DVD launch on 4th Nov 07 in London

I've seen the final transfer (or at least the first half), and Lakeywhite's comments pretty much match what I saw - though I had the advantage of subtitles.

I suspect the sound-sync issues are inherent in the film - in the Sixties, it was very common indeed to shoot large-scale films silently and create the entire soundtrack in the studio afterwards, and Vlacil's camera choreography is so elaborate that I imagine he avoided getting microphones in shot by the simple expedient of not having them at all. Certainly, anyone familiar with the 1960s work of, say, Federico Fellini or Sergio Leone will know what to expect.

(and it's not as though there's much onscreen dialogue in the film to begin with - you don't see the speaker that often)

I also back up the comments about the print being in surprisingly good condition - there are a few blemishes, but certainly nothing major, and the images are so dense and the camera so mobile that these really aren't an issue. The contrast is indeed high at times, but several shots are damn near perfect, so this may well have been intentional.

Anyway, short of someone stumping up the estimated six-figure cost of a restoration from the original negative, this is probably the best it's going to get for the time being - and it's certainly better than any current DVD release of 'Andrei Rublev' (the film that's probably closest in visuals and overall tone).