Oliver Carter

On Wednesday I presented the paper I gave at the Transforming Audiences 2 Conference on fan DVD production to my research group peers at Birmingham City University.  My colleague Andrew Dubber was kind enough (no hint of sarcasm there at all) to take a picture of me at the end of the presentation when I was fielding questions.  Though I felt that I gave a better presentation at the Transforming Audiences conference, the response from my colleagues was much more positive, having a number of useful comments.  I was quite surprised at how different it is presenting to your peers compared to presenting to strangers at a conference.  I think I prefer the latter. 

In April the Italian publisher Glittering Images will be releasing another volume in their lavishly produced Bizzare Sinema book series.  The good news is that this volume will be purely devoted to the giallo.  The book can be ordered direct from the Glittering Images website for €29.00 plus shipping.  The front cover image, taken from Blood and Black Lace (Mario Bava, 1964), looks superb.  As with their previous releases, text will be presented in Italian, English and French.

Peur Sur La Ville is one of my all time favourite films.  Think Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1970) meets giallo and you get some idea of what this film is about.  I am not one for hyperbole but the stunts that Jean Paul Belmondo performs in this film are jaw droppingly awesome.  He hangs off of the edge of high-rise buildings, walks along the top of a speeding train and dangles from a helicopter.  How this film has never received more exposure is completely beyond me.  I have been looking a poster for this film for some time but have been put of by the disappointing artwork on some of them.  I recently lost an auction for the original French poster but was very happy to find a US one-sheet poster in excellent condition on eBay this afternoon for a decent price. 

Optimum have recently announced that they will be giving Lucio Fulci's masterful giallo A Lizard in a Woman's Skin a UK DVD premiere on June 7.  The blurb states that this release has been directly mastered from the original negatives and therefore 'should' be the definitive DVD release of the film.  Fingers crossed that this one gets through the BBFC unscathed, I expect that the infamous vivisected dogs sequence won't cause any trouble.  The cover art looks great.

When I first saw Dream On in 1991 I was amazed by how original the show was.  Even now, the use of old Universal movie clips to represent the thoughts of main character Martin Tupper (Brian Benben) still holds up well.  HMV are currently selling the first season on DVD at the ridiculous price of £2.99.  You would be foolish not to add it to your collection.

Source: NCAC

Further indications of the declining DVD market have been shown by Sony Pictures USA who have announced that they will be cutting 450 jobs partly due to a change in people's DVD buying habits.  Although Blu-Ray sales have been steadily rising, the LA Times reports that combined DVD and Blu-Ray sales declined by more than 13% last year.  This is most likely due to the following factors:

• Consumer uncertainty: Many consumers are unsure of whether to continue purchasing DVDs or to move to Blu-Ray
• DVD Rentals: Rather than invest dying format many are choosing to rent films as an alternative
  
• Online downloads: Again, another alternative (both legal and illegal) method to purchasing DVDs

US outfit Blue Underground have recently announced that they will be releasing the cult spaghetti western Django on Blu-Ray on 25 May 2010.  All of the Blue Underground releases I have seen so far have had high quality transfers so I will have high expectations for this mark.  It will be interesting to see how it compares to the Italian Blu-Ray release of A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964) which I consider to be one of the best all round Blu-Ray releases I have seen so far.  Here is a list of the extra features, taken from blu-ray.com:

• Django: The One And Only: interviews with star Franco Nero and assistant director Ruggero Deodato
• The Last Pistolero: short film starring Franco Nero (BD-exclusive)
• Western, Italian Style: a 1968 documentary about the Spaghetti Western phenomenon containing interviews with directors Enzo G. Castellari, Sergio Sollima and Sergio Corbucci (BD-exclusive)
• International trailer
• Italian Trailer
• Franco Nero intro (BD-exclusive)
  

On the same day they will also be releasing Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead (aka Gates of Hell, 1980) on Blu-Ray but it might be worth holding out for Arrow's forthcoming UK release which will have exclusive special features.