Kino: The Second Circle

[zone_resident]

Slant magazine has a review of the Second Circle, with disappointing news about the transfer:

That the film's emotions manage to make it past the sandstorm of grain that is Kino's visual transfer (the 1.37:1 full screen ratio throws off some of the evocatively composed images) should be the ultimate proof of Sokurov's genius. The director's trademark richly multilayered soundtrack is traded in here for spartan starkness, all too well captured by the flat mono soundtrack.

Sigh..

[solaris72]

Well, that reviewer doesn't really know what he's talking about. 1.37:1 is the original aspect ratio and would hardly "throw off some of the evocatively composed images."
As for the grain, I've seen it in 35mm and I recall it being a grainy film, but I'll reserve judgment on that until I see some screencaps.

[Matt]

While I don't expect much from Kino, especially for a film such as this that poses a challenge to any telecine operator, if there's visible film grain (not digital noise--most reviewers seem incapable of telling the difference between the two), I'll be quite pleased.

[mmacklem]

The Fox Lorber release has a fair amount of dirt and speckling, so my guess is that the Kino release is simply a port of that transfer.

[Matt]

The Fox Lorber release has a fair amount of dirt and speckling, so my guess is that the Kino release is simply a port of that transfer.

As far as I know, this is the first DVD release of this film in the US. Are you talking about a VHS release or perhaps thinking of Mother and Son which was released on DVD by Fox Lorber?

[mmacklem]

My bad, I misread the thread topic, and yes I was referring to the Fox Lorber release of Mother and Son. I had previously seen a copy of Second Circle that was released on VHS and the print was almost uwnatchable, but I don't know how much of that was the tape and how much was the transfer.

[Donald Trampoline]

Yeah, I saw this in 1.37 theatrically as well, so it's hard to trust that reviewer. Hopefully it will be a decent DVD. Perhaps if we all hope really hard it will come true.

And the compositions are excellent in the film. So elegantly composed. So the fact that the reviewer thought they were "thrown off" is pretty bizarre!

[spencerw]

I would just mention that Kino describes the film as "newly restored" for its transfer: http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?product_id=931.

[spencerw]

See comment on the main Kino thread: http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/vie ... 0675#70675