1st place

BY BRAKHAGE: AN ANTHOLOGY

(Criterion) with 17% of all votes

In June, Criterion released this incredible 2 x disc set of selected Brakhage films. Stan Brakhage worked in collaboration with Criterion on the release but he sadly passed away in March 2003 (aged 70) before the set was released. Brakhage's films are often painted or scratched onto the film itself and thus, for a DVD to fully represent the art, it must attempt to reproduce each frame as accurately as possible. Many readers who voted for this title expressed how successfully the DVD technology was being utilised. It is a rich and fine technical achievement which promises to open the door for further "tricky" works. To win a poll like this is a thumbs up for the whole unique process undertaken for this release: the new fine grain/interpositive prints struck by Western Cine/CinemaLab, the D6 transfers done at Nice Shoes, the supervision of Fred Camper, and the careful DVD authoring skills of Criterion. Indeed, Criterion's technical director Lee Kline has said "We encoded and re-encoded over and over using different methods to get things to look the way they did. This was the most challenging material we've worked on." Hopefully the sales match the love for this release allowing Criterion to apply their skills to similar releases in the future. For more information on this DVD visit this page at Fred Camper's site.

2nd place

TOKYO STORY

(Criterion) with 14% of all votes

This film (and other important Ozu titles) languished in New Yorker's immobile catalogue, unavailable on DVD - until Criterion intervened. In one of the most beautiful coups of the year, Criterion obtained the DVD rights to all the Ozu films they didn't already have in the Janus library. In Ozu's centenary year, Criterion's Tokyo Story DVD was a timely celebration (no other countries, apart from Japan, managed to release Tokyo Story this year). The fact that it was a 2 x disc set with commentary; Kazou Inoue's exemplary 1983 documentary I Lived, But... and 90th anniversary interviews from Japanese TV in 1993 made it a dream set.

Interestingly, it is perhaps possible for a better version to exist a few years from now. The original negative was destroyed in a fire in the 1950s, but in the late 1990s Tokyo University undertook a costly restoration from the best remaining elements. The owners, Shochiku, decided to pull the plug on this work for financial reasons when it was only two-thirds complete. Consequently, none of the restoration was used in the materials that Shochiku seeded to their licensees around the world for DVDs. Criterion's disc is unusually dark (contrasty) but the best they could do in the strange circumstances. It's fantastic to finally be able to buy it and give it as a gift!

3rd place

COMPLETE CHAPLIN boxset

(MK2/Warner R2 Europe) with 12% of all votes

(NOTE: This award is for the PAL R2 set from Europe. It is *not* for the USA R1 release of this boxset - see below).
The R2 UK set from Warner/MK2 and the French MK2 set are a magnificent achievement. Unfortunately, the USA R1 set is a lazy PAL > NTSC transfer with ghosting - extremely disappointing.

Back in 2001, the Chaplin estate wisely sought the skills of MK2 in France (after seeing their superb Truffaut boxset) and asked them to conjure up a Chaplin set. Two years later, we have this dreamlike set, with perfect extras. If this set had been put together in the USA we'd have extras consisting of Leonard Maltin chatting with Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and Adam Sandler. Okay, maybe Sandler would've been interesting, but what we get from MK2 raises the bar as high as it can go -- Abbas Kiarostami, the Dardenne Bros, Liv Ullmann, Claude Chabrol, Jim Jarmusch, Emir Kusturica, and Bernardo Bertolucci contribute, separately, to the documentary for the film with which they have a personal affinity. It's refreshing to encounter a huge release like this with a distinctly European flavour, one that hasn't been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator to maximise dollarage. Hats off to the Chaplin estate and MK2 for doing Charlie very proud. Hats firmly left in place for Warners USA.

4th place

BRD TRILOGY boxset

(Criterion) with 10% of all votes

5th place

M

(Eureka R2 UK) with 9% of all votes

6th place

BERGMAN TRILOGY boxset

(Criterion) with 7.2% of all votes

7th place

SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE

(Optimum R2 UK) with 6.5% of all votes

8th place

HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR

(Criterion) with 6.1% of all votes

9th place

SUNRISE

(Fox R1) with 5.8% of all votes

10th place

APU TRILOGY boxset

(Artificial Eye R2 UK) with 5.5% of all votes

11th place

PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE

(bfi R2 UK) with 5.1% of all votes

Titles that received more than 3 votes each:

(in alphabetical order):

Ali: Fear Eats The Soul (Criterion); Lon Chaney Collection (various, TCM/Warner R1); Contempt (Criterion); Les Dames du Bois Boulogne (Criterion); Decalog (Kieslowski R1); The Devil and Daniel Webster (Criterion); Dogville (von Trier, Denmark R2); Eraserhead (Lynch's own release, R1); Hou Hsiao-hsien boxset (Taiwan R0); Aki Kaurismaki boxset (Sweden R2); Looney Tunes - Golden Collection (R1); Louisiana Story (Flaherty, Home Vision R1); Man of Aran (Flaherty, Home Vision R1); Metropolis (Kino/Eureka R1/R2); Mondo Cane Collection (Blue Underground R1); Naked Lunch (Criterion); Night and Fog (Criterion); Once Upon A Time In The West (Leone, R1); Persona (Bergman, Tartan UK); Russian Ark (Sokurov R1/R2); La Strada (Criterion); Three Colours Trilogy boxset (Kieslowski R1); Umberto D (Criterion)

No doubt 2004 will be the best year yet for DVDs, we're looking forward
to next December's poll with glee!

[Thanks to all those who voted.]
-------------
Compiled by Nick Wrigley, December 2003
Copyright © 2003 mastersofcinema.org