Criterion THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and Film Shrinkage
01-24-13, 03:25 PM
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Criterion THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and Film Shrinkage
I love the contrast and image detail in the new Criterion blu-ray of this classic Hitchcock, but the restorers really needed to spend a little more time and effort on the digital image stabilization.
As was profiled in the Restoration Comparison segment on the disc, the original 35mm nitrate fine grain suffered from warpage and shrinkage. This caused the film to jitter and bounce through the scanner. Take a look at the raw scans prior to any digital cleanup and you'll see all of this movement.
Anyway, the restorers apparently only employed image stabilization on shots that didn't have any camera movement in them. Those are rock steady. But, if there's a tracking shot or a camera pan, the image is jittering and bouncing all over the place. This is not in the original photography either. The scene on the dance floor near the beginning of the film and at 35 minutes 35 seconds in as Leslie Banks and friend go into the church, are two very good examples of this defect.
I suppose watching this blu-ray on an average sized television is the way to go, because projected onto a large screen the image shaking is very noticeable and distracting.
While the disc is certainly the best the film has ever looked on home video to date, this one could have used one more pass through QC, in my opinion.
As was profiled in the Restoration Comparison segment on the disc, the original 35mm nitrate fine grain suffered from warpage and shrinkage. This caused the film to jitter and bounce through the scanner. Take a look at the raw scans prior to any digital cleanup and you'll see all of this movement.
Anyway, the restorers apparently only employed image stabilization on shots that didn't have any camera movement in them. Those are rock steady. But, if there's a tracking shot or a camera pan, the image is jittering and bouncing all over the place. This is not in the original photography either. The scene on the dance floor near the beginning of the film and at 35 minutes 35 seconds in as Leslie Banks and friend go into the church, are two very good examples of this defect.
I suppose watching this blu-ray on an average sized television is the way to go, because projected onto a large screen the image shaking is very noticeable and distracting.
While the disc is certainly the best the film has ever looked on home video to date, this one could have used one more pass through QC, in my opinion.
01-27-13, 01:08 AM
#4
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Criterion THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and Film Shrinkage
Did Criterion themselves handle the restoration, or did another entity perform it? Criterion has been willing to put out less than the very best transfers on Blu-ray, if nothing else is available. They simply don't spend a ton of money on each of their Blu-ray transfers and occasionally it shows. Granted, most of the studios wouldn't release a tenth of Criterion's catalog on their own.
01-27-13, 02:18 AM
#5
DVD Talk Special Edition
Re: Criterion THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and Film Shrinkage
Can you post any examples? I don't think I've seen a bad review on one of their discs yet.
01-27-13, 02:17 PM
#6
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Criterion THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and Film Shrinkage
Numerous examples exist where foreign distributors have produced better-looking Blu-rays than Criterion or cases where the discs show only the slightest improvement over the studio-issued BD, ala Universal's catalog. Criterion's releases in general are handled with kid gloves by many mainstream BD reviewers, due to their general reputation and willingness to handle arthouse fare. They've also issued their fair share of stellar transfers, but oftentimes they are working from inferior film elements. Their transfer of The Leopard was utterly decimated by the superior 4K restoration, released in certain other countries.
01-27-13, 05:09 PM
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Re: Criterion THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and Film Shrinkage
Numerous examples exist where foreign distributors have produced better-looking Blu-rays than Criterion or cases where the discs show only the slightest improvement over the studio-issued BD, ala Universal's catalog. Criterion's releases in general are handled with kid gloves by many mainstream BD reviewers, due to their general reputation and willingness to handle arthouse fare. They've also issued their fair share of stellar transfers, but oftentimes they are working from inferior film elements. Their transfer of The Leopard was utterly decimated by the superior 4K restoration, released in certain other countries.
However, their mishaps are far less frequent than the times when they produce the definitive release of a film (their releases of masterpieces like The Music Room and Lonesome are absolute godsends, and among the greatest discs ever produced by any studio.) No, the transfers for, say, Brazil and Dazed and Confused and Traffic weren't much if any better than the transfers on the Universal discs - but in those cases, the value of the Criterion came in the thorough extras.
Criterion is still in the top tier of boutique labels, but the competition has improved over the years. If you live in, say, the UK, the difference between a domestic release of a classic (or modern) film and the Criterion release is generally going to be minimal, and it's not going to be worth it to import. At most, some people might nitpick "slightly darker transfers" and other such details, but any preference for one release over another is largely going to be subjective - rather than a case of one transfer being definitively better than the other.
As for the "inferior film elements" - far from sometimes that happens oftentimes, that's actually a pretty rare situation. In the case of something like The Leopard, as far as I recall (I could be wrong on this) the new restoration came out after their BD release (and the release had probably been planned/in development for at least a year or two before that.) They can't really be faulted for working with the best of what was available at the time.
Last edited by Sondheim; 01-27-13 at 05:17 PM.
01-27-13, 06:01 PM
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Re: Criterion THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and Film Shrinkage
Numerous examples exist where foreign distributors have produced better-looking Blu-rays than Criterion or cases where the discs show only the slightest improvement over the studio-issued BD, ala Universal's catalog. Criterion's releases in general are handled with kid gloves by many mainstream BD reviewers, due to their general reputation and willingness to handle arthouse fare. They've also issued their fair share of stellar transfers, but oftentimes they are working from inferior film elements. Their transfer of The Leopard was utterly decimated by the superior 4K restoration, released in certain other countries.
01-28-13, 02:37 AM
#9
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Criterion THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and Film Shrinkage
I could list many other questionable Criterion releases, including a misframed transfer in the Three Colors Trilogy. I realize some movies simply don't justify a new restoration or film transfer for Criterion, due to poor expected sales of their niche titles.
01-28-13, 06:35 AM
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Re: Criterion THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and Film Shrinkage
Three Colors misframing is in the master, its in every single release available.
Also, I have the Australian disc of The Leopard as well as the Criterion and anyone claiming it decimates the Criterion is wrong. That is pure hyperbole. The Australian disc has some more detail and sharpness but not as much as many people claim, although it also has less noise. However, I much prefer the Criterion colours, the new restoration colours do not look right IMHO.
Not defending the catalogue as a whole (they really should have told Pathe to get stuffed with that Children of Paradise master) but that's my $0.02 on those two titles.
Also, I have the Australian disc of The Leopard as well as the Criterion and anyone claiming it decimates the Criterion is wrong. That is pure hyperbole. The Australian disc has some more detail and sharpness but not as much as many people claim, although it also has less noise. However, I much prefer the Criterion colours, the new restoration colours do not look right IMHO.
Not defending the catalogue as a whole (they really should have told Pathe to get stuffed with that Children of Paradise master) but that's my $0.02 on those two titles.
01-31-13, 12:45 PM
#11
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Criterion THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and Film Shrinkage
Also, I have the Australian disc of The Leopard as well as the Criterion and anyone claiming it decimates the Criterion is wrong. That is pure hyperbole. The Australian disc has some more detail and sharpness but not as much as many people claim, although it also has less noise. However, I much prefer the Criterion colours, the new restoration colours do not look right IMHO.
An ideal release would be somewhere between the two.
01-31-13, 12:46 PM
#12
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Criterion THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and Film Shrinkage
Anyway, the restorers apparently only employed image stabilization on shots that didn't have any camera movement in them. Those are rock steady. But, if there's a tracking shot or a camera pan, the image is jittering and bouncing all over the place. This is not in the original photography either. The scene on the dance floor near the beginning of the film and at 35 minutes 35 seconds in as Leslie Banks and friend go into the church, are two very good examples of this defect.
I suppose watching this blu-ray on an average sized television is the way to go, because projected onto a large screen the image shaking is very noticeable and distracting.
While the disc is certainly the best the film has ever looked on home video to date, this one could have used one more pass through QC, in my opinion.
I suppose watching this blu-ray on an average sized television is the way to go, because projected onto a large screen the image shaking is very noticeable and distracting.
While the disc is certainly the best the film has ever looked on home video to date, this one could have used one more pass through QC, in my opinion.
