From the folks at Dvdtimes
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Optimum Home Entertainment have announced the UK Blu-ray Disc release of several titles under the banner of The Studio Canal Collection. Arriving on 28th September 2009 are: Le Mepris, Belle De Jour, The Elephant Man, Last Year in Marienbad, The Deer Hunter, Ran and The Lost Honour of Katarina Blum.

Features are TBC, though if the artwork on Amazon is accurate, it looks as though these will feature deluxe packaging with booklets.


http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id/70957/the-studio-canal-collection-uk-blu-rays-in-september.html

Am I the only one wishing the Besson set came in packs like these ?

Optimum has really pulled itself together after the fiasco with the upscaled Carpenter discs. The latest batch with releases, including the british sci-fi classic "Hardware" and the french horror movie "Martyrs", has been in superb quality.

And with the "Studio Canal Collection" series, they are hopefully turning into a european version of "Criterion" :)

And we need that since the Criterion discs are region A locked and not playable over here.

Those "Studio Canal Collection" packs looks incredible :)

I don't mind the book packaging, but I am not at all crazy about how the disc slides into the back. A hub would've been much better.

I don't mind the book packaging, but I am not at all crazy about how the disc slides into the back. A hub would've been much better.

Agreed. Other than this, the cases look gorgeous - but this is a big sticking point unfortunately.

lets hope they dont screw audio pitches up again

It appears that these are now available for order at amazon.com US (and also CA) with a 9/29 release and priced between $22.49 - $27.49. They are marked as imports, but the EAN do not match up to the UK versions, so I don't know where they might be coming from - seems too cheap to be AU imports...

Belle de Jour
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KGVB9Q
EAN: 5050582730043

Deer Hunter
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KGVB8W
EAN: 5050582730098

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KGVBAK
EAN: 5050582730111

Le Mepris (Contempt)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002PQ1P9W
EAN: 505058273005

Ran
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KGVB9G
EAN: 5050582730081

Elephant Man
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KGVB96
EAN: 5050582730067

I've picked up the following titles: The Elephant Man, Belle de Jour, Last Year at Marienbad, Le Mepris and Ran.

I'm happy to report that most of these titles look great. The Elephant Man looks beautifully filmlike with a fine layer of grain present troughout the movie, detail has drastically improved. DTS-HD 5.1 track is present as well.

Belle de Jour, I'd say it's close to the original look. Colour-reproduction is brilliant, and grain is nicely preserved. It was a real treat to see this film in HD. I've only seen a short bit of Le Mepris, but it looks to be on par with Belle de Jour (I'll update my findings later).

Last Year at Marienbad looks very close to the Criterion release, so that's a good thing. Comparing the two, the Canal image seems to be slightly more damaged, with a variety a of specks and dots showing up from time to time. Detail, however, is great throughout.

Now for the bad part. Ran doesn't look too good. There's no doubt this release is from the same master as the HD-DVD - which I felt looked smeary and boosted.

I've picked up the following titles: The Elephant Man, Belle de Jour

so, no pitch problems with the elephant man? also, were you able to play belle de jour on a region a player?

Apparently The Deer Hunter has a pitch problem. :(

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=2357043#post2357043

Does that mean The Deer Hunter uses entirely different masters from the Universal HD DVD/Blu-ray? Or do those releases also suffer from the pitch problem?

Apparently The Deer Hunter has a pitch problem. :(

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=2357043#post2357043

Optimum strkes again.

Unsurprisingly, Studio Canal has yet again opted to re-use one of their trademark rubbish transfers, this time for Ran (http://forums.highdefdigest.com/1695247-post18.html).

It appears that these are now available for order at amazon.com US (and also CA) with a 9/29 release and priced between $22.49 - $27.49. They are marked as imports, but the EAN do not match up to the UK versions, so I don't know where they might be coming from - seems too cheap to be AU imports...

Belle de Jour
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KGVB9Q
EAN: 5050582730043

Deer Hunter
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KGVB8W
EAN: 5050582730098

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KGVBAK
EAN: 5050582730111

Le Mepris (Contempt)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002PQ1P9W
EAN: 505058273005

Ran
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KGVB9G
EAN: 5050582730081

Elephant Man
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KGVB96
EAN: 5050582730067


All but two of these now say "This item has been discontinued by the manufacturerer." at Amazon U.S. Contempt and Belle de Jour are still available to pre-order.

All but two of these now say "This item has been discontinued by the manufacturerer." at Amazon U.S. Contempt and Belle de Jour are still available to pre-order.
Interesting - it may have just been a catalog error on the part of Amazon and those two might also disappear shortly.

I was hoping it might signal a new trend of "direct-sale" European imports from some distributors at roughly currency conversion prices instead of at inflated import prices which make it cheaper just to import yourself. For example, something more along the lines of the opera/ballet titles from Opus Arte, TDK, Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Grammophon, etc. I suppose the distribution rights involved are more complex for feature films, however, making this a trickier proposition.

Does anyone have any information regarding whether BELLE DE JOUR will play on Region A/US players? I ordered a few of the others, but really want to get my hands on this one.

Thanks!
Norris

Interesting tidbit from the comments section at DVD Times, which I'll repost here because I think it might've slipped by a lot of people:

The 3 discs we've got all open with a list of countries to choose from which determines what studio logos are played, what piracy warnings you see and of course the language the menu is displayed in. I mention this because it's worth noting that Ran and Le Mepris both have a 'USA' option which leads to the Lionsgate logo suggesting you'll see some of these released in North America through them at some point.

There goes any chance of getting a new transfer of Ran for the U.S. release :(

Reportedly the Elephant Man has a new video encode. The BD has 25mbps AVC while the HD DVD had 17mbps VC1.

RAN reuses the 17mbps VC1 encode from the HD DVD though. Both transfers of RAN are barely above upscale quality: http://forums.highdefdigest.com/1696040-post26.html

The Ran movie filesize is 35GB (http://forums.highdefdigest.com/blu-ray-imports-subforum/92726-studio-canal-collection-post1695916.html#post1695916), so what's added then opposed to the HD DVD? It seems to have 3 additional dubbed DTS HD MA 2.0 tracks but that hardly accounts for the 5 or 6 GB, or does it?

Can anyone confirm if RAN is playable in Region A?

Is it an improvement over the Criterion DVD?

I am so disappointed that Criterion lost the rights. They are the only ones that could of done this justice. :(

looks like Lionsgate got wind of the amazon offerings and nixed them.
guess I'll have to import after all.
according to a member at HDD Belle de Jour is region B, but "Elephant Man" is region A and B.
Contempt also shows A and B on the back of the package.

Any chance of some screencaps from these titles? In particular, I am interested in Belle de Jour, Elephant Man and Le Mepris.

Also, how does the PQ of Deer Hunter compare to the first Blu-Ray release?

All but two of these now say "This item has been discontinued by the manufacturerer." at Amazon U.S. Contempt and Belle de Jour are still available to pre-order.
Not sure what's going on, but these are all available again from Amazon U.S.

Is there any word on these playing on a Region A PS3 without issues?

Any owners able to tell if The Elephant Man suffers from the audio pitch issue?

Reportedly the Elephant Man has a new video encode. The BD has 25mbps AVC while the HD DVD had 17mbps VC1.

RAN reuses the 17mbps VC1 encode from the HD DVD though. Both transfers of RAN are barely above upscale quality: http://forums.highdefdigest.com/1696040-post26.html

DVD Beaver did a comparison a while back between the Criterion DVD, some other DVDs, and the HD DVD. The HD DVD was said to have different colors (bright!) but the PQ looked much better than an upscale. I never bought the thing because I don't understand Japanese and it didn't have English subs.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews31/ran_HD.htm


Edit: Well, it looks like DVD Beaver already has a BD review:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/FILM/DVDCompare2/ran.htm

..but it's not the Studio Canal.

I give up. :(

Any owners able to tell if The Elephant Man suffers from the audio pitch issue?

I do want to know this. I'm satisfied with the PQ of the HD DVD but pitch problem is not something I like. I'd replace in a heartbeat.