Please note when you read that there is no mention of these discs being anamorphic. Given the rather scarry trend of MGM to not put anamorphic discs for films in 1.66 ratio I'd would say that this could be a major letdown. Let's hope I am wrong!

dvdtimes.com

"MGM Home Entertainment have announced the Region 1 DVD release of five Ingmar Bergman classis for 10th February 2004. Available to buy separately ($24.98 each) or as a box set ($112.96) the features on each release are as follows...

Persona - 1966 - Full of iconic imagery and stirring eroticism, this film from Ingmar Bergman details the shocking absorption of a nurse’s identity by the patient (Liv Ullmann) she’s trying to cure.
Original, Uncensored Theatrical Version
Brand-New Digital Film Transfer Presented in the Original Aspect Ratio (1.66:1)
Original Swedish Audio (Mono); Spanish Audio (Mono)
English, French and Spanish Subtitles From the Original Translation
“A Poem in Images” Featurette
On-Camera Interviews With Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson
Photo Gallery
Original Theatrical Trailer
Shame - 1968 - This drama from Ingmar Bergman follows a young married couple’s struggle to hold on to their love while the world around them is torn apart by war.
Brand-New Digital Film Transfer Presented in the Original Aspect Ratio (1.66:1)
Original Swedish Audio (Mono); English Audio (Mono)
English, French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Bergman Biographer Marc Gervais
“The Search for Humanity” Featurette
On-Camera Interview With Liv Ullmann
Photo Gallery
Original Theatrical Trailer
The Passion of Anna - 1969 - On a windswept, barren island, Andreas (Max Von Sydow) lives simply and quietly until he becomes entangled with Anna (Liv Ullmann), a beautiful, mysterious widow, and a neighboring couple (Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephson) harboring their own sorrows and illusions. But soon, secrets from Andreas and Anna’s pasts threaten to shatter not only their desperate attempt at love…but their tenuous hold on reality as well.
Brand-New Digital Film Transfer Presented in the Original Aspect Ratio (1.66:1)
Original Swedish Audio (Mono); Spanish Audio (Mono)
English, French and Spanish Subtitles From the Original Translation
Original Story Reading by Elliott Gould
“Disintegration of Passion” Featurette
On-Camera Interviews With Liv Ullmann
Audio Commentary by Ingmar Bergman Biographer Marc Gervais
Photo Gallary
Original Theatrical Trailer
Hour of the Wolf - 1968 - Haunted by demons both real and imagined, an artist (Max Von Sydow) slowly loses his grip on his sanity and may be taking his wife (Liv Ullmann) spiraling down with him.
Brand-New Digital Film Transfer Presented in the Original Aspect Ratio (1.66:1)
Original Swedish Audio (Mono)
English, French and Spanish Subtitles From the Original Translation
“The Search for Sanity” Featurette
On-Camera Interviews With Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson
Audio Commentary by Ingmar Bergman Biographer Marc Gervais
Ingmar at Work and Hour of the Wolf Photo Galleries
Original Theatrical Trailer
The Serpent's Egg - 1977 - Celebrated director Ingmar Bergman draws an unsettling parallel between one man’s apparent descent into madness and the madness of 1920s Germany in this mysterious film. Out-of-work trapeze artist Abel Rosenberg (David Carradine) finds the only way to navigate the surreal circus that is 1923 Berlin is to stay drunk. But even through his stupor, he can see the thread of a frightening mystery – everyone he knows, even his most distant acquaintances, is dying violently. Can he survive…or will his mind and soul completely unravel?
Brand-New Digital Film Transfer Presented in the Original Aspect Ratio (1.66:1)
Original English Audio (Mono)
English, French and Spanish Language Subtitles
“Away From Home” Featurette
“German Expressionism” Featurette
Audio Commentary by David Carradine
Photo Gallery
Original Theatrical Trailer
The Ingmar Bergman Collection - This six disc set features all five films plus a bonus sixth disc that offers the following additional bonus features:
"Sven Nykvist: With One Eye He Cries" Featurette
"Faro Island Mystique" Featurette
"Intermezzo 2002" Swedish TV special
1970 Interview with Ingmar Bergman
"Film-Making in Sweden" article gallery
Still gallery including never-before-seen, intimate photos from Bergman's personal archives, and a poster montage"

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=5958

ps
please post the box art if you could...thank you!!

It's funny that you still can't post images, pro.

Oh, they better be anamorphic or I'm gonna pop a vein in my head.

saweeeet lookin' collection.

The Serpent's Egg is generally conceded to be Bergman's worst film, but I'll be happy to have it sitting on my shelf come February in this beautiful box set. It would be hard to imagine that MGM has invested all the time and effort into this release without giving us anamorphically enhanced transfers, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until we know something more definite.

I really hope the box set sells beyond their expectations so we can get a nice release of Fanny and Alexander down the road.

This pretty much rules. It's things like this that were the reason I bought a DVD player in the first place.

Kudos to MGM.

Wow... check out those spines... Nice!

[disregard]Oh the irony! [/disregard]

Dan

Wow. Would be nice to go with this set...

Wow. I cannot wait for this box set! I remember when there were rumors earlier this year of a possible November 18th release. Before that, there was an occasional post here and there from a frustrated Bergman fan (myself included) trying to find out when MGM was going to deliver the goods. At long last, the quality is coming. Persona on DVD in region 1...I may just faint. I hope Paramount is paying attention to these releases...maybe then they will finally release Face to Face on DVD in region 1.

I was the one who started a Persona thread every 6 months or so. I saw the newly restored MGM print of Persona in 2000. At the screening was the MGM home video restoration guy who promised a forthcoming DVD. Why it ended up taking 3 years is a mystery. Oh well at least it's finnally here.

at 1.66:1, they better not be anamorphic or i'm going to pop a vein in your head.

Actually, most of these movies are shot 1.33:1 - so my worries don't really apply here.

....wow...pretty lame statement!!!

I own a dozen R2 discs that are in 1.66 and are anamorphic and I could not be happier.

I never understood it myself.

Why would someone want a film shot at 1.66:1 to not be anamorphic?

Maybe someone can it explain it to me.

....well I assume that his claim is based on the old explanation that that by "locking" the image in an anamorpchic treatment you are clippling the image and so on and so on....bottom line if you have a widescreen TV 1.66 anamorphic could be a bit "tricky" to watch in the eyes of those who suppot the"I prefer 1.66 non-anamorphic presentation".

for me the improvement that you get in terms of picture quality is far more important.....

I'll be picking up Hour of the Wolf and Persona.

opps

I know nothing about these films but the box set looks sweet. Hmm, time to do some research!

there are slightly more pixels used when anamorphic, true, but the encoding of that resulting picture subsequently requires the decoder to either interpolate or remove that much more from the source. relying more on the decoder != better picture quality. so while the full available height may be used, width is doubly sacrificed.

personally, i despise anamorphic 1.66:1 because i hate watching a windowboxed screen.

I notice a higher res so much more than I do windowboxing, but I guess that's just me.

Hyde = never was offended by letterboxing, and never been offended by windowboxing... always offended by missing picture.

Is this still slated to be released 10th February?

Looking forward to this...hopefully it won't be too long before some pre-release reviews begin to surface of the various features etc included in the box.

Wow, talk about an incomplete set. Where's Casablanca? Notorious?

Wow! I missed this news the first time around. This set looks fantastic!

From what I can see, it's still slated for 2/10. Now I've just got to figure out how to add the cost of this one into my limited DVD budget.