Kino International to release on Blu-ray this Fall

[bluskiessmingatme]

In addition to Criterion releasing on Blu-ray, the word is now that Kino International will start releasing on Blu-ray later this year. Great news, indeed.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1281

[bluskiessmingatme]

Forgot to mention that "Fallen Angels" will be their first release on Blu.

[Arkadin]

MORE GREAT NEWS!!!
Kino definitely has the rights to a bunch of great masterpieces.
the bad news is that their transfers are very hit or miss. they have done lots of inferior interlaced transfers on many of their best titles. Eureka in the UK often releases many of the same titles, and they are usually superior. Hopefully Kino can get it's act together for bd. If they can I would look very much forward to purchasing what they have to offer.

[The Bandit]

Wow. Fallen Angels is Wong Kar-Wai's companion piece to Chungking Express, which is one of the initial Criterion titles. Couldn't ask for more there.

Arkadin hit the nail on the head with the issues with the Kino transfers -- in many cases (Metropolis, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler to name two off the top of my head) they are NTSC conversions of the PAL masters that Eureka! has made in the UK. Interlacing is not so much an issue on these as ghosting is -- you see a "halo" of a double image in some frames due to the frame rate difference and conversion.

[cheez avenger]

Bring on Nosferatu!

I think these guys own "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", also a welcome addition.

[Arkadin]

Let's say that Kino releases "Nosferatu" next year.
Now I already own the restored Eureka version which is supposedly the best on the planet right now as far as I know. I really wonder how much better if at all the Kino bd would look of this. I mean I guess it is possible, but with a title like this I'm really thinking there may be no discernable difference. What do you think Bandit?

Strangely enough I just ordered the Kino "Cabinet" like 2 weeks ago.

[Sarang]

Boo! I want "The Eye".

[The Bandit]

It depends on the quality of the source and how big the TV is. As a rule of thumb, more pixels is better.

I mean, the source for Nosferatu is 35mm film, so the resolution is there, the DVD is the limiting factor with the 480 lines of resolution.... and you have to take into account the lenses used, of course -- older cinema lenses often showed major vignetting, but they were able to outresolve DVD resolution despite the flaws in optics.

The quality of the restoration work is also important, but I'd be amazed if it was done in anything less than a 2k environment.

I have the Eureka MoC Nosferatu, but haven't watched it yet, so I'm not sure how beat up the print is. I'm sure it's not pristine (like Casablanca, for example)... but even if it's scratched up and such, you'll notice the improvements on a 1080p presentation over a 480p one, assuming you are watching it on a larger set.

If I can pull myself away from GTAIV this weekend I might give the film a spin.

[Arkadin]

right on.
sounds promising.
Hopefully we'll get to find out.

[Brad1963]

Bring on METROPOLIS!

[Konrad]

I cannot believe it! After Chungking Express from Criterion we will now also get Fallen Angels from Kinowelt! Outright fantastic!

[EvilResident]

I want those silent movies, like Nosferatu and Cabinet, but I want them with *good* sounding soundtracks, or at least appropriate ones. BOTH soundtracks on the Kino DVDs are atrocious.

[vauba]

Originally Posted by EvilResident

I want those silent movies, like Nosferatu and Cabinet, but I want them with *good* sounding soundtracks, or at least appropriate ones. BOTH soundtracks on the Kino DVDs are atrocious.

Isn't one of them the original score written for the movie?

[Carpenter]

Somehow the article mixes up two companies. Kinowelt (and the logo shown) is a german distributor which already is releasing titles on blu ray. The american distributor Kino International is a different company.

[Pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by Carpenter

Somehow the article mixes up two companies. Kinowelt (and the logo shown) is a german distributor which already is releasing titles on blu ray. The american distributor Kino International is a different company.

The only mix-up is on this site: whoever copied the announcement from Blu-Ray.com clearly has zero knowledge of foreign and domestic independent distribs.

You are correct:

Kinowelt is a German distrib which has absolutely nothing to do with the N.Y- based KINO Video.

This from the contributor of the original info at BR.com

Dr.A