marinarod

Thanks, Tim Hinsley. Just put in my pre-order.

JayHM

In case anyone was curious:

DT 3:2 Conversion is artifact free with a precise 3:2 field cadence. It has the technical look and run time of a direct film to 525/NTSC (24 fps) transfer and is 4.1% longer in run time than the 625/PAL master._

In other words, great news. I'm looking forward to this one!

tim hinsley

just to let you guys know. we are pushing back the street date on La Dolce two weeks so that all retail will be covered on street. the demand has been heavier than expected and we want to make sure it is done right.

tim

Der Zorn Gottes

I've decided to get the La Dolce Vita disc in October, to compare it almost immediately to the theatrical print (which hits a nearby arthouse theater that month).

I'd like to pose a question to Mr. Hinsley, not regarding the La Dolce Vita release, but related...due to the DT 3:2 conversion, are there any chances that Koch Lorber will revisit Ermanno Olmi's Tree of Wooden Clogs, which appears to suffer from PAL-NTSC transfer problems?

tim hinsley

we will revisit the conversion when we redux everything for HD

tim hinsley

I hope that you all enjoy La Dolce as much as we enjoyed working on it. Any feedback that you have on the package is always welcome.

Best,

tim

billy9215

Tim, I recently attended a new scope print filming of La Dolce in Toronto with nice white subtitles, heard the DVD has yellow subtitles, ugh.

Why the yellow subtitles?

Best regards,

tim hinsley

that is always an internal battle here. the white with black borders were continually get washed out and were hard to read. We are looking into providing the viewer a choice of colors on future projects.

slop101

^ that's a great idea - and shouldn't be too difficult to implement.

Cameron

buying it...

greatjedi

Just got my copy in the mail yesterday. I haven't had a chance to watch the whole thing yet, but I did quickly skim throught it. From what I saw, the transfer looks absolutely fantastic! Clean, clear, sharp, and the contrast is excellent. This is the best presentation I've seen.
I'm torn on the subtitle issue. White subs are less obtrusive, but yellow subs are easier to read. I like the idea of possibly having a choice in the future.
Even the booklet was informative and well put together.
Simply put, from what I've seen so far, Koch Lorber's edition of La Dolce Vita rivals anything that Criterion has done. I'm completely satisfied. Thank you Tim!

baracine

This edition has been postponed indefinitely in Canada.

Coral

Have these Koch-Lorber titles ever been available in Canada anyways? I have yet to see Umbrellas of Cherbourg in any store up here. I figured these titles would only be available as an IMPORT.

Thinking that a few weeks back, I put my order in with Amazon.ca - who I figure would get the import. $27.99 CAD isnt bad either.

baracine

When I say "postponed indefinitely in Canada", here is what I mean. There are only two stores that I know of in the whole of Canada that can be counted on to carry the important DVDs and that is La Boîte Noire in Montreal and Bay Street Video in Toronto.

I shop at Bay Street Video (why shop anywhere else? They also have the best deals, bar none except Sam the Record Man's most inspired bits of lunacy, e.g. The Jean Renoir Criterion box at 58.95 $CAN before the usual 10 % discount!). These are people who run a tight ship, what with low markups on relatively -if not obscure, at least non-mainstream titles. And they said that although it is theoretically coming out on Tuesday, they hadn't heard from the distributor yet, which always means there is trouble a' brewin' (to quote Snow White's Grumpy), when it's as late as the preceding Sunday or Saturday...

BTW, although I had to buy Les Demoiselles de Rochefort on American Amazon.com, I found both versions of Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (the speeded-up, cropped one from Fox Lorber and the definitive one from Kock Lorber) at Bay Street Video. (This is a commercial. Thank you for listening.)

V Morante

Hi Baracine,

I spoke to our sister company, KOCH Canada and they confirmed that the Canadian street date for Dolce is 9/21. Here is a list of stores that have ordered so far:

AMAZON.COM.CA INC
CINEMA 1 - WHITEOAKS
REEL CHOICE
STARSTRUCK
STARSTRUCK SHERWAY
STARSTRUCK SQUARE ONE
VIDEO ONE - MISSISSAUGA

Apparently the stores in Canada aren't treating this release as a street date sensitvie title. I will post more info on stores as i get it.

Hope this helps.

vic

V Morante

Hi Coral,

When we acquire the rightd to release titles, we generally try to get them for Canada as well. It depends ont he individual deal. Umbrellas is available in Canada. I've seen orders from the follwing stores:

AMAZON.COM.CA INC
VIDEO ONE
HMV

There are others but i have to get the info. Will post more as I get it.

vic

V Morante

DVDBEAVER comparison/review is out:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare5/dolcevita.htm

Comments:

ADDITION: (Koch Lorber - Sept 2004) - The Koch Lorber looks quite good. I think it is as sharp as the Medusa if maybe a little softer, and also a shade weaker in contrast. Most will find the differences negligible and as the Koch has a reasonable price and no PAL speedup it is a decent buy for those that reside in North America. I dislike the gaudy yellow subtitles, but the Extras are quite stacked with an audio commentary and a whole second disc of featurettes and interviews etc. The Koch has a bumped 5.1 audio track as well as the original mono. This is a good buy folks... and for lovers of the film - a reason to replace your alternate DVD copy, if only for the extras.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Report Card:

Image:
Medusa (Italian) but Koch is very close

Sound:
Koch / Lorber

Extras:
Koch / Lorber

Menu:
Universum (German)

baracine

I think we have a winner on our hands...

V Morante

Hi Baracine,

I'm glad you think so. It was alot of hard work.

Did the info on the Canadian stores help you?

jough

Oh man, this looks GORGEOUS.

Koch Lorber, I'm sorry I ever doubted you. No speedup or ghosting, just a clear smooth NTSC image. Very nice.

I hope you sell a million of these to justify the extra expense. I know I'll be raving about this set to friends who value well-done DVDs.

Coral

Mine still hasn't shipped from Amazon.ca, but I'm really looking forward to it.

Just wanted to chime in with a big "Thank You!" to the Koch-Lorber team for what appears to be a very nice release.

It's nice to see a masterpiece get the treatment it deserves.

Keep up the good work!

slop101

I just picked this up (I already have the Medusa, but I gotta give props to Koch for a job well-done) from dvdPlanet along with the Cassavetes set.

It's gonna be a long night.

baracine

Hmm, no but thanks. My favourite store, Bay Street Video didn't have it and were totally clueless as to how they were going to get it but I found it in a despicable little mainstream CD and DVD place called CD Replay just a block away on Yonge Street, for 26.95 $CAN. So I'm satisfied.

baracine

It's a magnificent set, but I have some very minor reservations.

The sound: The packaging is slightly misleading. It says "Languages: Italian, English", which either means that the characters speak both languages in the Italian version, the only one offered, in Mono, Stereo and 5.1 Surround, (the characters also speak French, German, Lebanese and Spanish, among other languages) or that the film is in Italian but the commentary is in English. Etither way, it would have been nice to include the French track, in which Anita Ekberg, Yvonne Furneaux, Anouk Aimée, Magali Noël, Jacques Sernas and Alain Cuny - among others - reprised their role in French in post-synch. It is also the most elaborate and competent of all available translated versions, even more so than the English. It would have been an asset for the French and Quebec markets, most French-speaking cinephiles having first seen this film in its French version and having an attachment to it (as to all French translations of Fellini films*). I realize of course that it would have to be restored, which is expensive. On the plus side, the restored mono track is crystal-clear, the stereo version nicely fills the speakers and the 5.1 version is simply astounding.

The main titles are from the English version, which is just weird.

The intro: Alexander Payne is not exactly a celebrity or an authority on Fellini. I had to look up his name to be reminded of who he was. (He directed "Election". Who knew?)

The "Fellini TV" extra, a 35 minute compendium of fake commercials Fellini originally shot for inclusion in "Ginger and Fred", is worth the price of the package in itself. It reminded me a lot of the fake TV commercials in "Robocop" and "Putney Swope", among other great satires. Great stuff.

The restored-on-video picture is simply amazing. The electronic restoration even removed innate grain, which I don't miss at all, and has stabilized the picture perfectly. I would have liked to learn more about the processes involved in this work, though, but the restoration demo doesn't even mention them.

* I once saw, in Montreal, a few years back, a comedy improv show where all the comedians, at a spectator's suggestion, pitched in a letter-perfect recreation of the French version of "The Nights of Cabiria" (or, as we call it, "Les Nuits de Cabiria").

V Morante

it would have been nice to include the French track,


Hi Baracine,

The French rights (which include French speaking Canada) belong to a different company. This is why we didn't do French subtitles or try to track down the French dub track you mentioned.

vic