The Russian PAL DVD is out for Terry Gilliam's TIDELAND:
http://www.alldvd.ca/Product/DvdDeta...roductID=20475

Only in fullscreen unfortunately. Eventhough the US theatrical is now only about 2 months away, I was going to order it straight away but I'm not buying a fullscreen DVD. I was extremely excited there for a moment.

This is one of Gilliam's most ambitious films... and also probably his worst. I saw Tideland at the Toronto Film Festival, and it's really pretty awful....

Worse than Brothers Grimm?

my friend who was at Toronto last year, also can vouch it was an awful movie.

Brothers Grimm wasn't his fault. The problems with that stem from the script by Ehren Krueger.

As for Tideland, I've been looking forward to seeing it for quite a long time now. I've heard good things and bad things and really wish the DVD had been widescreen so I could watch in about a week and decide for myself.

I was excited for a second there, but I guess I'll wait for the R1 release. Not only will that be widescreen, but it will also likely have extras like a Gilliam commentary. I find that even his 'not so good' films are worth picking up, just for his insight.

When I looked just now, the link lists the DVD as "Widescreen 1,78:1".
IMDB says it's 2,35:1 (though, I know, they are often incorrect).

John Turturro's musical, Romance & Cigarettes, is also here, but it IS listed as Fullscreen 1,33:1 and the running times differ (IMDB = 115min, DVD = 102min).

For those that have ordered from this site before: Do the DVDs vary in quality? Are they screeners (i.e. any watermarks or display messages) or full, "professional" releases?

The "Widescreen 1,78:1" could just be referring to anamorphic enhancement, and not to the actual aspect ratio of the image.

Amazon UK lists the time at 114min:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000F6ILXW

The listing may have the running time wrong, or the DVD may be edited somehow.

Haven't ordered from them, but this is from their site:
http://www.alldvd.ca/Content/WhyUs.aspx

Hmm, that's interesting. Does anyone plan on ordering the DVD? I'm also curious as to whether or not the Russian subtitles are forced when viewing the English language option. That could also be a deal breaker.

EDIT - I just emailed them so we'll see what their response is.

This is easily his worst film. Even worse than "Brothers Grimm".

They have confirmed that the DVD is in widscreen; the fullscreen info was incorrect. In regards to the subtitles, they said they have to contact the Moscow office about it and will get back to me tomorrow.

Here's another site confirming the widescreen ratio;

http://www.golddisk.ru/goods/5782.html

oooo...it's very tempting now - anamorphic video and english DD 5.1. This is a tough one.

I've noticed that disrespected movies (Ken Park, Mindhunters, Revolver, and now Tideland for example) come out way early on Russian DVD or Thai DVD even before they are released in theaters in the USA - and it's so tempting to buy them just for the early release reason.

Plus the cover looks kind of cool with the cyrillic writing on it.

They told me the subtitles are removable when the DVD is played on a computer and they were going to check on a DVD player at some point today. So I'll report back with slightly more info later.

Yikes.

The problem with this "test" is some of the Russian discs only have removable sub's on some dvd players. You should look at the Manderlay thread.

It wouldn't be a Terry Gilliam movie if some people didn't hate it.

I haven't seen it, but there's a fair mix of both positive and negative user comments on the IMDb page.

Which was really the problem with Brothers Grimm. It wasn't a film that caused a love/hate reaction, but rather indifference. I'd rather have a Gilliam film I absolutely hated than one I thought was mediocre.

Yeah, that's exactly what he just told me.

So that kind of sucks. I may take a chance and buy it anyway. At least there is an option to watch it without subtitles, "без субтитров" (the 6th line down). I guess its a crap shoot though.

Here are the menu pics.

I just noticed this on the new alldvd.ca;

Presently, ALLDVD.ca ships all International orders from our warehouse in Moscow via the main Russian Postal courier - Russian Post

If that's the case, why not just buy direct from a Russian site and pay half the price? The reason I purchased from ALLDVD in the past was to get around the long transit times.

Because I don't read Russian? Is there an English friendly Russian-based DVD site?

Good point. I don't think I've ever run across one.

AllDVD now offer free shipping. If we had to pay for shipping from Russia, that could possibly be a bad thing. Eastern European shipping costs tend to be a bit much most of the time. And the delivery times listed seemed pretty standard for most online shops.

Also, check this out.

Xploited Cinema - Tideland DVD

First North American retailer to carry it. It'll be about 5 bucks more with shipping but it will usually get to you in just a couple of days. So there you go, that will solve the "waiting for it to come from Russia" problem.

Can anyone confirm the exact aspect ratio of this release?

Interesting, it says that the Russian subtitles are forced when watching the English soundtrack