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Husbands (John Cassavetes), Region 2 Spain (sony).

L'important c'est d'aimer (Andrzej Zulawski), R2 Spain (Universal), includes english subtitles.

Re: aspect ratio of HOURGLASS SANATORIUM: I´ve seen this film in a 35mm print. It´s definitely a 2.35 movie. Malavida, the company that released the French dvd, tells me in an e-mail a 1.78 master was the only one available.

HOURGLASS SANATORIUM (Malavida Films-FR)

The Trial (Orson Welles), Optimum Releasing, R2 UK.

My first impressions were very strong (strong rich blacks, acceptable midtones, fairly sharp, seemed accurate in its AR - although it has been Picture-Boxed / Window-Boxed). My second impression made me think my first impression was more surprise that it wasn't as awful as I thought it would be - the strong blacks were a result of slight but not terrible over contrasting, the sharpness could definately be better but is still acceptable, there are no subtitle options, and of course, the image has been Picture-Boxed / Window-Boxed. Still overall, it is a pretty good representation until something better comes out, i'm happy to hold on to this release.

N.B. The DVD cover does not acknowledge anywhere that there is a 30 minute documentary on Welles interpreting Kafka to film / talking with the crew about making The Trial and a 23 minute interview with Edmond Richmond, DOP on The Trial, as well as a trailer and stills gallery. I'll put up a screen capture of the bonus features menu as i'm not sure if they have been included on any other Welles release, and may be a selling point to some.

It's pillar-boxed to 1.66:1 within a 16:9 frame. No complaints on that count.

Thanks so much for this, bigP. I can't believe Optimum were fools enough not to point out any of the supplements on this release.

The extra features are terrific, including some deleted shots from the movie, and some great info on Welles´working methods.

Narshty wrote:Thanks so much for this, bigP. I can't believe Optimum were fools enough not to point out any of the supplements on this release.

Unbelievable, I know. It's one thing for small companies like Mr Bongo to print up the cover for Identification of a Woman (for example) with noted special features, only to lose them at the last minute, it's a whole other mistake to not mention the special features that ARE included, especially if they are as worthy as these. Even if they were a last minute addition, surely it would have been worth holding back the release date a month or so and having the covers reprinted, or would this cost them more than I expect? I know little about this subject and it's financial costs.

Narshty wrote:It's pillar-boxed to 1.66:1 within a 16:9 frame. No complaints on that count.

Again, i'm pretty much a layman when it comes to the ins and outs of dvd's and their aspect ratio's. Gary Tooze tends to make light of picture-boxing, so I thought, best mention it myself just in case.

Pigs and Battleships aka Hogs and Warships

Partie de Campagne: BFI vs Studio Canal

BFI

Studio Canal

BFI

Studio Canal


Slightly different framing, Studio Canal showing more on the sides and on top, but a shade less on the bottom. Studio Canal also looks sharper, not only brighter, and the highlights are more distinct (see last cap). No subtitles on Studio Canal, burnt-in on BFI.

The caps show such a bluish tint they almost blend in with the forum background.

HerrSchreck wrote:The caps show such a bluish tint they almost blend in with the forum background.

Shreck, what kind of monitor are you using? On one older TFT-LCD ("flat monitor") I get the tint you're refering to, but on others (newer TFT-LCDs and an old CRT) they look fine. Weird - anyone else care to comment.

To make it nice and scientific, I pulled the caps into Photoshop and looked at the histograms -- there's no blue bias. Conversion to pure grayscale didn't result in any noticeable difference.

Thanks for the heads up (hurls monitor out window).

Thank god I never watch movies on this. Probably needs a calibrative tweak.

HerrSchreck wrote:Thanks for the heads up (hurls monitor out window).

Thank god I never watch movies on this. Probably needs a calibrative tweak.

That's the least of your worries - your manky malfunctioning monitor is probably leaking radiation into your brain, brother. You'll have temporal lobe epilepsy come Christmas morning! Enjoy the sights in the fifth dimension!

Gor-don! Have you been at the Salvia again?

Some minor compression artefacts (5.39GB for 150 min.) and other weirdness - pretty much as noted in the DVD Times review - but nothing too distracting and overall a very good presentation of a beautiful film.








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Below, some stills from various of the two-reelers on the first three volumes of the Looser Than Loose 6-Disc release of Buster Keaton: Educational Two-Reelers. All of the films (aside from one, I believe) were transferred from private collectors' 16mm prints.

It would be possible to display stills that would make these discs look a lot more unbecoming, than I have done here. However, in motion, most of these films look like the 16mm prints that they originate from. Some are in very nice shape, and some look slightly rougher.

Crime and punishment (Josef von Sternberg, 1935). R2, Spain, Sony.

Supplementing the Unknown Video thread. Here are a series of stills from their Nickelodia releases. For those concerned with such things (even if the stills below do not reflect this), all of the films do show combing when played on a computer, although when viewing these films on my projector, I noticed no disturbances of the image.













Yup! That would be Mr. Griffith himself doing a "Hitchcock"...

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Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti (1960), the very good follow-up to I Soliti ignoti (Criterion's Big Deal on Madonna Street) is out in France as part of a box and now as a single disc. French title: Hold-up a la milanaise. French subs only.

Some captures from the Polish Tadeusz Konwicki box set:

Some captures from Swedish label Sandre Metronome's Syskonbädd 1782.