The text in this review is typically confusing when Gary Tooze writes that the image "is anamorphic in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio and progressively transferred - I have no evidence to suggest that this is not accurate to the original appearance." Of course, he offers evidence in the next paragraph that suggests that the aspect ratio may be wrong by quoting Jonathan Rosenbaum describing the film as having a "'Scope frame" where "[t]he only full 'Scope images come in the prologue and epilogue."
This is strange -- the Intermedio DVD is 1.33:1. There's a bit of discussion on the matter here; it seems pretty safe to say it's not 'Scope. But then it wouldn't be a Godard film without some OAR confusion.
IMDb is hardly the authority when it comes to Godard's aspect ratios, but here is their take:
Aspect ratio
1.37 : 1
1.66 : 1 (Final Scene)
I haven't watched this film in a while, but given how the center scenes are images of televisions set against blackness, is there any way to tell if the images in the middle are being cropped?
Numero Deux may have been matted for 1.66 theatrically (Most Godard from second period onwards is composed for academy but often screened 1.66), but there's no doubt that Rosenbaum is simply mistaken with it having ever been shown in 'Scope theatrically (unless someone helming the projector forgot to change plates from a different pic or something). Compared to the academy releases of Numero Deux, the caps DVDBeaver posted show more information on the sides and lose a small bit on the top and bottom-- not unlike the full-frame to 1.66 My Dinner With Andre, to use a recent example.
Right, so scope is definitely wrong as its a completely different technology. As for projection, Godard's later films (like Hail Mary and Carmen) may have been matted during projection, but they were clearly intended to be screened in open matte, no? Does anyone have any documentation about this, aside from unreliable memories? I'm now leaning toward this being a mistake on Olive's part.
Does anyone know if Johnny Guitar and Rio Grande will be sourced from a restoration? If not, will the BR for Johnny Guitar be much of an improvement then?
Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:Does anyone know if Johnny Guitar and Rio Grande will be sourced from a restoration? If not, will the BR for Johnny Guitar be much of an improvement then?
Olive stated "REMASTERED IN HD FROM AN ARCHIVAL 35MM PRINT" for each on their press release when they announced the titles. That's all we know for now.
They've fairly consistently gotten good prints and with everything they've said I believe they'll only put out discs when the studio has sources that are at least fairly good. I doubt they'll put out any rougher than this.
When Paramount took custody of the Republic library they invested a lot into preserving the materials including making new preservation masters of the negatives on safety stock. They used to have a website where they detailed what they did for each Republic film and what new materials were created, but they've taken it down. Even though they haven't really been interested in releasing catalog titles for quite some time, they are known for taking pretty good care of their library. I suspect most of the Republic titles will look much better than they've ever looked before.
david hare wrote:Apparently The Quiet Man was completely remastered only recently by the people at Paramount Archives who had been led by former Archive VP Ron Smith. THe Ford has been done since Smith was replaced by Andrea Kalas. This may or may not be a good or bad thing.
Andrea Kalas is a former colleague of mine, and I can certainly vouch for her on principle.
MACBETH is not now or ever been a PD title. The versions you've seen on Amazon are either imports that were produced from mediocre masters or bootlegs and most of them were the shorter 89 minute version. This is the restored 107 minutes version and available for the first time on DVD and BD.
CYRANO is a PD title and yes the Image version was the best previously release version, but this is a new beautiful HD transfer..
MACBETH - REMASTERED IN HD FROM A NITRATE FINE GRAIN PRINT
CYRANO - REMASTERED IN HD FROM A 35MM FINE GRAIN PRINT
Their covers really have gotten ridiculously better. Also I was the dope who bought A Double Life before the Olive rights announcement, so y'all are welcome
This is how many Blu-rays they have released/announced
July 2011: 2 Blu-rays
August 2011: 3
September 2011: 0
October 2011: 1
November 2011: 1
December 2011: 0
January 2012: 1 Blu-ray
February 2012: 8
March 2012: 5
April 2012: 3
May 2012: 5
June 2012: 7
July 2012: 6
August 2012: 9
September 2012: 10 announced so far
Looks like we can expect at least 20 more titles in Q4
I wonder how long it will take for Olive to run out of these beautiful Republic titles. And not just any Republic titles; unlike their largely uneven pickings from Paramount, they seem to be going right for gems of various degrees, and so many of them previously unreleased. One can only imagine what wonders Olive could pluck if they had access to Warner's archive.
Last edited by What A Disgrace on Wed Jun 20, 2012 12:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
