Interesting quote about Friedkin´s tendency to revise the photography of his films:
"we all know what he did to The French Connection on his first try. He got his knuckles rapped pretty hard over that. Unfortunately, everyone was so focused on that one they didn't notice how he did the same thing to The Boys in the Band."
First time I saw that Friedkin had revised The Boys in the Band also.
Source: https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... 477/page-5 - post 86
William Friedkin
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The Fanciful Norwegian
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
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Re: William Friedkin
The existing HD master Boys in the Band (which was used for the DVD as well, so you'd have to go back to the VHS/laserdisc releases for something different) definitely has that bizarre "smeary" look from the original French Connection BD. (I saw that one compared to a colorization job and I think that's pretty apt, though at this point I've seen more convincing honest-to-god colorizations.) The DVD Beaver caps demonstrate it well enough. I wasn't as bothered by it as I would've been with The French Connection, where I'd seen the film more than once before (including on 35mm) and knew on some level what it had previously looked like, but there's still something obviously off. I've never listened to the commentary, but per the DVD Beaver writeup, Friedkin specifically talks about overseeing the color on the remaster.