Artificial Eye / Curzon Film World

[Aunt Peg]

I know it's no substitute for a decent BluRay, but 'Only the Animals' appears to be one of the films Curzon has sold on to Netflix in the UK.

That's interesting. Though being in Australia I can only hope that the Australian distributor will release the film on DVD. A Blu Ray won't be happening.

[rapta]

Andrei Konchalovsky's Dear Comrades!, positively reviewed by Michael B, appears to be another streaming-only release.

I did contact Curzon Artificial Eye a while ago to inquire about the new direction and was advised, in a very considered and polite response to be fair, that whether a film would get a physical media release was entirely based on how many sales the company could project and that this approach was the result of the year on year decline in sales of DVDs and BluRays. They said they are still looking to release special editions when they feel it would be viable to do so, for example, Summer of 85 may be included in an Ozon Blu Ray set later this year.

Quite a few Curzon films have turned up on Netflix, for example, At Eternity's Gate, Vox Lux and The Whistlers, but not everything the company has released recently, so no Transit or Young Ahmed.

A shame to hear that, but it seemed pretty obvious they've been handling releases in this way for a while. In fact I noticed they would often release films with 'big name actors' on Blu-ray (At Eternity's Gate, Loro, Vox Lux, Gloria Bell), and DVD or streaming only for films they clearly decided had less 'commercial appeal' but had done quite well at festivals (So Long My Son, The Whistlers) or were directed by renowned directors (Birds of Passage, Sunset, Transit, Non-Fiction, Guest of Honour). There were the odd anomalies and I hoped things would pick up once Cohen Media took over proceedings, but sounds like it's getting worse. They didn't even bother to assemble any extras for the Bong Joon-ho double-bill, which is frustrating when they're competing with labels like Criterion in a global sense.

Still, at least some of the harder-to-see titles I might've not been able to see at the cinema will be on Netflix, something most of us have access to. I just wish we'd see them translate some titles to Blu-ray - not just upgrades of many of their older DVD titles, but titles like Transit, Sunset and Birds of Passage would've benefitted from the HD presentation (I would've bought all three, Transit especially). I guess the only hope is they pick up more titles by some of those directors and release a small box set eventually, but that'd presumably be a long wait for not much (especially if they aren't producing new extras anymore).

[Aunt Peg]

I'm staggered that László Nemes' Sunset did not even receive a physical media release of any kind in the US or Australia - zip, straight to streaming.

I've also heard that Only the Animals is very likely to receive a DVD release in coming months in Australia. Whilst I'd prefer a Curzon Blu Ray release I'll settle for an Oz DVD if that is all I can get.

I didn't realise that Quest of Honour had even been released so I'll snap the US Blu Ray.

[Caligula]

For me them not releasing Foxtrot on blu was a huge disappointment. It appears unlikely that we'll see an English-friendly version on blu

[AidanKing]

'Shirley' appears to be getting a BluRay release, which fits in with rapta's point about films with stars.

[yoloswegmaster]

Bong Joon-Ho Collection to be released on March 29. It will contain Barking Dogs Never Bite, Memories of Murder, The Host, Mother, Snowpiercer, and Parasite.

EDIT:
Roy Andersson Collection is also going to be released on March 29. It will contain A Swedish Love Story, Songs from the Second Floor, You the Living, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, About Endlessness, and Being A Human Person.

[chatterjees]

Why are they re-releasing Roy Anderson Collection Blu-ray set? Did the previous one go OOP? It is kind of weird.

[swo17]

Well this adds two films. It would be nice if it also included a bunch of new shorts

[Calvin]

And the old set has been OOP for a while now. This one will have new extras but they've yet to say what they'll be.

The Bong set is more surprising; I think it's actually quite disrespectful to their customers to release it so soon after they released the Barking Dogs / Memories of Murder double pack.

[rapta]

And the old set has been OOP for a while now. This one will have new extras but they've yet to say what they'll be.

The Bong set is more surprising; I think it's actually quite disrespectful to their customers to release it so soon after they released the Barking Dogs / Memories of Murder double pack.

Supposedly they'll be adding extras to the Andersson set as well. I missed the first set so will likely pick this one up (thankfully not bought A Pigeon as I was still umming and ahhing over the first set due to mixed reviews on the transfers).

Agreed that the Bong set is frustrating. I was looking to get the Barking Dogs/Memories of Murder double-bill at some point, having bought the Parasite steelbook, and even bought The Host and Snowpiercer recently too, so that all felt like a waste of time when I could've just got this set (and only have to double-dip on Mother, maybe Parasite as well). Always seems to be Artificial Eye's style to release loads of separate titles and then a box set some time afterwards though, rather than the other more logical way around. I remember them doing that with Satyajit Ray and Truffaut too (I'm still picking up the odd Truffaut disc as cheap as I can get them).

I'm slightly surprised they got Mother and Snowpiercer too - I suppose the former's rights with StudioCanal expired, but the latter is with Lionsgate (I'm guessing they had links to them through other titles such as Son of Saul). I don't get why they didn't get Mother before though and release it with Barking Dogs/Memories of Murder. Strange priorities within that label I think, but happy to see them doing more box sets - just wish they'd do them for Haneke, Denis etc.