The Phantom Carriage

In a move designed to generate frustration as much as pleasure, Tartan have released The Phantom Carriage in two separate editions, each with their own different extras, ensuring that any completists out there will end up forking out twice the cash for what might more reasonably have been collected within a single edition.

The pick of the two is the two-disc Special Edition. The first disc comprises the film itself, excellently remastered to retain the moody tinting of the original film, and with a fine accompanying soundtrack composed in 1998 by Matti Bye that conforms to the spirit of a silent-era soundtrack while still sounding fresh and modern (and complementing the film's images and tones perfectly). English subtitles are optional, to go with the original Swedish intertitles. Disc two offers Ingmar Bergman's 2000 teleplay The Image Makers (Bildmakarna), a drama based around the making of The Phantom Carriage. There are also inserted essays on both films by David Parkinson.

The so-called KTL version of The Phantom Carriage is a limited-edition single disc offering the film itself, but with a different soundtrack by KTL, featuring Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley (who also designed the disc's cover art) and Peter Rehberg. As a piece of dark, menacing feedback-driven guitar ambience, it represents a real contrast to Matti Bye's relatively traditional score – but it is a contrast able to be properly made, alas, only by those who buy both editions. Again there are inserted filmnotes, this time by none other than the Quay Brothers.