I have no idea how important that is to you, but for me the superiority of all the newer editions is the fact that the subs are removable, and that they are white and not yellow, at least on the Ruscicos. But, well, we had that debate 'white vs yellow' otherwise on this forum already.HerrSchreck wrote:I'm aware of the MIRROR editions you're talking about. Again, none are massively superior than the Kino, and some are brand new.
Okay, it was unfair comparing "Red Shoes" and "Samurai" to some of the more 'obscure' things from Kino. Perhaps that's a little bit of my European bias. Tarkovsky is much better known in Germany than Powell/Pressburger, believe it or not. I agree with you that CC shy back from silents too much, but as I haven't seen their "Nanook" I can't comment on it. "Häxan" however looks quite fine to me, as does "Joan" (although not perfect). I find it quite surprising that CC often manage to get a better image on a single layer than other companies on a dual layer.
As to Eisenstein and "Pandora", I agree very much with you. There are good prints available (sometimes even already on DVD), and if they don't release them, well, other companies will earn the money (the British "Pandora" release is quite cheap and acceptable, including German titles).
As I said before, I appreciate very much the effort of Kino of releasing all these great and obscure films, and I hope they will go on with it despite of the riskyness of this business. But much as I see the producers' point-of-view, there is also the consumers'. It may be the case that most consumers do not know what ghosting etc. is, but they will notice that something is not quite as it should be. And then they ask: well, this dvd is not cheaper than others I have, so why is it not as good? And that is a reasonable question in my view. At least here in Europe it's more expensive to get a Kino dvd than one from the BFI, for example. Alright, you say they will not officially sell to Europe. But I don't think that is just 'patriotism' or something: probably they are not allowed contractwise to do so! And perhaps this is the real reason for the English intertitles: I assume they do not want or cannot pay higher licenses which would enable them to leave the source print unaltered, because this would result in what that article I mentioned describes: importing the films back to Germany (like we do with divisared or Eureka).
Thanks for the info on "Jeanne Ney" (original titles lost) and "Warning Shadows" (no intertitles), that makes it acceptable for me.
Thankfully it's not that bad, because we have a real great TV station ("arte tv", who also do the eponymous "stummfilmedition" dvds) that regularly show silents and so I have at least SEEN (and most of them recorded on VHS) most of the things available from Kino (and some that they have not yet released, like the wonderful "Nina Petrowna" by Hanns Schwarz or "Fräulein Else" by Paul Czinner, just glorious). "Warning Shadows" is an exception, and I will have to swallow the Kino edit willy-nilly. Of course I want most of the silents I have seen on dvd (if only for extras and durability), but if it means to get an edition which does not even have the German titles that I have on my self-recorded VHS tapes, well, I can wait for another year or two. For most other people, of course, the situation is very much different, especially, I assume, in the US.HerrSchreck wrote:I can't understand how you'd deprive yourself of watching such masterpieces on the basis of changed intertitles alone when there are no other editions out there, or the promise of one... irritation of varying degrees I understand and experience myself, but simply not seeing the movie at all because of it, is a skewed set of priorities.
Ahm..I think I gave my opinion on this already and it led to some ruffle between the two of us if I remember correctly... anyway: if it is possible, I would like to have the original titles preserved, of course, but not if it means that a French film like "Joan" suddenly has Norwegian intertitles just because this is the only print available. I remember that I was not entirely happy with the "Tartuffe" titles for some reason, but Transit/FWS did a great job reconstructing the titles on "Spione" (where they even clarified which titles were original and which were re-done). It's not really a major point for me; I'm only angry if someone replaces old German titles by new English....HerrSchreck wrote:Lastly, Tom: I'm interested on your what your take is on the TARTUFFE/WAXWORKS/JEANNE NEY/JOAN OF ARC situation? Would you rather see the original, antique, era-intertitles preserved, or would you rather see them, like MoC TARTUFFE & CC JOAN, have the original intertitles removed & replaced with electronic screens of the censor cards from source country? Since this is beyond the bounds of ASPHALT I'm also going to ask this question on the silent film on DVD thread.
