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Yeah, I saw that - it seems to be part of a series, since a previous avatar of his featured Sight & Sound's former editor Nick James. I wonder who's next?

Anyway, it's not a very good representation of me prepping Orphans (I'd forgotten just how much of a gutbusting laugh riot that film is), unless it's supposed to catch me in mid-furrowed-brow concentration as I try to transcribe a particularly colloquial bit of Glaswegian for the subtitles. Striking the right balance between accuracy and necessarily rapid readability was a challenge and a half, but I'm very very pleased with the end result.

Rewatched Elephant last night and afterwards watched the extra with viewers calling in to give their views and I noticed that several of them made reference to their apparently being no indication that the events were in Northern Ireland. However right at the beginning of Elephant is a quote explicitly mentioning the 'Troubles' as being the Elephant in our living rooms. Neither Danny Boyle or Alan Clarke made reference to this. In fact Clarke is asked to explain the title by the host at the beginning of the show. It also reminded me of the Harmony Korine quote about seeing Elephant for the first time and not being aware of the subject matter until someone shouted at him (though his anecdote may need to be taken with a pinch of salt). Finally Gus Van Sant (who apparently learnt of the film via Korine) also stated that he didn't know that the title referred to 'the Elephant in the living room', but had rather assumed it referred to the Buddhist(?) parable about blind men touching an elephant and all coming to different conclusions as to what it was. All of this leads me to the question of whether that card at the beginning of the programme was added after the initial broadcast?

This excellent set got a reissue this year, albeit without Road or the Half-Hour Stories from the 2016 version.

I got that and I was able to satisfy my curiosity by watching ROAD on YouTube so I didn’t feel left out.

Gregor Samsa wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 16, 2022 11:09 pm

This excellent set got a reissue this year, albeit without Road or the Half-Hour Stories from the 2016 version.

Even without the wonderful Road, it’s still the best Blu-Ray set I have ever encountered

Now, onto a Dennis Potter box of similar scope…?

Dennis Potter has horrendous music-rights challenges, which is why such a box set has yet to emerge (despite it being such a glaringly obvious project), and may well never do so.

That’s frustrating re Potter… which titles have music issues?

I’m kicking myself over this reissued Clarke set now. I stupidly never bought the limited edition then once it went oop I was close to ordering it for a massive mark-up from scalpers (as it was still good value per film!) but then later held off when I saw it was being reissued… but I didn’t realise til now it would be dropping films from the limited edition. Is that due to rights issues?

The famous ones. If Alan Clarke was renowned for his Steadicam studies of people walking, so Potter was renowned for introducing a brilliantly apposite but pre-existing and third-party-owned song into a crucial part of his dramas, sometimes even lip-synced by the actors (thus making substitution impossible).

Which works brilliantly onscreen, but because the rights were only originally cleared for broadcast they post a large and expensive headache for anyone wishing to release Potter on video.

MichaelB wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 17, 2022 4:43 am

Dennis Potter has horrendous music-rights challenges, which is why such a box set has yet to emerge (despite it being such a glaringly obvious project), and may well never do so.

I figured. Tender is the Night and Blackeyes are the two big ones that have never had any kind of home video release, with the former being his only North American television production. I’d love to have them both in HD, and to see the theatrical version of the latter that was prepared (and maybe never commercially released?)

beamish14 wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:34 am

MichaelB wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 17, 2022 4:43 am

Dennis Potter has horrendous music-rights challenges, which is why such a box set has yet to emerge (despite it being such a glaringly obvious project), and may well never do so.

I figured. Tender is the Night and Blackeyes are the two big ones that have never had any kind of home video release, with the former being his only North American television production. I’d love to have them both in HD, and to see the theatrical version of the latter that was prepared (and maybe never commercially released?)

I think the "theatrical" version of Blackeyes is what screened in New Zealand. We got a drastically cut down version, at any rate. As I recall it was screened as two episodes (i.e. under two hours: feature length). It wasn't particularly coherent, but that may have been the case for the full-length version too!