Heimat: Limited Edition Boxset (Blu-Ray)

After having been shown on television in the UK for the first time in many years, the restored and remastered edition arrives onto Blu-Ray. This edition has the 'episodes' re-edited down from eleven episodes into seven. No material has been taken out, it simply makes some of the episodes more 'feature film' like in length.This review will be about this edition and not the film itself.As with other Second Sight boxsets, the cardboard used is very strong with a nice expensive feel to it. It follows a similar design to their previous releases but it doesn't distract from what Heimat is. As you can see in the photos the front cover is a collage of photographs from the film itself featuring different characters and events. At the centre is our Maria who the film follows over the decades.Inside the boxset are two foldout boxes which feature six discs in total together. One side features a collage again while the other and inside features larger prints of snapshots from the film. The background behind the discs are simple backgrounds relating to the film and setting. The discs are held together by plastic similar to many other releases of DVDs and Blu-Rays in the world. Easy to get out and easy to 'snap' back in so it can be held in place.The edition is not numbered, but is one limited to three-thousand copies. As you can see on the Amazon listing and on back of Blu-Ray itself (on a thin paper that curves under and round to the bottom of Maria's face on the front cover) it details how the edition has been restored and lists the special features. With interviews from the film makers themselves and lead actor it provides true new insight into the film. A great addition is the feature-length documentary created by Reitz before he started work on the film called here on the box and menu "Heimat - The Hunsrück Villages" (original title "Tales from the Hunsrück Villages"). It is a true life documentary focuses on the area and people the film would later be set in.A final great piece is the soft cover book which details notes on the film itself, restoration and history of it's making.The only subtitles listed available are the English. Other information can be seen in the photographs.

Restored by the Edgar Reitz Foundation, this has to be one of the box sets of the year – it is certainly a restoration accomplishment of the highest standard. The black-and-white sequences look stunning, as do the colour shots, both with a very filmic grain and generous bit-rate, and clearly show that the original camera negatives have been usedDuring his last feature ‘Home from Home’ Reitz showed his mastery of the odd colour highlight within a monochrome shot, and in this current restoration, the same standards have been applied. These odd shots (so eagerly anticipated, as there aren’t many of them) look magnificent and magical: both a truly beautiful artistic device and, at the same time, a nod to the early photographic and cinema trick of spot tinting.The original Heimat was exhibited in German cinemas in 1.66 format, which is also the shape used in this restoration, and gives the series an additional cinematic feel.An extra disc includes the 2 hour documentary prologue to Heimat, itself restored and looking great, plus some fascinating interviews and an interesting 50-page book of essays and restoration notes.I never thought I would see Heimat looking so good, and can only hope that a similar restoration is achieved on Die Zweite Heimat (my personal favourite) and Heimat 3. If you have any fondness for Heimat, this is a must-have. Only 3,000 copies of this edition, so be quick.

I first saw this on TV, the picture is very good, especially when flashes of colour are used in the black and white scenes. There is a graniess to the picture but this an artistic choice.In a 7 part cinematic presentation it follows the life of a family, in rural Germany, from 1919 - 1982. Touching and moving it provides insight to the impact of those years on an every day family.A slow gentle pace at nearly 15 hours long lie, or sit, back and lose yourself.At the tale end of shopping therapy, when I should have stopped I got this as well as a limited edition of 3000.

I first saw this on the BBC many years ago and was enthralled from the start. Thank goodness it's still available, now in a limited edition of 3000, remastered, subtitled in English, and wonderful, in all respects: as film-making, and as a story, a masterpiece indeed.

Regardless of the quality of restoration etc., what doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere on the site is that this is NOT the well-known 11-part original edition, but a 7-part recut for cinema, running 35 minutes shorter, which can't be accounted for in terms of mere titles/credits/intros. I love the entire Heimat venture, and now live just across the river from the Hunsrück and only a few miles from the Günderrode-Haus in Heimat 3, but I'm not sure I'd have bought this edition to augment the ones I already have if I'd known in advance about the re-edit.

This upgraded version of this immense series is beautifully packaged and, on a high definition screen, wonderfully clear in both B&W and colour. The series was already one of the great epics of world cinema; in this version, it just blooms even more and captures your heart and your senses. The best family saga ever committed to celluloid. Don't let the fact it has subtitles put you off

Very interesting series - but beware disc 6 has a problem, it freezes at times and jumps forward

I'm sure everyone reading this is already aware of this film series. This Blu-Ray boxset release gives us Edgar Reitz's 1984 television series the visual quality it deserves for viewing in 2018. I only hope Die Zweiter Heimat (its 1993 sequel) get similar treatment.

This was already one of the great achievements of cinema-and television-but this set improves everything, through the single greatest audio and visual restoration in many years. The clarity and richness of the images is astounding. The extras included with this set are nothing to sneeze at. In particular, the nearly 40 minute interview with director Edgar Reitz is a treasure, as are those with his son, who helped restore the work and was a photographer on the series, as well as that with Jan Harlan, a German-born producer who worked alongside his brother in law, Stanley Kubrick. There is also the two hour Hunsruck Villages documentary, which acts as a superb introduction to the cultural landscape of the series.As to the film/show itself, what can I say? The best German film of the postwar period. The greatest family drama not called Fanny & Alexander and a unique, warm, deep and thought provoking, utterly engrossing, work of art.

Suivre les aventures des habitants allemands dans les petits villages dans cette saga culte prenant place durant l’Allemagne l’époque du nazisme de 1919 à 1989 est voyage dans le temps véridique et immersif.On y découvre une période méconnue, les difficultés rencontrées au quotidien par les paysans et l’émigration qui s’en est suivit.En bref, un must-have a avoir dans sa collection historique en DVD ou en Blu-Ray qui même avec brio la poésie, une intrigue bien ficelée et un réel chef d’œuvre

This is an extraordinary documentary. Quite complicated, so I will want to watch it twice at least. Unbelievable bits of video and history.

Excellente série qui développe la vie des Allemands durant une période sombre de l'histoire : après la première, entre deux et seconde guerre mondiale.Très riche en enseignement humain....J'avais vu cette série lorsque j'étais ado et j'ai bien retrouvé cette ambiance étrange qui m'avait fascinée. Toujours pas d'explication sur l'alternance de scènes en couleurs avec celles en noir et blanc mais cela ne gâche en rien la série. C'est aussi l'occasion d'entendre parler allemand et avec sous titrage en français.

"Heimat", le mot est dit-on intraduisible, les dicos disent : "La terre natale"...vaste programme, il faut bien une cinquantaine d'heures d'images pour faire partager "l'Heimat".En un mot, Quel film ! fresque sans doute sans autres équivalents, sauf peut-être mais à moindre importance, la saga d'Antoine Doisnel de Truffaut.Un petit reproche, les sous-titres vraiment trop succincts et défectueux dans le dernier DVD "La fête des morts et des vivants".