gporta Posted 29 September , 2006 Share Posted 29 September , 2006 (I'm posting this under "War art" as films are considered "the 7th art"... Though I wonder if a "film" sub-section for moving pictures related to WW1 would be feasible). Good news! "Wesfront 1918" is at last available in DVD! I've seen it at Amazon.de and at this other German online store The trouble for me is that none of the links states whether this DVD has subtitles ( untertitlen)) in, say, English or French, as my knowledge of German is close to nil... I wonder in any forum member proficient in German is able to check this further. Option A is buying the film even if it has no subtitles, but even with a dictionary at my side, I may miss words in army lingo or indeed any regional type speech. Option B is to wait for a English or French release, as once a film is published in DVD locally, it is often distributed in other countries with a few menu features added. What would WW1 filmophile members of the forum do in my case? Gloria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 29 September , 2006 Share Posted 29 September , 2006 Gloria, According to the sites I've looked at, the only subtitles on the DVD are 'German for people with impaired hearing', which are a mixture of dialogue titles and commentary on sound-based elements of the film. Thanks for the heads-up on this DVD. Personally, I would buy it even if I didn't speak German. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gporta Posted 29 September , 2006 Author Share Posted 29 September , 2006 Mick, Thanks for looking this up for me. The fact that the DVD has subtitles is indeed positive news. I'll wait for a while just in case another DVD edition of the film (in English, French or, with luck, Spanish) shows up. However, if that doesn't happen, I'm ready to watch the film with a dictionnary at the side as the film has a very good reputation (after a while, one hopes to be a bit more knowleadgeable in German). Gloria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuartd Posted 30 September , 2006 Share Posted 30 September , 2006 Forgive my ignornace, but could someone please tell me about this film? I've never heard of it and would be interested to know more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 30 September , 2006 Share Posted 30 September , 2006 I saw it once - about 30 years ago in a short BBC2 season of Great War films. The ending - a deranged German officer laughing manically to a backdrop of equally deranged organ music - has stuck with me ever sonce (so well, in fact, that I've probably mis-remembered it). Overall, I'd say it's worth it, whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gporta Posted 30 September , 2006 Author Share Posted 30 September , 2006 Stuard, I have not seen the film, but its director and the excellence of German films of the period made me look forward to it. I'm also interested as I think that Great War films of the 20s and 30s -and the people who made them, often actual veterans- have a proximity to the actual event that gives them a special feeling that more recent films may lack. ...And Steven's recommendation is a bonus to me (a season of Great war films in TV? ah, those were the days!) You'll find some basic information and reviews/comments by viewers in this page the film has at IMDB. Gloria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gporta Posted 6 October , 2006 Author Share Posted 6 October , 2006 Some news about this film (and correction of previous information). I got this from a DVD forum. Westfront 1918 has been released along with another film by G.W. Pabst, and I have been told that " There are no subtitle options at all on Westfront. Kameradschaft has optional German subtitles for the French dialogue." So it seems that the German release of Westfront 1918 has no subtitles option. Optionally, I have been told that an English subtitled release is not impossible: the film was recently shown in Turner Classic Movies in a new video transfer presented by Janus films. Janus films is a company specialized in USA releases of non-USA and Classic film titles. Some of the films in their catalog have been released by Criterion DVD... There's some hope, then. Gloria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soren Posted 7 October , 2006 Share Posted 7 October , 2006 Hello, This one for sale in the States via ebay sez English subtitles, might be of interest dunno what region it is tho....... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/German-WWI-Film-West...1QQcmdZViewItem This is quite indepth: http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cte...front_1918.html regards Soren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max (UK) Posted 7 October , 2006 Share Posted 7 October , 2006 The ending - a deranged German officer laughing manically to a backdrop of equally deranged organ music Isn't that the ending of "Cross of Iron" ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 7 October , 2006 Share Posted 7 October , 2006 Some news about this film (and correction of previous information). I got this from a DVD forum. Westfront 1918 has been released along with another film by G.W. Pabst, and I have been told that " There are no subtitle options at all on Westfront. Kameradschaft has optional German subtitles for the French dialogue." So it seems that the German release of Westfront 1918 has no subtitles option. Gloria, I think you may have misunderstood what I posted earlier about subtitles. which was that the German DVD (UFA-Klassiker Edition) has selectable German subtitles for people with impaired hearing. These are condensed dialogue subtitles, in German, accompanied by narrative subtitles, also in German, describing elements of the action expressed in sound (eg. the scene falls silent; off camera, a single shot rings out). The cover picture on the version Soren found on eBay is not the same as the UFA-Klassiker Edition. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gporta Posted 15 October , 2006 Author Share Posted 15 October , 2006 Oops! I missed these last posts! Thanks for the information, all Mick, Thanks for the further note on subtitles. For the mention in the DVD forum that they had only subtitles for the French text, I thought that maybe these were the only ones. I suspect that the other viewer wasn't aware of the subtitles for those with impaired hearing). Soren, thank you so much for the link: it's a fine review of the film and I have bookmarked it . It is good to know that there's the chance of finding English subtitled versions in Ebay (although if not "official releases, may be of defective quality: some ebay versions or rare films are, in the best of cases, tranferred from old 16mm copies -in the worst of cases, they may be a transfer from an old video) Gloria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 15 October , 2006 Share Posted 15 October , 2006 Isn't that the ending of "Cross of Iron" ? Dunno, never seen it, I'm afraid. But it wouldn't the first film to "pay homage" (plagiarise) another Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gporta Posted 15 October , 2006 Author Share Posted 15 October , 2006 "pay homage" (plagiarise) Gloria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 15 October , 2006 Share Posted 15 October , 2006 Dunno, never seen it, I'm afraid. But it wouldn't the first film to "pay homage" (plagiarise) another Cross of Iron 'pays homage' to various earlier films, but it's still a very good film in its own right. Having recently acquired the 'restored' version of The Big Red One, I'd very much like to see a similar 'restoration' of Cross of Iron, assuming that it too lost a lot of footage in the original editing. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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