The transfer suffers from the same strange decisions as the recent restoration of "To Catch a Thief". One generally wonders what the source of the 4K scan was, especially the night scenes are so flat and simply free of dynamics that one hardly thinks of the IP or even more of the OCN. Probably we are dealing with a patchy fine grain element at least 1-2 generations away from the OCN.
And then again, as with TCAT, a completely incomprehensible use of DNR, most scenes dissolve the film grain at least what I guess is true to the source of the transfer, but occasionally we are also in a waxy hell, because some automatic (?) wants to smooth long cuts, beauty shots or generally not exactly focused scenes.
Don't get me wrong, the film has never looked better, but e.g. Warner Archive shows every month that you can do much better. And in many questionable details you can see parallels to previous restorations from the same company. Somehow I'm starting to worry about what they have done to "Roman Holiday".
|