Kino: Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection (1920-1923)
- matrixschmatrix
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm
Re: Kino
Well, shit. I already have the excellent MoC box, but Blu-ray and new features seems impossible to pass up.
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: Kino
That excludes the 13 Keaton/Arbuckle films included in the MoC box, which aren't at the same level as Keaton's solo shorts but which are worthwhile nonetheless. But still, wow. And if HD materials are available I wonder if MoC will consider revisiting their boxset.
- Roger Ryan
- Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
- Location: A Midland town spread and darkened into a city
Re: Kino
I figured they'd go for the shorts on Blu-ray eventually. I'm sure the picture quality for vary greatly from film to film (THE BOAT is in pretty bad shape), but it's bound to look better that Kino's DVD issues. I assume they'll use the fully-restored version of HARD LUCK this time around, too.
I wonder if this marks the end of Kino issuing Keaton on Blu-ray with the remaining features being left on SD only?
I wonder if this marks the end of Kino issuing Keaton on Blu-ray with the remaining features being left on SD only?
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: Kino
Maybe. Although it's weird that they would do Three Ages and not Seven Chances and The Navigator at least.Roger Ryan wrote:I wonder if this marks the end of Kino issuing Keaton on Blu-ray with the remaining features being left on SD only?
- matrixschmatrix
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm
Re: Kino
That would be pretty disappointing- I was assuming that their goal was eventually to get the whole Art of Buster Keaton set out on blu.
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- Joined: Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:35 pm
Re: Kino
My guess is more double-feature blu rays of Keaton.. Go West is awesome, his face & that cow
- Roger Ryan
- Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
- Location: A Midland town spread and darkened into a city
Re: Kino
I thought they might wait until the features had been issued before putting out the shorts collection, although I seriously doubt there would be much of a market for something like THE SAPHEAD on Blu. Maybe all the discs will be repackaged in a box set with films like SAPHEAD, GO WEST and BATTLING BUTLER being exclusive to the set.matrixschmatrix wrote:That would be pretty disappointing- I was assuming that their goal was eventually to get the whole Art of Buster Keaton set out on blu.
The Keaton Blu-ray releases seem to follow a pattern of declining desirability, at least from my perspective . THE GENERAL, SHERLOCK JR. and OUR HOSPITALITY were must-haves for me, although I'm happy to have STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. as well. I might even consider re-purchasing THE NAVIGATOR and SEVEN CHANCES if the transfers and extras were good, but I don't think I would double-dip for the remaining three.
- matrixschmatrix
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm
Re: Kino
I'd be happy if they did more of them with commentaries, and Our Hospitality was enough of a step down both in picture quality and extras from the Sherlock Jr./Three Ages release that I still haven't upgraded, but frankly I'm figuring I'm going to buy every one of them sooner or later. I don't know that there's a silent movie on blu-ray out there that I don't have at least some interest in, aside from maybe the Ten Commandments.
- captveg
- Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm
Re: Kino
Seven Chances is my 3rd favorite Keaton film after The General and The Cameraman, so they better release it on Blu.
But I think they will. This seems more like an omen of the success of their Keaton Blu-ray sales.
I can see them putting the rest out as double features, with one popular and one less popular. That's only 3 more releases for the 6 remaining features. They're all only 60-75 mins. or so, so space wouldn't much of an issue.
Now, if only Warner would go Blu for a double feature of The Cameraman and Spite Marriage....
But I think they will. This seems more like an omen of the success of their Keaton Blu-ray sales.
I can see them putting the rest out as double features, with one popular and one less popular. That's only 3 more releases for the 6 remaining features. They're all only 60-75 mins. or so, so space wouldn't much of an issue.
Now, if only Warner would go Blu for a double feature of The Cameraman and Spite Marriage....
- John Edmond
- Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 8:35 pm
Re: Kino
Oh I like Kino's awful covers. Now that they've got their shit together it's the only thing that connects them to their past.
- matrixschmatrix
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm
Re: Kino
Outside of the Three Ages bubble on Sherlock Jr, I thought they'd actually been doing pretty well on the Keaton blus up till now.
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- Joined: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:31 am
- Location: Somerset, England
Re: Kino
Kino's "colorized" cover may be accurately reproducing (or at least mimicking) original publicity, which in the silent era - and later of course - often displayed coloured stills for black & white (or merely tinted) films. Whether it sends out the right message on a disc cover today is perhaps another matter...
- colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
Re: Kino
It is the radioactive glow surrounding both of the figures that troubles me even more than the 'colorization'!
- Roger Ryan
- Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
- Location: A Midland town spread and darkened into a city
Re: Kino
colinr0380 wrote:It is the radioactive glow surrounding both of the figures that troubles me even more than the 'colorization'!
Well, that still is from THE ELECTRIC HOUSE, isn't it? I'm not surprised Keaton and the girl are glowing.
- hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
Re: Kino
Just out of curiousity, what proportion of silent films were actually 'colored' back in the day? It's been a while, but the most surprising lesson I had when I took a silent film course at the George Eastman House was that silent films were often colored - not just with tinting, but with selective coloring too, thanks to stencils and microbrushes, etc. They even showed a print of Cyrano de Bergerac that had the coloring intact. It looked crude, but not as a bad as I thought it would. I think the professor said this was fairly common, but I can't remember how common...Jonathan S wrote:Kino's "colorized" cover may be accurately reproducing (or at least mimicking) original publicity, which in the silent era - and later of course - often displayed coloured stills for black & white (or merely tinted) films. Whether it sends out the right message on a disc cover today is perhaps another matter...
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
Re: Kino
That's a different issue from colorizing publicity artwork, but I'm going to say 5-10%, based on my experience.hearthesilence wrote:Just out of curiousity, what proportion of silent films were actually 'colored' back in the day? It's been a while, but the most surprising lesson I had when I took a silent film course at the George Eastman House was that silent films were often colored - not just with tinting, but with selective coloring too, thanks to stencils and microbrushes, etc. They even showed a print of Cyrano de Bergerac that had the coloring intact. It looked crude, but not as a bad as I thought it would. I think the professor said this was fairly common, but I can't remember how common...Jonathan S wrote:Kino's "colorized" cover may be accurately reproducing (or at least mimicking) original publicity, which in the silent era - and later of course - often displayed coloured stills for black & white (or merely tinted) films. Whether it sends out the right message on a disc cover today is perhaps another matter...
- perkizitore
- Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 3:29 pm
- Location: OOP is the only answer
Re: Kino
It is well known that swo has seen more silent films than knappen and HerrShreck combined...
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: Kino
Tinting and toning was very common indeed for prestige titles, and one of the challenges facing film restorers is to reproduce the exact tones that were originally used. In the case of the 1903 Alice in Wonderland, the only surviving print was black and white, but there was sufficient written evidence in Cecil Hepworth's papers of how the film was intended to look, complete with the chemical formulae to create specific tones - for the restoration, the toning was carried out digitally, but on the basis of some highly educated guesswork.