criterionforum.org

Anonymous wrote:What about The Film then, all you Technogeeks? (I have the CC, and it looks stunning on my old tv. I think I have a problem or two with this whole HD thing....but I digress...)

Kathleen Byron is the embodiment of The Scariest Bitch Ever, in this film. Yes? What they do to her face/eyes at the end has always haunted me. I think this is another under-rated film. Incredibly erotic!

Scarier than Nurse Ratchet? She gave me nightmares as a kid!

I'm so torn on what to do with BN....i've wanted it for years but the CC disc is just so, well....crappy. revisiting the beaver comparison it's embarrassingly inferior to the euro releases...the French 2 discer looks incredible, even better than the ITV blu disc. I have to believe this has to be near the top of their blu to do list, no? of all the films in the first 100 or so I can't imagine one that would benefit more than this technicolor glory. This and the Red Shoes disc are preventing me from completing my P&P collection!

The Criterion Contraption on the film.

New DVD and Blu-ray editions announced.

I think i'm going to need to get a night job this summer to pay for all these wonderful blu rays.

Anybody have an idea about whether the Criterion Blu will be an improvement on the ITV Region 0 Blu? I bought the ITV recently, and it looks great, so I'm hesitant to double-dip here. I guess I'll have to wait for Beaver to weigh in with screen captures...

You answered your own question.

Bye bye ITV blu-ray, the Criterion is a winner!

What a beauty!

The ITV blu is the only disc I own outside Region 1/A and it looks so good I worried Criterion wouldn't match it- but it looks like they've bettered it by a large margin. Tightly wound nuns! Nothing better.

David, the reason why you can't see any real difference is because the differences are so subtle as to be almost negligible. When I compared the full size jpgs, I could spot a *very* slightly warmer tone in the Criterion screen cap of Deborah Kerr, and a *slightly* livelier brightness and contrast range. There are also very subtle differences in the other full-sized screen caps I compared closely. Perhaps these improvements are more evident in playback, where the larger bit rate might really pay off. Since this is one of the Beaver's favorite films and he's seen it multiple times, I'm sure he'd be sensitive to any such improvements.

At any rate, it looks to me as if the folks who already own the region "B" ITV Blu-ray can be quite happy with what they have, and those of us who will be buying the region "A" Criterion can be more than happy with what we're getting. They both look lovely.

But after seeing the digital restoration of The Red Shoes, that's the one I'm aching for in my veins. That film is a drug.

onedimension wrote:Tightly wound nuns! Nothing better.

As a recent inductee to the perverse joys of Borowczyk's Behind Convent Walls, I'm inclined to agree. Wish that film were on Blu-ray, too.

I'll actually miss the fade-to-blue. I came to know this film only through the Criterion laserdisc and DVD and I always thought that it was a bold, conscious choice, that the moment preceding it was so delirious that no mere fade-to-black was appropriate.

DVD Talk seems to like it.

If anyone has time could they please do the following:

1. Go to the DVD Talk review
2. There is a comparison between the itv and CC version shot
3. Highlight one of them
4. Look at the arc that holds the bell
5. Look at the left edge of the arc
6. Do you see edge-enchencement?

Norbie wrote:If anyone has time could they please do the following:

1. Go to the DVD Talk review
2. There is a comparison between the itv and CC version shot
3. Highlight one of them
4. Look at the arc that holds the bell
5. Look at the left edge of the arc
6. Do you see edge-enchencement?

Most certainly do in both. Ouch!

Norbie wrote: (...)
6. Do you see edge-enchencement?

Ditto, on both versions [-X.

They're too close to identical to be digital edge enhancement. It's likely the source, a result of the matte work and lighting.

Glenn Kenny talked about this issue a couple of weeks ago, and includes comments from Harris.

I actually attributed that stuff to colour separation (or bleeding as David puts it) and not EE. It looks different on screen.

The DVD had a problem where the screen faded to blue during a scene when a character passes out. I believe the screen was supposed to fade to red, but there was a problem with the disc. Has this been fixed on the Blu Ray?

It was actually supposed to be a flush to red and then a fade to black. But yes, the new DVD is super gravy!!!

david hare wrote:This "EE" has been discussed at HTF.......

Get over it.

I'm over it. :-#

What's HTF?

It's either Happy Tree Friends or Home Theater Forum...

We watched Black Narcissus last night and were very impressed with the film (first time for both of us, so I have to see it a few more times to see where I'd rank it among P&P's works). The Blu-Ray looks excellent, if slightly less so than The Red Shoes, for the fact that I noticed a few colour fluctuations throughout the film (the materials must have been in ever so slightly worse condition than The Red Shoes). Still, the film does look marvellous and seeing it in a near-flawless condition for the first time was a major treat.

Spoiler

Anyone else feel that the sight of crazed Kathleen Byron in the doorway about to pounce on Kerr is one of the scariest moments outside of a horror film?