A Hard Day’s Night in Australia
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| Australian release of A Hard Day’s Night |
It seems “A Hard Day’s Night” is distributed by a different company for each country. Criterion Collection in the USA, Second Sight Films in the UK, Koch Media in Germany and now, Umbrella Entertainment in Australia. Very appropriate, since umbrellas played a major part in the Beatles’ arrival down under. Depicted above is the Australian front cover. As we have revealed, the bonus material is also different, depending on where you live. In Germany, the “Special Edition” is a 1 Blu-ray, 3DVD release, which means it may contain even more than the USA edition, which is only 1 Blu-ray and 2 DVDs. Koch Media doesn’t list the full contents, but the original German trailer is mentioned. The UK edition is the same as in the USA, except they don’t get the “Running, Jumping & Standing Still” film and no deleted scene, and probably not all the trailers.
In Australia, here’s what they get:
Blu-ray:
* The Beatles: The Road to A Hard day’s Night- An Interview with Mark Lewisohn
* In Their Own Voices: The Beatles on A Hard Day’s Night
* Anatomy of a Style
* Picturewise- A New Featurette on Richard Lester
* Audio Commentary
* New Trailer
DVD:
* Things They Said Today
* You Can’t Do That! (The Making Of A Hard Day’s Night)
* The Running Jumping & Standing Still short film
* Audio Commentary
* New Trailer
Site: Umbrella Entertainment (Blu-ray) and Umbrella Entertainment (DVD). Release date is 2. July. The Special Edition Blu-ray will contain a DVD with the above listed contents.
So which will you buy Roger?
Umbrella Entertainment gets its name from the umbrellas that The Beatles are holding on the Beatles 65 album cover. This is true! The owner of the company is a big Beatles fan.
At first glimpse this cover design looks similar to the USA version, but the photo used by Umbrella Entertainment dates from 1963 and has nothing to do with the AHDN film.
Yes George…I thought the same thing myself. Since this release is bordering on 'definitive' – I'd have been tempted to utilise the fabulous art-work surrounding the original release; especially the Beatle head shots; and especially the poster concepts that included Wilfrid Bramble's head! But no – I guess a whole lot of graphic designers needed to show their relevance by creating something 'new'…
Gabor, I have ordered the US version, as well as the UK one. I don't expect to be able to play the US version, because it is region and zone coded, but at least I can enjoy the booklet.
What are the audio formats please?
I have heard tell the stereo & mono streams are AC3, not lossless, so someone please tell me this is not true?