ADDITION: Palisades Tartan - Region 1 - NTSC January 10': Great to have this film come to region 1 but the transfer leaves a lot to be desired. It's 1.78:1 (cropping information at top and bottom) as opposed to the theatrical 1.66, but worse than that it's from an unconverted PAL source (see the running time) and has all the associated artifacts of that practice including 'ghosting' and 'combing' (see dining table capture). It tends to look hazier than the Artificial Eye release but is acceptable for CRT viewing.

The Palisades does excel in the supplements duplicating both European DVDs, with the commentary, Samples of Sets and excerpts from earlier films by Roy Anderson... but adding even more. We also get the 20-minute "Roy Anderson in NY, September 2009" featurette with some revealing information on the director and his work. Plus there is a 12-minute excerpt from "A Time For Everything" - a peek at an interesting documentary about Roy Anderson and Studio 24. So overall fabulous extras.

Presently the AE disc is almost half the price of the Palisades BUT if you are locked to region one - the North American release still has strong value for the entertaining film and stupendous supplements. If you haven't already - SEE You the Living soon!!  

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ADDITION: Artificial Eye - Region 2 - PAL July 08': Firstly I agree with Per-Olaf's enthusiasm for the film - it is wonderfully original! A must-see!

In regards to the image - although I don't see a lot of differences I suspect there must be some as the Scanbox is dual-layered and the AE is single. There appears to be some minor differentiation in colors but otherwise things seem fairly copacetic. Both are anamorphic in the original 1.66 ratio and both are progressively transferred.

Audio slightly favors the Scandinavian edition as it offers a DTS track that is mentioned as being slightly better than the 5.1. The UK release also offers a 2.0 track on top of the 5.1 offering.

As they both have the exact same extras, I suspect they shared the same D1 transfer but the AE have added subtitles for all the extras including the director commentary (see sample below). I defer to Per-Olaf's comments: '...much of it is "small talk" (director commentary), there's still much information. The last scene didn't completely open to me in the first viewing, but the comment's from Roy Andersson made me understand it better! SAMPLES OF SETS are rewarding, and shows the studio interiors of the film.'

Although moderately lesser in terms of image and audio - I still endorse the Artificial Eye for the English-friendly supplements. This is a very enjoyable film and we encourage seeing it soon!

Gary Tooze  

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For those of you that can't wait for a possible UK or US release of this film, there's a new Swedish DVD from Scanbox that includes English subtitles on the main feature. And folks: this is one of the best films from 2007. Don't miss it!

I have no doubt that this release is the best possible transfer on digital media (at present). It's on a dual layer disc, and has occupied 7,63 GB off space. On the cover there's a misprint that the ratio is 1:1.77, but luckily it's in the original 1:1.66 ratio. The muted colors are intended. There's some noise visible, especially watched on a computer screen. Otherwise the image is sharp and clear.  

The two audio track's are strong, and sound's quite similar, in a minor favor to the DTS track!

It's a pity that the director's commentary is in Swedish and isn't subtitled. Even though much of it is "small talk", there's still much information. The last scene didn't completely open to me in the first viewing, but the comment's from Roy Andersson made me understand it better! SAMPLES OF SETS are rewarding, and shows the studio interiors of the film. Buy it, sooner or later, and get good laugh's from this personal film.