Lucas

Anyone bought this disc yet? It's available in a few countries (very cheap) but the image is awful -this German disc looks very good compared.

I loved this film -OK, it's not great but it made me laugh!

Any German viewers got it?

DonnachaOne

The german version is cut by about twenty minutes, though. IMDb said so in the alternate versions, and sure enough, the film is 118 minutes, while the german DVD is 95 minutes.

It also has only English 2.0, though IMDb says it had a six-track sound mix on the 70mm prints.

Lucas

20 mins!

Thanks for the info

djtoell

There is a disc available in Poland that is supposed to be superior to all other editions. There is an anamorphic widescreen disc available in Italy, but it apparently has terrible picture quality. I own the Polish disc, and it has a very nice anamorphic widescreen transfer with English 5.1, a Polish dub track, and removable Polish subtitles. Oddly enough, it came free with an issue of PC World Komputer magazine, and there is a bunch of demo software also on the disc. Despite that oddity, as well as the fact that it comes in a paper envelope inside the magazine, it appears to be the best disc out there. It's also very cheap. Merlin.pl [link removed] has it for 20 zł, which is around $5 US. Merlin.pl charges 28 zł for airmail shipping to America, for a total shipped price of around $12 US. After I ordered the disc a few months ago, I believe I received in about a week and a half, and I was quite happy. Unfortunately, ordering from the site can be difficult if you don't speak Polish (like me). I suggest this free Polish-English translator for help.

DJ

Lucas

djtoell


That's wonderful information -thanks!

Could you check the running time of your disc for us please? No rush.

Lucas

BTW, I wasn't suggesting the Germans had invaded Poland (again) and substituted their 20min shorter edition

Just making sure before I order.

Lucas

You should remove your deep link as it logs me into your details I think -or maybe one of the Mods could do it if you're off line.

The clean link is here

philo

Wow, that kind of info is the reason I absolutely love this forum!! Truly bizarre. I've never seen the movie but the strangeness of that makes me want to order it.

I assume the inclusion of PIRATES is a playful reference to piracy.

Lucas

Excellent!

Placed my order and it went through -I may have ordered a small horse or a rug but it's cheap (UK£6.70) and it definitely went through


Thanks again for the fab links

BabyBuddha

Thanks so much for the link to this -- I placed the order (I think) after about a half hour of dealing with the translator -- can't wait to get it.

If I'm reading correctly, is the following link for a 2-DVD set of Polanski's "The Pianist" for 99ZL (~$24.00)??

Lucas

It looks like you're deep-linking into your account details.


Yeah, looks a good deal. There's an even cheaper 1 disc version here

That 2 disc is here

Both say 'angielski' (English) so I assume there shouldn't be a problem. Maybe the extras are useless as they may have been completely over dubbed. Good price though so I'm sure you can't lose.

Maybe there's forced Polish subtitles on the English track -easily removed on my DVD player. The French release has forced subtitles I believe.

I don't fancy the film too much so I'll not bother buying it.

Doc Moonlight

Oh man this is frustrating! The link to Merlin indicates that Alexsander Ford's "Knights of the Black Cross" is available in a 16x9 Anamorphic transfer. This is an incredible epic (2 hours and 40 minutes long) and is high on my want list, but there are no English subtitles. The Cinemascope compostions alone almost make it worth it, but I'm still going to hold out (for now) for an edition that I'll be able to understand.

djtoell

I checked the Polish disc this evening, and it has a running time of 113 minutes and 8 seconds. Merlin.pl and the disc (on a menu screen listing film credits and info) claims the runtime is 124 minutes, but that's obviously erroneous. Fixed for PAL speedup, 113 minutes becomes about 117 minutes. IMDB lists two runtimes for the film: 116 for Argentina and 118 for Sweden, and I'm guessing that those are actually the same cut of the film and the 2 minute difference is probably due to human error by whoever supplied those runtimes. The 117 minute (113 PAL minute) length of the DVD seems to match up perfectly with the those running times, so it would seem to be uncut. It's definitely much more complete than that 95 minute German disc. One wonders exactly what set of circumstances could cause the world's only beautiful uncut OAR anamorphic transfer and original language 5.1 remix track to end up on as a demo disc in a Polish computer magazine. But why ask why, right?

Polish dubbing is a very funny thing to listen to. Apparently it's standard practice to just turn the volume down a bit as one guy reads all the dialogue in Polish at the (somewhat) appropriate times. I can't imagine trying to figure out the dubbed dialogue if I was a Polish speaker.

Thanks for warning me about the deep link, Lucas. Enjoy the disc when it arrives. Don't be freaked out when you get a magazine wrapped (nicely) in layers of brown paper.

DJ

Lucas

Thanks again djtoell

Lucas

What a great disc!

Anamorphic and very ( (w i d e ) ). It's the best I've seen the film. The soundtack is rough but that's to be expected for a film that's been treated so badly. It worth noting that the disc has a DEG (De Laurentis Entertainment Group) copyright notice which means MGM may own the North American rights (via their Cannon Films back catalogue too -although Warner own bits of that). The DEG catalogue is very messy and it appears in many places (eg Anchor Bay's Manhunter). Hopefully this film will get the transfer it deserves one day!

Will have to get a hold of some artwork now.

Definite bargain.

Thanks again to djtoell

Lucas

I've quickly made some front case artwork for this disc. Might do an entire cover if I get the time.

The final image is 37MB -but I had to cut that down quite a bit to upload it -it's zipped @ 958KB. No resizing should be required. 958KB image

I test printed that low-res version and as long as your printer is set up correctly and you're using good paper (I use heavy weight 215g glossy) you can still get a good impression.


That image link has been updated -should be working fine in 10 mins.