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

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

So for a film like TGBH, the 2.39:1 segment would’ve still been shown in a letterbox format because the DCP is 1.85:1. Hence my earlier suggestion of a universal 1.85:1 container for all purposes. This would also allow the filmmakers to prepare one final product in terms of the relative size proportion from one AR to another. Maybe people can chime in with their recollections of the theatrical viewing experience. I really doubt they prepared a DCP that would utilize the full ‘Scope screen (and then bookend the 1.37:1 image with ugly, fat pillars).

Maybe it was different internationally, but in the U.S. DCPs of The Grand Budapest Hotel were 1.85:1, and Fox sent out special instructions to make sure venues knew it.

[tenia]

The question though is if the 1.37 and 1.66 segments were letterboxed theatrically or not.

[goblinfootballs]

The question though is if the 1.37 and 1.66 segments were letterboxed theatrically or not.

From the instructions:

"THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL covers many time periods over the course of the movie. And each time period is in a different aspect ratio. All of these ratios are within the standard 1.85:1 (1998×1080) digital aspect ratio. The Fox Searchlight Logo should fill your screen. Do not frame to the scenes that take place after the logos. If you do, you will inevitably cut off some of the movie later on."

So the image should be the same height throughout regardless of aspect ratio.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

The question though is if the 1.37 and 1.66 segments were letterboxed theatrically or not.

Looking at some comments on this very forum from when the movie first hit theaters, it seems that the non-'Scope widescreen sequences were noticeably windowboxed. (On the Blu-ray these are more specifically around 1.82:1, with Tom Wilkinson's scenes having the same AR but significantly heavier windowboxing than those of the girl in the cemetery.) The technical notes from Fox imply as much when they warn that the scenes immediately after the logo shouldn't be used as a framing guide because that would result in overcropping—this wouldn't be an issue if those scenes were actually full-frame 1.85:1 on the DCP. My guess is that if you took the framing on the video releases and cropped it to 1.85:1, eliminating the letterboxing on the 1.33:1 segments, you would have what was used for the DCP, or in other words letterboxing for the 'Scope sections, pillarboxing for the 1.33:1 sections, and windowboxing for the rest, excepting the opening logos and parts of the end credits that use the full real estate of the 1.85:1 screen.

EDIT: I checked out Matt Zoller Seitz's book on the film to see what it has to say about the issue and it has a whole essay from David Bordwell on Anderson's framing. This is what he writes:

The prologue and epilogue in the cemetery are formatted at 1.80, leaving a bit at the sides as well as the top and bottom. Many directors would have kept this framing situation at the full 1.85, but it's typical of Anderson, with his interest in Russian-nesting-doll structure, that he makes the prologue and epilogue themselves a slight "embed" within the overall picture format.

Within the 1.80 picture is the 1985 Author interview, which also comes in at about 1.80, but it, too, is embedded: it's smaller in dimensions than the prologue. The 2.40 scenes are the only ones in the film that fill the horizontal extent of the master 1.85 frame. (But of course those scenes lave the top and bottom areas of the full frame blank and aren't as tall as the scenes in other ratios.)

In fact on the Blu-ray the Author interview is so heavily windowboxed that even the 'Scope scenes are taller. I don't know if this was an error on Bordwell's part or if the theatrical framing was different. Bordwell also writes that the DVD release "has reduced the black areas around the embedded frames a little," I suppose as a concession to the lower resolution.

[tenia]

Well, here we go, then.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I will say I agree that there's no good reason for windowboxing the 1.33:1 segments on the BD releases instead of adjusting them just a teeny tiny bit to fill the vertical extent of the 16:9 screen, particularly after the Asteroid City Blu did exactly that.

[mfunk9786]

My copy shipped from Orbit today.

[Finch]

Anyone that has a copy of this boxset might want to check if their copy of The Royal Tenenbaums glitches at the 36 minutes mark. There've been several reports of this error, regardless of the player, on BR.com. It would also explain why no one has been able to rip the disc and post screenshots for this film yet.

[domino harvey]

Cillian Murphy’s face when he sees this thread

[mfunk9786]

Anyone that has a copy of this boxset might want to check if their copy of The Royal Tenenbaums glitches at the 36 minutes mark. There've been several reports of this error, regardless of the player, on BR.com. It would also explain why no one has been able to rip the disc and post screenshots for this film yet.

Heard about this from a friend/acquaintance, wouldn't know myself: There is definitely a rip from this disc that's been out there since pre-street date.

[ChunkyLover]

Cillian Murphy’s face when he sees this thread

Legit thought this was Eric Roberts for a split second.

[cdnchris]

Yeah, mine does as well, which is why I haven't got to it yet.

[nicolas]

The disc is confirmed to work on some BR users’ Panasonic UB-450 and Sony X800-M2 players.

[Finch]

With all the issues that some discs (Arrow, Criterion etc) are having on Panny players, I'm glad I went for the Sony X800-M2.

[cdnchris]

My Blu-ray drive has trouble reading it, too. I can get a couple grabs but then it just starts whirring.

[Yakushima]

Anyone that has a copy of this boxset might want to check if their copy of The Royal Tenenbaums glitches at the 36 minutes mark. There've been several reports of this error, regardless of the player, on BR.com. It would also explain why no one has been able to rip the disc and post screenshots for this film yet.

Heard about this from a friend/acquaintance, wouldn't know myself: There is definitely a rip from this disc that's been out there since pre-street date.

My 4K disc of The Royal Tenenbaums played fine on Oppo, FWIW.

[What A Disgrace]

My 4K disc of Bottle Rocket was not inside the case, instead it was lodged between the cases of Fantastic Mr. Fox and Moonrise Kingdom, but it works fine and doesn't appear to be damaged.

Royal Tenenbaums, alas, does display the aforementioned issue.

[mfunk9786]

Reached out to Criterion about the Royal Tenenbaums thing to ask if they were doing any kind of replacement program and they said there is no known issue with the disc and sent a guide to wiping down a disc properly.

[swo17]

Well, everyone knows there's a problem with this disc. What Criterion's email presupposes is... maybe there isn't?

[Finch]

They did the same song and dance with Winchester 73 before relenting.

[hearthesilence]

How does this keep happening? They send out test discs for people to play before pressing anything...where in the chain of production does this get messed up?

[dwk]

Maybe it is something is going wrong in replication?

[swo17]

My 4K disc of The Royal Tenenbaums played fine on Oppo, FWIW.

Same

[criterionsnob]

My Tenenbaums UHD played past the 36 minute mark without any issues on my Sony UBP-X800M2. I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but looks pretty great on a cursory view. Tenenbaums was the one 4K disc that became dislodged during shipping and the top hub of its case was broken upon arrival. Zissou case got a bit crushed on the spine as well.

[sidetracked]

No idea if this might help anyone else with the 'Tenenbaum' glitch - I might just have gotten lucky but...

I have an Oppo 203.

I was having the same problem as many others, freezing and pixelating, then jumping forward at around 35 minutes in (the graveyard scene).
I tried wiping the disc (which showed no obvious flaws), no change. Then washing with mild dish soap - again no change.

Then I tried turning off the Oppo, waiting a minute then turning it back on. Since then it has played without a hitch, and I've tested that section
a number of times.

I'm no technical whiz, so I may be way off base, but perhaps cleaning the disc did help (though why we'd all have a problem from that at the same spot makes no sense),
but in any case, clearly the Oppo needed to get the disc out of it's memory. After that, it's been fine.

Maybe I just won the disc lottery by sheer luck, or maybe it will go back to failing tomorrow... but I thought I'd share the experience in case anyone
wanted to try and replicate it, and/or explain why that might have helped.