The Criterion Collection

[Scholer]

Originally Posted by DimitriL

He was fairly pleased with Empire of the Sun as well, felt like he and Spielberg were on the same page, and was especially happy with the respect given to him by the production.

To me Empire of the Sun is the unsung hero of totally overlooked and under appreciated films. It’s probably Spielberg’s masterpiece.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Plain Jane

When watching the main feature. I can't get the audio to work on Some Like it Hot, Fellini Satyricon and Roma. Audio works for all the extras. Are these discs defective? Is this issue common with Criterion releases? I have not come across a disc from any other company that has this issue.

Try updating your player firmware and see if that sorts the issue.

[Scholer]

Originally Posted by tatterdemalion

It may also be because both films stay very faithful to the original novels. Same with Kubrick and A Clockwork Orange. Except for changing Alex's age and ending the film one "chapter" early, at least 95% Burgess' novel is in the film.

Having read all three novels, I wouldn’t say that the films were particularly “faithful” adaptations. It was more a case of a filmmaker taking the basic concept and narrative structure of the stories, but then channeling their own explorations of various themes through the story.

While for me the approach worked brilliantly with the Ballard adaptations, I think I’m in the minority in finding Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange an abject failure. Not only did Kubrick not add much to what’s in the novel (which he otherwise always does with his films), he simply misunderstood the whole point of the novel. The latter is still such an engaging and relevant work.

I remember reading somewhere that Kubrick apparently confessed at some point to never actually having read the whole book himself front to back since he found it too dense for his taste, and that he personally worked from a plot outline.

[dr727]

Originally Posted by tatterdemalion

You abandoned me and my birth place 'ya (censored)!

Hey! Your Hawai’i media collecting sistah is still here.

[Scholer]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

I’m drooling thinking about how Gregg Toland’s gorgeous black and white cinematography in Citizen Kane is going to look in 4K.

It’s surely going to look great, but nowhere near as great as another Gregg Toland shot film would look in 4K HDR, namely a little film called The Grapes of Wrath…

[tatterdemalion]

Originally Posted by dr727

Hey! Your Hawai’i media collecting sistah is still here.

'Sup, sistah! You staying!? Woo hoo! Nah, I was just teasing my friend there who moved for the best reason possible. Or maybe I scared him away? Damn, I didn't think of that. I should give him an "how come I come I stay you go!"

Originally Posted by Scholer

Having read all three novels, I wouldn’t say that the film’s were particularly “faithful” adaptation. It was more a case of a filmmaker taking the basic concept and narrative structure of the stories, but then channeling their own explorations of various themes through the story.

While for me the approach worked brilliantly with the Ballard adaptations, I think I’m in the minority in finding Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange an abject failure. Not only did Kubrick not add much to what’s in the novel (which he otherwise always does with his films), he simply misunderstood the whole point of the novel. The latter is still such an engaging and relevant work.

I remember reading somewhere that Kubrick apparently confessed at some point to never actually having read the whole himself book front to back since he found it too dense for his taste, and that he personally worked from a plot outline.

I've read all three, too. I have an extremely large SF/Fantasy collection. My entertainment tastes are actually music first, books second and films third.

My Kubrick books mention he had a copy of the American edition, which at the time omitted the last chapter. Kubrick likes open endings so I can't possibly see him ending the film like the ending the rest of the world read. He had to have read most of it since the dialogue is almost verbatim a lot of the time. Or maybe he just had Arthur C. Clarke read it and explain it too him.

A great hypothesis in one of my books, I believe it's Kubrick: Inside a Film Artists Maze, suggests that the endings of Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange all happen at the same moment.

A Clockwork Orange and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom seems to have a real love/hate reaction there in the UK. Thinking about it though I believe it's like that everywhere, because those two films are both brilliant and disturbing.

[Scholer]

Originally Posted by tatterdemalion

Or maybe he just had Arthur C. Clarke read it and explain it too him.

Given the final product, that would make more sense to me than him having actually read the entire book.

[Scottie]

Does anyone have any strong thoughts on Le Plaisir? I’ve never seen it, but it’s on sale for $2.99 on iTunes via Arrow.

[Scholer]

Originally Posted by Scottie

Does anyone have any strong thoughts on Le Plaisir? I’ve never seen it, but it’s on sale for $2.99 on iTunes via Arrow.

If you like Max Ophuls (esp. La Ronde), you won’t be disappointed!

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Scholer

If you like Max Ophuls (esp. La Ronde), you won’t be disappointed!

I’ve only seen “Madame De” (liked) and “Lola Montes” (neutral).

[Scholer]

Originally Posted by Scottie

I’ve only seen “Madame De” (liked) and “Lola Montes” (neutral).

La Plaisir is certainly closer to Madame De than Lola Montes, but do check out La Ronde if you can! Absolute masterpiece.

[moviebuffed]

Originally Posted by Scholer

To me Empire of the Sun is the unsung hero of totally overlooked and under appreciated films. It’s probably Spielberg’s masterpiece.

I sincerely agree with this. I've always held this film as Spielberg's best. He handles everything so precise with perfect direction and moves the story at a pace that impacts the viewer on such an emotional scale. The character arc of all those in the film are presented in a way that the final third of the film hits you hard. May I add Spielberg's Munich as another tautly directed film that is a favorite also.

[DimitriL]

Originally Posted by moviebuffed

I sincerely agree with this. I've always held this film as Spielberg's best. He handles everything so precise with perfect direction and moves the story at a pace that impacts the viewer on such an emotional scale. The character arc of all those in the film are presented in a way that the final third of the film hits you hard. May I add Spielberg's Munich as another tautly directed film that is a favorite also.

I was JUST going to bring up Munich in the same breath. I think working with world-class authors like Ballard, Tom Stoppard and Tony Kushner brings out the best and most ambitious qualities in Spielberg.

(Speaking of which, Spielberg is about to do his FOURTH film with Kushner. Spielberg has had regular collaborators throughout his career - Michael Kahn, Allen Daviau, Janusz Kaminski, and of course John Williams - but Kushner is the first writer that may become his I.A.L. Diamond. I don’t know if anyone would have predicted that of Kushner back in his Angels in America days.)

[jw007]

Originally Posted by Nori

I agree with this. Same with video games too. There will always be enough people to warrant physical copies imo.

I'll tell you what though... its a lot easier not having physical media when you're not moving over 5 heavy boxes full of blu-rays to another city.

If I do indeed sell my entire blu-ray and DVD library, it won't be due to me losing interest in physical media, but me becoming a minimalist (kind of like Jeff Goldblum, ya know, the actor - at least that's what he told us one time here in PGH).

[DimitriL]

Originally Posted by jw007

I'll tell you what though... its a lot easier not having physical media when you're not moving over 5 heavy boxes full of blu-rays to another city.

If I do indeed sell my entire blu-ray and DVD library, it won't be due to me losing interest in physical media, but me becoming a minimalist (kind of like Jeff Goldblum, ya know, the actor - at least that's what he told us one time here in PGH).

Yeah, imagine that with 25 years of laserdiscs. Once “irreplaceable” special editions that I spent a mint collecting suddenly got rehomed at the low, low price of bupkis.

[traths]

With Menace II Society and Citizen Kane returning to the Criterion Collection as 4Ks from the laser disc days, I hope that means King Kong (1933) will also be returning as a 4K as well. The current blu-ray has been out of print for quite some time now.

[MarkGubarenko]

I dont know if it was mentioned already or not, but Mr. Klein will be released by Criterion in December per StudioCanal news. Though no mention if it would be UHD or just BD.

More on restoration:
The restoration was undertaken by Hiventy with the support of CNC (Centre National du Cinéma). The team decided to make a 4K scan from the original 35mm negative because they noticed that there was a recurring flaw that appeared every 20 images, on the first quarter to the left, likely due to the process of grain reduction during the printing process.

The 4K color grading was made in a digital projection room, in a DaVinci Resolve V15 workstation, aiming to achieve the color result similar to the 35mm projections. To achieve that, a 35mm operating copy was used as a reference during the entire process.

The audio restoration, also made from the 35mm sound negative, took place in a room with properly calibrated equipment, for a movie theater quality standard.

The restoration team paid particular attention to respect the original image texture and grain, resulting in a faithful restoration work to the original film negative.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by MarkGubarenko

I dont know if it was mentioned already or not, but Mr. Klein will be released by Criterion in December per StudioCanal news. Though no mention if it would be UHD or just BD.

More on restoration:
The restoration was undertaken by Hiventy with the support of CNC (Centre National du Cinéma). The team decided to make a 4K scan from the original 35mm negative because they noticed that there was a recurring flaw that appeared every 20 images, on the first quarter to the left, likely due to the process of grain reduction during the printing process.

The 4K color grading was made in a digital projection room, in a DaVinci Resolve V15 workstation, aiming to achieve the color result similar to the 35mm projections. To achieve that, a 35mm operating copy was used as a reference during the entire process.

The audio restoration, also made from the 35mm sound negative, took place in a room with properly calibrated equipment, for a movie theater quality standard.

The restoration team paid particular attention to respect the original image texture and grain, resulting in a faithful restoration work to the original film negative.

It has been brought up before. It would be pretty shortsighted for it not to be a 4K release since we already know Studiocanal are doing one internationally. Of course, Criterion hasn't listed it among their first wave of UHD titles, so who knows if it will be .

[yoloswegmaster420]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

It has been brought up before. It would be pretty shortsighted for it not to be a 4K release since we already know Studiocanal are doing one internationally. Of course, Criterion hasn't listed it among their first wave of UHD titles, so who knows if it will be .

Mr. Klein is not getting a UHD release from Studiocanal.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by yoloswegmaster420

Mr. Klein is not getting a UHD release from Studiocanal.

Oh you're right, I'm thinking of The Servant. I don't even know why SC would do one for The Servant, but not Mr Klein.