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Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2006 1:40 am**

davidhare wrote:Hmm -. neither is ideal. K the French caps look like the source might be tape?

Possibly. It was certainly shot on film, though (even though it was for Swedish TV): there's an excellent making-of documentary on the French edition which shows Bergman working with the cameras.

Posted: **Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:21 pm**

Another Melville...

L'Aîné des Ferchaux (aka Magnet of Doom, aka Die Millionen eines Gehetzten)
German R2. French/English audio (the film is mostly set in the US) with fixed but not burnt-in German subtitles. Also German credits, and German text superimposed on a few frames.

This is a non-anamorphic transfer. The back of the case says 2.35:1. In fact only the opening credits are in that ratio: the rest of the film is cropped to about 1.85, which causes some problems in the numerous shots where Melville places Vanel and Belmondo at opposite edges of the frame.

Posted: **Fri Sep 15, 2006 8:24 pm**

Belmondo's big face is my new desktop.

Posted: **Sat Sep 16, 2006 4:27 am**

From an unsubbed VCD edition:

Posted: **Sat Sep 16, 2006 11:06 am**

davidhare wrote:Adn another Melville, the R4/R2 l'Armee des Ombres (clumsily translated on the Australian cover as "Army in the Shadows".)

Army of Shadows would at least retain a hint of the double meaning in the original title.

The US title of L'Aîné des Ferchaux, Magnet of Doom, puzzled me for a bit. I still think it would be a better title for Melville's Un Flic, though, which has the best use of a giant magnet outside of a Tex Avery cartoon.

Posted: **Sun Sep 17, 2006 1:04 pm**

Very nice screen caps - very nice indeed!

Would I be right in assuming there are no English subs then (this is probably quite obvious due to the Japanese subtitle sample). If so, are the Japanese subs fixed? Image looks pretty good.

Posted: **Sun Sep 17, 2006 1:29 pm**

Optional japanese subs. No english but there seems to be a region 1 available. Go to the link Davis posted on the film.

Posted: **Sun Sep 17, 2006 1:58 pm**

Thanks for the info.

I managed to completely miss 2 threads about this film.

Une femme mariée (Old Films)

A Married Woman (Une femme mariée) (DVD News and Discussions)

Is anyone able to post screen caps of the region 1 dvd for a comparison? I have a feeling the Japanese will be much better.

Posted: **Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:59 pm**

The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, 1945)
Spain R0, Suevia Films, removable Spanish subtitles
VHS-like image, very murky in the night-time scenes. Audio out-of-sync in a few places.

Posted: **Mon Oct 02, 2006 7:37 pm**

L'Etrange Madame X (French R2)

Posted: **Tue Oct 03, 2006 2:25 am**

FNAC currently have some good offers on Rene Chateau titles, including this one.

Posted: **Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:12 am**

A rather bland melodrama about a married woman's fling. Henri Vidal is very wooden in a Gabinesque role. There's a subplot with lovely Arlette Thomas (Mimi from Pattes Blanches) but it doesn't really go anywhere. This is minor Gremillon, I'm afraid.

Posted: **Tue Oct 03, 2006 2:08 pm**

The Chess Players (Satyajit Ray)
France R2 (Carlotta Films), optional French subtitles only

Posted: **Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:07 am**

Westfront 1918 (Pabst, 1930)
German R2, UFA Klassiker Edition, no subs

Posted: **Wed Oct 04, 2006 1:17 pm**

That looks pretty cropped top and bottom. This film should be around 1.19:1 / 1.20:1 shouldn't it? (same era as M)

Posted: **Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:11 pm**

Screen caps from the French R2 DVD The Gang's All Here.

Posted: **Wed Oct 04, 2006 5:10 pm**

Thank you very much for these! However, on a first look, they seem to be a tad on the dark side, don't you think? Aside from that, it looks great, with very high definition levels and strong blacks (oh, God, did I just write that...? Too much DVDBeaver, I know...).

Here's to a R1 release!

Posted: **Sat Oct 07, 2006 1:33 pm**

At a first look, they seem to be taken from the same transfer source (or one terribly similar) as they both exhibit the same problems: skin tones are off, the colors could use some boost on the garish side, and the blacks are very/too strong and domineering.

I have a feeling that the upcoming R1 release will be strikingly different and better. Fingers crossed for that.

Posted: **Sat Oct 14, 2006 2:30 am**

Lancelot du Lac (Spain R2)
Anamorphic. Spanish subtitles fixed but not burnt-in.

For comparison with New Yorker R1.

Posted: **Sat Oct 14, 2006 3:15 pm**

Robert Bresson's, The Devil, Probably
- Spanish DVD
- French subtitles
- Spanish subtitles
- No English subtitles, unfortunately - where is the Art Eye edition?

From MoC's Bresson News Column page

Posted: **Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:09 pm**

Gordon wrote:Robert Bresson's, The Devil, Probably
- Spanish DVD
- French subtitles
- Spanish subtitles
- No English subtitles, unfortunately - where is the Art Eye edition?

No French subtitles, either, in fact. Just Spanish subs which, as with Intermedio's other Bressons, are fixed but not ingrained.

Posted: **Mon Oct 16, 2006 10:09 am**

Yella' subs! Oh, shit. This is one film where introducing the colour yellow is more than just annoying - it's somewhat damaging to the aesthetics. At least they are removeable.

Looks great, but I still wouldn't mind seeing a comparison with the Italian DVD. Here's the DVD Beaver comp of the Image R1 and Russian R5: www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare11/red_desert.htm

Posted: **Mon Oct 16, 2006 10:27 am**

OMG, that's lovely... My copy despatched from ezydvd last Wed, so should be here soon... And it's the bin for my old Image disc... How's the commentary track, David?...

Posted: **Mon Oct 16, 2006 9:59 pm**

I too have ordered this and am very miffed by the yellow subs

I sent an email to the DVD producer (it made me feel a little better...) I doubt I'll get a reply!!

Just thought it would be interesting to post Tarkovskij's thoughts on the use of colour in The Red Desert:

The Red Desert is the worst of his films after Il Grido. The colour is pretentious, quite unlike Antonioni usually, and the editing is subservient to the idea of colour. It could have been a superb film, tremendously powerful, if only it had been in black-and-white. If The Red Desert had been in black-and-white, Antonioni wouldn't have got high on pictorial aesthetics, he wouldn't have been so concerned with the pictorial side of the film, he wouldn't have shot those beautiful landscapes, or Monica Vitti's red hair against the mists. He would have been concentrating on the action instead of making pretty pictures. In my view the colour has killed the feeling of truth. If you compare The Red Desert to La Notte or L'Eclisse it's obvious how much less good it is.

(source: nostalghia.com)

I'm tempted to write a reply don't even know where to begin!

Posted: **Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:56 am**

The weekend after next there is an Antonioni retrospective in Melbourne, Australia and all films are apparent NEW prints. This is my schedule:

The Red Desert (Sat Oct 28, 4.15pm)
Blow Up (Sat Oct 28, 6.45pm)
Zabriskie Point (Sat Oct 28, 9.15pm)

L'Avventura (Sun Oct 29, 3.15pm)
La Notte (Sun Oct 29, 6.00pm)
L'Eclisse (Sun Oct 29, 8.30pm)

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