pro-bassoonist

dvdtimes.co.uk
"Carrying a retail price of $29.95 each are three films from director Satyajit Ray that make up The Apu Trilogy. Aparajito, Pather Panchali and World of Apu will all be presented in 1.33:1 Full Screen with Bengali audio tracks and English subtitles."

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?page=News&id=5091


If anyone is willing to assist please post the cover work!

zekeburger1979

Excellent. Another set of films I can rent and watch to see if the critics are right on these films.

dvdisoil

Excellent News !!!!, Just what i have been waiting to hear for 2 years .....

RyoHazuki

He's funny enough but you'd think that "thank you come again" might get old after three movies.

dhs122

These movies are excellent! But $30 EACH?

pro-bassoonist

that is the suggested retail price....which means that you will be able to get them for 19.99$ each!!

dhs122

phew!

ehonauer

A lot of people have been waiting for these...

Pather Panchali

Aparajito

World of Apu

hulka

Good stuff.

eXcentris

And let's not forget:




......

garmonbozia

pity that I have not seen a box set of all 3 announced anywhere...
that would be nice (with a discounted MSRP too!)

FilmFanSea

While I'm delighted to see these great films finally available on DVD in Region 1, I'm less-than-pleased with Columbia TriStar's marketing decisions: three individual, barebones releases, with a suggested retail of $30 each. I hope these will be brilliantly restored (as commissioned by Merchant-Ivory), but as a package, I definitely won't be parting anytime soon with my boxset from Artificial Eye (R2/PAL/UK), which includes some wonderful extra features.

Films of this magnitude deserve the Special Edition treatment, and a discounted boxset should have been offered at the very least.

I called CTHV "greedy bastards" in another forum, and I stand by that comment. Other examples of barebones releases priced at $29.95:

Beautiful Thing
The Awful Truth
32 Short Films About Glenn Gould
Beijing Bicycle
Color of Paradise
Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Gilda
Happy Times
and the list goes on . . .

MurraySiskind

This is good news.

wendersfan

This is not good news. This is a ripoff. True, you can get them individually for about 20 bucks each, but you can buy the Artificial Eye boxset for less than 60 dollars.

I will say it one again - if you buy the R1 version, you are being ripped off.

Richard Malloy

True enough, but as you can tell from some of the responses even in this forum, the mainstream public is not exactly crying out for great films on DVD, and most aren't even vaguely familiar with film history. Even seminal films like these are well beyond the bounds of familiarity, so I guess we should feel fortunate that they're finally being released at all. I only require that the transfers are competently done.

FilmFanSea

I agree that the masses aren't exactly clamoring for this release, but by choosing a $30 price point with no "added value," CTHV has essentially guaranteed that this will remain a niche release (I can't imagine there will be many impulse buys). Why not price these to sell, with a retail price of $20 each and/or $45 for a box set?

Yeah, it's nice that these will now be available at libraries or for rental at video stores, but I question the wisdom of CTHV's marketing department.

notalotta

Why hasn't Criterion got a hold of these movies? It would seem like the perfect films for a Criterion box set.

FilmFanSea

Columbia TriStar doesn't license their titles to any other companies for DVD release (Criterion faces this problem with many of the major studios, including Warner Brothers, MGM, Paramount, et al.).

bboisvert

Exactly. Compare this release with that of Buena Vista's 'Colors' Trilogy from earlier in the year.

The masses weren't exactly clamoring for that one either, but I saw quite a few impulse buys for that (both on these boards and in 'real life' in stores).

At $90 retail, Apu will remain a lonely, lonely dude.

scroll2b

Was there ever a sound arguement on why Criterion never bothered with this? Rights issues? What?

duff beer

FilmFanSea

Columbia TriStar (like Warner, MGM, Paramount, et al.) does not license films under their control to other companies or distributors for release on DVD. Thus, Criterion never had a shot at these films (and many other classics).

It's a shame, since CTHV is content to give us a individual, overpriced, barebones releases of these films, and apparently doesn't have clue one on how to market them. But I repeat myself . . .

wendersfan

Initial reports are that the Columbia/Tri-Star releases of the Apu Trilogy, well, suck.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.reviews.dvdbeaver.com/

Those with multi-region capability are strongly advised to go with the less expensive, more feature-laden, and better transfer quality Artificial Eye releases...