Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

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domino harvey
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#301 Post by domino harvey » Sun Apr 02, 2017 8:14 am

It will literally be the exact same disc with a new barcode sticker on the packaging

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dwk
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#302 Post by dwk » Mon Apr 10, 2017 9:34 pm

Wow, the Juice 25th Anniversary Edition looks like it is a pretty packed special edition:
Image
  • Audio Commentary by director Ernest R. Dickerson
  • You've Got the Juice Now — A look back at the making of the film featuring brand new interviews with director Ernest R. Dickerson, producer David Heyman and actors Omar Epps, Khalil Kain and Jermaine Hopkins. The piece details Dickerson's struggle to remain true to his original vision, his desire to cast fresh new talent, the challenges of shooting on location in Harlem, and the reasons why the film's ending was changed.
  • The Wrecking Crew — The film's surviving lead actors talk about how they came to be cast in the film and the bonds they immediately formed with one another. They additionally share stories about Tupac Shakur's drive, authenticity and unmistakable genius, as well as their delight at getting to work with Samuel L. Jackson, Queen Latifah and Cindy Herron.
  • Sip the Juice: The Music — Explores the essential role that music plays in the film. Features vintage interviews with the Shocklee brothers about their score, as well as Erik B, EPMD, and members of Cypress Hill speaking about their contributions to the unforgettable soundtrack and why they chose to be a part of the film.
  • Stay in the Scene: The Interview — Vintage interview with the four lead cast members on set. The piece demonstrates their rapport as they discuss the importance of the film and its message.
  • Photo Gallery — Unit photographer Adger Cowans' photos taken on set.

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Black Hat
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#303 Post by Black Hat » Sun Apr 23, 2017 8:19 pm

That looks like a great package, the soundtrack was perhaps the best in an era full of quality soundtracks and you still hear many of these tracks in clubs to this day. Aaron Hall's Dont Be Afraid & Naughty by Nature's Uptown Anthem never gets old. Hard to Believe it's been 25 years.

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Emak-Bakia
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#304 Post by Emak-Bakia » Mon May 15, 2017 11:04 am

Talked with a friend who recently booked a screening of Bob Roberts, and apparently Paramount is losing the rights in August. Sounds like someone else has picked it up. Of course, those are theatrical rights, but I wonder if this could bode well for a blu-ray release. The time is certainly ripe for the film's rediscovery.

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domino harvey
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#305 Post by domino harvey » Mon May 15, 2017 11:11 am

Artisan released it on DVD in the states and it's probably the most stacked release that exists for a film inexplicably presented in the wrong aspect ratio!

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Emak-Bakia
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#306 Post by Emak-Bakia » Mon May 15, 2017 11:58 am

My friend did mention that the aspect ratio was tricky to pin down for the screening (from 35mm), and he finally settled on using a 1.66:1 aperture plate! It seems an unusual choice, but I thought it looked just fine. It was my first time seeing the film, though, so I haven't got any other ratios to compare it to.

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domino harvey
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#307 Post by domino harvey » Mon May 15, 2017 11:59 am

Could be right! The DVD isn't open matte, it's just lightly cropped on the sides-- you really can't tell other than during the Bob Dylan parody, though, based on how it's filmed

oh yeah
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#308 Post by oh yeah » Sun Sep 24, 2017 5:13 am

What A Disgrace wrote:Does anybody know if the upcoming Chinatown has the same specs as the old one?
And is it even that big of a jump in quality to be worth trading in the most recent 2-disc DVD edition (with the Fincher commentary etc)? Seriously, I've just heard it's a really mediocre transfer... but is it that disappointing? Or just disappointing because it could/should have been stunning but is simply competent instead? I remember hearing about DNR problems, though, which makes me skeptical about it. Opinions?

As an aside, I was lucky enough to see the film in 35mm several years ago. Oddly, it wasn't actually that impressive, visually - not that it didn't look great, but that aspect didn't knock me out, despite it being a pretty pristine print. Actually the vivid, somewhat underrated sound mix was more compelling, I think, like a lot of Polanski, it makes very effective use of textured and realistic ambient sound and these various ostensibly innocuous things (e.g. a car engine starting, a baby crying, the bustle of a city street, this whistling sound that recurs throughout in downtown scenes, etc) - with the end result being to somehow build a sense of dread out of them. For example, near the end when Gittes gets the cops off his tail by using Curly and his car as a getaway, I remember at the screening a really affecting bit of sound design. As I recall, we watch Gittes and Curly drive off out of frame in a fairly wide shot, which then holds on the empty yard for a beat longer than probably any average Hollywood film would. As they drive off and during the end of that shot, there's the unnerving sound of a baby crying loudly somewhere. Simple, and doesn't sound like much at all, but it's little details like those... somehow the fatalistic dread of the film is enhanced by unsettling aural touches like that. Similarly, those whistling sounds heard from the city streets below whenever we're in a downtown building help create an almost subliminally tense, on-edge feeling.


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andyli
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#310 Post by andyli » Fri Mar 30, 2018 2:24 am

That link doesn't provide any indication it's 4K.

On the other hand, Forrest Gump will join the 4K party.


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andyli
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#312 Post by andyli » Thu Nov 01, 2018 10:35 pm

It's a Wonderful Life 4K restoration trailer.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#313 Post by hearthesilence » Fri Nov 02, 2018 12:16 pm

It's tough to tell on my screen (not to mention the YouTube compression scheme that is probably a factor, even at 1080p) but does anyone else think the image looks a little too clean? The details are crisper, but I don't like the texture (or lack thereof) on certain shots.

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movielocke
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#314 Post by movielocke » Fri Nov 02, 2018 12:59 pm

hearthesilence wrote:It's tough to tell on my screen (not to mention the YouTube compression scheme that is probably a factor, even at 1080p) but does anyone else think the image looks a little too clean? The details are crisper, but I don't like the texture (or lack thereof) on certain shots.
No idea since I watched it on my phone but I’ve seen three or four 35mm prints of this and it looks so much better than the ancient dvd I have. Tv airings over the decades would have been 16mm reductions of late generation 35mm prints, reductions eventually transferred to tape and then migrated to other tapes until airing off tape petered out—all of which is a long winded way to say that a grainy look to the film is an artifact of generation loss through the airing chain and not remotely reflective of the look of the film. Even my old dvd is clearly taken from a decent but late generation positive. And it doesn’t look like the newer generation 35mm prints I’ve seen in the past few years (but pretty similar to the first 35mm I saw about fifteen years ago). One striking thing I’ve noticed from my last viewing of a print five or six years ago was how incredibly good it looked, to the point of being able to easily identify the soap bubbles in the background snow if you were looking for it. Given the lenses and stocks they were working with in 45/46 for fully lit studio shoots (so very low asa very fine grained negative) it should have exposed a really exceptional fine grained image on the negative.

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Drucker
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#315 Post by Drucker » Fri Nov 02, 2018 2:59 pm

How about we don't spend a month talking about what a restoration trailer looks like.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#316 Post by FrauBlucher » Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:39 pm

Is anyone else surprised that Atlantic City has not been released on bluray or at least licensed out? Not even sure if the Paramount DVD is still in print. Could there be a rights issue for this? This seems like it could be solid Criterion release.

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domino harvey
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#317 Post by domino harvey » Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:41 pm

I could see it coming from MOC, seems up their alley

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#318 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:52 pm

Atlantic City is still listed as a Paramount title on digital storefronts (iTunes/Google Play/Prime Video) so it looks like they're still the U.S. distributor, even if their DVD is OOP. I don't think Paramount ever had the film in the UK—Arrow released the original UK DVD and I'm sure they wouldn't mind reissuing it (all the moreso if they could also get the U.S. rights from Paramount), but the most recent DVD is from Network and it's still listed on their website, so the UK rights might still be with them.
Last edited by The Fanciful Norwegian on Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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domino harvey
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#319 Post by domino harvey » Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:57 pm

Also, looks like Gaumont put it out on Blu-ray already too

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fdm
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#320 Post by fdm » Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:59 pm

And it was teal.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#321 Post by FrauBlucher » Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:03 pm

Oh right, I forgot Gaumont release.

Tenia said this about the Gaumont release...
I had a look at Atlantic City, and it looks rather good too. It has less of a color timing bias, though it seems a tad cold and a bit too bright to me. Otherwise, it's fine.
Well, Paramount is the worst of the majors in getting their catalogue out on bluray. For christ's sakes, A Place in the Sun still hasn't been released.

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fdm
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#322 Post by fdm » Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:08 pm

See tenia's screen captures in this thread.

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tenia
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#323 Post by tenia » Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:28 pm

In retrospect, I'd say it's not so much tealed to death than Eclair-ed. I'm quite sure I've seen worse though, but it's logical some took offense on this look, while I might have been a bit too kind with it.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#324 Post by FrauBlucher » Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:37 pm

THanks.. Aunt Peg had this to say on that bluray.com thread
Got my Atlantic City & Black Moon today. Black Moon looks sensational and Atlantic City problematic.

The blue tinge in Atlantic City is not an accurate colour of the film. The American DVD is far closer as the skin tones etc are all normal look. In the blu ray they all have milk coloured skin.

Also the title appearance is at different times. The American DVD starts with Susan Sarandon washing her breasts with lemon juice whilst Burt Lancaster looks on from another flat. He lights up a smoke and continues to watch at which time we get a close up of Sarandon washing her breasts again. Then it's back to Lancaster, still smoking and watching the the credits start to appear.

In the French Blu Ray Sarandan is washing, Lancaster looks and that's that. No further scenes of him looking and no credits. The credit for the film appear about 10 minutes later.

Hope someone will redo Atlantic City properly.
So, I'll take a pass and hope for a region A release.

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tenia
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Re: Paramount Catalog Titles on Blu

#325 Post by tenia » Tue Feb 26, 2019 3:16 pm

I'd have a hard time saying Black Moon is wonderful looking and Atlantic City awful. For what it's worth, Black Moon also is quite cold looking and you can easily guess Eclair graded this one. The difference I guess is that it might be a bit subtler than Atlantic City, it beats the Criterion BD quite much, and Aunt Peg has a more vivid memory of Atlantic City but not of Black Moon.
I made a few caps for my review here.

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