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Get your bulrushes ready! (In spite of the wrong date--the year it received its Academy Awards vs. the year it premiered evidently confused them.)
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/3 ... 9-blu-ray/" target="_blank" target="_blank

-HA

I imagine many of us have already gotten the UK Master of Cinema Blu-ray from 4 years ago, which has two versions of the film and is also region-free.

Too bad they couldn't have made it a double feature with the HD transfer of City Girl, since there's probably little chance of Fox releasing that as a stand-alone title on BD in North America.

I held off on getting the MoC discs from overseas since I already had the Murnau/Borzage at Fox box, but I'll probably pick up the Sunrise BD. It'll be my fourth copy of the film, going back to the Fox/Image laserdisc, but I would like to have it in HD, and support a rare silent release by one of the major studios.

And thanks for confirming that the MoC release was region-free, I've seen it and City Girl listed as both region-free and region-locked, and wasn't sure which was actually the case.

I have the MOC version of SUNRISE and I am very happy with it, so I wont be buying this. The MOC bluray of CITY GIRL still remains my benchmark for the best ever image quality silent film on home video format I have seen. Every silent lover should have this. I am still waiting for my Bluray of INTOLLERANCE and THE BIG PARADE to see if they surpass CITY GIRL.

The region-free SUNRISE Blu-ray from Eureka MOC was among the first discs I imported through Amazon.co.uk and is an excellent disc., with the Czech cut really looking spectacular in HD. The U.S. cut looks marginally better on the Blu-ray than it does on the old Fox DVD, as it was a dupe preservation print rather than an actual original release print struck from the now-lost camera negative. The original script (and an article about the film) were posted to a Eureka website rather than included as pdf's on the disc because few people had blu-ray drives in their computers back in 2009-10.

I reviewed this Blu-ray in the Old Movies in HD thread in the "Talking About Talkies" forum back in early 2010 on the second page of the now very long thread. It looks as if this new Fox U.S. Blu-ray is virtually identical. With luck it will sell a few more copies now that it will be officially available in the U.S. and may find its way to some of the few surviving video rental stores. Now if only Fox would put John Ford's UPSTREAM onto Blu-ray like they promised several years ago at its re-premiere at the Academy theatre in Hollywood, but which has only just now shown up on DVD thanks to the fun Treasures from New Zealand disc recently released. A U.S. release of CITY GIRL might also be nice, but the Eureka Masters of Cinema disc is a stunning transfer, is region-free, and not too expensive to order through Amazon.co.uk. Better would be any number of other Fox films not yet on Blu-ray (or on video at all) that survive in nice prints.

s.w.a.c. wrote:And thanks for confirming that the MoC release was region-free, I've seen it and City Girl listed as both region-free and region-locked, and wasn't sure which was actually the case.

With City Girl, the DVD is region-locked, but the bundled BD is region-free.

Nick_M wrote:

s.w.a.c. wrote:And thanks for confirming that the MoC release was region-free, I've seen it and City Girl listed as both region-free and region-locked, and wasn't sure which was actually the case.

With City Girl, the DVD is region-locked, but the bundled BD is region-free.

I got Eureka's CITY GIRL before they started packaging a DVD version with the Blu-ray, so I can't check the DVD, but there are quite a few region-free DVDs that still will not play on many North American DVD players because they are in the PAL format instead of NTSC (and the same goes for standard-definition bonus features on region-free Blu-rays). There are some DVD players that are locked to region 1, yet nevertheless have no trouble playing PAL discs as long as they are region-free. Naturally stores and player boxes do not advertise this capability when it exists, so you pretty much need to do trial and error or try internet searches to see what players might work. (CITY GIRL is available in the US on a nice-looking DVD in the Murnau/Borzage Fox box set, a worthwhile investment for any film buff until all titles become available on Region A Blu-ray editions.)

The special features are mostly the same ones that were on the Fox DVD, save for the Czech print. Not sure if the Fox DVD had restoration notes either.

This is great for anyone outside of region 2, who did not buy the first MoC Blu-ray version of Sunrise, as it's now out of print. Unfortunately, I think I prefer the artwork on the MoC Blu-ray. Still interesting either way.

I was just looking at this one, and was struck by how much better the print is for the Czech version. Anybody know why they couldn't have used that print and incorporated it with the longer Movietone version?

They are different takes, plus the constant, frequent jumps in quality would be irritating

I've seen it convincingly argued that the performances in the European cut were deliberately amped up and made more expressionistic to suit the different market. There was a side-by-side comparison of certain shots floating about at one point, does anyone know where to find it?

Brooksie wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:59 pm

I've seen it convincingly argued that the performances in the European cut were deliberately amped up and made more expressionistic to suit the different market. There was a side-by-side comparison of certain shots floating about at one point, does anyone know where to find it?

I saw that a long time ago too. Think it was on the ol' IMDb message boards that were stupidly shut down. I don't know if I'd call it "amped up," personally, just alternate takes of the same scene.

Should really watch it again soon. Haven't seen anything with George in it in three days.

In my opinion, they were just alternate takes, nothing to take away from the ongoing story line of the Film.
Since you like George O'Brien as much as I do, please let me know which of his films to look for. Region coded ones it's not a problem.

The two collections of George O'Brien westerns are a good place to start since they're easy to find. For some reason my favorite wester of his is Triple Justice. As for what is not so readily available, for silents I like Fig Leaves. George was so adorable in that one. And for talkies... Well, whatever you can get your hands on, rare or not. I like Seas Beneath.

After watching George in so many of his movies, every time I go back to Sunrise it's a bit of a shock for me. His wonderful personality came through in every role, except the first half of Sunrise. He did look and seem very different than the person he really was. “Is that really George?” I ask myself. He really lived that role day in and day out and every way possible and played it very convincingly. He was such a great actor.