Criterion Othello laserdisc now on eBay

[Terry]

This is THE ONE, the non-mutilated version of the US cut with extras. If I had a laserdisc player I would be bidding now...

One of you Wellesnetters please grab it!

[url=http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-Criterion-Othello-Orson-Welles-many-extras-oop_W0QQitemZ290083855094QQihZ019QQcategor

yZ381QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem]Criterion Othello laserdisc[/url]

[Terry]

Damn. I had to bid on it. That was stupid.

Let's see whose discretionary funds falter first...

[chipm]

Awww man. We should all make a committment not to bid until the very last moment. Then the price won't be jacked up in a self-defeating way.

C.

[Terry]

Somebody outbid me already. I won't bid on it again.

It could go for quite a sum though, especially among people who know what it actually contains.

[colwood]

I think I remember seeing one go for $100 a couple of years ago. Used to be an ebay nut, but not for a long time....

Anyway, I wouldn't bet on it. Besides, while the listing says that it hasn't been seen since the '52 Cannes festival, which the LD itself says, we've already established in a thread somewhere here that this is a "restoration" of the US version, not the original Euro version, which frankly has better shots to open the film.

Yes it would be nice to have this LD. But if you search the Trading forum, you'd see that plenty of Wellesnet members can trade or sell vhs or dvd-r copies of this LD including the commentary. Furthermore, you can also find people here who have FULL copies of Filming Othello and Rosebella. Just my two cents....

Now if only Criterion could find a way to release a dvd of the original 1952 Cannes Film Festival version, the true original.

[Terry]

It's not a restoration, it's Welles' 1955 cut, which has several differences from the Cannes version.

The copies people are trading are usually dvds of Nth generation vhs tapes, so this would be a serious upgrade for most folks, including me.

I can't speak for other people, but making copies and selling them is something I could never do (though I do buy the odd bootleg now and then.)

As the FBI is fond of telling us, distributing copies even without monetary gain is a felony.

[Nate H]

we should pool our money

[Kevin Loy]

Why not? Would it still be considered buying a 'pirated' copy if several people chipped in to buy a copy, and one of those people had a LD player and made DVD copies for everybody who had contributed funds?

[Michael O'Hara]

Probably....but we can countersue the MPAA of allowing the film to be misrepresented and causing us to seek alternate routes in seeing it.

And it's not like we wouldn't buy a legit copy of the DVD if/when it became available. Surely the powers that be would turn the other way and allow a group of savy Orson Welles fans to enjoy the fruits of their collaborative financial endeavor.

Put me down for $20. That's pretty sad, but if I spend more than that I'll find myself out in the street, if not at the hands of the landlord, then at the hands of an embittered wife who is fed up wit me and my hobbies.

[atcolomb]

I purchased my copy of the Criterion disc 4 years ago on Ebay but i only paid a total of $38 for it!! and it's in great shape too. Sometimes you can get a bargin and sometimes you can't. Still trying to get Robbinson Crusoe on Mars ???

[rizibo]

I can't believe the Othello laser disc sold for $165 yesterday on ebay. If I had known its value would have increased from $38 four years ago to $165 now, I would have cashed out my 401K and bought all the Othello laser discs. At least its a good sign there is interest in Orson Welles.

[atcolomb]

If Criterion did release this on laserdisc maybe there is hope that they can release a dvd edition at sometime...that would be great!!

[chipm]

Anyone on this board the person who bought it?

[rizibo]

I think the problem with a release of the dvd version of this Criterion laser disc is that Beatrice Welles feels that her "restored version", now available on dvd, is the better version. I first saw this "restored version" with Beatrice Welles introducing the film with her statements that the previous versions were inferior because the sound didn't match the images. I haven't seen the Criterion version but many people have commented that the sound is better in the Criterion version. Someone mentioned a great idea to release a dvd with both versions.

[colwood]

Any idea that would get the original on dvd, preferably by Criterion, would be great. But as this is the only film Beatrice actually owns, I wouldn't expect her to do it anytime soon. Pity really, she wants money, but with her cooperation she could probably get criterion to release the original '52 version along with hers. And it would probably make her more money than the '92 version on dvd has made her.