The Image (Radley Metzger)

[pro-bassoonist]

Radley Metzger's The Image (1975) has received a preliminary release date: June 14th. Courtesy of Synapse Films.

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The Image Blu-ray


The Image Blu-ray Review

Synopsis

From highly acclaimed director Radley Metzger, THE IMAGE (aka THE PUNISHMENT OF ANNE) is a fascinating study of the sadomasochistic relationship between a young girl and an older woman. Based on the classic novel L’IMAGE from Jean De Berg, this sexual masterpiece is hailed by critics as one of the best erotic films ever made. Beautifully photographed and loaded with highly charged sexual imagery and provocative situations, THE IMAGE is a cinematic masterpiece that brings the darker side of your deepest erotic fantasies to life.

The old R1 SDVD cover:


Pro-B

[McCrutchy]

Never heard of this one; having said that, it sounds like something I would want to see at least once...

EDIT: I've glanced at some of the DVD reviews linked at DVD-Basen. This could be the best erotic release (on many levels) to hit Blu-ray thus far.

[McCrutchy]

Essentially, I wanted an excuse to bump this thread so here is what the Amazon.com listing has been updated to say, which is different than the 2002 DVD listing, so I assume that it's been typed up specifically for the Blu-ray (and DVD [re-]) release:

From highly acclaimed director Radley Metzger, The Image (aka The Punishment of Anne / The Mistress and the Slave) is a fascinating study of the sadomasochistic relationship between a man, a young girl, and an older woman. Jean (Carl Parker, Score), meets his old friend Claire (Marilyn Roberts) at a party and is introduced to the young, seductive Anne (Mary Mendum). Jean discovers the two women have a master/slave relationship and gets seduced into their perverse sexual games. Based on the classic novel L' Image from Catherine Robbe-Grillet (under the pseudonym of Jean de Berg), this masterpiece of cinema is hailed by critics as one of the best erotic films ever made. Beautifully photographed with highly explicit imagery and provocative situations, The Image will titillate, arouse and shock you like no other film you've ever seen. Newly remastered in high definition and created directly from the original 35mm camera negative, this version of The Image is presented uncut and uncensored with a newly remixed 5.1 surround sound. Bonus Features include: New (1.85:1) High Definition Transfer, Newly Remixed 5.1 Surround Soundtrack, Original 2.0 Mono Soundtrack, Isolated Music and Effects Track, Director Filmography, Liner Notes, English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

[McCrutchy]

Another bump. Mondo Digital has received a copy and added a short and (largely) SFW review and screencaps to their listing for the film:

http://www.mondo-digital.com/image.html

It looks excellent!

[Deciazulado]

The Image Blu-ray Review

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

The Image Blu-ray Review

Super review, Pro-B!

Synapse must really love this film if they again took the time to re-scan the negative for the HD transfer. I, personally, have only heard great things about the film, and cannot wait to watch it when it arrives to my doorstep.

I am very excited to see an image that meets and excels Criterion for a film such as this. And I believe this is one of only a handful of titles in which the isolated score track is rendered in lossless quality, which is something that I'd like to see become a default for BD releases (because if the point of the track is to hear the music in the film, why render that music in compressed Dolby Digital?). The only sore point seems to be a lack of supplemental material for the film, but still, a quality A/V presentation should always be the main goal, in my opinion.

[pro-bassoonist]

Do you have a projector? If yes, do not waste your time watching this film on a TV (regardless of how big it might be).

Pro-B

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Do you have a projector? If yes, do not waste your time watching this film on a TV (regardless of how big it might be).

Pro-B

In my case, unfortunately, no, but I do have an ISFccc-calibrated Pioneer Kuro Elite 101FD Monitor--my pride and joy--so I am not entirely missing out on what the disc has to offer, but if and when I have the wall space, I may well turn to projection. The only issue with projection is that mediocre discs look that much worse when blown up, so sometimes a smaller screen is better.

[HDTV1080P]

It appears history has been made on 1-28-2025 with the movie called The Image being released on the 4K Blu-ray format. The Image appears to be the world’s first hardcore adult movie that has received high quality Dolby Vision HDR color grading. The Image has made history.

I have not watched this hardcore adult movie that is rated X by the MPA. However, according to two separate databases this movie is native 4K with Dolby Vision HDR. If that is true then history was made with the movie called "The Image" being the very first hardcore adult movie that was encoded with high quality Dolby Vision HDR. All prior hardcore adult movies on the 4K Blu-ray format used only HDR10.

Melusine studios has been hard at work restoring classic hardcore and softcore movies from the 20th Century from the original 35mm, 16mm, and 8mm film negatives. Many hardcore adult movies in the 1970’s and 1980’s was placed on high quality 35mm film and a massive amount of money is being spent to scan the movies in at 4K and released on the 4K Blu-ray format and 2K Blu-ray format. The Melusine studios has released a total of nine movies on the 4K Blu-ray format. Over 100 hardcore and software 2K Blu-ray discs have also been released that got either a 2K scan or 4K scan. The Melusine studio also does 100% lossless audio for the 4K Blu-ray disc and 2K Blu-ray disc releases, plus exclusive audio commentary tracks and other bonus features for many releases.

Like most movie directors and actors, they want their movies to be seen and last forever if possible. And optical discs like 4K Blu-ray discs if stamped correctly and stored correctly have the potential to last up to 1,500 years.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-I...lu-ray/379010/

https://melusine.com/products/the-im...51371965612323

https://melusine.com/collections/4k-uhd-blu-ray-combo