The Studio Canal Collection (Blu-ray)

[John Hodson]

I think this collection, shaping up nicely, deserves a dedicated thread. What we know:

Here is the website.
Where they have the rights, titles will be released in France (by Studio Canal), in Germany (by Kinowelt), in the UK (by Optimum), in the US (by Lionsgate) and in Australia (by who?)
They appear to be 'universal' titles, pressings containing all the laguage tracks, subs, distributor splash screens, etc. for all territories.
At least three of the titles are region free. That rather nice looking 3 Days of The Condor BD is available in Germany, released in France soon.

DVD Times has the news of the UK releases here. Arriving on 28th September are: Le Mepris, Belle De Jour, The Elephant Man, Last Year in Marienbad, The Deer Hunter, Ran and The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum.

Soon to be added (according to the Studio Canal Collection Facebook pages), The Go-Between and The Ladykillers.

DVD Times has reviews of Le Mepris and Ran.

Incidentally, there are reports that Optimum has ditched the early packaging, not completely but they've replaced those disc pockets with normal hub attachments.

[Ross Gowland]

If they get the audio-visual aspect of the films themselves right, this could be a great series that will nicely complement the BFI and Masters of Cinema BDs.

I hope they have jettisoned the 'hardback book' style packaging. I dislike odd boxes and the photos on the website suggested they were pretty garish.

[John Hodson]

Oh dear, should have known better...

After Ran got a bit of a video kicking from DVD Times, The Deer Hunter gets it in the audio neck on another forum:

...I've now received and tested the new UK release. It has two English soundtracks, a 5.1 DTS HD MA track and a 2.0 track, which I think must be just lossy Dolby Digital (since the DD logo is shown on the packaging). The 5.1 audio track is incorrectly pitched and appears to be identical to the corresponding audio track on the Australian release from Universal. However, the 2.0 track is correctly pitched.

As it's a late 70's film, I don't think lossless 5.1 audio is all that essential, so personally I will opt for the correctly pitched 2.0 track. It's just strange and very annoying that Studio Canal couldn't have also provided a 5.1 lossless track that was correctly pitched.

The video transfer on the new UK edition is exactly the same as on the Universal Australian release, and is very good indeed.

I haven't sampled the extras yet, but they appear to be identical to the previous UK PAL DVD Warner/Studio Canal release.

I'm not crazy about the book-style packaging on these new Studio Canal releases. The enclosed booklet is shoddily printed, with smudges and speckles on most of the pages, as if they had been printed from poor quality carbon copies. And the hardcover back of the book is actually blank, but a separate sheet showing the details of the contents has been attached by means of a few globs of latex. This will inevitably come loose or become creased with repeated handling. I suppose they've done it this way because different backing sheets in different languages have been used in each country where these titles have been released (i.e. UK, France, Germany, etc.), but IMO it's a cheap and nasty way of doing it....

And here's a look at the German release of The Elephant Man.

[Ross Gowland]

The pitch thing for The Deer Hunter sounds annoying, but the original soundtrack is ok, so that almost makes up for it.

I thought The Elephant Man looked very good in the screen caps.

The packaging sounds even worse than I thought.

[Alan]

I've received The Elephant Man today and while I've yet to pop the disc in the player, the packaging is already causing issues. Obviously, because these are being produced for multiple territories, the 'book' cases are printed with cover and spine details only - the English language details of contents printed on a piece of paper stuck loosely to the back of the 'book'. It's already peeling off and will undoubtedly tear/get creased.

The packaging is a nice idea but how long it will last is a moot point...

[Ross Gowland]

The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum looks great according to DVD Times.

But the packaging is still shite and they've mispelt the wod 'Honour' on the box.

[Zippy]

i just watched the elephant man. The print is absolutely beautiful

[John S]

I've received The Elephant Man today and while I've yet to pop the disc in the player, the packaging is already causing issues. Obviously, because these are being produced for multiple territories, the 'book' cases are printed with cover and spine details only - the English language details of contents printed on a piece of paper stuck loosely to the back of the 'book'. It's already peeling off and will undoubtedly tear/get creased.

The packaging is a nice idea but how long it will last is a moot point...

Received a couple today (Marienbad and Belle du Jour) and look forward to watching them tonight - generally I like book style packaging but these are 'ok' at best. The stuck on back paper wasn't a surprise to me as it is similar to what is done to a lot of book or boxed DVD packages for US releases. I generally trim them and reattach to the back or put them inside.

Perhaps I'm used to the glossiness of some of the Warners book packages but these do look a bit cheap. Its probably the degraded print style they've chosen to apply across the packaging as a whole (including the booklet). I think it falls into the category of looking better on screen than in the flesh.
Nevertheless it's good to see these titles appearing on Blu-ray at all!

[John Hodson]

I would love to see Studio Canal / Optimum produce something that wasn't in some way painfully half-arsed.

Eureka are a tiny, tiny outfit compared to the resources of the French outfit and yet they not only know their business, but they actually care about what they're doing. Spot the difference...

[Alan]

I would love to see Studio Canal / Optimum produce something that wasn't in some way painfully half-arsed.

The Avengers, perhaps?

[John Hodson]

There's still time...

[Alan]

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

[John Hodson]

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Now, now Alan; [Captain Mainwaring]you know you can't trust Johnny Frenchman. Despite our best British Bulldog efforts, experience shows that he'll find a way to balls things up.[/Captain Mainwaring]

A heads-up for anyone who does what I've just done with Disc 1... i.e. watch 'Hot Snow' with Leonard White's commentary and then take a peek at the 'Police Surgeon' episode.

Make sure you click 'PLAY EPISODE' on 'Hot Snow' after watching with the commentary. Go back to the menu after a few seconds and then select the 'Police Surgeon' episode...

If you don't do this, you will have no soundtrack on 'Police Surgeon'. Optimum appear to have left a redundant 2nd audio track on this feature and you can't switch to the appropriate one while playing the episode.

Minor thing I know. However, there are always exceptions to prove the rule...

[Alan]

Now, now Alan; [Captain Mainwaring]you know you can't trust Johnny Frenchman. Despite our best British Bulldog efforts, experience shows that he'll find a way to balls things up.[/Captain Mainwaring]

Let's keep a positive outlook. There's a lot of water that has flowed under a lot of bridges since the Contender releases - back then they wouldn't allow any licensee to make special features, for instance. Things have changed - so let's do without the negativism, however lightheartedly meant.

[John Hodson]

You're beginning to sound like the HTF, Alan...