The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by arou54

But then, what does it say about Olmi's supervised color timing ? That he's gone senile ? That he supervised something but that isn't what's on Criterion disc ?

Arrow regraded stuff before, but I don't think they ever did so with something that was so much advertised as having someone like Olmi supervising the original timing.

They re-graded some gialli but the original timings were solely on Bologna. They also regraded Deep Red, but the consulting was from Tovoli (who didn't photographed the movie to begin with) and the grading wasn't as deep as on Wooden Clogs.

So this one certainly is interesting, because in some ways, it throws away Olmi's input, or implies that what he did and what ended up on the disc are 2 very different things.

I think you are putting WAY too much stock in transfers that are "approved." All kinds of ridiculous transfers are approved by DPs/Directors. Sometimes two separate transfers that look radically different are approved by them in the same year (The Thing is a very recent, high-profile example). Sometimes it's readily evident that the DP/director either didn't watch it, or didn't remember anything (David Cronenberg is a great example, with his approval of the censored Shivers). Sometimes, they approve something incredibly revisionist, whether on purpose (Thief, Arrow's extremely infamous previous Bird with the Crystal Plumage) or out of not noticing (Scanners, probably), who knows. Suspiria is another infamous example, with the first transfer being a hideous mess with clipping everywhere yet bearing the same stamp of approval as the upcoming version. It's a good stamp to have on a transfer, of course, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything.