The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years

[swo17]

Just wait seven more films for Vol. 2

[Matt]

Maybe that's the genius of designing it like a set of encyclopedias, you get to add the annual Year Book volumes in the future. I know Criterion generally considers themselves "above" slipcovers, but that would be a pretty cool idea to include a slipcover matching the box set for any future releases of WA films.

[dwk]

I'm not sure physical media is going to exist in the 10-15 years it would probably take for Anderson to complete 7 more films plus the waiting period before Criterion releases his films.

[mfunk9786]

Wondering aloud what changes were made to the films, especially because The Darjeeling Limited is called out upthread as having been revisited. I find the visual texture of that film particularly pleasing, so it’d be unfortunate if it’s significantly changed.

[DimitriL]

As he says in the interview, he's not a revisionist like Wong Kar Wai, so my feeling is that he's correcting color timings that differed substantially from the original theatrical presentation. That's just a somewhat informed guess, though.

[tenia]

Would there also be maybe things thought for theatrical exposition that weren't very well translated to home video ? I'm thinking about things like aspect ratios shifts (Grand Budapest is formatted for 1.85 IIRC for instance, so 1.33 is pillarboxed when it probably could have been encoded without it).

[Rupert Pupkin]

Wondering aloud what changes were made to the films, especially because The Darjeeling Limited is called out upthread as having been revisited. I find the visual texture of that film particularly pleasing, so it’d be unfortunate if it’s significantly changed.

I have started to rewatch a few W.Anderson's movies - I still love a lot The Darjeeling Limited; the Kinks borrowed the plane intro of Back In The USSR, the soundtrack is brillant (love the bonus about the soundtrack), I remember that I fell instantly in love (and I was not the only one in the train) with Amara Karan - which I discovered the next year in the Night of..." miniserie has a "rookie" counselor.
It's always so funny to listen to the French lyrics of here Do You Go To (My Lovely) (I'm French yeah) because of "Zizi Jeanmaire", "Sacha Distel", etc...
The blu-ray transfer looks stunning to me, I can't wait to see it in UHD - I thought that the photography was Darius Khondji until I saw the credits. I think that W.Anderson had in mind the Renoir's "Le Fleuve" but not only for some sequences but for the colors. Perhaps some color grading correction could be done for the daylight scenes with the sun, but they really looks great.
If this plan to be closer to the theatrical cut, I won't be disappointed.
Perhaps this movie will be the first to be release as a individual release in a next not so (I hope) distant future.

Back to "Moonrise Kingdom" I forgot the two lovebirds where in the bus in Paterson - Such a tender cameo! (I have the Plain Archive box set - the bus slipcase looks so nice). Still very moved by this W.Anderson movie; one of my favorite. Love the creek-Walkabout reference (unconscious?)
The poem at the end of Walkabout could work with this movie.

[ChunkyLover]

I'm thinking about things like aspect ratios shifts (Grand Budapest is formatted for 1.85 IIRC for instance, so 1.33 is pillarboxed when it probably could have been encoded without it).

I would think it's formatted at 2.39 as the 1.85 sections are also pillarboxed.

[Roger Ryan]

I'm thinking about things like aspect ratios shifts (Grand Budapest is formatted for 1.85 IIRC for instance, so 1.33 is pillarboxed when it probably could have been encoded without it).

I would think it's formatted at 2.39 as the 1.85 sections are also pillarboxed.

Also, not sure what is meant by "... could have been encoded without it" as the three aspect ratios used in that film are specific to the eras those scenes are taking place in, so altering the aspect ratio for any of them would be significant revisionism on par with Wong Kar Wai.

[tenia]

I meant things like having 1.33 scenes without windowboxing (the black bars on top and bottom - in case someone thought I was talking about the side ones). I didn't mean altering the different ARs but avoiding something like this (which to me is a poor video translation of something prepared for theatrical standards which are different) : https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=14022 ... =0&l=0&a=0

[Roger Ryan]

I meant things like having 1.33 scenes without windowboxing (the black bars on top and bottom - in case someone thought I was talking about the side ones). I didn't mean altering the different ARs but avoiding something like this (which to me is a poor video translation of something prepared for theatrical standards which are different) : https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=14022 ... =0&l=0&a=0

Ah, gotcha. I think your use of the term "pillarboxed" threw me. Yes, I agree I would prefer a home video version that doesn't resort to windowboxing the 1.33:1 and 1.85:1 scenes.

[dvakman]

Knowing Wes, I wonder if the title of this box isn't a reference to this old Criterion supplemental LD release (which I own):

https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/10046/V1 ... s-25-Films

[flyonthewall2983]

I hope there’s some cool promotion for this. A campy tv ad campaign would be nice.

[nicolas]

Someone on Reddit asked Criterion about the films’ masters and they confirmed that those finished as a 2K DI, starting with The Darjeeling Limited, were all upscaled except for French Dispatch, which is natively 4K.

[Matt]

So that's: The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Isle of Dogs, half the films in the set.

The little devil on my shoulder really wants this set as an object, but the little angel on the other shoulder says just to hold out for individual UHDs of Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.

[hearthesilence]

I'm definitely going to pass then. If the first three features get a UHD release, I'll pick them up, but I'm fine with what I have for the others.

[ChunkyLover]

I'm not surprised that post-Aquatic are DI-upscales (besides Dispatch); it's not really all that financially doable to "rebuild" DI-tied films that have un-conformed elements and that's even if they still exist (though, I would think a higher profile filmmaker like Anderson would have elements in-check).

[andyli]

Yeah I don't know why people still hold on to the fantasy that someone would pay to re-build a DI from scratch, just for the tiny market of 4K UHD (and 4K DCP screening). I wouldn't bother to enquire in view of Criterion's past practice of avoiding 2K DI upgrades. This set must be an exception given Wes Anderson's influence. The good thing is, you still get the benefit of HDR and Wider Color Gamut if the films were finished in a color space grander than a blu-ray can handle.

[Finch]

On top of what andyli said, Criterion's 4K encoding generally tends to be better than the Blu-rays, especially older BDs. I'm going to wait as well, for standalones of Rushmore and Tenenbaums for sure, possibly Moonrise and Budapest, too. Might even be less than a year from the set's release.

[Matt]

Yeah I don't know why people still hold on to the fantasy that someone would pay to re-build a DI from scratch, just for the tiny market of 4K UHD (and 4K DCP screening).

Though I understand the extraordinary expense involved, I would think it'd be useful for archival purposes. If a finished film only exists as a 2K DI—something home video has already surpassed in quality—you're just kicking the can down the road. For someone like Anderson, who is so meticulous about everything, you would think he would want to have the best available quality of his films available now and in the future while he is still able to supervise that process.

[hearthesilence]

I generally agree with this - they'll probably do it eventually so why not now - but I also realize budgets are tight and given the number of films involved, it's going to demand time, labor and money that people may not have when they're juggling other projects or at least a substantial delay they don't want to have. I'm sure there are a lot of factors to consider and it's ultimately a judgment call.

[cdnchris]

Details about Isle of Dogs

Isle of Dogs is presented in the aspect ratio of 2.40:1. Supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson, this new 4K digital master was upscaled from the 2K digital source master, which was created from the original digital camera media. The original 5.1 surround soundtrack was remastered from the original digital audio files. The feature is presented in Dolby Vision HDR (high dynamic range) on the 4K Ultra HD disc, to preserve the wide-color gamut of the theatrical presentation, and high-definition SDR (standard dynamic range) on the Blu-ray.

and The French Dispatch

The French Dispatch of the Liberty Kansas Evening Sun is presented in the aspect ratios of 1.37:, 1.85:1, and 2.40:1. For the 4K digital master presented on the 4K Ultra HD disc, colorist Gareth Spensley returned to his original color project and scans of the 35 mm camera negative to create a new Dolby Vision HDR (high dynamic range) presentation that was supervised and approved by Wes Anderson. The original 5.1 surround soundtrack was remastered from the digital audio files. The feature is presented in Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc and high-definition SDR (standard dynamic range) on the Blu-ray.

[onedimension]

So that's: The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Isle of Dogs, half the films in the set.

The little devil on my shoulder really wants this set as an object, but the little angel on the other shoulder says just to hold out for individual UHDs of Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.

That's a shame. I'm sure they'll still look good, but..

I guess the workflow for re-doing them is much more expensive than regular 4K restorations?

[tenia]

Yes, redoing this means pretty redoing the whole post-production of the movies. I only know a few remasters that went through this (Le pacte des loups, and Astérix Mission Cléopatre), and when I asked the budget for remastering Mission Cléopatre this way, I was answered it was as impolite to ask this than to ask a lady her age (and never got an answer).
My understanding is that nowadays, traditional restorations (ie, say, the 4k restoration of Il ferroviere) cost about 50-100k€. My guess, seeing these reactions, is that projects like Le pacte des loups and Mission Cléopatre cost at least 10 times that.

[hearthesilence]

The cost can vary wildly though. If it's a VFX-heavy film, they likely chose to do it in 2K specifically to make it more manageable (not to mention cheaper and quicker to execute, probably a necessity when deadlines are concerned). If you want to make it true 4K and re-do all those effects in 4K, that part of post-production will likely cost more than how much it did when you were making the film for its initial theatrical release. That's a tremendous difference.