This is BrainLog, a blog by Dan Sanderson. Older entries, from October 1999 through September 2010, are preserved for posterity, but are no longer maintained. See the front page and newer entries.

February 16, 2004

Amazon keeps a list of videos, movies and TV shows popularly desired, but not yet available, on DVD. It's a neat list, movies in the popular consciousness that are just obscure enough to not have DVD releases. Some seem on the verge, and some that seem less likely deserve a march on movie distributors' offices.

I was going to mention the perpetual lack of a US release of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead on DVD (and the VHS is out of print), until I did a quick check of eBay and noticed a NTSC no-region "new factory sealed" DVD, Buy-It-Now for $25. Then I remembered when I bought Topsy Turvy on DVD from an eBay seller because Amazon.com didn't have it: when it arrived, it had a little Canadian sticker on it. So I checked Amazon.ca and found it readily available. CA doesn't have R&G, but UK does ("region 0", but PAL).

Also: Murnau's Sunrise is available on DVD in the US, but apparently only as part of this boxed set— which is a good thing, because you also get How Green Was My Valley, Gentleman's Agreement and All About Eve, all with historian commentaries and other nice features, for just $31.

comments...

I would avoid the eBay R+G, which is almost certainly either the legitimate Korean release from Daum media or a bootleg based off of it; not region-coded as far as I know but full-screen. The R0 PAL is 16x9 anamorphic widescreen, at least.



Apparently Costco was selling individually-packaged copies of Sunrise earlier this year. Not sure if they still have it.

Good call. The eBay edition has a cover identical to this one, which advertises NTSC fullscreen (4:3) and "Dolby Digital Mono" sound:



http://www.koreandvds.com/dvddetail.html?id=6476



The UK PAL edition is widescreen and stereo.

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