374 Bicycle Thieves

Discuss releases by Criterion and the films on them. Threads may contain spoilers!
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Yaanu
Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2013 12:18 am

Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#201 Post by Yaanu » Sat Oct 24, 2015 11:12 am

ellipsis7 wrote:Don't know if this court action will have any bearing on a potential Blu Ray... And here is the actual document of the Complaint being put to the New York Courts...
Doubtful, unless Criterion uses Corinth Films' translation and doesn't commission one of their own.

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Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#202 Post by Minkin » Sat Oct 24, 2015 4:41 pm

Corinth Films has an extremely small catalog (of classic films that is), consisting of the following:
8 1/2
Bicycle Thieves
I Vitelloni

Oedipus Rex (1957)
Of Mice and Men (1939)
Bartleby (1970)

They used to license to Image (thus Criterion licensed three of the above from Image). Sometime in the past couple of years, Criterion picked up the rights to several catalogs, thus now skips the Image middleman and licenses direct. As a result, 8 1/2 + I vitelloni finally came to Criterion's Hulu (they were previously on Netflix with Image's DVD cover). I wouldn't expect this to have any impact on Criterion's deal with Corinth (as Criterion doesn't have any deal with Netflix). I'd also expect the other 3 MIA Corinth films to make their way to disc soon. I might guess that either Image or Netflix overstayed their welcome with the films in question, when Criterion had the rights (thus the lawsuit).

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domino harvey
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Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#203 Post by domino harvey » Thu Dec 17, 2015 6:29 pm

Upgrade coming in March

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TMDaines
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Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#204 Post by TMDaines » Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:00 pm

So the consensus was that the video quality of Arrow's release could easily be improved upon, but as Criterion's encoding is currently so shoddy, is there much excitement here?

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Drucker
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Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#205 Post by Drucker » Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:08 pm

I don't think the Arrow was a 4k restoration. This is.

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cdnchris
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Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#206 Post by cdnchris » Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:10 pm

I still have to watch Burroughs but the last few titles since In Cold Blood have all looked pretty good so I don't think it's a write off yet.

Still, even with encoding issues on par with some other titles recently I'd still say Criterion's would more than likely look better than Arrow's.

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#207 Post by TMDaines » Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:26 pm

I suppose they do have 5 years on them! I can't believe it has taken them so long! The packaging for the DVD set was beautiful, but I hope they stick it in a keep case for the upgrade.

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dwk
Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2010 6:10 pm

Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#208 Post by dwk » Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:35 pm

It looks like it is keeping the thick booklet, so the Blu-ray will most likely be a digipak

Kauno
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Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#209 Post by Kauno » Fri Dec 18, 2015 3:17 am

TMDaines wrote:So the consensus was that the video quality of Arrow's release could easily be improved upon...
The Italian release is a lot better than Arrow's.

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ellipsis7
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:56 pm
Location: Dublin

Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#210 Post by ellipsis7 » Fri Dec 18, 2015 4:31 am

The plus of the Arrow is Robert Gordon's commentary track - he also wrote the BFI Classic monograph on the film... Nevertheless, I'll be double dipping for the Criterion transfer...

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FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#211 Post by FrauBlucher » Wed Feb 24, 2016 12:31 pm


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tenia
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Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#212 Post by tenia » Tue Mar 15, 2016 4:29 am

Chris, your Bicycle Thieves main page indicates the movie is directed by Les Blank et licenced from RLJ Entertainment.

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cdnchris
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Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#213 Post by cdnchris » Tue Mar 15, 2016 12:18 pm

Thanks! When I get a chance I will correct that.

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Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#214 Post by Minkin » Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:38 pm


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Brent Reid
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Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#215 Post by Brent Reid » Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:14 pm

I own the Italian BD, which is reputedly superior to the Eureka. To help decide if it's worth me picking up the Criterion, does anyone own both or know of any online comparisons?

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djproject
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Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#216 Post by djproject » Tue Mar 29, 2016 3:13 pm

Just picked it up today and saw it. It looks amazing apart from any issues due to its source (that flicker during one of the crossfades about 10 minutes, probably due to an error in the optical printing the first time around). Apart from the higher resolution scan giving it the huge image improvement, the Blu-ray source was a fine-grain master positive from the original nitrate negative whereas the DVD was just from an duplicate negative. No encoding issues and definitely no windowboxing =D

Same features as the DVD with no changes and you all know what the packaging looks like =].

As for the film itself, I never considered it one of my all-time favourites (that does not mean I am not moved by it ... far from it). But at the same time, it definitely see it as a cinematic milestone and I highly appreciate it, even celebrate it, for that alone. For me, this is my "before/after" film for cinematic history because I think without this film, you wouldn't have had the European cinema of the 1950s going into the French New Wave and then, of course, the New Hollywood. This was also a favourite film for Satyajit Ray and I can see what Ray drew from Ladri di biciclette into Pather Panchali (another point to make the case for this being the demarcation point). While one can make the case for Rome, Open City as the demarcation point, that film still feels like a constructed melodrama that was shot on location (albeit a well-constructed one ... and an honest one) whereas this feels like "real life created the drama". You could say that if de Sica and Zavattini were able to make a film with just those elements, what else could you make? In other words, romantic realism does not have to be the only style for cinema.

P.S. Yes, Mark Cousins informed my view of cinematic history =]

Costa
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:10 pm

Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#217 Post by Costa » Wed Nov 16, 2016 9:17 am

Watched this yesterday for the first time (not the Criterion release) and it left me completely cold.
Pity because i'm frustrated when i cannot connect to a highly and universally acclaimed film.

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aox
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Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#218 Post by aox » Wed Aug 09, 2017 5:08 pm

The CC BD doesn't have any known technical issues, does it?

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ellipsis7
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:56 pm
Location: Dublin

Re: 374 Bicycle Thieves

#219 Post by ellipsis7 » Tue May 08, 2018 3:22 am

70 years on, new resto screening @ Cannes Classics 2018...
...il restauro realizzato dal laboratorio L'Immagine Ritrovata, promosso da Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna e Compass Film di Stefano Libassi, in collaborazione con Arthur Cohn, Euro Immobilfin, Artedis, e con il sostegno di Istituto Luce-Cinecittà.

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