My 2600th Blog - The Global Gap

The Global Gap

My 2600th Blog

Long term readers to this blog will know that I mark every 100 posts with a small article, piece of art or, as of late, full blown rant about an aspect of the film industry or other pop cultural phenomenom. And so, on the occasion of my 2600th blog post, I think it’s time to turn my gaze onto the, once much embraced but now sadly tolerated, dependence on the global marketplace for basic physical media purchases and the short sighted reasons behind the increase in importing said items for myself and others in the UK (and quite possibly the US, I suspect).

Okay, let me remind you of the fairytale era known as the dawn of the DVD age, when the serious cinephile and casual viewer alike would own a multiregion DVD player easily bought from the local Tesco (we knew from the internet which players could be hacked with a few numbers typed into the remote... just as we all do today with our cheap, multizone Blu Ray players). The reasons for doing this were many and here are a few I remember...

The first being specific to the UK... most of the films and TV shows etc were just not available in a UK version (unless you wanted to wait 6 or 8 years down the line until popular taste in this country caught up with you... oh, look, gialli are now popular in the UK after I had to buy them all from the US decades ago) and, even if they were, many of them would be harmed/cut/molested by the UK censors, so you would need to get it from another country in order to get a real version of the film anyway (this, sadly, is in some cases still true... I’m looking at you Aquaman... and films of your ilk).

Another reason was availability of new titles. I could often get them on a nice Region 1 DVD way before a film had gotten a cinema release in the UK and, if it’s one I knew I was going to like, why bother waiting all those months (sometimes a year) to get a version from my own shores which, as it happens, might have been cut anyway. I remember sitting in a UK cinema watching Josie And The Pussycats for the umpteenth time (if you know the brilliance of this movie then well done... an absolute classic ripe for rediscovery or, even a basic acknowledgement) even though the US DVD was had arrived through my letterbox that very morning.

And then, coupled with this and the dollar being so low against the pound (in those days), even with the import/postage fees you would still be paying only half of what you would be paying for the barely adequate UK release months later. And there were also shops in London which were doing a roaring trade in US Region DVDs at the time... if you knew where to look (I can remember at least four of them).

As the decades passed, things levelled out a bit. Especially by the dawn of the age of the Blu Ray (and I’ve not gotten into 4K UHD and will resist that route for as long as possible).

The biggest problem these days is the postage which, with the pound having had a reversal of fortune against the yankee dollar, means you will often be paying as much as the value of the goods again (if not double) on top of the purchase price. However, in what is technically a new golden age of physical media (as directors and producers try to get the best physical release of their films on the shelves to be remembered by, before low quality streaming versions are the only other reference point), it is still sadly necessary to get stuff from boutique labels abroad, since there are no equivalent versions in the UK (or sometimes they are coming out a year or two later than the US version). So beautiful editions like Severin’s Al Adamson - The Masterpiece Collection, All The Haunts Be Ours, House Of Psychotic Women, The Sensual World Of Black Emanuelle or Vinegar Syndrome’s Forgotten Gialli series of boxed editions, to name just a few, are only available to the British consumer by throwing our grappling hooks farther afield than this small minded country’s boundaries, in terms of what the studios... and the censors... want us to have available over here.

So, yeah, you take a hit because it’s the only way to get certain stuff.

That being said, it’s all gone horribly wrong of late... because new, Hollywood first run films are not getting physical releases over here (and often in their home country in the US) due to streaming rights issues. And talking of the evil of the streamers... there are films on these ‘stations’ which don’t even make it to a cinema release when they should do, let alone a physical companion. I’m looking at films like Beverly Hills Cop - Axel F, for example... reviewed here.

I was in a venue I won’t name the other day, somewhere related to a certain form of entertainment where I and a friend had popped into the accompanying café to get something to eat. I was served my hot chocolate and cake by a person who, it turned out, was one of the big physical media buyers for a set of stores and dealt with the various companies who put out blu rays and DVDs. Well, not anymore because there were horror stories to be told, it turns out. I don’t know if, as I was told, Sony have now decided to stop physical media for UK release but, if true, then things are only going to get grimmer for people who, you know, actually like the art of film and want to see it treated with respect. In a time when HMV were only just recently telling everyone that their physical media movie sales were growing...he told me that all of the conversations with the companies at the moment were about streaming rights. Nobody was interested in pursuing physical media and, even when he proved a point to one company by getting them to release a physical edition of a certain set of films in the UK (a direct port over of a US edition) which promptly sold out... he just couldn’t get said company to realise (or perhaps, to quote Clark Gable, “give a damn”) that there is actually a buoyant market for Blu Rays and even DVDs still out there.

It’s something which the boutique Blu Ray labels such as the likes of Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, Criterion, Arrow, Melusine, 88 Films, Imprint, Indicator, Umbrella and various others have known for years... but for the big studios I’m guessing the attitude is... ‘that’s not enough quick return money for me to bother investing the time to reap that particular reward.’ So, yeah, when it comes down to it... here he was instead filling my cup and saucer and making sure I knew where the serviettes were. It’s absolutely crazy.

And so it comes to pass. I’m shocked at how hard it’s getting to get the newer, recent films on physical versions not so long after their initial release (either cinematically or on a selfish and uncaring streaming service). Over the last year, four of the releases I’d originally just assumed I could grab in domestic or even US releases have caused me a lot of stress and, it has to be said, three times the amount of money to buy. But I’d still rather do that than stream these things (for however long company X decides to make them available for) and, some of them were for gifts...

So... Glass Onion I had to procure as an Asian bootleg Blu Ray (which, I have to say, is absolutely amazing quality, as good as any commercial Blu Ray transfer I’ve ever seen). Ditto for Mr. Monk’s Last Case... which I suspect still hasn’t even aired on television over here yet. Reality (reviewed here) which I was hoping to get for a Birthday deadline didn’t make it (although it’s still on the way), because I had to get a German edition (English language, at least) imported and, yeah, it keeps getting delayed. And again, I was completely shocked to see that one extremely successful independent horror film from much earlier this year, Late Night With The Devil (reviewed here) has not had any kind of physical release in either the UK or US and I’ve had to set things into motion to get it shipped over to me from foreign shores in a ridiculously expensive edition (thanks to the wonderful geezah in Fopp who informed me that, as far as he knew, no UK distributor had stepped in to buy it). And don’t get me started on Godzilla Minus One (reviewed here) which I am, at presently, patiently waiting to get a UK release, even though a much lesser but later film, the US made Godzilla X Kong - The New Empire (reviewed here) is already on UK Blu Ray (I’m just not wanting to purchase my modern films out of their release order thanks very much... if I show my family the latter first then their desire to bother with the far superior Japanese movie will certainly deteriorate, for sure).

And so here I am again... lamenting the absolute lack of respect of the cinematic art form from certain companies and now spending way more money and time researching alternative ways of getting films which, quite frankly, I should be able to pick up for a quarter of the price just by walking down to my local high street store and seeing what is on the shelf.

Anyway, rant over. If you’ve made it this far then, thanks for reading my 2600th blog post and if you have any other stories of ‘the violation of physical media’ then please post a comment below (I have to clear the comments once submitted at the moment because of crazy Russian blog spamming but, yeah, I will read and then publish every genuine one for sure... whether I agree with it or not). And, as always, thanks for wandering onto here and taking a look. It’s always much appreciated.

2400th Blog - Boutique Label Blues

A Funny Thing
Happened To Me
On The Way To
The Boutique
Blu Ray Label...

My 2400th Blog Post

Okay, for my 2400th blog I thought I’d have another little rant about one of the hobbies I hold dear to my heart... physical media. Not limited to but, for the sake of this mini article... Blu Ray movies. And, more specifically, the boutique labels which, to be honest, are the only thing which makes the world of physical releases a joy to invest in. Now regular readers must surely realise how much I enjoy and admire the products of boutique labels like Criterion, Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, Arrow, 88 Films and a whole host of others bringing out lovingly restored movies, many rescued from obscurity and given the kind of life they always deserved coming in from the cinematic wilderness. So please believe me when I say that none of what follows is a dig at any of these labels and the problems that I see in no way tarnish the wonderful reputation and good work that these and many other independent companies are doing.

However, there are two big negatives I’ve been thinking about lately and which I shall be getting into in a minute but, they both stem from/are symptoms of... the same issue, it seems to me. That issue is that, as the internet increases its grip over the world, whether we happen to like ot or not, we are living in a global community and, certainly many film fans are happy to embrace that pleasant state. And, as a British guy who is sick of seeing certain kinds of films censored in my own country, buying from global sources either because they have the best option or are, quite often these days, the only game in town... makes much more sense. A film lover in the UK probably would be in a lot of trouble if multi-zone Blu Ray machines were unavailable but, as it happens, they’re relatively cheap and easy to acquire and, humongous shipping rates of recent times aside (I used to be able to buy a US DVD of a film before it hit our cinemas for a much cheaper price than I would have been charged by my own country a year or so down the line), they open up the global market for everyone. However, the boutique Blu Ray labels of various countries (the UK and US especially included), either don’t seem to realise this, don’t want to lose a licensing deal or... you know... maybe they don’t care.

So what we have... and this is the unfortunate part... is wonderful labels such as those mentioned above releasing a film in ‘the best possible version’ and then, some months or even a year later, another label from another country releasing their edition of the movie in, you know, ‘the best possible version’. Sometimes it will be different masters of a film and sometimes it will be the same transfer with the other label’s credits showing up on the end title of, say, a special feature. And to make matters worse, some of these will have the same special features, some will have different special features, some will have a mixture of both and others will have a compelling extra such as a soundtrack CD of the score (often already released by another CD label in the past and in the exact same edition... yeah, that’s a similar grumble to what I’m talking about here).

So for the globally minded cinephile... and I don’t really know of any other kind among the physical media buyers I personally know...  if it’s a film they want then they will buy whichever label brings it out first, in whatever country that has to be. Unless, of course, they gamble and play the waiting game and take the chance that the first edition will be sold out before another version gets released, if it ever does. And it’s annoying as heck and I wish the labels would just liaise with each other and coordinate so we only have to have one version of a film coming out in the world within, say, a ten/twenty year period.

So films like Suspiria, Two Evil Eyes and the like all have a couple of different versions available (at least), all in slightly modified variants with alternate extras. And I’m sure it must be affecting each label’s sales negatively because, more than likely, most people will only buy the first one on their radar and give a hard pass to the next one down the line. I only want to end up with one version guys! As I write these words (I’m guessing you’ll be reading them a few weeks later), the BFI have released a formerly hard to see Elisabeth Taylor film on Blu Ray called The Driver’s Seat. I would possibly have been enticed to buy this if, as it happens, I hadn’t already bought the same movie earlier this year (or it may have been late last year) in what I suspect is a much more ‘bells and whistles’ release from the US under it’s other title, Identikit, as part of Severin’s House Of Psychotic Women Rarities Blu Ray set. So I really don’t need to buy the new one (and won’t... for all I know it’s exactly the same transfer too). No longer a rarity then, I guess.

And don’t get me started on the masterful giallo from Dario Argento, Four Flies On Grey Velvet. This used to be absolutely impossible to see at one point and I have bought a few ‘improved’ bootlegs over the years, until it finally started getting official releases, all with a little more footage or in a much better scan as each one came out. This culminated for me last year on purchasing what I think may be my seventh version of the film, in a very limited ‘one week on sale only’ edition of it from Severin Films which includes, wouldn’t you know it, an additional hitherto unseen cut of the film. Okay, it was worth it then if you like the film but... wow... the UK label Cult Films just reissued their ‘better subtitles’ version of the film, which I suspect is more or less the same one their sister label Shameless issued a year or two before. Except this time its in a box of four Argento films comprising this and... three other Argento movies which have been out numerous times in the UK... including from this same label sometimes. Who the heck is going to bother to buy this set unless they’re a complete newcomer to this director’s works? It’s crazy.

At the other end of the spectrum, when 88 Films released A Black Veil For Lisa in a limited edition (now reissued as... um... a non limited edition), it only included the English cut of the film which, I knew from reading around, was not the best version. The full Italian cut is out in Italy but without the English subtilties. Luckily I already had a bootleg with both versions on it and, when I saw how different the Italian version is (and much more in keeping with the traditional cinematic interpretation of the genre... black glove killer included in a few shots of that version) and the different ending, which made a mockery somewhat of what one of the experts on the set was saying about the film (I hope that wasn’t deliberate and they’d just not seen the proper Italian version), then it means I am now chomping at the bit for a company to actually release a correct version of the movie on Blu Ray, rather than the one we’re stuck with at present. Similarly, 88 Films edition of Prozzie turned out to be 'not the complete version' and I had to re-acquire this one under another title, Olivia, in uncut form from Vinegar Syndrome in the US. It’s ridiculous guys... we just wanted one version and... we wanted the right version.

Arrow Films have been doing a lot of this unnecessary ‘lets add a new extra and repackage it’  malarky lately too. Their recent slew of ‘Essential Giallo’ boxed editions are almost exclusively anything but essential. These are boxes of gialli, with different colour themed packaging per box but, guess what? All but one of these boxes are just repackages of other releases still on sale from the same company in individual units. There’s just one edition to date, the Black edition, which actually had all the gialli included as premiere releases in this country (and possibly any English speaking country). I bet I know which one of their box sets sold the most units. Tellingly, the Black edition seems to have disappeared very quickly from physical shop shelves. I guess that did well for them but, if it did then they didn’t learn much from the experience, being as the next two ‘Essentials’ releases were ‘new money for old rope’ editions once again.

Okay, so there we have the two problems.. companies issuing similar or identical versions at the same time and companies repackaging the same versions and pretending it’s something shiny and new (most film fans would not fall for that tactic, I’m sure). I don’t want this rant to go on forever and so I’ll just leave it at that for now. I do love all these boutique labels but, they need to start talking to each other... I’m sure they’d get more sales by releasing products that like-minded labels are not also releasing around the same time (make that decade). Especially when there are thousands of movies out there which haven’t been issued even once yet... let alone their eighth time. For example, a number of times when Severin have announced titles like Blood For Dracula, Vinegar Syndrome have released a complementary title around the same time such as Flesh For Frankenstein. So one feeds into the other with increased sales for both, is my guess.

One last reminder though... if we didn’t have these kinds of labels at least making the effort and, in some cases, pouring a lot of love into their work, then the physical media landscape would be disappearing a lot faster than it already is. These labels are doing startling work and they need your support... just be carful which editions you go for. Buyer beware.

12 Years Of NUTS4R2

 

Physical Excavations

12 Years Of NUTS4R2

Okay, so it’s Friday night and I just discovered my 12 year blog anniversary is only three days away... not a month or so as I’d thought. So, faced with something of a rush deadline for this post (anniversary posts and additional 100 count posts being something I like to keep as a separate entity from a standard review), I thought I’d talk here about something which has been worrying me as of late... the switch from physical releases to streaming services. And not just for movies too... but for their soundtracks.

Okay, so streaming services got very popular over the pandemic... so did physical services actually, with record sales of Blu Ray and DVD players but, yeah, they're still far from the popularity, with the kiddies, of the streaming services. And I think this is a bad thing, not just from my end as a consumer who wants a movie (or indeed score) in a proper physical release but, also because I think the switch towards streaming is going to harm the art of film making to a certain extent.

I write this as various labels renowned for their physical releases... companies like Criterion, Arrow and even the BFI... have started up streaming services. They often have licences for other labels to stream alongside their own product too... I think the Arrow one has stuff produced by Severin and/or Vinegar Syndrome, for example... so I can half see the appeal. But it worries me that these companies are starting up these services, not only in direct competition with all the usual (some might say ‘evil’) suspects like Netflix, Disney and Amazon Prime... they’re also competing with the option of buying one of their own physical releases over their streaming alternative. Now, as far as quality goes... yeah, HD streaming looks fine but I still think a decent Blu Ray blows it away when it comes to quality. That’s only half of my worry though.

Firstly, labels like Criterion, Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome, Severin, Eureka Masters Of Cinema, 88 Film, Indicator, Second Sight, 101 Films and various other boutique labels are producing high quality product for various film-makers and in terms of physical releases, at present... we’ve really never had it so good. Although, with the current trends, I don’t expect that to last. Reading between the lines on comments I’ve heard from label producers from listening to a few podcasts, there seems to be a sense in the industry that film makers want their films to be released on decent quality Blu Rays with a slew of extras right now because many of them feel this is the last shot at a physical release they’ll have, to get their film looking the best it ever could. A kind of library copy for the future, if you like, showing the film in all it’s glory as opposed to what its possibly shoddy future on streaming is, if indeed it has one. So I believe physical media is the preferred choice for the majority of movie makers in the industry at the moment.

And lets look at those extras. There are various documentaries about a product, some invaluable commentary tracks (mostly the best commentaries are on older films but, yeah, everything becomes an older film at some point, right?) and various other extras which give the purchaser a very good look at not just the movie but the historical context of the film too... via digital press books, trailers, TV spots and even, in the case of many Indicator releases, the 16mm film projector cut down versions for selling commercially to collectors in the 1960s and 1970s. Now, I know some streaming services do carry the odd film with a commentary track or some kind of ‘marketing extra’ but, a lot of them don’t (I would suggest the majority of them don’t but that really is just a guess based on what I’ve read about them)... so we’re heading towards a time, once physical media production and the hardware which can access it has ceased production, where all this extra content could become a thing of the past... or only found as relatively low quality versions on the likes of YouTube but, rarely made specifically for a release anymore, I’d wager. And, hey, I get it! If you’re a casual movie watcher then you probably don’t watch most of this stuff anyway (and I don’t often find the time to explore that many of the extras as I’d like)... but for people who really love and appreciate film, this scenario is a bit of a nightmare, truth be told.

Not to mention the many horror stories I’ve read over the past few years on the likes of Twitter, where people are no longer able to access the film they want on any streaming service and so have gone shopping for the physical release, only to find it’s out of print and fetching silly money on the secondary market. These people have had the range of choice removed for them because they didn’t snag a longer lasting physical copy while they were still able to. They find their favourite film is no longer streaming at the present and, if it’s a relatively obscure film which means a lot to just a handful of people, based on the number of times it was streamed in the past, there’s a good chance it won’t be returning to a streaming platform anytime soon... or indeed, possibly ever. Bye bye favourite movies. 

 Look at what's constantly shown on the former terrestrial TV stations these days, if you don't believe me... where the same old films are repeated over and over within days of each other.

Also... and I think I’ve mentioned this before on this blog over the years... streaming is either going to kill the art of film or, at the very least, dumb it down somewhat... at least in terms of what will get green lit. At the moment, various film makers are loving companies like Netflix and Apple because they are funding films they want to make which they probably couldn’t get the money for at other studios not wanting to take a risk (for now)... Duncan Jones’ Mute springs to mind. But let’s just take that movie as an example of something which got funded which, as it happens, is a really good movie. Well for starters, it’s not available on physical media and, just like most of, say, Disney’s various TV shows, probably never will be. But most people haven’t got the money to subscribe to a load of different channels showing the content which that service has got the license to exclusively. Who has the money for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple, Disney Plus, Shudder, HBO etc?

So, sticking with the example, many people haven’t seen Mute (legally... I myself only managed to see it because I caught one of only a few screenings at a cinema one weekend in London, on very limited performances). Most people don’t know what they’re missing and don’t care... but what that leaves us with is a movie which is making ratings numbers just from people who have whatever channel it’s on. It doesn’t have the chance of a proper box office take in both a wide release pattern cinematic venue (where people can usually see content from all the studios and independents without having to turn up at a specific cinema only showing one brand of film) and it doesn’t have the blind ‘I fancy that’ buy of a person walking into a shop or trawling Amazon and getting interested in purchasing a physical copy behind it either. It’s not something which has had a shot at being displayed on people’s shelves in their home for some significant time and, subsequently, nobody is going to remember it 20 years from now.... they’ll remember the films that they have at home in plain view or the ones at their friend’s house.

And Netflix and their competitors, who are all doing very well right now, opening their own studios etc... won’t have a bottomless money pit forever. If they can’t make films which are giving them Avengers or Star Wars or Spider-Man levels of money at the box office, they’re going to eventually stop bankrolling those big budget spectacles (which, like ‘em or not, is arguably one of the things that cinema is all about... I’m sure Georges Méliès would agree with me here) and settle for less risk projects. Given to producers, directors and artists who are willing to settle for less.

So, yeah, the shape of film will change because you can’t keep taking risks on projects which don’t, through their venue, have a shot at getting back a big return short term. And, okay, yay! We might get more independent, low budget movies for people who like to watch characters talking about ideas and love stories and various other lower budget things... which are also what cinema is about. But, unless we can somehow create a receptive culture where a significant chunk of young audiences, which account for the bulk of cinema and, I suspect, streaming revenue (in whatever form that takes) can get into this stuff ... then the audience won’t be there for those movies a lot of the time... they’ll have switched to computer games (which is where the future of cinematic storytelling may be anyway but, yeah, I’m not yanking on that thread here, today). So, films will run the risk of dying out or become the rare, deluxe item that are catering to a smaller percentage once more... just like current physical media enthusiasts. Except, in this scenario, the newer stuff with the smaller budgets and no attention to bonus features will lose out considerably to the cinematic legacy of what made a mark before, rather than what will be the current shiny thing, in whatever form that is. So we will still be talking about Star Wars and James Bond movies, for example, fifty years from now whereas, various other non-historical franchises will possibly crash and burn.

So, anyway, that’s my cheery warning of a thought to film lovers and a shout to buy all the lovely, rescued and restored, bonus features clad physical media releases while you still can. Some of those recent box sets of the last few years such as All The Haunts Be Ours, The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee, Shaw Scope, Marlene Dietrich At Paramount, Sam Fuller At Columbia, Cinematic Vengeance, Mae West In Hollywood, Hemisphere Horrors, The Al Adamson Masterpiece Collection... and a whole host of others I could name, are absolutely worth their weight in gold and, if you get the opportunity, you should take advantage of these releases while you still can. Pretty soon their ilk may not be seen again.

Anyway, that’s my 12 year anniversary post written and hopefully some of you will be reading this in a few days time (Monday 21st March 2022). And if you are, thanks so much, once again, for reading and, yeah, there should be some interesting reviews coming up very soon. 

Thanks for dropping by.