Cemetery Without Crosses

Discuss releases from Arrow and the films on them.

Moderator: yoloswegmaster

Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
Location: Cheltenham, England

Cemetery Without Crosses

#1 Post by antnield » Thu Apr 02, 2015 4:33 pm

Image

YOU BELIEVE IN REVENGE BUT I DON’T… IT NEVER ENDS

Inspired by the international success of the Dollars trilogy, and dedicated to director Sergio Leone, Cemetery Without Crosses offers a Gallic spin on the Spaghetti Western formula thanks to its star and creator, Robert Hossein (best-known to English-speaking audiences for his role in Jules Dassin’s Rififi).

After her husband is lynched by bandits, Michèle Mercier (Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath) seeks revenge and turns to an old friend, played by Hossein, for help. A solitary figure who lives in a ghost town and dons a single black glove before each gunfight, Hossein is initially reluctant but soon infiltrates the widow’s enemies to force a showdown.

Cemetery Without Crosses is a darker breed of Western, bleak and melancholy in tone amid the explosive set pieces. It also boasts an outstanding score by composer André Hossein (father of Robert) and the catchiest of themes, sung by cult figure Scott Walker.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

- Brand new 2K restoration of the film from original film elements
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Original Italian and English soundtracks in uncompressed PCM mono audio
- Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
- Remembering Sergio - an all-new interview with star and director Robert Hossein, filmed exclusively for this release
- French television news report on the film’s making, containing interviews with Hossein, and actors Michèle Mercier and Serge Marquand
- Archive interview with Hossein
- Trailers
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by James Flames
- Illustrated collector’s booklet containing new writing by Ginette Vincendeau and Rob Young

User avatar
Banasa
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:35 am

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#2 Post by Banasa » Thu Apr 02, 2015 4:45 pm

We are looking into the French track, it's not within our rights presently but we're doing all we can to get it.
Arrow on Facebook on the the French language track. Could be desirable as most of the cast are French and I imagine were speaking French on the set.

User avatar
L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#3 Post by L.A. » Thu Apr 02, 2015 4:51 pm

Hopefully you'll be able to include the French track as well. [-o<

User avatar
Altair
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 12:56 pm
Location: England

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#4 Post by Altair » Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:14 am

This is incredible news: this is really one of the very finest film in the Spaghetti Western canon. It would be nice if Alex Cox could perhaps do a written/video piece as he's a fan of the film (and the genre in general).

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#5 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Apr 03, 2015 12:28 pm

Very interesting: this is also co-written by Dario Argento during his spaghetti western period and the year before he directed his first film.

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#6 Post by MichaelB » Fri Apr 03, 2015 1:56 pm

Arrow is still looking for evidence that Argento - who didn't speak French - actually "co-wrote" it. All signs are that he merely polished the Italian dub track.

User avatar
Koukol
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:31 pm

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#7 Post by Koukol » Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:45 pm

Altair wrote:This is incredible news: this is really one of the very finest film in the Spaghetti Western canon. It would be nice if Alex Cox could perhaps do a written/video piece as he's a fan of the film (and the genre in general).
I would prefer Sir Christopher.
Love this film.
It would be fantastic if Arrow would release KILL THE WICKED(S) as well

User avatar
Banasa
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:35 am

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#8 Post by Banasa » Fri Apr 03, 2015 3:01 pm

You'd think someone who has interviewed him over the years would discuss his career before the giallos and horror films, but I guess outside Once Upon a Time in the West, no one has bothered.

There seems to be little documentation about it, but Argento doesn't appear credited on any of the French posters such as the one here

Then again, the Italian ones don't appear to mention his name either as seen here.

I suppose this could be another thing like Antonio Margheriti showing up on Italian prints as a director of Flesh For Frankenstein.

User avatar
L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#9 Post by L.A. » Fri Apr 03, 2015 3:36 pm

In the unfortunate case the French track isn't included, is there perhaps a DVD/Blu-ray available that has it and with English subs?

User avatar
Banasa
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:35 am

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#10 Post by Banasa » Fri Apr 03, 2015 3:49 pm

Only DVD release with the French dub is a German-language release with French, Italian, English and German dubs but with only German subtitles.
Last edited by Banasa on Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#11 Post by L.A. » Fri Apr 03, 2015 4:36 pm

^ Thanks for the info.

User avatar
Finch
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
Location: Edinburgh, UK

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#12 Post by Finch » Sat Apr 04, 2015 5:33 am

Exciting choice from Arrow. Day of Anger was excellent so I'm looking forward to another European western.

User avatar
manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#13 Post by manicsounds » Wed Jul 01, 2015 7:22 pm


User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#14 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jul 07, 2015 5:41 pm

Mondo Digital.

(The transfer is actually from an internegative, not a print.)

User avatar
Koukol
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:31 pm

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#15 Post by Koukol » Tue Jul 07, 2015 6:19 pm

Absolutely gorgeous!
Thanks, Arrow.

User avatar
Altair
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 12:56 pm
Location: England

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#16 Post by Altair » Thu Jul 16, 2015 10:17 am

The Japanese SPO disc showed the opening titles in sepia; the Arrow BD, as I understand it, has them in b/w. Why the change?

Vito Cipriani
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2012 4:04 am

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#17 Post by Vito Cipriani » Fri Jul 17, 2015 2:30 am

French prints had the opening and closing sequences in monochrome; only Italian prints presented them in sepia. Hossein mentions this in the interview on the German DVD release from Anolis.

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#18 Post by MichaelB » Fri Jul 17, 2015 7:01 am

The Arts Desk:
This must be one of the year’s most remarkable archive exhumations: it may well become the re-release of 2015.

User avatar
Altair
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 12:56 pm
Location: England

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#19 Post by Altair » Thu Jul 30, 2015 1:52 pm

So having watched the BD of Cemetery without Crosses last night, I can report back being very pleased. There's no edge enhancement at all (I detected a few stray sharpening anomalies on Arrow's Day of Anger) and grain is nicely retained (unlike with Django, Prepare a Coffin). The image seems very organic with no digital manipulation - the booklet reports that an internegative had to be used as it was the best surviving element. This means it doesn't look as fine as one might've hoped for and to call this a true "restoration" would be stretching things slightly - dirt, scratches, yellow discolouring can be seen, although many scenes are unaffected by this (the opening credits look the worst in this regard). I would rather have, though, these kinds of imperfections rather than digital changes. I never thought I'd see this film in HD so I'm immensely pleased - roll on Le Gout de la violence!

I know I won't get specific figures, but has there any been any indication that Arrow's Spagehtti Western releases having been selling well? With 3 coming out this year, it certainly seems like Arrow are looking into the genre beyond the "3 Sergio's" (although The Great Silence on BD would be welcome...).

David M.
Joined: Sat May 10, 2008 1:10 pm

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#20 Post by David M. » Thu Jul 30, 2015 4:13 pm

There's no edge enhancement at all (I detected a few stray sharpening anomalies on Arrow's Day of Anger)
Negatory :) No sharpening done at any stage on DoA - but some optical properties can cause halos so you could be seeing those.

User avatar
rapta
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:04 pm
Location: Hants, UK

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#21 Post by rapta » Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:54 pm

Altair wrote:So having watched the BD of Cemetery without Crosses last night, I can report back being very pleased. There's no edge enhancement at all (I detected a few stray sharpening anomalies on Arrow's Day of Anger) and grain is nicely retained (unlike with Django, Prepare a Coffin). The image seems very organic with no digital manipulation - the booklet reports that an internegative had to be used as it was the best surviving element. This means it doesn't look as fine as one might've hoped for and to call this a true "restoration" would be stretching things slightly - dirt, scratches, yellow discolouring can be seen, although many scenes are unaffected by this (the opening credits look the worst in this regard). I would rather have, though, these kinds of imperfections rather than digital changes. I never thought I'd see this film in HD so I'm immensely pleased - roll on Le Gout de la violence!

I know I won't get specific figures, but has there any been any indication that Arrow's Spagehtti Western releases having been selling well? With 3 coming out this year, it certainly seems like Arrow are looking into the genre beyond the "3 Sergio's" (although The Great Silence on BD would be welcome...).
I think their recent Spaghetti Westerns are selling well as they seem to be getting a lot of praise - Day of Anger was great and I plan on getting both Cemetery Without Crosses and Requiscant at some point in the future.

As far as The Great Silence is concerned, I asked them on Twitter back in April about that particular title and they said the rights weren't available last they checked (that goes for UK and US). So unless anything changes, we won't see that film from Arrow for a while at least.

I asked them about one of my favourites, Giulio Petroni's Death Rides A Horse, and they never gave me a straight answer. I think it has been requested by many other fans too so I hope that's in their sights for next year! Would definitely compliment their Spaghetti Westerns so far, particularly Day of Anger.

User avatar
Altair
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 12:56 pm
Location: England

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#22 Post by Altair » Fri Jul 31, 2015 5:46 am

David M. wrote:
There's no edge enhancement at all (I detected a few stray sharpening anomalies on Arrow's Day of Anger)
Negatory :) No sharpening done at any stage on DoA - but some optical properties can cause halos so you could be seeing those.
Very good to hear and I stand corrected!
rapta wrote:I asked them about one of my favourites, Giulio Petroni's Death Rides A Horse, and they never gave me a straight answer. I think it has been requested by many other fans too so I hope that's in their sights for next year! Would definitely compliment their Spaghetti Westerns so far, particularly Day of Anger.
Isn't Death Rides a Horse with MGM, whom Arrow have had dealings with in the past, via the Canon library? So that wouldn't be an unsurprising possibility (and there is already a German BD, from Explosive Media).

jdj
Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 4:18 pm

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#23 Post by jdj » Fri Feb 02, 2018 8:04 pm

I'm thinking of picking this one up, but I have a question. For older releases such as this one and Day of Anger that don't say the booklet is only included in the first pressing, are they guaranteed to still come with a booklet?

User avatar
Ovader
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:56 am
Location: Canada

Re: Cemetery Without Crosses

#24 Post by Ovader » Tue Nov 13, 2018 7:31 pm

jdj wrote:
Fri Feb 02, 2018 8:04 pm
I'm thinking of picking this one up, but I have a question. For older releases such as this one and Day of Anger that don't say the booklet is only included in the first pressing, are they guaranteed to still come with a booklet?
I ordered those two blu-rays from the Arrow website on October 14 this year and Cemetery Without Crosses came with a booklet while Day of Anger did not.

Post Reply