[LEN-E] "Bergfilm" documentary on arte TV and some other things

[Ron Koster]

Hi folks! Nice to see a little activity here on 
the list again -- it's been some time! ;)

At 02:53 PM 02/12/2008 +0100, Thomas Köhler wrote:

>"The Lion has Wings" was recently released on 

>DVD as a bonus film on the Criterion 

>Collection's edition of Powell's "The Thief of 

>Bagdad" (1940), and even if you don't care for 

>the Lion, don't miss the Thief. It's one of the 

>most charming and endlessly entertaining early 

>Technicolor extravaganzas, starring amongst 

>others Conrad Veidt as the evil Jaffar and the 

>young Sabu as the thief, and has still some 

>completely exciting special fx. I guess watching 

>again will bring back fond childhood memories to 

>many of you. More here: http://www.criterion.com/films/544


Actually, talk about coincidence! For anyone here 
in North America (in the US or Canada, at least), 
if you get the Turner Classic Movie (TCM) 
channel, then it's airing tomorrow (Wednesday) 
afternoon, at 2:15pm! Not the other film you 
mentioned ("The Lion Has Wings"), though -- but 
still, I do look forward to seeing "The Thief of 
Bagdad" again (first time since childhood, as you said!). :)


>Finally, about that "Wege" release Luc 

>mentioned: is that a dvd or a VHS, and is it an 

>official release or some low-quality bootled? I 

>don't recall having heard anything about it before.


In a way, it's all of the above -- and none of 
the above! It is a DVD, but the quality of the 
film-to-video transfer is, unfortunately, worse 
than VHS. :/   And it's not an "official" 
release, but neither is it a bootleg, really -- I 
guess it depends on one's perspective. In the US, 
copyright laws aren't very strict (compared to 
Europe and elsewhere), and so *technically* it's 
now in the public domain there. As such, the 
people that produced this DVD basically 
somehow/somewhere managed to screen (and capture) 
a copy of the film -- perhaps from the Library of 
Congress (I don't know)??? -- and then came out with the DVD.

This is, of course, rather a problem in the US -- 
there are many people who have managed to get 
very poor quality versions of older films 
(including several of Leni's early mountain 
films, not to mention Triumph and Olympia) which 
are "technically" in the public domain in the US, 
and so they just pump out copy after copy and 
make a fortune on eBay -- all the while 
thoroughly disappointing customers who deserve 
better (and, in many cases, who could easily find 
much higher quality versions through the legitimate "official" releases).

Ron :/