reads this, but I would really like to hear about their motivations regarding this decision, because I really really cannot understand this policy.

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Scharphedin2
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#24 Post by Scharphedin2 » Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:27 am

Just a couple of thoughts on this discussion.

First, I love Nick and MoC, but is there a film that they are not releasing on DVD next year? :D It could easily be a wait of more than a year. Can we really wait that long to see this film? I cannot. I thought the intertitles on Faust were fantastic in German (I read German, and obviously there is the whole "atmosphere" aspect of having the real thing, etc.), but if this is published by Flicker Alley w. English subtitles, this is one compromise I can live with for the time being (do notice that FA will be transferring in NTSC).

Will the MoC definitely be with the original intertitles? In that case (and probably with different extras), sure I will get that too when it comes out.

Why? Because, as Schreck points out, you cast a vote for what you love by supporting it with your dollar. I have followed Flicker Alley, since Schreck first brought to attention the fiancial troubles of the company, and I will take the opportunity of Phantom's release to get their other titles as well. We really need to support both these companies, in order that they may go on to produce even more of the films that we would all love to see on DVD.

The only thing here that I find sad is the fact that there is no way to synchronize efforts, and focus on publishing different titles, and/or collaborate on titles. I know, different regions and different formats (PAL and NTSC), but would it not be possible to pool efforts on co-producing titles like this one, and publish R0 in PAL and NTSC with dual spine numbers for Flicker Alley and MoC? I would imagine that the editions could be even more definitive in terms of extras by pooled efforts, greater cost effectiveness and less time spent by both companies by splittin tasks, and hence greater profitability, which would again lead to the ability to pursue even more projects. Probably there are factors that I do not know about, but it would be interesting to hear opinions on this idea.

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denti alligator
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#25 Post by denti alligator » Mon Jul 31, 2006 12:36 pm

HerrSchreck wrote:
denti alligator wrote:Without original intertitles I won't be buying this. Sad. So, peepee, MoC is definitely NOT releasing this Murnau?
You don't hafta stand still for that sound, Nick. Dent you're a sinister ol' prof, you are...
Thanks for quoting me on my Freudian slip there, so that now I can't edit it away.... :oops:

Thanks for revealing this, peerpee! That's exciting news! Working your way towards a collected Murnau set.

Of course I won't be waiting until the MoC release to see this. I'll be renting the Flicker Alley release.

And Schreck, yes I've seen both Les Vampires and Judex. Why do you ask? I own the Flicker Alley Judex, which is a fine release, even if the French titles are missing. I'll be updating to the French version of Les Vampires as soon as I can afford to.

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