So I finally sat down to watch the first episode of AE's Les Vampires.
Off the bat there are two things that disappoint me:
1) There are intermittent jaggies present. These were not visible on the Fantomas release.
2) The image appears to me to have been slightly squeezed horizontally. Am I alone in noticing this? Everything just looks too thin. If you look at Gary's comparison at the Beaver you can clearly see the difference between the older versions and the AE. Evidence that the AE (even though ported from Gaumont's restoration) is inaccurate is that the wheels of automobiles are not entirely round.
Ialsomuch prefer the score on Fantomas and the tinting.
The makings of an ideal critical edition of Tarkovsky already exist—namely, Chris Marker’s One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich (1999), made for French TV—and although this is obtainable on DVD, it’s without English subtitles, on a six-disc French set I don’t have, devoted to the excellent TV series it appeared on (“Coffret Cinema de notre temps”)—along with other documentaries on Akerman, Cassavetes, Cavalier, Chahine, de Oliveira, Ferrara, Garrel, Hou, Straub/Huillet, Imamura, Kiarostami, Kitano, Loach, McLaren, Rohmer, and Rouch. And according to Stehlik, the VHS copy of just the Marker film retails for $390, apparently because of its “nontheatrical” status.
I thought I should post here to correct that remark and remind anyone reading that Artificial Eye's Andrei Tarkovsky Companion features the Marker film.
I chuckled when I saw that included in the DVDBeaver recap, like anyone who seeks this film out isn't already going to be extremely familiar with his oeuvre. Still, I guess it's better than nothing.
Given that they own the DVD rights to much of his output, what they should have done is a combined filmography-cum-clipfest, like the Powell & Pressburger one on Criterion's The Red Shoes.
My copy of A Man Escaped arrived today.
Though the back bizarrely says 'Special features: To be confirmed', the documentary The Road to Bresson is indeed included, and of course a filmography!
codam wrote:My copy of A Man Escaped arrived today.
Though the back bizarrely says 'Special features: To be confirmed', the documentary The Road to Bresson is indeed included, and of course a filmography!
That's a relief: I can take or leave The Road to Bresson, but the lack of a filmography would ruin it.
(Trivia note: The Road to Bresson was the very first thing I ever recorded on my first VCR - the BFI database informs me that its first and only British television outing was on 21 October 1985, which sounds right. I've probably still got the tape somewhere, but it's almost certainly unwatchable as I'd have been using an unamplified indoor aerial).
codam wrote:My copy of A Man Escaped arrived today.
how does it look transfer-wise?
Haven't watched it properly yet, but watching beginning, and it seems like an excellent transfer. To give you some idea, here's a screen capture from the beginning and the a cap from the New Yorker DVD from DVDBeaver for comparison.
codam wrote:Haven't watched it properly yet, but watching beginning, and it seems like an excellent transfer. To give you some idea, here's a screen capture from the beginning and the a cap from the New Yorker DVD from DVDBeaver for comparison.
domino harvey wrote:I wasn't aware those words had ever appeared in that order before
But it's true. It seems that the Fox Lorber is still the best of ALL existing "Nostalghia" discs. A totally unbelievable situation, and it looks like no-one is going to set it right anywhere. I don't care for the crackle and pops on the soundtrack, but Tarkovsky's images must be among the greatest ever committed to celluloid, especially in this films. It's a shame that only three of his films ( "Ivan", "Solaris" and "Sacrifice") exist in dvd editions that do justice to them. And none of these editions comes from AE.
codam wrote:My copy of A Man Escaped arrived today.
how does it look transfer-wise?
Haven't watched it properly yet, but watching beginning, and it seems like an excellent transfer. To give you some idea, here's a screen capture from the beginning and the a cap from the New Yorker DVD from DVDBeaver for comparison.
Thanks--this is really helpful!
To this untrained eye the Artificial Eye version appears to have less contrast boosting and edge enhancement than the New Yorker. It's more film-like. I'm sold on it.
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