Amazon U.K.: DAVID LEAN CENTENNARY COLLECTION £14.98 (less than US$25 shipped)

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07-27-10, 01:58 AM

Brian T

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Amazon U.K.: DAVID LEAN CENTENNARY COLLECTION £14.98 (less than US$25 shipped)

I've been tracking this one for ages, and the lowest it's gone (and rarely) has been around £17.99, so this is a nice surprise. After the VAT comes off, the price drops to £12.74, plus £3.08 shipping, for a total of £15.82, or about U.S. $24.50 shipped.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001AHKH6E/

Set includes 10 films, all restored:
The Sound Barrier
Hobson's Choice
Blithe Spirit
Brief Encounter
Great Expectations
Oliver Twist
Madeleine
The Passionate Friends
This Happy Breed
In Which We Serve.

Special features are spotty, but OK, and amount to photo galleries for all the films, trailers for six, and three moderate-length featurettes for 24-minute featurettes for In Which We Serve, Brief Encounter and Oliver Twist.

Not a bad way to obtain a decent overview of all of Lean's work from 1942-1953.

This may or may not be part of the current Box Set sale that started a while back (this wasn't listed at the start), so can't say how long this price will hold:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=amb_li...pf_rd_i=655852

And yes, it's PAL, but really, who here doesn't have the capability nowadays?

Last edited by Brian T; 07-27-10 at 02:07 AM.

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07-27-10, 08:55 AM

marty888

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Re: Amazon U.K.: DAVID LEAN CENTENNARY COLLECTION £14.98 (less than US$25 shipped)

Terrific set - highly recommended!

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07-27-10, 11:40 AM

John Hodson

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Re: Amazon U.K.: DAVID LEAN CENTENNARY COLLECTION £14.98 (less than US$25 shipped)

There's a minor - very minor - sound glitch, a pop on Hobson's Choice, but otherwise, it's a damn near perfect set.

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07-27-10, 06:31 PM

bdots48

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Re: Amazon U.K.: DAVID LEAN CENTENNARY COLLECTION £14.98 (less than US$25 shipped)

With the crimp in my budget caused by theBN Criterion sale and the Eureka sale I really shouldn't but I could not pass this one up. (25.49 shipped)

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07-28-10, 01:42 AM

Shuman

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Re: Amazon U.K.: DAVID LEAN CENTENNARY COLLECTION £14.98 (less than US$25 shipped)

Thanks, been waiting for this to drop. I've had trouble finding reviews of this product, which seems odd given that it's been out for about two years. Maybe I'm using the wrong meta-search site. In any case, this from a post on the Criterion Forum is encouraging:

Quote:

Every film has undergone a spanking new restoration, in partnership with the David Lean Foundation, The BFI, Granada Ventures and Studio Canal, and boy, does it show. A brief run through shows these new transfers to be utterly gorgeous, from the totally unmarked BBFC certificates to the end credits. The Technicolor splendour of 'Blithe Spirit' is revealed at last, the gorgeous mono cinematography of 'Great Expectations', 'Oliver Twist', 'Hobson's Choice', 'The Sound Barrier' et al rendered eye-wateringly clear with hardly a mark to be seen anywhere.