UHD New Releases, Reissues and Upgrades

[MannFan]

The mentioning of a reference print is immediately promising and reassuring that we're now getting an accurate presentation of the film with its stylization preserved.

Not so sure, Nicolas. This Siskel & Ebert clip seems to indicate to me that maybe the color timing is revisionist.

And FWIW, this chaps my ass much less than I know it does others'. So I am not put off entirely from picking up the disc. But I will say - whew, that is a lot of green. Looks like The Matrix Revolutions. Knew right away that Eyes Wide Shut's excellent UHD restoration looked a whole hell of a lot like a 35mm print of the film, but I'd need to hear from somebody who's seen The Crying Game on film before I am willing to concede that this is a huge change from how it looked in theaters.

The color timing on an Ebert and Siskel clip from a transfer that may have been adjusted for the TVs at the time isn’t necessarily a clue as to what the color timing of a film is, or at least of a release or reference print.

[The Narrator Returns]

I recall a Soderbergh interview that’s on the sex, lies Criterion where he complains about how the clips from his movies sent to TV at that time were low-quality and not from his approved video masters. And both his movies at that time and The Crying Game were Miramax.

[Lowry_Sam]

I saw it in the theater upon release and I don't recall any scene being that green, but that image also didn't spark a memory of what scene it is from either. The only scenes I can think of that might have had such elevated color might have been a night time bar scene. On the other hand the top image looks too drained of color.

[rrenault]

Is it possible that even though film is prone to a natural green push of sorts it doesn’t necessarily register as such when properly projected in a cinema, unless of course it’s specifically graded to appear that way?

Proper (or improper) projection will inevitably play a role in how a film print appears to us, or at least I would think so.

[Zot!]

Its been ages, but I am almost certain that scene is from

Spoiler

the safehouse in the deep woods, where the first act of the film plays out.

It feels appropriate for that setting. Also any DP worth their salt knows it wouldn't an Irish production without the perfunctory green filter. .

[nicolas]

Criterion posted a trailer for their July releases which shows a few shots of the new Crying Game master: https://m.youtube.com/watch?is=c20K0hD9 ... e=youtu.be. Looking forward to more caps but I like what I see.

[Yakushima]

tenia, could you also let us know if you get to review the French UHD of Oddity, and if it's any good and if the French subs can be turned off?

Take it with a grain of salt but the other forum’s database lists forced subtitles, which could mean both burnt-in subs and those you can move out of the frame with some players. I quickly went through some of their other 4K releases and they seemingly have regular subtitles. The French BD release is mentioned as having regular subs, so I’d say the 4K is probably the same.

I took a plunge for the French UHD of Oddity, and my copy just arrived from OrbitDVD. I'm happy to report this is a pretty substantial upgrade over the US Blu-ray in all expected areas - color, details, sound, clarity of dialog, etc. The French subs are removable. No English subs though. It came with a nicely illustrated little booklet (in French) and a slipcover.