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[quote="Gary Tooze"]yes... possible/quote]
Excellent, well, I hope I see one! Thanks, keep up the good work.

Gary Tooze wrote:yes... possibleCriterion Collection (2-disc) - Region 1 - NTSC "If..." vs. Paramount Pictures - Region 2 - PAL

Fantastic, I've been waiting for this one. Looks like the UK version for me, the difference in picture quality doesn't look enough to warrant paying out almost twice as much.

The If... comparison has a glorious example - or at least I think it is! - of inadvertent editing creating a quite different comment to the one presumably intended:

Thursday's Children (1954), Academy Award–winning documentary about a school for deaf children, dire

(Gary - if that is the typo I suspect it is, it's in the right-hand column listing the Paramount DVD features)

Yes, typo Michael - fixed. Thanks.
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Any possibility of a comparison of the newish Peeping Tom R2UK V the Criterion?

Seeing other reviews the UK is still not OAR 1.66.

Best,
Gary

The British (Optimum) disc is 1.73:1 - I measured it myself, and at least one other review corroborates this.

The video on the new Optimum SE looks the same as the previous Studio Canal transfer, as memory serves.

The Institut Lumière edition, released in February 2007, is listed as 1.66:1 anamorphic and
these small screenshots look like they are windowboxed: 1, 2, 3.

Leonard has done a new comparison...

SUPERBIT Region 1 NTSC "The Fifth Element" vs. Blu-ray (original) vs. Blu-ray remastered

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/

Best,

any way we could get a comparison between the AE and Facets releases of Béla Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies and Damnation (it's not that I expect them to be better, it's that I really just want to see how bad the Facets releases look)

I have the Facets edition and would be more than happy to send screengrabs if Gary accepts. But I can assure you, the AE is a revelation next to the Facets.

Thanks Gigi!

I think it is fairly common knowledge that the Facets is inferior and I could save the bandwidth, and my time, for a something else.
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New...

MGM - Region 1 - NTSC "House of Games" vs. Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC

Warner (Bunuel Box 1) - Region 2 - PAL "The Milky Way" vs. Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC

Gaumont Columbia Tri Star (Collector's Edition) - Region 2 - PAL "Taxi Driver" vs. Columbia Tri Star (Collector's Edition) - Region 1, 3, 4 - NTSC vs. Sony Pictures (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Columbia Tri Star (Superbit) - Region 2 - NTSC

The new Sony looks very much like the Japanese SUPERBIT...

Absurda / Rhino (2-disc) - Region 1 - NTSC "Inland Empire" vs. Optimum Releasing - Region 2 - PAL

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/

Cheers,

Gary, will you be reviewing Warner's Shakespeare DVDs, ie. Branagh's, Hamlet, etc soon? Reviews on other sites have been scant and many of us are curious as to the quality of the transfers.

I just thought I should point out...

On my Wim Wenders Collection 2, The Wrong Move is interlaced, whereas The Scarlet Letter is progressive. The Beaver review says the latter is interlaced.

Thanks. I have updated/corrected.

FYI,

We have posted comparison captures of the black and white vs. the colorized version of Merian C. Cooper's 1935 'She' 2-disc DVD package released tomorrow.

New...

Paramount - Region 1 - NTSC "Face/Off" vs. Paramount (2-disc Special Collector's Edition) - Region 1 - NTSC

Criterion (2-disc) - Region 1 - NTSC "Stranger Than Paradise" vs. MGM (USA) - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Kinowelt (Germany) - Region 2 - PAL

IFC Films - Region 1 - NTSC "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" vs. Fox (UK) - Region 2 - PAL

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/

Best,
Gary

Gary,

There's been a spate of interesting classics releases in Britain of late, mostly either from Optimum or Second Sight - namely, Summertime, Major Barbara, Ministry of Fear (next week), Senso, Pygmalion, The Browning Version, Lord of the Flies, Things to Come, The Scarlet Pimpernel (these last 2 from Network). Are any of these on your radar for possible review?

thanks for your invaluable work.

Hi starmanof51,

Thanks for your kind comments. I have ordered a lot from UK recently to review but nothing has arrived yet - I hope its not held up at Customs... and I'll be going away this long weekend so nothing imminent unless it comes today or tomorrow.

New...

MGM (UK) - Region 2,4 - PAL 'Stardust Memories' vs. vs. MGM - Region 1 - NTSC

Some may also be interested in two new DVD reviews - a rare film by Godard and one by Mizoguchi (New York Film Annex - region 0 NTSC with Eng subs)

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/

Have a great, and safe, long weekend,
Gary

Hi Gary,
A DVD of 'Tales of the Taira Clan' has been available for a while now from FSF in France (part of a double disc effort with Shindo's 'Life of a Cineaste') known as 'Le héros sacrilège'. It includes English subs.

Gary, thanks for the Godard review!

Don Lope de Aguirre wrote:A DVD of 'Tales of the Taira Clan' has been available for a while now from FSF in France (part of a double disc effort with Shindo's 'Life of a Cineaste') known as 'Le héros sacrilège'. It includes English subs.

Know anything of the image quality?

Know anything of the image quality?

To be honest I have only seen this film theatrically! I tried to watch the DVD a while back but fell asleep (long day at work). I've found this review which should help.

Don Lope de Aguirre wrote:

Know anything of the image quality?

To be honest I have only seen this film theatrically! I tried to watch the DVD a while back but fell asleep (long day at work). I've found this review which should help.

I also own the FsF release, and viewed it about a year ago. Still, based on my memory of viewing it and seeing Gary's stills, I think the quality of the FsF and NYFA is quite similar.

As to the o/p Gaumont version --

Here are the best matches I could manage for the screen shots used in the DVDBeaver review of "Taira Clan":

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mk ... a_f_00.png
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mk ... a_f_01.png
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mk ... a_f_02.png
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mk ... a_f_03.png
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mk ... a_f_04.png
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mk ... a_f_05.png

New...

MGM (2-disc - 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition) - Region 1 - NTSC "The Graduate" vs. MGM - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Momentum (SE) - Region 2 - PAL]

Sony Pictures (Special Edition) - Region 1,3,4 - NTSC "A Few Good Men" vs. Sony Pictures (SuperBit) - Region 0 - NTSC

P.S. In his review of the Blu-ray The Warriors Leonard has added 5 matching screen caps from Paramount (Original Theatrical Cut) - Region 1.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/

Cheers,

commentary by "Steven Sodaburger"? #-o

FYI,

In our review of Fox's The Fly Collection - The Fly (1958), Return Of The Fly (1959) and The Curse Of The Fly (1965) we've compared a few screen grabs with the Double Feature disc (just The Fly and Return Of The Fly) that came out in 2000. There is improvement.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/

Cheers,

Gary is it just me or doesn't the new version of The Graduate look a little too grey? Also, the grabs from The Fly look overly blue to me in particular the shot of the woman's face in the spectrum, the skin tone in the 2000 release looks a little more accurate to me. Mind you, I haven't seen the film in years, so I might not be remembering correctly why it should look that way.