64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

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Orlac
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:29 am

Re: 64 Nosferatu

#276 Post by Orlac » Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:40 am

EddieLarkin wrote:
EddieLarkin wrote:I wonder if they'll consider a new commentary for this one. The current one, as previously discussed here, is a complete chore. Nosferatu being one of their flagship titles (probably a better seller than both Sunrise and Passion of Joan, though maybe not Metropolis), it really deserves better. Obviously my first choice would be Kalat! He has, after all, done two Murnau commentaries for MoC already (and can clearly be coaxed out of "retirement" if it's a film he's passionate about).
Kalat commentary confirmed via twitter! \:D/

Oh sweet Jesus, YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#277 Post by matrixschmatrix » Thu Aug 22, 2013 9:44 am

Yeah, three new Kalat commentaries in one year- retirement is clearly for chumps. I hope we'll get back to the wonderful place where every new announcement from Kino, MoC, and Criterion carried the possibility of a new Kalat commentary. Still seems like a shame that we missed out on one for Die Nibelungen, though.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#278 Post by EddieLarkin » Thu Aug 22, 2013 12:16 pm

matrixschmatrix wrote:Still seems like a shame that we missed out on one for Die Nibelungen, though.
I propose a Kickstarter to get him to do a Nibelungen commentary himself, for people to download from his website.

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eerik
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 4:53 pm
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#279 Post by eerik » Thu Aug 22, 2013 2:05 pm

18th November is the release date according to Zavvi.

Special features:
  • Brand new high-definition restoration by Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung
  • Two audio commentaries: one newly recorded by film historian David Kalat; the second by historian R. Dixon Smith and critic Brad Stevens
  • The Language of Shadows, a 53-minute documentary on Murnau's early years and the filming of Nosferatu
  • New video interview with BFI Film Classics Nosferatu author Kevin Jackson
  • Newly translated English subtitles with original German intertitles
  • More surprises to be revealed closer to release date!
  • PLUS: a 56-page booklet featuring writings and rare imagery

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domino harvey
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#280 Post by domino harvey » Thu Aug 22, 2013 2:16 pm

I love that they're keeping the old commentary-- class act move! Take my money!

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EddieLarkin
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#281 Post by EddieLarkin » Thu Aug 22, 2013 2:28 pm

Whilst listening to Christopher Frayling talk about The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I decided to switch over to the alternate Richard Schickel commentary to compare. During the 3-way Mexican standoff scene, Schickel said little more than that the leads form a triangle, that the title is triangular too, and that Clint was the Good, Wallach the Ugly and Van Cleef the Bad (I would never have guessed). Frayling on the other hand is talking at lightning speed, clearly in awe of the scene, describing what makes it so amazing.

I hope to have similar fun times with the Kalat/Smith-Stevens tracks.

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Drucker
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#282 Post by Drucker » Thu Aug 22, 2013 2:40 pm

EddieLarkin wrote:Whilst listening to Christopher Frayling talk about The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I decided to switch over to the alternate Richard Schickel commentary to compare. During the 3-way Mexican standoff scene, Schickel said little more than that the leads form a triangle, that the title is triangular too, and that Clint was the Good, Wallach the Ugly and Van Cleef the Bad (I would never have guessed). Frayling on the other hand is talking at lightning speed, clearly in awe of the scene, describing what makes it so amazing.

I hope to have similar fun times with the Kalat/Smith-Stevens tracks.
Count me in amongst those awaiting the Kalat track. Though, sorry to burst your bubble Eddie, but the original Smith-Stevens track has a pretty negative reputation, and you can count me in among the people that thought it was pretty dull/full of on-screen narration.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#283 Post by EddieLarkin » Thu Aug 22, 2013 3:42 pm

Well that's precisely my point. Like the GBU tracks, I'll have "fun" comparing how one track is so unbelievably poor compared to the other.

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Drucker
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#284 Post by Drucker » Thu Aug 22, 2013 3:50 pm

EddieLarkin wrote:Well that's precisely my point. Like the GBU tracks, I'll have "fun" comparing how one track is so unbelievably poor compared to the other.
Ah! Sorry I misunderstood.

Orlac
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:29 am

Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#285 Post by Orlac » Fri Aug 23, 2013 7:10 am

Drucker wrote:
EddieLarkin wrote:Whilst listening to Christopher Frayling talk about The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I decided to switch over to the alternate Richard Schickel commentary to compare. During the 3-way Mexican standoff scene, Schickel said little more than that the leads form a triangle, that the title is triangular too, and that Clint was the Good, Wallach the Ugly and Van Cleef the Bad (I would never have guessed). Frayling on the other hand is talking at lightning speed, clearly in awe of the scene, describing what makes it so amazing.

I hope to have similar fun times with the Kalat/Smith-Stevens tracks.
Count me in amongst those awaiting the Kalat track. Though, sorry to burst your bubble Eddie, but the original Smith-Stevens track has a pretty negative reputation, and you can count me in among the people that thought it was pretty dull/full of on-screen narration.
It was also bitchy in places.

videozor
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#286 Post by videozor » Fri Aug 23, 2013 9:50 am

eerik wrote:18th November is the release date according to Zavvi.
Special features...
So, will it be a Blu-ray only, or Blu-ray and DVD re-issue, the way they did Tabu?

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swo17
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#287 Post by swo17 » Fri Aug 23, 2013 10:43 am

MoC Twitter wrote:As previously announced we will be releasing Blu-ray and DVD editions of a new 2013 restoration, + new supplements, of Murnau's NOSFERATU.
Sounds like the same deal as Tabu. Though given that the BD of the restoration features the cover art from the original DVD, this could create some confusion--the DVD reissue will have to have either the same art as the original release or different art from the comparable BD.

EDIT: There are in fact separate BD, BD steelbook, and DVD listings up at Amazon UK. However, no cover art is shown yet.

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eerik
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#288 Post by eerik » Fri Aug 23, 2013 11:10 am

videozor wrote:
eerik wrote:18th November is the release date according to Zavvi.
Special features...
So, will it be a Blu-ray only, or Blu-ray and DVD re-issue, the way they did Tabu?
Separate Blu-ray and DVD releases plus Blu-ray SteelBook.

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swo17
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#289 Post by swo17 » Mon Sep 02, 2013 4:54 pm

MoC Newsletter wrote:Our Nosferatu SteelBook will now be a Dual-Format release containing both Blu-ray and DVD

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domino harvey
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#290 Post by domino harvey » Mon Sep 02, 2013 4:54 pm

And MoC finally makes its move in getting that one guy in the Kino thread to buy their edition instead

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HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#291 Post by HerrSchreck » Thu Sep 05, 2013 4:32 pm

Maybe one of these days I'll get around to mine. It's next on deck for ninety minutes of recorded yammering. The summer has just pinned me to the mat with exhaustion.

Also, pay attention-- one of our more erudite and prolific contributors around our environs is preparing a commentary of his own-- to add variety and more consistency (and relieve potential schreck fatigue, if not just from folks listening to me over and over again then to relieve my own having to listen to myself over and over again while making them).

I'm open to a limited number of suggestions, if anyone would like to suggest someone to add to the project that could pull it off for feature length. Has a nice little audience.

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Gregor Samsa
Joined: Sun Aug 06, 2006 4:41 am

Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#292 Post by Gregor Samsa » Sat Sep 14, 2013 8:59 am

Obviously this isn't one of the bigger issues with the upgrade to blu, but if the shortening of the booklet involves removing one of the long articles, I hope they decide to keep the Perez piece. Rightly praised earlier in this thread, its a clever, really interesting reading of the film and its meaning, and one of the better essays I've read in a DVD/blu-ray booklet.

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HerrSchreck
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#293 Post by HerrSchreck » Sat Sep 14, 2013 11:20 am

I always found it odd that Transit/FWMS didn't run a BD-functional 2k scan on the last go-round of releases for this film (ie the one that restored the original score).

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Drucker
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#294 Post by Drucker » Wed Oct 02, 2013 12:35 pm


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HerrSchreck
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#295 Post by HerrSchreck » Wed Oct 02, 2013 12:47 pm

Nice.... and as you can see, there are no rounded corners or bunked AR.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#296 Post by FrauBlucher » Wed Oct 02, 2013 6:57 pm

This has to be in the running for release of the year...detailed

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FrauBlucher
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#297 Post by FrauBlucher » Wed Oct 09, 2013 2:50 pm


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EddieLarkin
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#298 Post by EddieLarkin » Sat Oct 12, 2013 7:24 am

David Kalat's latest blog post is on Nosferatu, acting as a short companion piece to his upcoming commentary.

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HerrSchreck
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Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#299 Post by HerrSchreck » Sat Oct 12, 2013 12:55 pm

David Kalat wrote:OK, obviously F.W. Murnau is the director of this acclaimed work. Murnau is himself a once-in-a-generation talent who worked in an institutional environment where the director had a substantially higher degree of authority and creative latitude than anywhere else. As a result, it’s an easy trap to fall into to think of Murnau’s films as wholly auterist creations, in which he and he alone was responsible for all the creative decisions.

But thinking about Nosferatu in these terms does a disservice to the film and leads us down some false trails—one of which is missing the contribution of Albin Grau.


Grau’s credit on Nosferatu is for “costumes and sets,” and he is often referred to as the designer. But as we shall see, that’s a gross misrepresentation.
I don't particularly relish the thought of finding myself in the position of disagreeing with the commentator/writer I trumpet almost above all others, but I think that David is pretty seriously off the mark here. Every presentation of this film on the occasion of it's past restoration--where the original score was recovered and presented with the film--came with a Transit-produced feature focusing entirely on the person of Albin Grau, specifically because his contribution is every bit as profound as writer and director in terms of conceiving and constructing this film. Grau was credited as the core figure of the film, who conceived it, designed it, and hired everybody who pretty much extrapolated his very specific inner vision of the film, right down to his extremely unusual conception of what a vampire should look like. It's noted that it was his production company and his title, and that the occultist bent was his own-- he is the axle around which the entire wheel of Nosferatu turned. They even discuss his next, post-Prana title, Warning Shadows/Schatten, which carried forward his very unique cinematic sensibility (and thus helps illustrate for viewers and historians the Short Lived Cinema of Albin Grau via the consistency between the two titles), and with him into this film went key cast and crew of Nosferatu: Gustav von Wangenheim (Hutter), Alexander Granach (Knock), cameraman Fritz Wagner. . . .

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: 64 / BD 70 Nosferatu

#300 Post by knives » Sun Oct 13, 2013 3:08 pm

I think that's what he is saying actually.

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