The BFI Blu-ray and DVD Release Thread

[MrBarlow]

Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo and Woyzeck i had on dvd but its a set id gladly buy if HMV stock it.

[Justin101]

I've only recently watched my Second Sight blu-ray of Gregory's Girl that I bought about 5 years ago for the first time I'll buy this new version though it was an instant favourite.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Dvd Beaver review for Enys Men

http://dvdcompare.net/review.php?rid=7486

It gets an A score for everything and Mark Kermode is all over the extras.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Ghost Stories for Christmas Volume II will be hitting Blu-ray later this year.

The Signalman is one of the films featured.

[J Harker]

I love these adaptations, almost every one is utterly superb. I don't like this volumes nonsense though. Just put a full set out, it's never been a problem with dvd, why does the bluray need to be in volumes.

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[Justin101]

I don't think it's a case of it needs to be in volumes, rather than they're taking a lot of time scanning and remastering these from film, so rather than make us wait longer just put it out as it comes. Realistically there is only going to be a volume 2 as they did half of them on the last set. The Gatiss ones might come, but they just released them on DVD recently and there is no reason they were not HD ready already.

There might be a complete volumes set later but it doesn't make much difference between 2x £20 to buy the separate ones or £40 for a set containing both.

[Michael Brooke]

It’s the same with Indicator’s ongoing Jean Rollin project, which is essentially being released in the order of “when they’re ready”.

Given the gargantuan cost of the entire project, waiting for all (or even half) of them to be finished before putting them out in a box set would risk bankrupting the label first - and in any case the RRP of such a thing would unavoidably have to be eye-watering, as the per-title cost of production is far in excess of a typical release based on an off-the-shelf master.

The BFI’s costs won’t be quite as hefty, but they won’t be negligible either, so getting some out there and generating income before work has finished on the rest makes a huge amount of sense.

"It's never been a problem with DVD" because DVDs are much cheaper to produce, not least because you can get away with a lot more in terms of the source - for instance, DVDs of telly productions almost invariably tend to be sourced from the existing broadcast master (or worse). But once you factor in 2K/4K scanning and painstaking frame-by-frame restoration, you're essentially manufacturing a wholly different product.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Short Sharp Shocks Vol 3 (Flipside No.47) (2 x Blu-ray)
Director: Various

The third in the critically acclaimed BFI Flipside series – continuing its ongoing mission to curate an alternative Brit-screen history of overlooked rarities in deluxe home-entertainment editions – is a further compelling compendium of strange, striking, thrilling, horrific, eerie and eccentric short subjects from the heyday of the British cinematic supporting programme.

Settle down for another strange cinematic journey through uncanny stories, twists in the tale, low-budget weirdness, stylish spectacle, avant-garde art, peculiar public information, monstrous music and provocative experiment – many ultra-rare and all with oodles of atmosphere and in High Definition.

The Films:

Return to Glennascaul (Hilton Edwards, 1951, 22 mins)

Strange Stories (John Guillermin and Don Chaffey, 1953, 45 mins)

Strange Experiences (1955, 10 mins)

Maze (Bob Bentley, 1970, 15 mins)

Skinflicker (Tony Bicât, 1973, 41 mins)

Beach Litter: Broken Bottle (1 min)

Firework: Chick (1 min)

Wings of Death (Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson, 1985, 20 mins)

The Terminal Game (Geoff Lowe, 1982, 40 mins)

Extras:

Interview with filmmaker and artist Bob Bentley, director of Maze (2023)

Interview with Tony Bicât, director of Skinflicker (2023)

Interview with Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson, directors of Wings of Death (2023)

Interview with Colin Towns, composer of the music for The Terminal Game (2022)

The Strange Stories Scrapbook (2023): video essay on 1950s British film producer Roger Proudlock by Vic Pratt

Interview with Geoff Lowe, director of The Terminal Game (TBC)

Rare scripts, stills, images and behind-the-scenes footage (TBC)

**FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Illustrated booklet including new writing by directors Bob Bentley, Nichola Bruce and Tony Bicât

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

GHOST STORIES FOR CHRISTMAS VOL. 2 (3 x Blu-ray)
Director: Lawrence Gordon Clark

Broadcast in the dying hours of Christmas Eve, the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas series was a fixture of the seasonal schedules throughout the 1970s and spawned a long tradition of chilling tales, which terrified yuletide viewers for decades to come.

After the best-selling release of Volume One last year, this much-requested follow-up gives five more festive landmarks their Blu-ray debut, having been newly remastered by the BFI from original film materials. As well as two MR James adaptations, the series includes the celebrated version of Charles Dicken’s The Signalman starring Denholm Elliot, as well as specially written stories set in the contemporary 1970s. These influential films, all but one directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, were written by some of the best scriptwriters working in British TV in the 1970s: John Bowen, David Rudkin, Andrew Davies and Clive Exton.

The Films:

The Treasure of Abbot Thomas (1974, 37 min)
The Ash Tree (1975, 32 min)
The Signalman (1976, 39 min)
Stigma (1977, 32 min)
The Ice House (1978, 34 min)

Extras:

A View From a Hill (2005, 39 mins): a young museum curator, Fanshawe finds himself in possession of a pair of binoculars that grant him a strange new ability. Ignoring all warnings about their necromantic creator, Fanshawe carries out his research, but the bloody past of the area is best left undisturbed…

Number 13 (2006, 40 mins): infuriated by the ghoulish noises made nightly by his neighbour, Professor Anderson is soon driven to investigate the diabolical secrets of the old hotel and its mysteriously vanishing room 13.

Newly recorded audio commentary on The Treasure of Abbot Thomas by TV historian Simon Farquhar

Newly recorded audio commentary on The Ash Tree by author Johnny Mains

Newly recorded audio commentary on The Signalman by TV historian Jon Dear

Newly recorded audio commentaries on Stigma and The Ice House by Kim Newman and Sean Hogan

Ghost Stories for Christmas With Christopher Lee (2000, 30 mins): Ronald Frame's adaptation is brought to life by horror maestro Christopher Lee

Introductions by Lawrence Gordon Clark (2012, 39 mins): the director introduces The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, The Ash Tree, The Signalman and Stigma

Illustrated booklet with archival essays by Alex Davidson, Dick Fiddy, Matthew Sweet, and Helen Wheatley

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Short Sharp Shocks Vol 3 (Flipside No.47) (2 x Blu-ray)
Director: Various

The third in the critically acclaimed BFI Flipside series – continuing its ongoing mission to curate an alternative Brit-screen history of overlooked rarities in deluxe home-entertainment editions – is a further compelling compendium of strange, striking, thrilling, horrific, eerie and eccentric short subjects from the heyday of the British cinematic supporting programme.

Settle down for another strange cinematic journey through uncanny stories, twists in the tale, low-budget weirdness, stylish spectacle, avant-garde art, peculiar public information, monstrous music and provocative experiment – many ultra-rare and all with oodles of atmosphere and in High Definition.

The Films:

Return to Glennascaul (Hilton Edwards, 1951, 22 mins)

Strange Stories (John Guillermin and Don Chaffey, 1953, 45 mins)

Strange Experiences (1955, 10 mins)

Maze (Bob Bentley, 1970, 15 mins)

Skinflicker (Tony Bicât, 1973, 41 mins)

Beach Litter: Broken Bottle (1 min)

Firework: Chick (1 min)

Wings of Death (Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson, 1985, 20 mins)

The Terminal Game (Geoff Lowe, 1982, 40 mins)

Extras:

Interview with filmmaker and artist Bob Bentley, director of Maze (2023)

Interview with Tony Bicât, director of Skinflicker (2023)

Interview with Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson, directors of Wings of Death (2023)

Interview with Colin Towns, composer of the music for The Terminal Game (2022)

The Strange Stories Scrapbook (2023): video essay on 1950s British film producer Roger Proudlock by Vic Pratt

Interview with Geoff Lowe, director of The Terminal Game (TBC)

Rare scripts, stills, images and behind-the-scenes footage (TBC)

**FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Illustrated booklet including new writing by directors Bob Bentley, Nichola Bruce and Tony Bicât

Have you seen any of the stuff on this one Dem? Your review of the first volume (I think) didn't sell it at all for me. Not that you were trying to.