Peter Greenaway

[Pepsi]

Yes, the subtiles are removable!

[tojoed]

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but I couldn't find it.
8 disc DVD Box set to be released by Umbrella in September.

[Tommaso]

Looks fascinating! I don't know any disc from that company, are they usually reliable for good quality? "The Pillow Book" and "Drowning by Numbers" deserve better editions than those out elsewhere for sure, so I feel really tempted about this set. But if they duplicated the transfers of the old Australian discs of "Macon" and "Drowning by Numbers", better beware....

[tojoed]

I have the two Fred Schepisi films "Devil's Playground" and "Jimmie Blacksmith" from Umbrella and they are both excellent editions. Good transfers, extras and commentaries.
The omens are good.

[tajmahal]

I have the two Fred Schepisi films "Devil's Playground" and "Jimmie Blacksmith" from Umbrella and they are both excellent editions. Good transfers, extras and commentaries.
The omens are good.

Unfortunately, Umbrella should be considered on a film by film basis. they release some truly wonderful films for such a small home market, but quality can be at the extreme ends of the spectrum. The few I've seen make me suspect some, if not all are unconverted pal/ntsc etc (where applicable). Subtitles can be variable, as well. On the whole, ghosting is my biggest problem with their releases I've seen.

This reads like a hatchet job, but better you have some sort of picture before importing these titles.

Having said that, one of my sweetest discoveries over the past year was Umbrella's poorly subtitled, but decent print of De Sica's The Roof. A great film, despite the limitations of the dvd.

[McCrutchy]

Discshop.se now has stock of The Baby of Mâcon BD. Note that they do not currently ship to the USA, only within Europe.

[mert1149]

I have received my copy of the new Atlantic Baby of Macon and Prospero's Books dvds.

The Baby of Macon dvd is of quite wonderful picture quality -- georgeous deep reds. Considering the previous alternatives on offer (a UK VHS, and an atrocious Region 4 release) I would strongly encourage Greenaway fans to pick up this release. Subtitles are removable.

Prospero's Books is more disappointing. The picture quality is superior to my dutch Kalverliefde release, however it is very obviously cropped -- during one close-up of Gielgud, for example, his eyes actually go off the screen! The cinematography and the colours and the crispness are all great -- but the cropping is really annoying.

It will be interesting to see whether the new Australian Umbrella release is the same...

[Tommaso]

Thanks a lot! If you have time and the possibility, could you post a comparison screen shot between the Dutch and the Swedish releases of "Prospero"? Would interest me very much to see the cropping; the aspect ratio of "Prospero" is 1.85/1.78 on the Swedish release, isn't it?

[mteller]

I watched the BFI Blu-Ray of A Zed and Two Noughts over the weekend and it looks amazing. Some nice bonus features too.

Also, the movie is much better than I remembered it being. I hesitated to purchase it, now it's one of my favorite Greenaways.

[hemulen]

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but I couldn't find it.
8 disc DVD Box set to be released by Umbrella in September.

From a very quick read of the boxes for said set, I note:

1. Baby of Macon
- 117 minute feature length
- 2.35:1, 2.0 soundtrack
- dvd 9
- no subtitles
- no special features

2. Propoero's Books
- 121 minute feature length
- 1.77:1, 2.0 soundtrack
- dvd 9
- no subtitles
- no special features

3. The Draughtsman's Contract
- 104 minute feature length
- dvd 9
- 1.77:1, 2.0 English/french sountrack
- french and dutch subtitles
- special features as per standalone release

4. Drowning by numbers
-119 minute feature length
-dvd 9
-1.66:1, 2.0 soundtrack
- no subtitles
- no special features

5. A Zed and Two Noughts
- 112 minute feature length
- dvd 9
- 1.66:1, 2.0 English/French/Dutch sountrack(s)
-dutch and french subtitles
- special features as per standalone release.

6. The Pillow Book
- 121 minute feature length
- dvd 9
- Full frame/4:3, 2.0 English, Cantonese, Italian, Japanese, Mandrin, French
- English subtitles
- no special features

7. 8/12 Women
- 121 minute feature length
- dvd 5
- 1.66:1, 2.0 English
- english subtitles
- no special features

8. Peter Greemaway in Documentary
- 60 minute feature length
- DVD 5
- full frame
- no subtitles.

[yoshimori]

Re Atlantic's Baby blu: I'd second ola t's brief review - "looks great".

[McCrutchy]

For customers in the USA, Megastore (English) finally has stock of The Baby of Mâcon BD. My order has been shipped and I will update when I receive it.

Order link

[Oedipax]

For customers in the USA, Megastore (English) finally has stock of The Baby of Mâcon BD. My order has been shipped and I will update when I receive it.

Order link

Thanks for that, just ordered.

[McCrutchy]

My copy arrived from english.megastore.se today!

I am pleased to report that Atlantic Film's BD of The Baby of Mâcon does in fact contain full 1080p video (24.000fps) and an English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtrack (verified by both BDInfo and my A/V receiver's display). Other than the feature, the disc contains only a static 1080p loading screen (in English), followed by another static 1080p screen with subtitle options. The subtitles can be easily disabled via the pop-up menu, which is also in English. I have confirmed through a multiregion player that the disc is Region ABC (region-free).

I can also confirm that there is no timecode displayed for the feature. When playing the feature, my player's display simply showed "PLAY".

One other surprise was the lovely artwork on the obverse of the Swedish cover art (please forgive the crudity of my scanner):



BDInfo report:

Code: Select all

                                                                                                                Total   Video                                             
Title                                                           Codec   Length  Movie Size      Disc Size       Bitrate Bitrate Main Audio Track                          Secondary Audio Track
-----                                                           ------  ------- --------------  --------------  ------- ------- ------------------                        ---------------------
00005.MPLS                                                      AVC     2:01:57 20,270,481,408  20,482,378,293  22.16   20.02   DTS-HD Master 2.0 913Kbps (48kHz/16-bit)  

Code: Select all

DISC INFO:

Disc Title:     The Baby of Macon
Disc Size:      20,482,378,293 bytes
Protection:     AACS
BD-Java:        Yes
BDInfo:         0.5.6

PLAYLIST REPORT:

Name:                   00005.MPLS
Length:                 2:01:57 (h:m:s)
Size:                   20,270,481,408 bytes
Total Bitrate:          22.16 Mbps

VIDEO:

Codec                   Bitrate             Description     
-----                   -------             -----------     
MPEG-4 AVC Video        20018 kbps          1080p / 24 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1

AUDIO:

Codec                           Language        Bitrate         Description     
-----                           --------        -------         -----------     
DTS-HD Master Audio             English         913 kbps        2.0 / 48 kHz / 913 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 16-bit)

SUBTITLES:

Codec                           Language        Bitrate         Description     
-----                           --------        -------         -----------     
Presentation Graphics           Danish          17.816 kbps                     
Presentation Graphics           Finnish         14.930 kbps                     
Presentation Graphics           Norwegian       16.039 kbps                     
Presentation Graphics           sve             18.035 kbps                     

FILES:

Name            Time In         Length          Size            Total Bitrate   
----            -------         ------          ----            -------------   
00005.M2TS      0:00:00.000     2:01:57.250     20,270,481,408  22,162          

CHAPTERS:

Number          Time In         Length          Avg Video Rate  Max 1-Sec Rate  Max 1-Sec Time  Max 5-Sec Rate  Max 5-Sec Time  Max 10Sec Rate  Max 10Sec Time  Avg Frame Size  Max Frame Size  Max Frame Time  
------          -------         ------          --------------  --------------  --------------  --------------  --------------  --------------  --------------  --------------  --------------  --------------  
1               0:00:00.000     0:05:17.000     17,198 kbps     24,826 kbps     00:03:12.583    23,237 kbps     00:03:09.875    22,148 kbps     00:03:04.583    89,562 bytes    336,931 bytes   00:03:08.625    
2               0:05:17.000     0:13:42.500     20,316 kbps     27,475 kbps     00:05:40.833    24,263 kbps     00:06:21.875    23,558 kbps     00:06:23.458    105,811 bytes   410,420 bytes   00:06:25.625    
3               0:18:59.500     0:07:42.083     19,853 kbps     25,484 kbps     00:19:05.750    24,025 kbps     00:19:03.750    23,018 kbps     00:24:38.250    103,402 bytes   367,340 bytes   00:24:47.375    
4               0:26:41.583     0:12:37.916     19,537 kbps     31,787 kbps     00:36:34.083    30,676 kbps     00:36:32.791    25,831 kbps     00:36:27.833    101,757 bytes   450,436 bytes   00:37:18.708    
5               0:39:19.500     0:11:03.000     19,498 kbps     28,181 kbps     00:39:52.416    26,618 kbps     00:39:59.041    26,203 kbps     00:39:52.791    101,552 bytes   401,271 bytes   00:44:12.625    
6               0:50:22.500     0:14:21.000     21,671 kbps     27,895 kbps     01:04:16.250    25,660 kbps     01:04:14.291    25,564 kbps     01:04:13.750    112,871 bytes   444,972 bytes   00:59:13.375    
7               1:04:43.500     0:13:09.500     20,864 kbps     31,515 kbps     01:05:04.291    28,565 kbps     01:09:06.750    26,858 kbps     01:09:06.666    108,665 bytes   390,804 bytes   01:09:40.666    
8               1:17:53.000     0:08:17.500     21,035 kbps     25,984 kbps     01:22:39.000    24,326 kbps     01:22:35.416    24,146 kbps     01:22:30.000    109,559 bytes   352,694 bytes   01:25:57.791    
9               1:26:10.500     0:09:58.000     21,120 kbps     26,550 kbps     01:33:47.583    24,903 kbps     01:33:55.750    24,946 kbps     01:33:55.583    109,997 bytes   346,453 bytes   01:26:14.791    
10              1:36:08.500     0:08:43.000     22,059 kbps     26,894 kbps     01:39:24.583    25,377 kbps     01:39:22.666    25,352 kbps     01:39:20.083    114,891 bytes   361,014 bytes   01:43:00.625    
11              1:44:51.500     0:11:32.500     19,794 kbps     36,452 kbps     01:49:58.708    25,912 kbps     01:49:55.625    23,702 kbps     01:48:17.416    103,093 bytes   432,076 bytes   01:50:46.041    
12              1:56:24.000     0:05:33.250     11,820 kbps     23,053 kbps     01:57:27.041    21,170 kbps     01:57:26.583    21,046 kbps     01:57:26.041    61,571 bytes    323,561 bytes   01:57:28.083    

STREAM DIAGNOSTICS:

File            PID             Type            Codec           Language                Seconds                 Bitrate                 Bytes           Packets         
----            ---             ----            -----           --------                --------------          --------------          -------------   -----           
00005.M2TS      4113 (0x1011)   0x1B            AVC                                     7317.083                20,019                  18,309,835,927  99,612,787      
00005.M2TS      4352 (0x1100)   0x86            DTS-HD MA       eng (English)           7317.083                913                     835,193,680     5,289,606       
00005.M2TS      4608 (0x1200)   0x90            PGS             sve (sve)               7317.083                18                      16,495,939      93,502          
00005.M2TS      4609 (0x1201)   0x90            PGS             nor (Norwegian)         7317.083                16                      14,670,234      83,328          
00005.M2TS      4610 (0x1202)   0x90            PGS             dan (Danish)            7317.083                18                      16,295,598      92,410          
00005.M2TS      4611 (0x1203)   0x90            PGS             fin (Finnish)           7317.083                15                      13,655,867      78,381          

[ola t]

Next in line from Atlantic Film: Nightwatching on blu on November 17. No special features, unless the fact that they've listed a running time that's about twenty minutes too long means something (but probably not).

[tavernier]

Looks like they listed 2.35 as both the running time and the aspect ratio

[McCrutchy]

Next in line from Atlantic Film: Nightwatching on blu on November 17. No special features, unless the fact that they've listed a running time that's about twenty minutes too long means something (but probably not).

Thanks for pointing this out. Too bad it won't have the extras or documentary...

[CircusVocabulary]

So, this happened last night (look at that hat!)

Peter Greenaway spoke for about two and a half hours about his new project(s) (as well as his usual themes of "cinema died in 1983 with the advent of the remote control," etc...) last night at the Getty Center in LA. It was really awesome. He showed a few clips from various projects including his current, "Nine Classic Paintings Revisited," which is a continuation of the work he did with the Nightwatch in "Rembrandt's J'accuse." He spoke, to my surprise, to a totally packed auditorium (when they showed Draughtsman's Contract and A Zed & Two Noughts a few years ago at the New Beverly, the audience comprised of my girlfriend and I and about four other people). His idea behind the "Revisited" works are to apply cinematic language to classic paintings, which include, The Marriage at Cana, The Last Supper, a Jackson Pollock, Guernica, and a few others I'm forgetting (obviously totaling nine).

I'm a huge Greenaway fan, and found it amazing that we don't even get Greenaway films in Los Angeles, but then Greenaway himself shows up! Incredible! After the lecture, I was able to meet him, shook his hand and asked him if he'll ever make his project about the man who meets himself. He said that project is on the backburner and that there's filmmaking money in Brazil and that they offer great taxes incentives (haha). He signed my copy of Peter Greenaway Interviews and was very nice and gracious. He also made a comment about the Netherlands (where he lives, Amsterdam specifically) not having a strong cinema and I couldn't help but think that that was a 'greenaway-jab' at The Human Centipede, considering all the hype that movie got (and the arguable quality of it).

I don't know what else to say, Greenaway is the man!

[Kirkinson]

I got Atlantic's Baby of Macon Blu-ray a few weeks ago, and while it looks amazing and it still seems miraculous to me that it got a release anywhere near this quality, I'm having one curious technical problem with it. When I watch it on my PC (I'm using PowerDVD 8 in Windows Vista) the volume level is extremely low, such that even when I turn the volume all the way up in Windows and on the external speakers themselves, I still strain to hear a single clear word of dialogue. If I watch the disc on my dad's HDTV and player the volume level is normal and comparable to other discs, and I'm not having this problem in PowerDVD with any other Blu-ray or DVD I own. I've reinstalled the software and downloaded all available updates to no effect. Has anyone here had a similar problem? Does anyone have any suggestions?

[RobertB]

Next up is Prospero's Books on blu. No date yet. And if you live in Europe you might consider buying Macon and Nighwatching on blu. I know interantional postage is expencive from Sweden, but the discs themselves are only 99 SEK each, that's less than £10. Atlantic is not a great comapny, but I can't complain too much about the Greenways on blu-ray.

[Tommaso]

As has been observed by somebody else in this thread, there is a problem with "Prospero": the framing is far too tight, at least on the dvd, and it somewhat works to the detriment to Greenaway's extremely careful multi-frame compositions. The difference is apparent if you compare it to the old VHS and also to the Dutch dvd from that ridiculously expensive "Kalverliefde" set; I clearly prefer the Kalverliefde version, which is also a bit brighter and looks more enticing to me in this respect, too. The Atlantic dvd looks a bit more filmlike though due to higher bitrate. How all this works out on blu must be seen, but if the framing isn't changed I would not necessarily recommend the Atlantic either on blu or on dvd if you can get a copy of the Dutch disc. Which is admittedly difficult.

[ola t]

Next up is Prospero's Books on blu.

Unfortunately not -- that's the one that was cancelled. I assume Discshop were never notified about the cancellation.

[degradationblues]

Someone needs to get the rights to "Cook" already. what-the-hell! Anchor Bay didn't do it justice.

[Tommaso]

The Anchor Bay "Cook" is a real pleasure compared to all the disastrous versions of "The Pillow Book" worldwide...

[felipe]

I assume this has already been discussed, but why hasn't Criterion released any of his movies in America? Are they just not interested?