CLOSED - NO TIME!
Sunday
November 22nd, 2003 -
Sorry for the
long delay, but the
new baby
is stealing my time. Things are going well.
We recently
made a global adjustment (all contributors) to our methodology
for creating comparisons in order to facilitate dissemination
of superior data!
****
Sweatshirts are
VERY SOON ! - Check the out visually
HERE!
Scoop on
Fanny and Alexander (Criterion) - One of our members says
"Criterion has done it again- cropping on the upper and lower.
I checked it to my PAL version- it is very minor but it is
still perplexing that ANY image should be masked. Other than
that, a beautiful release." We hope to do a comparison soon.
****
RE: Theo
Angelopoulos - one of our members says-
"I just received an email from Artificial Eye stating that
they will
release 11 films in 2005 with no definite production schedule
yet. No other information was given besides the list of the
films:
(I dont know if the list is ordered in any way - i.e.
release-wise. It
is certainly not chronological)
The Travelling Players
Eternity & a Day
Ulysses' Gaze 2nd
Voyage to Cythera
The Beekeeper
Alexander the Great
The Hunters
The Suspended Step of the Stork
Days of 36
Landscape in the Mist
Reconstruction
You can now throw away that Brazilian "Eternity
and a Day"...
****
Les Vampires seems to be OOP ? - Amazon says-
"Amazon says -
2 used & new from $599.99" ????
DON'T BUY IT !
A member informs us...
"Dear John,
Thank you for your inquiry. While "Les Vampires"
is not Out of Print, it is currently unavailable due to
manufacturing problems. Once these manufacturing problems have
been rectified please rest assured that "Les Vampires" will be
available in stores.
Thank you."
That's all for
now !
Gary
Sunday,
October 24th, 2004 -
Well, it's been
a while since I had anything to say. What's new? We have some
new contributors (Warren, Maarten, Peter etc.) for reviews and
comparisons, plus a kind of partnership with our German
sister-site
DVDuell, hopefully this will benefit both sites.
Although I was
still blown away by the film "House
of Flying Daggers", the EDCO DVD is somewhat of a
disappointment, of course, nothing beats the theater
experience.
I can't wait to
get rid of that POP-UP notice - probably Tuesday. Apologies
for having to put up with it.
Still hunting
down ways to keep the site afloat with Amazon Associate
status. Soon we will be a member of
Amazon.jp
too. It's a long road for little reward, but I'm doing my
best.
We have had
zero responses to our latest
contest so far. I may have to go with the closest number
right wins ! only one more week to go ! REALLY, it's not that
hard !
***************
Monday,
October 4th, 2004 -
I haven't had
much to say lately. I did watch the Director's cut of "Woman
in the Dunes" and was once again blown away. Definitely a
favorite film.
I have all the
screen captures for the "Memorable Erotic Scenes" article. Now
the hard part - the text.
I look forward
to buying Guru Dutt's Pyaasa (new edition coming out November
15th - PAL) and
HERE is a, as of this writing, unpublished comparison of
two other versions by Fred. When Fred writes like that I
KNOW I will love it !
Some NEWS !
Sol del membrillo is released a few days early!!
at
fnac.es. We hope to review it soon!
NOTE: We may be
expanding DVDBeaver to other countries (native language) -
notably German, Danish, perhaps French and Japanese... if you
might be interested in helping and running one of the sites,
let me know!
Any Japanese
Beavers out there able to help me get Associate Status at
Amazon.jp ?
Thanks!
DVDBeaver
sweatshirts will be on the way for Christmas... stock up buy a
dozen ! :)
Cheers for now,
***************
Thursday
Sept 16th, 2004 -
I received an
email the other day asking why I had not been chosen to give
my personal choices in the Master's of Cinema article by Nick
Wrigley
HERE entitled "Overlooked".
Honestly, I had to give the emailer's question some thought...
Firstly, I have printed out and read the article a few times -
a super job by MoC and Nick! I would have to say that Mr.
Robin Wood, who I now consider a friend, and whose selections
finish the article (right column) probably knows about 10
times as much about film as I do (conservatively speaking).
However, I suspect, tooting my own horn, that I know equally
10 times what he does about DVD. I suppose then that the
article was more slanted to film than DVD - which is fine! My
own choices would probably have been considered quite
pedestrian in comparison to Acquarello's and the rest of the
list of contributors. The question?
Which DVDs do you feel may have been lost in the shuffle over
the last few years?
Let's see - As
I have pointed out many times in the past - The Image
Entertainment DVD of Chaplin's "City
Lights" has totally been overshadowed by the recent
and flawed Warner Boxset. So that would definitely be on MY
list. Ditto for the MGM "West
Side Story" - with a flawed (voice-sync in "Tonight"
is way off) and oversold Boxset as a follow-up to the original
- NOTE: The image is exactly the same in both editions. The
Warner (Poland) - Region 2 DVD of Kieslowski's "Dekalog"
is heads and tails above all the other inferior releases. The
Region 4- anamorphic "Brazil"
- (the only 16X9 of the film in NTSC). In my opinion no one
talks enough about the Universal Region 1 "Vertigo"
DVD - perhaps the first perfect DVD ever made (I know its not
16X9! but its superior to its Region 4 anamorphic
counterpart). Finally as an odd-ball choice - the Universal -
Region 1 DVD of Anthony Mann's "Winchester
'73" is a fabulous disc - Great image and super
commentary by Stewart! This DVD is golden as far as I am
concerned.
Okay there you
go - my unsolicited opinion.
****
Two articles
coming up - 1) About The Vertigo DVD (perfect) and 2) about
Erotic Moments in Cinema (my preferences)
****
NOTE: Upcoming
very soon - a review and comparisons of the entire Cassavetes
Boxset. Stay tuned !
Tuesday Sept
7th, 2004 -
I'll be off to
the TIFF next week to see Zhang Yimou's "House
of the Flying Daggers" with 2 Beaver LS members in
attendance! Woohoo!
I'm continuing
to be impressed with Hitchcock Boxset and replaced
"Videodrome" with it as Feature DVD of
the Month.
I am expecting
to add 3 additions to the Top 100 DVD
listing this week -
Winchester 73' ,
Seven Days in May
and, of course, the
Hitchcock Boxset!
I haven't been
overly impressed with the Amazon Associates program yet, but I
expect it to grow once I reach a few 'tiers'. I hope so
anyway.
The wait grows longer for
"Greed"...No "I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang" etc. :