Picnic at Hanging Rock 4K UHD (1975) (Criterion Colletion)

[MifuneFan]

Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock coming to 4K from Criterion on April 9th!

https://www.criterion.com/films/565-...t-hanging-rock

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Peter Weir and director of photography Russell Boyd, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Interview with Weir
• Program on the making of the film, featuring interviews with executive producer Patricia Lovell, producers Hal McElroy and Jim McElroy, and cast members
• Introduction by film scholar David Thomson, author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film
• On-set documentary hosted by Lovell and featuring interviews with Weir, actor Rachel Roberts, and source-novel author Joan Lindsay
• Homesdale (1971), a black comedy by Weir
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by author Megan Abbott and an excerpt from film scholar Marek Haltof’s 1996 book Peter Weir: When Cultures Collide

Cover by Eric Skillman

[Kyle15]

Picnic at Hanging Rock: DNR edition

[dickdarlington]

Can everyone join my Criterion sucks train?

Seriously - this is what they have to present after the Second Sight release?

[BluProofie]

I’d only rebuy it if they fix the screwed up Second Sight master.

[DaylightsEnd]

Originally Posted by BluProofie

I’d only rebuy it if they fix the screwed up Second Sight master.

There's nothing screwed up about the master that is present on the Second Sight release. Like it or hate it, it simply reflects the director's and DoP's express wishes and deliberate actions, not any error by Second Sight.

[BluProofie]

Originally Posted by DaylightsEnd

There's nothing screwed up about the master that is present on the Second Sight release. Like it or hate it, it simply reflects the director's and DoP's express wishes and deliberate actions, not any error by Second Sight.

It is heavily DNR’d which is a screwup, IMO. You’re still welcome to enjoy it.

[dickdarlington]

Originally Posted by BluProofie

I’d only rebuy it if they fix the screwed up Second Sight master.

Wouldn’t they have to re-hire their restoration team to do that? Too soon?

It’s probably the same master. I’m surprised it’s not the same encode since Criterion and Second Sight worked together on the Mean Streets release, but for whatever reason Criterion can’t be bothered with HDR or Dolby Vision grades unless the distributor is providing it.

[MifuneFan]

It's for sure the same master. Criterion only has one cut however, unlike the SS release.

[DaylightsEnd]

Originally Posted by BluProofie

It is heavily DNR’d which is a screwup, IMO. You’re still welcome to enjoy it.

Your snippy attitude is misdirected. No one enjoys dnr, but Second Sight didn't choose to heavily dnr the release. The director did. DNR is not a screw-up, it is an overused tool implemented by a decisionmaker's choice. You continue to spread rampant falsehoods. The director has final say on the look of his film with each release, and he did just that. Same with what Oliver Stone did with Platoon 4k, what Lucas did with American Graffiti 4k, and along the lines of what Cameron is doing with his most recent rash of Ai-butchered 4k releases. If you don't like it, blame the director or the dop, not the label that is bound by the director's wishes/final say on the matter. I get your disappointment, and share it. But why is the concept so difficult to grasp?

It'll be hilarious if Criterion is not only a day late and a dollar short again, on yet another 4k release, and rehashes the same master (as is most likely) but only with a lesser encode than the SS release. Again.

[Rizor]

I have the Second Sight and will probably pick this up to when it's 50% off. Thus it is with this sickness. I can't beat it.

[BluProofie]

Originally Posted by DaylightsEnd

Your snippy attitude is misdirected as usual. No one enjoys dnr, but Second Sight didn't choose to heavily dnr the release. The director did. DNR is not a screw-up, it is an overused tool implemented by a decisionmaker's choice. You continue to spread rampant falsehoods. The director has final say on the look of his film with each release, and he did just that. Same with what Oliver Stone did with Platoon 4k, what Lucas did with American Graffiti 4k, and along the lines of what Cameron is doing with his most recent rash of Ai-butchered 4k releases. If you don't like it, blame the director or the dop, not the label that is bound by the director's wishes/final say on the matter. I get your disappointment, and share it. But why is the concept so difficult to grasp?

Where the hell did I blame the label? I own and support several Second Sight discs and don’t have any problem with them. I know that Weir approved it and it’s his fault. I simply said I’d only buy it if it “fixed” the master. Perhaps I shouldn’t have used their name but it’s clear what I was talking about.

[DaylightsEnd]

Originally Posted by BluProofie

Where the hell did I blame the label?

Can't tell if serious. Your typed words:

Originally Posted by BluProofie

I’d only rebuy it if they fix the screwed up Second Sight master.

Originally Posted by BluProofie

It is heavily DNR’d which is a screwup, IMO. You’re still welcome to enjoy it.

Second Sight's master is not screwed up, and DNR is not a screw up. It's that simple. If you misspoke, and are aware that in this case it's just an unpopular stylistic decision of a director rather than Second Sight screwing up the master, then it's all good. Carry on.

[Brian81]

There's no remastered BD, otherwise when you click the format link to purchase, it wouldn't say already available. There'd be a pre order release date. So I guess this is like older Critetion UHDs where the BD is the old disc with a new disc label.


For this one I guess it might be alright? New color timing on one disc and old on the other...

[mclellandj]

I'll just hang on to my Chonktastic book edition thank you very much.

[DaylightsEnd]

Originally Posted by Brian81

There's no remastered BD, otherwise when you click the format link to purchase, it wouldn't say already available. There'd be a pre order release date. So I guess this is like older Critetion UHDs where the BD is the old disc with a new disc label.


For this one I guess it might be alright? New color timing on one disc and old on the other...

Seems like in this case, including the old blu in this set would be an odd choice in very poor taste, since I seem to recall the director in an open-forum interview expressly stating that he never truly agreed with the prior color timing, and that only the new 4k master's significantly different palette reflects his original and ongoing intentions.

[Brian81]

Originally Posted by DaylightsEnd

Seems like in this case, including the old blu in this set would be an odd choice in very poor taste, since I seem to recall the director in an open-forum interview expressly stating that he never truly agreed with the prior color timing, and that only the new 4k master's significantly different palette reflects his original and ongoing intentions.

I was disappointed to not see remastered BDs in the Three Colors set. The colors are so much better in the new. Old looking all lacking in color with pasty faces.


For this one, the DNR bothers me more than the color...

[PullBackCamera]

Originally Posted by DaylightsEnd

Second Sight didn't choose to heavily dnr the release.

They did however choose to release a heavily dnr'ed master. Personally I would have rejected it, explained why, and given the rights holder a choice of a revised master without DNR, access to the original scans or the return of the MG.

[DaylightsEnd]

Originally Posted by PullBackCamera

They did however choose to release a heavily dnr'ed master. Personally I would have rejected it, explained why, and given the rights holder a choice of a revised master without DNR, access to the original scans or the return of the MG.

I understand, but keep in mind, they likely didn't have all that much choice as the project evolved. They're a for-profit business, and I'd have to assume SS were probably well-invested and pretty far into the licensing and mastering processes, having probably already written some large checks, when the director's intentions regarding the extent of the dnr came at issue. I would doubt it would've been as easy as, "we don't like this level of dnr, we quit." I also doubt they'd choose to burn bridges to that extent with the director and/or the rights holders. These boutiques are all swimming in a very small and somewhat political pond, in some respects. They need to have a shot at licensing more desirable and profitable titles in future, and the word NO goes over poorly in many such circles, especially when it comes to artist's intent, where some pretty big egos and influential personalities are likely at play.

[Brian81]

Originally Posted by DaylightsEnd

Your snippy attitude is misdirected. No one enjoys dnr, but Second Sight didn't choose to heavily dnr the release. The director did. DNR is not a screw-up, it is an overused tool implemented by a decisionmaker's choice. You continue to spread rampant falsehoods. The director has final say on the look of his film with each release, and he did just that. Same with what Oliver Stone did with Platoon 4k, what Lucas did with American Graffiti 4k, and along the lines of what Cameron is doing with his most recent rash of Ai-butchered 4k releases. If you don't like it, blame the director or the dop, not the label that is bound by the director's wishes/final say on the matter. I get your disappointment, and share it. But why is the concept so difficult to grasp?

It'll be hilarious if Criterion is not only a day late and a dollar short again, on yet another 4k release, and rehashes the same master (as is most likely) but only with a lesser encode than the SS release. Again.

What title are you referring to with the final comment, Mean Streets?

[DaylightsEnd]

Originally Posted by Brian81

What title are you referring to with the final comment, Mean Streets?

Without putting too fine of a point on it, and since my comment has many facets (my comments weren't intended to be limited only to joint SS releases), I was mulling over Videodrome, Don't Look Now, Mean Streets and others. It started long ago with blu ray, continues on in 4k which CC chose to adopt very late in the game, and it's still SOP over there. They keep announcing 4k releases already dropped by other boutiques, or jointly funded works, but won't shell out for premium encoding services, and as a result, their encodes are up, down, all over the place. So yes, I expect them to use the same master, and if it foolishly gets a different encode again, I very much doubt we'll see one from FiM here. We won't need to speculate for long, since the set will be out soon enough. And we're bound to keep seeing the same cost-cutting phenomena, if I had to speculate more, based on what I'm seeing up to this point. I'm also glad I went with Studiocanal's edition of The Others 4k, where surprisingly, even though sharing the master, the major studio chose to include the original 5.1 audio I prefer along with the new atmos track, whereas CC, the boutique, failed to include the original audio track. Another common 4k release and another minor CC fumble. I'm still also praying that SS changes its tune and gives us a 4k uhd of Walkabout eventually, with a proper FiM encode.