Criterion to re-release Salò on 8/26

[CraigJD]

Yep, the BFI BD is region free.

LINK: http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=68187

[Simon Verwest]

It doesn't mention the poem, but the BBFC do have an interesting case study up on the censorship the film faced in the UK:

http://www.sbbfc.co.uk/SaloJD.asp

[Jeff K]

Well, my copy arrived and I'm happy to report that I made it all the way through to the end. The feel good movie of the year!

Actually, I don't quite know what to make of the film yet. I can't even begin to put into words my thoughts about the movie. Maybe in a couple of days (weeks? months?) It ...was...an...experience.

I will say that the packaging is superb. I haven't read the booklet nor seen the documentary yet but kudos to Criterion for a job well done.

[Derrick King]

The UK Blu-ray disc IS region coded B

[Ian Jane]

Originally Posted by Derrick King

The UK Blu-ray disc IS region coded B

The BFI press contact confirmed it for me in an email so I'm assuming that's the case (because I specifically asked about the region coding).

[CraigJD]

DVDTimes is usually a reliable source of information, so I don't know who informed them the BFI disc was all regions for their press release, if the BFI are now saying their BD is region B.

Seems a bit silly for a niche title from a niche company to restrict its sales by imposing region coding. Unless it was a contractual obligation owing to a region A Salo on BD being in the pipeline? Maybe part of Criterion's next wave of Blu-ray? Just a speculation.

[Ian Jane]

Originally Posted by CraigJD

Seems a bit silly for a niche title from a niche company to restrict its sales by imposing region coding. Unless it was a contractual obligation owing to a region A Salo on BD being in the pipeline? Maybe part of Criterion's next wave of Blu-ray? Just a speculation.

That's probably it.

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by CraigJD

DVDTimes is usually a reliable source of information, so I don't know who informed them the BFI disc was all regions for their press release, if the BFI are now saying their BD is region B.

The original BFI press release was factually inaccurate. The Blu-ray of Salò is 100% definitely Region B.

Seems a bit silly for a niche title from a niche company to restrict its sales by imposing region coding.

Niche companies by definition don't tend to own their titles - they have to license them from third parties, who are entirely within their rights to impose region coding. Not least because, as you say, it means they stand a better chance of licensing the rights to a different territory.

On a happier note, I've now seen the BFI Blu-ray, and once you get past the surprisingly grainy opening credits, the picture is gobsmackingly good - quite unnervingly so when you consider what you're watching. That aside, I'd rate the BFI slightly ahead of the Criterion in terms of extras - the Criterion devotes more space to analysing the film itself, but the BFI offers more variety (the Coil video - also in hi-def on the Blu-ray! - the hour-long documentary Whoever Speaks the Truth Shall Die and the short film Ostia starring Derek Jarman as a rather implausible Pasolini on the night of his murder). And the BFI booklet has a lot of material on the film's British censorship history, including James Ferman's lengthy six-page letter to the Director of Public Prosecutions defending the film from a threatened prosecution.

(Granted, Ferman was trying to defend his own reputation, so it's not quite as altruistic as it seems, but it's still one of the more impassioned defences of the film that I've read).

For the record, this is based on actually viewing the Criterion and BFI discs (I'm writing a comparative review for Sight & Sound), not on paper specs. As far as the SD-DVDs are concerned, there's little to choose between them - the colours of the Criterion are warmer, but the BFI shows slightly more visual information all around the frame, and also contains the missing 25-second scene that was in the earlier BFI release, but not in either of the Criterions.

[CraigJD]

Thanks for the clarification, Michael. I already have the Criterion disc, and am 'going Blu' by the year's end so this could well be a double dip. Assuming I buy into Region B. It will depend on whether Criterion's BDs are coded A or not. I think I might choose Criterion BD over BFI BD, despite BFI closing the quality gap of late.

I've just subscribed to Sight and Sound, and am looking forward to the Salo piece.

[Sergio B]

DVD Beaver has updated its DVD comparison review of SALO to include the BFI Blu Ray release. Now, I obviously haven't seen the disc, but going exclusively off the screen grabs and not taking into consideration the increased resolution of the BFI disc, I would say Criterion's transfer looks warmer and more pleasing. BFI's SALO appears to be less contrasty and there seems to be a cyan-ish hue dominating the image (check out the screen grabs of the four madams and the libertine looking through the binoculars for the best side-by-side examples). I'll probably still end up getting the SD version, just for the extras alone though.

[M Burgess]

Got mine today. Wow, a total masterpiece and for such grim subject matter, its beautifully and carefully filmed - I love its bare aesthetic and architecture (the deteriorating mansion is gorgeous). Its more of a deranged chamber piece than I expected with a really elegant classicism and cabaret songs mixed with the hideous torture and poop. Apart from the shit eating, I didn't find it even remotely viscerally disturbing as its reputation suggests. Its definitely disturbing but on a different level, with no characters to really identify with its more psychological and intellectually horrifying. I found Last House On Dead End Street and the "documentary" parts of Cannibal Holocaust much harder to sit through. This is different. Pasolini is more interested in the intellectual consequences of the horrifying footage captured like Haneke and Breillat, the camera is restrained and holds back for the most part and there's never really clear, up close footage of the really disturbing material. Anyone who calls this "exploitation" has never seen an exploitation film. 10/10

[Vincent Pereira]

The screenshots on DVD Beaver (http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare/salo.htm) of the British Blu-ray look like BFI DNRed the HD transfer as much as they possibly could, then applied edge-enhancement to compensate for the resultant softness. It doesn't resemble film at all. If you click on those screen caps and view them full size, you'll be treated to a bunch of nasty looking digital noise instead of organic film grain. At best, it appears that SALO on Blu-ray via BFI looks like something that was shot on digital video then had a half-assed digital "film look" process applied.

I think I'll wait for the Criterion BD, missing poem sequence or not. At least that has a chance of actually resembling film.

Vincent

[CraigJD]

Screencaps are hardly an exact science, I know, but first impressions would suggest that the warmer Criterion is a more accurate transfer of the original elements. It does look the most film like of the two to my eyes. The extra detail on the BD is clear to see, but so is that bluish caste and strangely processed appearance.

And the shot of the poem scene would seem to indicate that it's been spliced in from an inferior source. It looks muddier and less detailed, with crushed blacks. Only one screenshot to judge by, of course, but it would seem that the information about that scene not existing in the original Italian release elements is an accurate one, and raises the question about whether it belongs in the film at all, or should maybe have been selectable as an extra.

I'm sure more views on the BD will surface here and elsewhere very soon now the disc is on general release, and I look forward to hearing what others think of the differences.

[Sergio B]

I got my copy of the Criterion DVD today. I didn't have a chance to watch the whole film, but what I did see was a revelation from a transfer standpoint. It doesn't quite match the superb job they did on the TIN DRUM transfer, but it's pretty close. The only thing that sucked was that disc one arrived loose in the packaging and had some minor scratches, which annoyed my anal retentive self to no end. On the plus side, it gives me an excuse to pick up another copy.

[Jeffrey Allen Rydell]

Originally Posted by Sergio B

The only thing that sucked was that disc one arrived loose in the packaging and had some minor scratches, which annoyed my anal retentive self to no end. On the plus side, it gives me an excuse to pick up another copy...

... to satisfy your obsessive-compulsive self?