Savant's new reviews today are
Hello! Once again it's foreign film week - French titles seem to have stacked up in lieu of interesting noir screeners that are conspicuous no-shows - Universal! But the quality remains high and I am becoming a confirmed Claude Chabrol fan. The trailer compilations here are a fun diversion, and a fairly guilty pleasure considering some of the incredibly trashy titles included - but these are exactly what the fans want to see.
Interestingly, on these collections are trailers for films like Blacula that are owned by major studios. The majors naturally frown on this exploitation of their product but apparently can't do much about it - before a certain year, coming attractions are fair game in the Public Domain. For low-budget movie docus, trailers are often used to circumvent licensing fees for movie clips. The Public Domain is such a problematic subject - sometimes it helps get rare movies into circulation, and other times it keeps them out of reach. Lousy PD copies of many films are all we can see, when studio vaults often have pristine printing elements. They presumably don't put out their own superior versions, because the graymarket PD sector could immediately dupe them and call them their own. It's a strange world out there.
BTW, if you don't receive an answer for an email, please send it again. I try to answer every note (that asks for a response) but I keep getting "undeliverable mail" spam for messages I never sent, I'd say an average of ten a day. So if I have thrown out some good responses, or am unaware that something wasn't delivered, please let me know ...
Thanks, Glenn Erickson
Posted by DVD Savant at July 25, 2004 10:11 AM