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Manny Karp wrote:

FrauBlucher wrote:Beaver> Solaris
Next up is Stalker. That will be very disappointing.

Fixed

Call me crazy but the brighter look of these titles really doesn't look too tragic to me at all. Do we think Kino might bring these to the US? I might wait to see how they fare.

Stalker, by Beaver.

Tooze says it looks quite soft.

Cremildo wrote:Stalker, by Beaver.

Tooze says it looks quite soft.

Terrible. Not much else to say.

Honestly, this doesn't look so bad to me. The print of Nostalghia I saw in theaters two years ago could hardly be described as sharp, and I would say comes reasonably close to resembling those screenshots.

Wow, this should be the final nail in the coffin of this collection. Terrible, just terrible in every respect.

I could take the softness or the blue-ish tint separately but together it's a bit too much.

The biggest problem is the gamma. The botched gamma gives the appearance of underexposed film. It lowers the contrast, which in turn lowers what's called apparent sharpness. This would appear sharper with proper gamma.

I don't think improved gamma would make much of a difference. It looks like an incredible amount of (bad) grain reduction has been applied. You can see remnants of the original grain in some areas (usually the brighter ones) in the shots while they're completely gone in others (in the darker areas). The gamma error only heightens these blocky areas making them painfully obvious. If it wasn't for some shots still featuring finer grain, I'd even say it's a blow-up from some SD-source (which is not the case, though). This is a huge mess. It's basically a transfer nobody should have ever released.

This looks as bad as the Japanese bluray. That disc goes back and forth between looking like a soft HD source in closeups and looking like a milky standard–def source in long shots.

A huge disappointment. Whatever happened to the "beautiful new restoration" of the film? This looks even worse than some SD editions.

Yakushima wrote:A huge disappointment. Whatever happened to the "beautiful new restoration" of the film? This looks even worse than some SD editions.

None of these AE Tarkovskys appear to use the new Mosfilm restorations. The promotional restoration trailer Mosfilm released has Stalker--and the other films, too--looking quite different.

Moshrom wrote:

Yakushima wrote:A huge disappointment. Whatever happened to the "beautiful new restoration" of the film? This looks even worse than some SD editions.

None of these AE Tarkovskys appear to use the new Mosfilm restorations. The promotional restoration trailer Mosfilm released has Stalker--and the other films, too--looking quite different.

Anyone has info if any company will release the new restorations? And are any of the AE tarkkovskys worth buying?

Time to cancel those Stalker pre-orders, everybody. Criterion to the rescue soon, hopefully!

I must have missed something, I thought this was still with Kino...?

Zot! wrote:I must have missed something, I thought this was still with Kino...?

Someone on the bluray.com forum posted this, which he says he received as a response from Mosfilm:

Dear Sir,

The materials of the Mosfilm restorations were provided to Criterion Collection
in the frame of the licence granted to them for the films directed by Andrey Tarkovsky.

Best regards,

Elena Orel
International Relations and Distribution Dept.
Mosfilm Cinema Concern

Oedipax wrote:Time to cancel those Stalker pre-orders, everybody. Criterion to the rescue soon, hopefully!

Dammit. I locked in the really cheap pre-order price and have never seen the film. Decisions decisions.

Well you won't regret owning the film in some form. If nothing else, it's great to have on to make people think you're watching something classy.

"Hmm... bald dudes walking around some rando abandoned building in a flood zone, now that's classy shit"

Drucker wrote:

Oedipax wrote:Time to cancel those Stalker pre-orders, everybody. Criterion to the rescue soon, hopefully!

Dammit. I locked in the really cheap pre-order price and have never seen the film. Decisions decisions.

I assume you mean the £8-something Amazon pre-order price? In which case it might be worth getting, since it does look better than the DVD. However, I'm personally just gonna wait for either the box set (after 6 months or so when it'll be about £35) or get them separately once they're cheaper (all AE titles seem to drop to about £6-7 after a few months).

Or if you're region free, just wait for the Criterion! You could always keep your Amazon pre-order, and then sell it - you're bound to get your money back. In fact I wish I'd kept my Amazon pre-orders (I cancelled them all when I decided I'd wait for the box set).

This is much better than the DVD version. I am also waiting for AE box set to go up for pre-order. It will be worth getting. Just out of curiosity, when did Criterion confirmed Stalker?

Sorry, I see the copy of the email now. That's a big confirmation, I guess.

The question is: How long until CC release their disc? If it's already streaming on Filmstruck, with an acceptable image, then it must be more or less ready?

Wait so criterion is streaming Stalker right now? I'm so confused. That bluray.com thread posted earlier makes no specific mention of Stalker going to Criterion. Just that Mosfilm provided some Tarkovsky masters to them. Which could mean Solaris and Ivan.

If we're out of luck, Criterion only has streaming rights for the Tarkovskys. I hope they could also secure the physical media rights for these titles as these are/would be quintessential Criterion releases.