I remember reading that the foreign versions of Mulholland Drive, eXistenZ, and Eyes Wide Shut all had special features that weren’t available on the American versions.
I’m curious as to
a) What these differences are and
b) What other DVDs have foreign versions that are worth getting instead of the American version?
I’ve done a google search, looking for a site that might specialize in comparing foreign and American DVDs, but have yet to find anything.
Because I’m a smart-arse, et al, is this when I point out that the American versions ARE the foreign versions?
And yes, indeed, they often have more features than the non-foreign versions! (and they’re also not as censored!).
It’s all relative… cheesy grin.
That said, (on a more serious note)The Iron Giant Special Edition is out here in South East Asia (has been for about four months), and I understand the release is a long way off in the US. Is that correct?
Mr. Blue Sky, that site’s pretty good (especially to see the difference in that Eyes Wide Shut DVD, but there are still some glaring omissions. I know there’s a big difference in the Mulholland Drive DVD and there’s gotta be some changes between the American and Japanese releases of the original Ringu. Still, pretty good.
Ugh, I feel ashamed to fall prey to the stereotype of the arrogant American, dangergene. We’re really not that egocentric! Really! I haven’t seen an Iron Giant: Special Edition yet.
Because PAL uses more lines per frame than NTSC, it takes up more space on a DVD. This means certain feature rearranging needs to take place on some discs. That’s part of the reason, anyway. The most common features removed from PAL in that situation are a DTS soundtrack, or a commentary.
I’m not sure why PAL discs should have more features than NTSC discs, but it might be simply that a new disc is tested in some Regions before general release, so that means the US might have the 1998 bare-bones release, while we get the 2003 Special Edition release a few months ahead of time. Or something.
fret not Pezwookie , just hasslin’ ya. The boards do seem to be predominantly Americano, so it is understood (I have a friend who wants to open a video shop just so he can put ALL the American films in the ‘foreign films’ section. H’e a bigger smart-arse than me, as you can plainly see!).
Guanolad, my suspicion is the staggered releases around the world are not so much about testing in smaller markets or anything as it is licencing. As you may know, the Oz release of Twin Peaks season1 contains the much-sought pilot, while the US release (which I bought, dammit!) contains only a brief recap of the pilot and then skips happily straight into episode one of season one. Apparently this is because Artisan don’t hold the rights to the Pilot and therefore cannot release it in the US. In Oz Paramount holds the rights to the series and the pilot and can release both together.
I didn’t know that about the Pal versions taking more disc space, but I did know about the line count (had to spend a good hour trying to convince a friend that the R2 and R4 releases of PAL sourced material are inherently better than the R1 versions of the same material. He couldn’t comprehend that NTSC would be the poorer image option, ‘cos the americans use it’ tsk tsk.