Jonathan S wrote:JanPB wrote:Funny thing is they included the correct frame in brief quotes from the film sprinkled throughout the supplements.
I'm glad you solved the problem (wish it were so simple for me!) but how then do you explain the above? Did you watch the supplements earlier or on other equipment? Or are the supplements perhaps in 4:3 with the clips letterboxed?
With the overscan fixed, the supplement frames come with a bit of black bars on top and bottom as well, so their content is the same as in the film proper.
MichaelB wrote:I'm glad all that was cleared up, but I suspect the problems with The Hourglass Sanatorium aren't so easily resolved - I now have a copy of the restoration, and it is indeed in 1.85:1 (i.e. thin black bars at the top and bottom within the 16:9 frame).
Yes, exactly.
The curious thing is, at the same time the same team restored the same director's The Saragossa Manuscript (one of Buñuel's all-time favourite films, incidentally - how's that for a pitiful attempt at staying on-topic?), and the aspect ratio is the correct 2.35:1 - so why did they crop The Hourglass Sanatorium? When I saw Sanatorium in the cinema a couple of years ago, it was definitely 2.35:1 - I made a point of checking at the time.
So it must have been deliberate (you don't make a mistake that big during a major restoration, especially not if the 35mm original was anamorphically squished), so who authorised it, and on what grounds? Is it possible that it really was Wojciech Has's preferred ratio? Was cinematographer Witold Sobociński consulted, since he's not only alive but still active?
He in fact supervised the restoration. I also remember it being very wide. But then, notice in the restoration demo the projectionist's cue marks are round. In a CinemaScope print they tend to be elliptical. I also scanned the film for out of focus highlights which would also come out elliptical in an anamorphic film. "Unfortunately", it looks like Sobociński avoided those highlights diligently so there goes this attempt.
Oh, and it also looks gorgeous - a huge improvement on the earlier DVD. Which makes this situation even more mystifying.
So where is that Blu-ray?