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[Ken Barnes]

Thanks James and mcgroadtser for your revealing responses. With the current state of the international DVD market, this is just about what you'd expect.

Keep the faith. Something may come out of the two conferences which I attended this week here in London.

Ken

[mgcroadster]

No, [I]The Scarlet Empress[/Ii] is not particularly good, but then again it was a very early effort not only by Criterion but on the DVD format itself. However, recent Criterion discs are the benchmark for the DVD presentation not only in fascinating, intelligent extras (not just fluff) but in standards of film restoration and subsequent transfers.

Add to that the fact that Criterion is now returning to earlier efforts and improving on them and I think you'll find that they are the world leaders in their particular field among the independent companies. and yes, I have, er, one or two Criterion discs.

The sad truth is that we do lag behind in the main in the UK, in some instances even behind releases in our own region; both Germany (theres a marvellous box set of early Hitchcock films available) and France (many instances of exclusive editions of noir, westerns, John Ford films etc.) are capable of producing marvellous DVDs of classic films.

[Ken Barnes]

I totally concur that Criterion have set a high standard with their DVD special editions. As I said recently, their version of "Spartacus" may well be the best DVD ever made - as far as extras are concerned.

Their Hitchcocks are all worth collecting - with "Rebecca" and "Notorious" taking pride of place.

[James LM]

I end up paying about £16 per Criterion release. It would be more, of course, were it not for the favourable exchange rate. They pay alot of attention to the quality of picture (even employing Erwin Hillier to supervise the the digital transfer for I Know Where I'm Going, that is attention to detail). When it comes recording audio commentaries, they value the film-makers but do not give credit to the actors by inviting them to be interviewed or recorded commentating on their releases, not often anyway.

[JoelCairo]

I have always loved Fedora, and bitterly regret that it is now so hard to see. The BBC screened it at Christmas 1983 and to the best of my knowledge have never shown it since!

Fedora is one of Billy Wilder's least known movies and deserves a DVD resurrection. The first half of the movie is a mystery story which invites the audience to guess the explanation of a famous actress never aging. The second half reveals the real truth which no-one in the audience sees coming, and which leaves the audience with a sense of sorrow at human folly.

When Fedora was first released, many critics dismissed it as a poor re-working of Sunset Boulevard. I felt that was a total mis-reading of the movie. My only criticism is of the eccentric decision to make the movie star Michael York, with Michael York playing himself. This does not work and is quite pointless. I am no fan of Michael York anyway, but I would have accepted him playing a fictional movie star.

It is high time that Fedora was released on DVD.
_________________
I've met plenty of hard-boiled eggs in my life, but you, you're twenty minutes!

[Ken Barnes]

I agree with you on FEDORA. I saw it in Los Angeles in 1978 and found it quite engrossing. I was surprised to see it get such a critical bashing from the U.S. reviewers. European critics were generally kinder to it and it played quite well in some territories.

Because it was Billy Wilder and was about an ageing film actress - and starred William Holden - it was naturally and unfairly compared to "Sunset Boulevard." And casting Michael York as "Michael York" made it look like a made-for-TV movie. In Cameron Crowe's book, Wolder himself disowned the movie. But I think he was wrong. The film has many strengths which far outweigh it's weaknesses and it does deserve a DVD release.

Universal recently announced a Billy Wilder box set of the director;s early Paramount films and stupidly left out the excellent and underrated " Five Graves to Cairo." I mentioned this to them, but they don't seem particularly bothered. Perhaps the Los Angeles office will do something about it.

[JoelCairo]

[Ken Barnes]

Thanks, Joel, for this info. FEDORA is the movie that Billy Wilder disowned. But it is still an intriguing work and one that belongs in any interesting collection.

I shall try to obtain it, and I recommend others to do the same.