Thanks, David. The way you describe it I take it as something along the lines of the 'adaptations' of Asian music into the western classical idiom in some of the works of Lou Harrison or Colin McPhee, both composers whose work I really like. Looking forward to hear that soundtrack for myself soon, then. Good to see that they restored it for this version of the film.

Tom, around the time Peter wrote the Age score he was also heavily under the spell of Harry Partch. As one of his students in composition back in the late sixties we also fell under the spell of this, and most of Peter's other inspirations! I vividly remember tutorials at Sydney University in which we discovered, thanks to Peter things like the Ketchak and Harry - lo and behold of course Fellini's wonderful Giulietta degli Spiriti had come out only a few years earlier with a full on Ketchak scene duirng one of la Masina's "trips".

Powell's "coincidences" with Australian musicians continue, even through my own life - My Piano prof while in High School (66-67) was Gordon Watson, returned a couple years earlier from London where one of the last "jobs" he did was record the cracking spidery piano score for Peeping Tom!!

When you get old you start to see the six degrees turning into two or three!! Really!!!

I have the Sony disc, and I have to say I'm surprised at the negative reaction here: I find the colours rich, vibrant, but not freakishly pushed towards red as those on the Carlton (which I owned as well) were. I did flip first to the "starved of Technicolor" scene and found it delicious. One thing to bear in mind about the opening scene between June and Peter is that the backdrop changes constantly, flickering and flashing, and the captures do not cover the "hotter" shots. As DVD Beaver says, skin tones are natural. Additionally, the image is pin-sharp and superbly detailed.

Mine is a layman's view, but I would urge readers of this thread not to write off the DVD as a botch job on the basis of grabs - I'm very happy with it and have no regrets about ditching the Carlton. Plus there's the Ian Christie commentary, and however ropey Age Of Consent might be (haven't watched it yet), Kent Jones is always worth listening to. Throw in the various interviews and featurettes, and I think you have a fine package.

Can you jump over to the screen caps thread and pop a cap of this shot of Livsey for comparison against Gary's caps? The guys blue-purple lips and hands in this capture is almost creepy.

Sorry, HerrSchreck: R1 disc, unhackable R2 Mac.

I'm not disputing the accuracy of Gary's grabs - it's just that watching the film, it looks fine to me.

Reaky, try this

Thanks for the divergent point of view on AMLOD, which only underscores once again how subjectivity comes into play when judging movies and their technical realizations in digital media.

I too was suprised at the highly emotional hand-wringing regarding the Sony edition. I'll be able to judge for myself in a few days; perhaps my view will be closer to your appreciative one. I may report on the results if I find them relevant.

Thanks also to David Hare and others for the info regarding the score of Age of Consent. I guess we can expect something along the lines of the gamelan recreations on Western instruments attempted (and achieved) by the likes of Canadian composer McPhee and by Benjamin Britten (in Prince of the Pagodas for example).

Carrying over from the Michael Powell thread, and as requested by HerrShreck, that Livesey grab:



and the Beaver grab for comparison:

DVDBeaver

Something to bear in mind is the "breathing" quality of early Technicolor, which creates a slight fluctuation in the colour palette, as I think can be seen here. I noticed the same thing in The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp.

Edit: 2nd grab replaced by link to site.

David Hare, you're a marvel: I am now VLC-enabled and multiregion on the Mac. Thanks ever so!

HerrScheck (and anyone else interested), I can now offer the grab you requested in the Screen Captures thread. See what you think.

Thanks Reaky! Livesey still looks af if the room he's sitting in hasn't got an oven, but at least he doesn't seem to freeze to death anymore as in Gary's cap.

This is why it's so neccessary (Technicolor breathing) to try as hard as possible to grab the exact same frame for comparison.

May I request that you not take images from my site and post them on ImageShack.
Thank you.

Oh, Gary, for heaven's sakes.

Stealing bandwidth is one thing. Pictures from a movie from the middle of the twentieth century is another-- you don't own the rights to those films. You take images from someone elses discs & movies to compare. He took images from your site which you took from someone elses disc and movie to compare. It's the internet furchrissakes.

..and I'm writing this on faith that you're coming at this as a rights issue, not that Mr. Comparison is trying to block being compared himself.

Listen up Herr Schreck,
Just extrapolate taking images from my site - be it SD or Blu-ray - and then hosting them elsewhere.
It's my efforts (over years) that allowed me to receive an early screener and my efforts that matched the captures.
My toil has a goal - to send people to DVDBeaver. This is circumventing that purpose - be it on a small scale or (eventually) much larger.
I've had individuals copy my entire review at another Forum - every single word - and every image hosted on ImageShack - until I vehemently complained. I don't have time to chase around the Net and do this.
I've made my request. You may abide by it - or not.
Regards,

Gary, c'mon. Tell it to someone else. With a view like that you'd call the police on a housefly because "an intruder is an intruder is an intruder."

The fact is you have no right of ownership to the content of the single image, he took none of your original text, and he attributed you as its original capturer. The guy clearly has no interest in starting his own review service with you providing the content, and even if you did have any claim to a picture of Roger Livesy made by Powell & Pressburger and with distribution rights held in this case by Sony, Fair Use would certainly apply here in this pathetic instance of innocent cross checking.

You do what you do because you want to do it, and you do it in the wide open-- and within certain boundaries accept the consequences of participating in a public discourse. Regardless how you perceive your 'toil', you are opening conversation, not closing it. And as your caps have proven flawed at times, you're no exception to the public surgeries experienced by the disc-production companies you often rightfully dissect. People have a right to compare comparisons before making decisions to buy or not to buy.

I'm happy to replace the grab with a link. Apologies, Gary.

Reaky have you had a chance to listen to the commentary? Just wondering if Christie makes mention of the transfer or indeed there is any discussion in the booklet etc.
You collared that copy pretty damn quickly from the US. I'm still waiting for mine from Amazon.

Haven't listened to the commentary yet; there's no booklet in the package (sleeved digipak). The swift arrival is down to those marvellous Danes at Axelmusic.

reaky I dont know if it's my computer or what but I cannot open your screengrab. Is it possible to post a seris of them including the camera obscura scene, etc? No need to match them to Gary's.

Sorry, David, my fault - in taking down Gary's image I seem to have wiped my own, too - hopefully all is well again now.

I may try to put a few more grabs up tomorrow, now you've kindly introduced me to the joys of grabbing and posting.

That David managed to avoid taking your introduction to "the joys of grabbing and posting" into certain uh territories shall we say is mildly depressing to me.

Good manners should be rewarded...

Hmmmm....... Hmmmmm.......

I like these very much. Gary's opening caps from the cockpit definitely threw me into panic.

One more question reaky, is the movie file single layer? (I.e. less than 4.7 gig.)

I think the only area for improvement over this would be a bluray, even 25 gig could address grain and higher contrast levels, better gamma

I hate to say this because I am also contradicting my own first opinion but I really think the caps Gary or Adam have picked for the review don't come from the right places in the print showcase what needs to be seen. Reak your cap from the Heaven monochrome scene for instance shows off the depth of tonal saturation very well for instance. This isn't a general criticism of Gary's estimable site, just specific to this very problematic title. And I agree with Gary the Carlton was a piece of shit, even though it had the right intentions.

Include me in the Hmmmmm stakes too.
Any chance you could add a couple from the cockpit too?

So why do these look so different from Gary's caps? Is it the Technicolor fluctuation thing?