Nicholas and Alexandra - Twilight Time

[#Darren]

This doesn't seem to have a thread - so I am starting this one...

Would love to hear from other people with the BD.

I had never seen it and am happy to own it. It is an interesting historical drama and I am thankful that it got a BD release. Was particularly interesting to see my favourite Dr Who in the role of Rasputin.

But getting to the transfer....

all the reviews I have read are rave reviews . But I sadly don't see it that way.

I am extra demanding (watching it at 100 inches) but I was not particularly thrilled with it.

This is a very rough assessment:

I watched this on my 100 inch screen and was underwhealmed by the video presentation. It put me in mind of the presentation of El Cid that got widely bashed. It is considerably better than El Cid, but stlll lacked visual depth and vibrancy - probably on a related note I noticed a distinct lack of film grain - which gave me the impression it was perhaps an older digitally "scrubbed" scan used for DVD. It had pretty nice colors but they couldn't overcome the somewhat flat "scrubbed" looking image. Detail was OK, but not overly impressive. Overall it was just an "OK" image - maybe 3.5 out of 5.

I couldn't help feeling that this could look much much better.

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by #Darren

This doesn't seem to have a thread - so I am starting this one...

Would love to hear from other people with the BD.

I had never seen it and am happy to own it. It is an interesting historical drama and I am thankful that it got a BD release. Was particularly interesting to see my favourite Dr Who in the role of Rasputin.

But getting to the transfer....

all the reviews I have read are rave reviews . But I sadly don't see it that way.

I am extra demanding (watching it at 100 inches) but I was not particularly thrilled with it.


This is a very rough assessment:

Tom Baker was a great Rasputin. Too bad there wasn't much time spent with his character. The movie actually seems short and rushed, especially the first half, despite running over 3 hours with its Entr'acte music (a shame such a big epic was made with only mono sound).

I watched it projected to 4 feet tall and about 9 1/2 feet wide, and thought the picture looked very good for the most part. It did seem slightly soft, in some scenes more than others, but I attribute that to the original photography and 35mm film stock used. In my user review on Blu-ray.com ( https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Nicho...3/#UserReviews ) I gave it 4.5 out of 5 because enough of it overall looked quite impressive, although some portions don't deserve more than a 4 out of 5 and perhaps a few parts of only 3.5 out of 5. I've never seen the Blu-ray of EL CID, but this NICHOLAS & ALEXANDRA Blu-ray is certainly miles above the disappointing British Blu-ray of THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE and the British Blu-ray of ZULU that many others raved about but I found unacceptably distorted from its DNR.

[#Darren]

Originally Posted by Blu-Velvet

I've never seen the Blu-ray of EL CID, but this NICHOLAS & ALEXANDRA Blu-ray is certainly miles above the disappointing British Blu-ray of THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE and the British Blu-ray of ZULU that many others raved about but I found unacceptably distorted from its DNR.

I haven't seen Fall of the Roman Empire but I agree N&A is a much better transfer than Zulu.

I couldn't give N&A any more than 4 out of 5. 3.75 out of 5 would be my actual score (just that BD.com scoring system doesn't allow that).

[ROclockCK]

...no legacy DVD connection at all here. Nicholas and Alexandra was a Sony 4k harvest and remaster from '11 or '12.

As Blu-Velvet notes, this film was shot 35mm Panavision. Although blown up to 70mm for some roadshow engagements, it was not a native large format production.

[Monterey Jack]

Anyone else find it a curious coincidence that Fiona Fullerton, who played Princess Anastasia, was a ringer for Kirsten Dunst, who voiced the young version of the title character in the 1997 animated film Anastasia?





Very good movie...getting it for under $10 in the Twilight Time sale was a steal.

[kishiro]

Does anyone know how the new UK Blu-Ray stacks up to the Twilight Time release ? Same master or new scan...? anyone?

[Coogans Bluff]

Love this film, was not aware it was out cannot believe i missed it, be looking to pick it up

[Taylor3978]

Michael Jayston RIP.

[Hammerlover]

Great movie; one of the last true epics. So glad I have the TT Blu-ray.

[Blades1370]

Originally Posted by Hammerlover

Great movie; one of the last true epics. So glad I have the TT Blu-ray.

Watching this in high school in the mid 1980s, the movie really stuck with me, gladly picked up the TT release years ago.

[Nitroes]

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman's https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Nicho.../58703/#Review

That was 12 years ago!


I keep meaning to watch this the UK Blu-ray is cheap but there's not much info on it.