Cinéslob wrote:What you seem to forget is that DVD Beaver only judges DVDs in a technical capacity; you can rant and rave about Kino's catalogue all you like, but the fact of the matter is, their releases are, on the whole, inadequate. In fact, they're not even 'inadequate'; they're generally appalling, with only Facets springing to my mind as a worse producer.
As for Gary Tooze holding an esoteric vendetta against Kino, well, 'bunkum' is all that can be said of that - if anything, Gary is too lenient on sodding Kino.
Silly, silly Toughie Routine. I didn't seem to forget anything. I understand that Gary judges from a technical capacity... as in my first comment on the subject when I wrote
HerrSchreck wrote:Gary has a longstanding beef with Kino, which I partly understand, being he measures everything against technically perfect presentations... .
Too lenient on Kino? How could he be any more severe? He hasn't reviewed more than 2 or 3% of their catalog-- therefore knows nothing of their fabulous silent catalog & rescuing of obscure titles like THE MAN WHO LAUGHS, WAXWORKS, talkies like DEMENTIA, THE LITTLE FUGITIVE (the unknown heart of the French New Wave), ALIBI, THEY MADE ME A FUGITIVE, all that Stroeheim, the 1912 RICHARD III... I mean really, the list can go on and on.
A love hate relationship is A LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP. If you have a Hate/Hate relationship with them, well then that's just you. How Gary could be any harder on them (they're no different than IMage in their treatment of classic films and are often better, especially with silents, but I don't hear him daring to suggest Image--cc's distrib-- isn't real DVD co; I suspect kino doesn't send him review copies or something)... what would you like to see said or done if he's not nasty enough now?
...and I'm going to throw a potentially incendiary comment out there: you wouldn't see films like ARMAGEDDON, ZISSOU, KICKING & SCREAMING & DAZED AND CONFUSED in the Kino catalog.
The truth is the 2 cos complement each other perfectly. I've been cutting more slack for Kino lately (I wrote missives like yours a few months ago over on the Kino thread I believe)... but there's just nothing one can do. They just don't make the money that CC does, and their reels arent house-packers on the cinema circuit. Imagine where CC would be if the majority of their catalog were BY-BRAKHAGE-type titles... Kino clearly gets stuck in positions where-- in this bizarrely ameboid, shifting market-- they have to choose between decent-to-good production values... as opposed to excellent.. or not releasing the most obscure, mind-blowing titles beloved by the true blue hardest hardcore-- and decide that
getting it out there is the way to go. I still salute what they do and can't abandon them because CC has been spoiling me.