Modern Times review wanted
03-17-00, 11:10 AM
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Floortex, I only received my copy last night, so I've only taken a cursory look at Modern Times. It is exactly as I expected it: clean, crisp black and white image, no extras. The Chaplin series that Image has been slowly releasing seems to have been mastered from the wonderfully restored Key Video/Fox Chaplin Centennial collection that was released on VHS a few years ago (which I have). I'm only picking up a few of the Chaplin titles that I really enjoyed on DVD, and this was one of them. Essentially, there is nothing gained from the VHS boxed set, other than the more durable format, of course. If you don't have the VHS set, by all means, grab this title--it's the cleanest print you'll ever see of the film. Also, Monsieur Verdoux is also available for pre-order now (ordered it from DVDExpress).
I stand corrected. I took a look at the DVD again this afternoon, and there are some extras: an interview with David Raskin, who worked with Chaplin on the musical score, and production and set notes, storyboard sketches for the film (which turn too quickly to read, I have to keep hitting pause to read through them).
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Strictly Film School
[This message has been edited by redshift (edited March 17, 2000).]
I stand corrected. I took a look at the DVD again this afternoon, and there are some extras: an interview with David Raskin, who worked with Chaplin on the musical score, and production and set notes, storyboard sketches for the film (which turn too quickly to read, I have to keep hitting pause to read through them).
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Strictly Film School
[This message has been edited by redshift (edited March 17, 2000).]
03-20-00, 05:40 AM
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First let me say I adore Modern Times and am delighted to have it available on DVD. But I am somewhat disappointed by the look of both Modern Times and City Lights. There are a lot of white flecks and even occasional scratches on the transfers. They are particularly noticable on the dialogue cards. I enjoy these films immensely, and such artifacts almost seem normal for films of this vintage, but it seems like restoration technologies would be able to clean these up better. Couldn't sufficiently sophisticated techniques get the info from unflecked frames to "fill" the damaged ones? Surely this would not be in the same category as colorization of black and white films, and not violate the codes of purists. Or is this technically too complex? Having said this, I'm still one happy camper to have these gems in my collection.
