Institute Benjamenta

[MichaelB]

Official specs announced:

Institute Benjamenta
Or This Dream People call Human Life
A film by the Quay Brothers
Starring Mark Rylance and Alice Krige

A darkly beautiful, bizarre, and unsettling feature, Institute Benjamenta is one of the first three releases in the BFI’s new Dual Format Edition package, containing both a DVD and Blu-ray disc

This striking first live-action feature from the master animators is a beautifully-realised anti-fairy tale, adapted from Jakob von Gunten, a novel by remarkable Swiss writer Robert Walser.

Jakob (Mark Rylance) wants to be of service. Admitted to a peculiar school for servants run by domineering Johannes (Gottfried John) and his sorrowful sister Lisa (Alice Krige), and perplexed at first by his often-absurd new surroundings, Jakob gradually uncovers the mystical Institute’s secrets and, by extension, those of life itself.

The Quays’ visionary style, stunning monochrome photography by Nic Knowland and Larry Sider’s rich soundscapes breathe life into every corner of this fragile world, which shimmers with repressed energy and hypnotic beauty.

Special features:

- Standard Definition and High Definition presentations of feature and extras;
- Inside the Institute: an in-between world (2010, 31 mins): new documentary exploring the making of the film through interviews with the Quays, Mark Rylance, Alice Krige and principal cast and crew;
- On the set of Institute Benjamenta (2000, 16 mins, DVD only)
- Institute Benjamenta trailer (1995, 1 min)
- Eurydice - She, So Beloved (The Quay Brothers, 2007, 11 mins): Orpheus’ attempt to rescue his dead lover Eurydice from Hades
- Songs for Dead Children (The Quay Brothers/Steve Martland, 2003, 24 mins): Steve Martland’s Street Songs realised in eerily-beautiful animation
- The Comb (The Quay Brothers, 1990, 18 mins): the ingenious animated short which paved the way for the Quays’ first feature
- Illustrated booklet of newly commissioned essays and notes

Release date: 17 May 2010
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIB1033 / cert 12
UK, Japan, Germany / 1995 / black and white / English language / 104 minutes /
original aspect ratio 1.66:1
Disc 1: BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / DTS HD-MA audio (special features Dolby Digital mono audio (320 kbps))
Disc 2: DVD9 / PAL / Dolby Digital mono audio (448 kbps) (special features 192 kbps)
The feature film contains optional subtitles for the hearing impaired

[MichaelB]

Beaver.

[jsteffe]

Those screen grabs on DVD Beaver really look stunning - exquisitely textured black and white! Frankly, I don't recall the 35mm print I saw looking quite that nice. And the dual format edition makes this release a no-brainer.

[ouatitw]

I've pre-ordered a copy, I can't wait.

[MichaelB]

Blu-rayDefinition.com - with more full-resolution framegrabs.

[Finch]

Michael, would Benjamenta be a good starting point for a Quay Brothers newbie? I've not seen anything by them before at all but the Beaver caps and the review above have me intrigued, especially the description of the film as an eerie fairytale.

[MichaelB]

I'd buy this release but watch The Comb first - it's one of their most characteristic animated shorts, and it's a dry run for Benjamenta in many ways: stylistically quite different, but with several thematic points in common.

[Finch]

Thanks 8-)

[MichaelB]

Bad news, I'm afraid - I've been asked to pass this on:

As if the problems we've had with our Dual Format Edition stickers wasn't enough to be going on with, we've now discovered that there's a manufacturing error which affects the DVD in our Institute Benjamenta release.

What this means, we're sorry to report, is that the release date has now had to be put back a couple of weeks (to 31 May) to allow us the necessary time to manufacture corrected stock.

We apologise for any disappointment or inconvenience that this change to the release date may cause.

I'll update if there's any further delay, but hopefully there won't be. Fortunately, because this is a very straightforward manufacturing error rather than an encoding/authoring one (i.e. it's not another Leopard situation), this should be rectified very quickly.

[perkizitore]

My copy from HMV has already shipped, what should i do?

[doc mccoy]

Same here. What's the flaw on the dvd, as a matter of interest?

[perkizitore]

Unless it affects the DVD exclusive extras, i couldn't care less!
But still, after The Leopard mess, my patience with BFI and their quality control is wearing thin...

[doc mccoy]

Ditto. I'm not really bothered about the film on the dvd; that's why I bought the Blu-ray. But the extras are a different matter.

[MichaelB]

But still, after The Leopard mess, my patience with BFI and their quality control is wearing thin...

Actually, this illustrates that the BFI's quality control department is working perfectly well.

Final copies arrived in the office earlier this week, a manufacturing defect was spotted on the DVD (I repeat: this is a quite different situation from the one with The Leopard), and immediate action is being taken to correct the problem.

Short of actually sending a BFI employee over to the pressing plant to personally oversee production of the final copies, it's hard to see what else could have been done.

[perkizitore]

Michael, if your quality control is that good, why are copies being SHIPPED from retailers?

[denti alligator]

Amazon now has this listed for June 7.

[MichaelB]

Michael, if your quality control is that good, why are copies being SHIPPED from retailers?

You'll have to ask HMV - the originally-scheduled release date wasn't till next Monday.

But as soon as the problem came to light, all online retailers were alerted and shipping should have ceased immediately. A very small number of people will be affected by this, and it unfortunately appears that you're among them, but rest assured that you'll get a replacement as soon as it's been produced.

I should also stress that the Blu-ray disc is absolutely fine, and I believe you have a Blu-ray player - in fact, I know the exact model, as you've mentioned it often enough. So unless you have a burning urge to watch the DVD as well, you're actually only missing out on one item: the decidedly lo-fi production featurette originally made for the old Kino release. (This looked hideous when upscaled to 1080p, which is why it's exclusive to the DVD).

[perkizitore]

I appreciate BFI's swift response on this, but i had already notified you that HMV was still shipping faulty Leopard discs after the November recall. It seems no action has been taken and i doubt that anything will change.

[denti alligator]

I hate to point out the obvious (which has already been pointed out), but this is clearly a problem with HMV, not BFI.

A small hitch-up like this is unfortunate, but at least BFI is on top of it and the extra wait isn't too long. It will be well worth it.

[MichaelB]

A small hitch-up like this is unfortunate, but at least BFI is on top of it and the extra wait isn't too long. It will be well worth it.

And also, Perkizitore may well be getting his hands on the Blu-ray before the original release date! So I'm not entirely sure why his is the loudest and most incessant voice of complaint here: I'd have thought people who only have DVD players have a rather bigger beef regarding this situation.

Incidentally, I should point out that this particular manufacturing fault is believed to be the first such example in the entire decade-plus history of the BFI's DVD publishing arm. So no-one could reasonably have predicted it in advance of it occurring.

[perkizitore]

Sorry for being so vocal Michael, but after the Leopard situation i became a bit itchy. I am getting Privilege earlier as well, so i shouldn't complain that much

[manicsounds]

DVDBeaver didn't spot anything wrong, unless the screener version was fine. What was the problem?

[MichaelB]

DVDBeaver didn't spot anything wrong, unless the screener version was fine. What was the problem?

As you correctly surmised, they and other reviewers were sent pre-release screeners, digitally identical in every way to the intended final version. The only thing they'd have missed would be the final packaging.

The manufacturing error was introduced at the pressing plant at the time of production of the final retail version after the screeners had been sent out, which is why no reviewers would have been aware of it - they would have been reviewing exactly what will be released in a fortnight or so once the DVDs have been re-pressed. So you can completely trust the reviews!

[frankiecrisp]

I got my copy this morning and I hate this duel format. there is a horrible gray sticker on the top of the box that leaves a terrible mess when you try to open the box and is very hard to remove, I have now got to order some spare blu-ray boxes to replace this mess. what was wrong with the normal blu-ray boxes without this stupid label ?

[RossyG]

I got my copy this morning and I hate this duel format. there is a horrible gray sticker on the top of the box that leaves a terrible mess when you try to open the box and is very hard to remove...

Once you've peeled (or more likely torn) off the sticker, a spray of WD40 and a quick rub removes the goo. I've just done it with my copy of The Pleasure Girls and it looks fine now, as if the sticker had never been there.

what was wrong with the normal blu-ray boxes ?

What sort of box did Institute Benjamenta come in? Pleasure Girls came in a regular shaped BD case; the only difference was that it was made of clear, rather than blue, plastic.