Imprint

[M Sanderson]

I'm interested in the Lumet box, if Deadly Affair is going to look as good as the Indicator release; and if The Offence is closer to Kino's image than Eureka's distractingly darkened one.

[beamish14]

In addition to the new release slate there will be ongoing classic releases with new restorations and extras produced for physical media collectors including Chen Kaige’s ‘The Emperor and The Assassin’ (1998) & ‘Farewell My Concubine’ (1992), Tsui Hark’s ‘The Legend of Zu’ (2001), Kei Kumai's ‘The Sea is Watching’ (2002) (co-written by Akira Kurosawa), and many more.


Stay tuned for pre-orders and further release information!

Damn, this is exciting. So nice to see Chen Kaige getting a lot of love lately

[beamish14]

I'm interested in the Lumet box, if Deadly Affair is going to look as good as the Indicator release; and if The Offence is closer to Kino's image than Eureka's distractingly darkened one.

I’ve never seen Child’s Play, but it should be a great set. Hopefully it sells well and we can get a second volume with neglected titles from him like Lovin’ Molly and Garbo Talks

[M Sanderson]

I'd like to see the Sea Gull and Power get releases. And maybe Daniel. Considerably rare on home video.

[beamish14]

I'd like to see the Sea Gull and Power get releases. And maybe Daniel. Considerably rare on home video.

A WB box set would be amazing. Daniel is a gem that never gets the reevaluation it deserves

[MichaelB]

I'm interested in the Lumet box, if Deadly Affair is going to look as good as the Indicator release; and if The Offence is closer to Kino's image than Eureka's distractingly darkened one.

I don't imagine there's more than one HD master of The Deadly Affair out there. Put it like this; if it was a post-2017 restoration, they'd most likely have said so.

[M Sanderson]

that's cool. it looks fine as it is.

[M Sanderson]

I'd like to see the Sea Gull and Power get releases. And maybe Daniel. Considerably rare on home video.

A WB box set would be amazing. Daniel is a gem that never gets the reevaluation it deserves

do they have access to WB titles?

[swo17]

Black Friday deals for the next two weeks

[domino harvey]

Imprint broke Beware My Lovely out of the Noir box into an individual release (as a double feature w/Jennifer)

I found Jennifer to be stylish and well made but ultimately pointless, with a dumb central mystery and a lot of corner cutting. There’s about 10 minutes of plot making up the 73 minutes, and while I liked a lot of the languorous moments, they ultimately only work if the purpose at the end justifies their usage

[ryannichols7]

there are other February titles, but the huge news is Bergman's Face to Face is coming with MichaelB doing a commentary!

1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
NEW Audio Commentary by film writer and historian Michael Brooke
NEW Video Essay by film critic Kat Ellinger
Audio LPCM 2.0 Mono
Original Aspect Ratio 1.66:1
English Subtitles
Limited edition slipcase with unique artwork

also:

The Dresser (1983)
Mountains of the Moon (1990)
A Man in Love (1987)
I'm Not Scared (2003)
Children of Heaven (1997)

[Ribs]

The Dresser has been one of the absolute most inexplicable never released anywhere titles I can think of considering its a Sony owned title that seems absolutely up basically any boutique’s alley. I assume the Master is just not good and Sony hasn’t gotten around to redoing it but I’m very happy to have a new release until that day comes.

[Calvin]

It's certainly big-ish news that Face to Face is making its Blu-Ray debut but, to throw some cold water over it, I'm not sure how excited I can get about an Imprint encode of what I'm guessing is an old master. While they only have rights to the theatrical version in the Nordic regions, Cinematograph AB have recently restored it in 4K. They claim to hold worldwide rights to the TV version, which they have restored in 2K and can be watched on Vimeo on Demand

[Peacock]

It's certainly big-ish news that Face to Face is making its Blu-Ray debut but, to throw some cold water over it, I'm not sure how excited I can get about an Imprint encode of what I'm guessing is an old master. While they only have rights to the theatrical version in the Nordic regions, Cinematograph AB have recently restored it in 4K. They claim to hold worldwide rights to the TV version, which they have restored in 2K and can be watched on Vimeo on Demand

Which theatrical version do they have the rights to?

Can anyone talk a little about the post-production history which led to the 114 vs 135 versions? (The Imprint being the latter)

[MichaelB]

there are other February titles, but the huge news is Bergman's Face to Face is coming with MichaelB doing a commentary!

And Bergman turned out to be a lot more straightforward than Jerzy Skolimowski or Miklós Jancsó!

Although that shouldn't really have come as a surprise in retrospect, especially with a film that's something of a greatest hits compilation in terms of themes and tropes.

Which theatrical version do they have the rights to?

The 135-minute version.

Can anyone talk a little about the post-production history which led to the 114 vs 135 versions?

Well, there are three cuts in toto - the four-episode television version, which is as near three full hours as makes little difference (177 minutes, but that includes bookending credits per episode and PAL speedup - I suspect once you factor both out you end up with about three hours), the 135-minute version and the 119-minute version (I assume your "114" source involved PAL speedup). Bergman edited the TV cut first (rough cut finished 29 August 1975) and then the longer theatrical cut (rough cut finished 19 September), but following feedback from colleagues he reshot the first dream sequence on 4 November. The final cuts of the TV and long theatrical version were finished in the run-up to Christmas. As for the shorter theatrical cut, unlike the differences between the TV and longer theatrical cuts (where scenes are occasionally reshuffled), the differences between the 135 and 119 min versions are straight cuts. I wasn't able to find out the precise circumstances behind the creation of this version, but it may well have been down to distributor pressure following the film's disappointing box-office performance. Whether or not Bergman was involved, I don't know - but there's no question that he personally signed off on the two longer cuts.

[Calvin]

It's certainly big-ish news that Face to Face is making its Blu-Ray debut but, to throw some cold water over it, I'm not sure how excited I can get about an Imprint encode of what I'm guessing is an old master. While they only have rights to the theatrical version in the Nordic regions, Cinematograph AB have recently restored it in 4K. They claim to hold worldwide rights to the TV version, which they have restored in 2K and can be watched on Vimeo on Demand

Which theatrical version do they have the rights to?

135 minutes

[MichaelB]

Incidentally, in my commentary I regularly flag up the differences between the various cuts - describing additional scenes in the TV version and highlighting which bits were removed for the shorter theatrical cut. I also quote from the published version of the screenplay, which includes authorial descriptions that aren't necessarily obvious from what ended up on screen.

[Stefan Andersson]

I'd like to see the Sea Gull and Power get releases. And maybe Daniel. Considerably rare on home video.

A WB box set would be amazing. Daniel is a gem that never gets the reevaluation it deserves

Daniel is out on a French blu (Spectrum Films) with optional French subtitles according to tenia´s test:
https://testsbluray.com/2023/11/18/test-blu-ray-daniel/

Daniel was photographed with two colour filters, one for each timeline. Wonder how this will look in a new master.

Relevant quotes:
"different color filters to distinguish the two timelines — the past is shot in warm, brownish-gold tones that give the images the feel of sepia-toned historical photographs, while the present is icy cold, the blues and grays of 1960s America given immediacy."
Source:
https://vaguevisages.com/2020/02/12/dan ... y-justice/

"Split into two time frames, differentiated by their colour pallets, the past is, at times almost sepia, whereas Daniel's adult life is tinged with greens and blues."
Source: http://www.reviewgraveyard.com/00_revs/ ... aniel.html

"Lumet, quoted or paraphrased, from his book Making Movies:

Daniel is the story of a young man coming back to life.



The sun’s rays and the chemical composition of movie film are not a happy marriage. Untreated, any day scene shot outdoors, in cloud or in sunshine, will come out an almost monochromatic blue. To compensate for this, we put an amber-colored filter in the camera. This corrects the light so that the film emerges with normal colors intact. This filter is called an “85.” When we shoot on an interior location with windows that let daylight in, we put enormous sheets of 85s over the windows to accomplish the same thing.



For Daniel, Andrzej suggested that we shoot all the scenes of the grown-up children without the 85.



It gave everything a ghostly, cold, blue pallor, including flesh tones. For consistency in interior scenes, we added blue gelatins to the lights.



The parents, on the other hand, trapped in an idealized past, were treated in the amber glow of the 85s.



At the beginning of the picture, we used double 85s on them. As Daniel slowly comes back to life, we started adding 85s to his scenes and removing them from the scenes of the past with his parents. With the parents, we went from double 85s to single 85s to half 85s to quarter 85s. On Daniel’s scenes we added quarter 85s, then half 85s, then full 85s. Finally, in a scene toward the end of the picture, when both children visit the parents in jail, we were back to normal color. Daniel had purged himself of his obsessive pain, and life could now resume for him."

Source: https://stevenafarmer.com/making-movies ... and-notes/

[Peacock]

Thank you Calvin. Thank you for putting down what you know re the different cuts in writing MichaelB, useful to refer to in the future. And I look forward to listening to your commentary! As you say, it sounds like the 119 min version could have been done by the distributor, who knows.

Hopefully Cinematograph AB will license out the TV cut to BFI or someone in the future; it’s great to finally see a cut of the film get a Blu-Ray anyway and I’m glad it’s the longer of the two theatrical cuts.

[ryannichols7]

It's certainly big-ish news that Face to Face is making its Blu-Ray debut but, to throw some cold water over it, I'm not sure how excited I can get about an Imprint encode of what I'm guessing is an old master. While they only have rights to the theatrical version in the Nordic regions, Cinematograph AB have recently restored it in 4K. They claim to hold worldwide rights to the TV version, which they have restored in 2K and can be watched on Vimeo on Demand

I see it the same way I do Dersu Uzala, something Criterion will inevitably release whenever they can work with Mosfilm again. I'm sure they (or Arrow or Kino) could release Face to Face with a newer transfer, which I'd certainly buy again. but I don't see MichaelB's commentary and Ellinger's video piece getting ported - Kino maybe since they did port the Pretty Baby extras, but otherwise there's usually little overlap between Imprint extras and what the US/UK labels release. I was glad to have the Adrian Martin commentary for Days of Heaven too, as I do love the Criterion track but it's a favorite film of mine, ripe for further examination (which Adrian brilliantly gave it). so yes, I'm sure the transfer will be terrible, but it's the best we have for now - I never got the OOP Olive DVD, and it's easily the biggest missing piece in my Bergman collection

[beamish14]

I like how Imprint has the gall to dub their edition of Mountains of the Moon the first Blu-Ray of it in the world, when it got a release from Divisa in Spain (which is region A/B/C and probably from the same master as this)

[swo17]

March releases:

Strange Invaders
Green Ice
Cold Steel
Let's Get Harry
*Batteries Not Included
Ravagers

[beamish14]

Let’s Get Harry might be by favorite “Alan Smithee” film. Not exactly high praise, I know, but it is stupid fun, and Mark Harmon’s ridiculous solo scenes that were obviously filmed after the original shoot had ceased are so ridiculously incongruous that you can’t help but laugh.

Jake Ryan from Sixteen Candles and Biff Tanen take on mercenaries together in the jungles of your typical 1980’s scary Socialist Central American nation. One can only imagine how Sam Fuller’s original script must’ve been completely deconstructed and rebuilt for reactionary Hollywood sensibilities

[M Sanderson]

Is anyone buying the Lumet Box and would they be able to verify whether the image is darkened like the Eureka release - this one really irked me - or "normal", like the Kino one?

Not in my budget right now, but I do plan to get and if no one else confirms, I'll get round to it (in a few months).

[swo17]

First three Imprint Asia titles:

Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman (Kitano)
The Sea Is Watching (Kumai)
Lost in the Stars