criterionforum.org

criterionsnob wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 8:35 pm Poison is now streaming on Criterion Channel, and it has the same 4:3 stretching issues as noted above. It's the same on Kanopy. Such a shame. I'm not holding much hope Kino have fixed this for the Blu-ray.

The story with the mockumentary sections is this: the film was shot in 16mm, with all the name/place IDs sitting pretty close to title-safe on the image. When the film was blown up to 35mm and matted to 1.85 for its theatrical presentation, the title safe situation was exacerbated.

Since the best available film element from which to transfer from was the 35mm internegative (all 16mm sources having gone missing long ago), we had to deal with the choice of either cutting off a lot text in those sections, or slightly tilting the frame (hence the stretching) to get as much of it on screen as possible. We chose the later, and while it wasn't a perfect solution, it was, on balance, the best one.

criterionsnob wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 10:17 pm My memory on this was fuzzy, but I just remembered I had emailed Zeitgeist about the stretching on the Poison DVD back in 2011. I dug up the email. This was their response back then, so perhaps there really is nothing that could be done, other than maybe reverse Wong Kar Wai-ing it back to 4:3.

The story with the mockumentary sections is this: the film was shot in 16mm, with all the name/place IDs sitting pretty close to title-safe on the image. When the film was blown up to 35mm and matted to 1.85 for its theatrical presentation, the title safe situation was exacerbated.

Since the best available film element from which to transfer from was the 35mm internegative (all 16mm sources having gone missing long ago), we had to deal with the choice of either cutting off a lot text in those sections, or slightly tilting the frame (hence the stretching) to get as much of it on screen as possible. We chose the later, and while it wasn't a perfect solution, it was, on balance, the best one.

I still wonder though if Haynes was involved in this decision. I don't recall it being an issue on the original VHS copy I watched many times in the late 90s.

L.A. wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 2:05 pm Todd Haynes’ Poison @ Beaver

hearthesilence wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:14 pm I wish there was a way to install a VLC player-like app on one's TV, just to have the ability to stretch and squish things via the aspect ratio controls. Not ideal, but much better than nothing.

ianthemovie wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:08 pm That one screencap of the female therapist is really egregious. It reminds me of the botch job that was initially done on the Criterion Dressed to Kill and which was caught and fixed just in time. What a shame because the rest of the footage and the extras for this look and sound great. I'm really torn about whether or not to upgrade to this from my now 15-year-old Lorber DVD.