{"id":4390,"date":"2012-02-28T12:29:39","date_gmt":"2012-02-28T17:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=2931"},"modified":"2012-02-28T12:29:39","modified_gmt":"2012-02-28T17:29:39","slug":"the-oscars-and-the-quiet-emergence-of-the-standard-international-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4390","title":{"rendered":"The Oscars, and the quiet emergence of the Standard International Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Due to a lack of contextual images, we're using the Random Actress Heliometer (RAH). Illustrated: Senta Berger. Happy, isn't she?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Well, Sunday\u2019s show was pure Meh: familiar, bland, safe, non-threatening, blah, and as many viewers seemed to predict, er, predictable. Having seen none of the films so far (I have more matter to see, but I\u2019ll get there in bits & pieces), I still had an inkling The Artist<\/strong> would win the major prizes, making Harvey Weinstein very, very happy. Not bad for a guy who started out in the business with The Burning<\/strong> in 1980 (and a film, quite frankly, that\u2019s more fun that it deserves to be).<\/p>\n

Billy Crystal was literally vintage Billy Crystal, but enough with older men wearing jet-solid hair helmets; when skin texture reaches a certain vintage, a solid matter of type B hair colouring looks absurd.<\/p>\n

Still not sure why there were only 2 nominated songs (unless only two listenable tunes were actually all they Academy could find), but the fact traditional interludes were reduced to a Cirque de Soleil vignette (with bizarre Danny Elfman music) and a strangely truncated Dead Celebrity Montage clearly indicated the show\u2019s producers were determined to bring that show to a close at 11:30pm, and they came pretty close in the end, leaving those hungry for more to watch E! terrible post-Oscar coverage were talk more or less hovered around clothes, colours, legs, hair, social oopsies, and other superficialities. (Note: Crystal\u2019s black helmet head isn\u2019t<\/em> superficial \u2013 it\u2019s disturbing<\/em>, hence socially relevant<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

My wishes were for John Williams (War Horse<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>]) to take home the Oscar trophy, though I was happy with the nominated scores because they were all frankly good. Alberto Iglesias\u2019 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] is definitely a solid Cold War score deserving multiple replays, and Ludovic Bource\u2019s The Artist <\/a><\/strong>[M<\/a>] was fun, and the win gave a newcomer a career boost; one can expect Bource to snap a few high-profile U.S. scoring assignments very soon, as often happens. As long as he stays away from comedies named after hit pop songs, he\u2019s safe.<\/p>\n

As NOW\u2019s Norman Wilner points out in his MSN column<\/a>, the window between a nominated film\u2019s theatrical release and home video debut is getting shorter. Martin Scorsese\u2019s Hugo<\/strong>, which won several technical awards, is out today. While Hugo<\/strong> did enjoy a theatrical run, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne\u2019s Cannes-winning The Kid with a Bike<\/strong> went straight to DVD in Canada by E1, but no Blu-ray edition.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t wholly unique \u2013 the lack of a BR edition \u2013 because there are strange cases where the Blu is available only as a U.S. import. Either it\u2019s a case where the domestic distributor felt a Blu wasn\u2019t necessary, they wanted to stagger the release for potential double-dipping, an HD master perhaps wasn\u2019t ready, the rights were highly complicated, or things just got a little fubared when someone wasn\u2019t paying attention.<\/p>\n

Who knows, but there are many strange aspects to the wonderful wacky world of home video.<\/p>\n

Case in point: rental and sell-through editions. Drive<\/strong> was offered to rental shops as a Blu-only edition for a lower price for rental purposes, whereas for the general consumer, the sell-through edition (the one you\u2019re supposed to buy) comes in a higher-priced Blu-DVD combo edition. When the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo<\/strong> debuted, the domestic edition from Alliance was a BR\/DVD combo, but those wanting just the DVD had to buy the U.S. import.<\/p>\n

The theatrical cut of Raoul Ruiz\u2019 Mysteries of Lisbon<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] is available from Music Box Films on DVD, but the Blu was a U.S.-only edition that technically went OOP in a matter of weeks (but is still available, at a discounted price, from Amazon.ca & .com). Meanwhile, the longer TV mini-series version is out in France on DVD (French-only dub track), and in Portugal on DVD (original Portuguese dub track with multiple subtitle options), but a Blu-ray edition – even in Portugal \u2013 beholds the theatrical cut.<\/p>\n

None of this makes sense, and it\u2019s either a sign a few people just weren\u2019t thinking straight, things were rushed into production, or maybe there\u2019s sense of standardizing releases, particularly when it comes to foreign films.<\/p>\n

Why shouldn\u2019t consumers \/ fans be offered the choice of different edits on Blu? Why not market both versions as standalone, shrink-wrapped specials, or deluxe megasets? One could voice similar concerns of the BFI\u2019s imminent DVD edition of Ken Russell\u2019s The Devils<\/strong>, although that one seems to be a peculiar compromise between the BFI and Warner Home Video U.K.: the film\u2019s still a hot moral potato, so a Blu edition is taboo \u2013 unless WHV is quietly planning its own special edition later this year.<\/p>\n

For that matter, why wouldn\u2019t Fox release Cleopatra<\/strong> (1963) simultaneously on Blu in North America and Europe? Why issue a region-free edition in Britain (which sells for under $20) and hold off in North America, prior to its likely \/ inevitable release at a higher price point? Why did the Weinsteins license El Cid<\/a><\/strong> and Fall of the Roman Empire<\/a><\/strong> on Blu in the U.K. and Germany, but not in North America where they\u2019re based<\/em>?<\/p>\n

For new films, distributor rights, delayed theatrical releases and differing video standards (PAL & the old SECAM vs. NTSC were largely responsible for what you got to see on video in your home country 10-15 years ago, whereas today it seems it\u2019s a kind of free-for all: there\u2019s a lack of consistency which now extends to the actual format.<\/p>\n

The crazy thing is buyers are becoming increasing accustomed to buying titles from other countries because the democratization of film is arguably widening, from indie labels and majors issuing region-free BRs packed with all the subtitles and \/ or language tracks needed. From finding better pricing, in terms of cost + shipping from England versus buying it off the shelf from Region 1 \/ A labels who\u2019ve paid heavy third-party licensing.<\/p>\n

Quite frankly, the only thing stopping the broad buying public from embracing this loosely created Standard International Edition is fear of internet commerce, and identity theft.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all so very, very strange.<\/p>\n

Coming shortly: soundtrack reviews, Fernand Melgar\u2019s Special Flight<\/strong>, and whether Orson Welles\u2019 The Magnificent Ambersons<\/strong> is an over-rated bore or brilliant vision in its hacked up state.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pure Editorial Blather on this weekend’s Oscar telecast, Norm Wilner’s piece on the Dardennes’ The Kid with a Bike premiering as a DVD-only release, and what may be the quiet emergence of the Standard International Home Video Edition of movies on Blu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[1078,277],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-18O","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}