British Film Institute (BFI) Discussion Thread

[ravenus]

Just saw the comparison shots for Salaam Bombay! at Caps-a-holic:
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...77772&i=13&l=0

While the Kino's leans towards a brownish grade, the BFI disc seems to have a lot of problems with blown contrasts, nasty artificial grain/noise and print dirt that's not present on the Kino image. And this is not a big deal but it's also opened up to 1.77 from 1.85:1. I haven't as yet played my copy, but CAH is generally known to be very reliable at least for their SDR comparison caps. Disappointing

[minister_x]

Also somewhat irritating that the back cover says it is presented in the "original aspect ratio [of] 1.78:1". Whilst the picture faults are almost certainly due to the master provided to the BFI (so out of the BFI's hands), that misinformation on the cover could have been avoided.

[SML]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Just saw the comparison shots for Salaam Bombay! at Caps-a-holic:
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...77772&i=13&l=0

While the Kino's leans towards a brownish grade, the BFI disc seems to have a lot of problems with blown contrasts, nasty artificial grain/noise and print dirt that's not present on the Kino image. And this is not a big deal but it's also opened up to 1.77 from 1.85:1. I haven't as yet played my copy, but CAH is generally known to be very reliable at least for their SDR comparison caps. Disappointing

Is it just my setup (laptop) or does the BFI release also have quite some black crush? Agree, that while the BFI release isn't perfect by any means, I like it much better than Kino's very flat looking Blu-ray. I'll take BFI's more filmic looking presentation with warts and all over Kino's flat, but cleaner looking presentation any day of the week.

[fdm]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Just saw the comparison shots for Salaam Bombay! at Caps-a-holic:
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...77772&i=13&l=0

While the Kino's leans towards a brownish grade, the BFI disc seems to have a lot of problems with blown contrasts, nasty artificial grain/noise and print dirt that's not present on the Kino image. And this is not a big deal but it's also opened up to 1.77 from 1.85:1. I haven't as yet played my copy, but CAH is generally known to be very reliable at least for their SDR comparison caps. Disappointing

With that particular cap, look how blown-out the kino looks with respect to the barbed wire and the antenna being almost gone. Just saying... The other caps yeah the bfi looks a little dark, maybe grainy, maybe noisy, hard to say. Not sure in the end which I would prefer without actually watching them both.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by SML

Is it just my setup (laptop) or does the BFI release also have quite some black crush? Agree, that while the BFI release isn't perfect by any means, I like it much better than Kino's very flat looking Blu-ray. I'll take BFI's more filmic looking presentation with warts and all over Kino's flat, but cleaner looking presentation any day of the week.

The BFI looks to be a scan of a print given the contrast issues, the detail is better though so I am guessing it is a print scan but a recent one.

[SML]

Originally Posted by nitin

The BFI looks to be a scan of a print given the contrast issues, the detail is better though so I am guessing it is a print scan but a recent one.

Yeah, agree it's probably a print. Can imagine it possibly looked like that when it was shown during it's initial run. Have a feeling it didn't look like Kino's release, but I maybe very wrong.

[ravenus]

Are the contrast issues purely attributable to a print? Look at this screenshot:
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=2&x...&l=0&i=14&go=1

The BFI is losing detail of the separation of the wooden slats that make up the truck's sides, and there's something akin to large blocks of color. I'm no expert on what a print is supposed to look like, but that doesn't feel natural to me.

[Tequila]

Mulling over the the new Salam Bombay! disc as well. Something I found on the DVDBeaver review:

"Sandi Sissel tell us that the film's saffron tone is because the storage in India destroyed a blue layer of the print's color. It was reproduced but the warm tones are really an accident of processing."

I can only assume that this is from the audio commentary she did for the Kino disc, one that's also absent from the new BFI one.

[SML]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Are the contrast issues purely attributable to a print? Look at this screenshot:
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=2&x...&l=0&i=14&go=1

The BFI is losing detail of the separation of the wooden slats that make up the truck's sides, and there's something akin to large blocks of color. I'm no expert on what a print is supposed to look like, but that doesn't feel natural to me.

It does indeed look like one big red plate, instead of multiple ones.
Also not sure if that's in the print used or a transfer issue (guessing the second), but I still find it more pleasing to the eye than Kino's release.'
Oh well, at least there's still room for improvement so another company can re-re-release it .

[nitin]

If it is from a film print, you will naturally have lower dynamic range than a scan from an IP, IN or negative. I could be wrong but this has limited dynamic range and contrast in almost every shot hence my suspicion it is from a scan of a film print.

Any info in the booklet if someone's purchased it already?

[minister_x]

Originally Posted by nitin

Any info in the booklet if someone's purchased it already?

Not really, just says:

Salaam Bombay! was provided to us by Mirabai Films and is presented in High Definition at 1.78:1 with 2.0 mono audio.

India Cabaret was supplied by Criterion Collection and is presented in High Definition in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with 2.0 mono audio.

(Included the Criterion snippet too, as I found it interesting Criterion provided India Cabaret - perhaps a quid pro quo for something they wanted from the BFI. Still hope Criterion will release Monsoon Wedding over here - and ideally on UHD at least in the US...)

[CelestialAgent]

I’m happy they included India Cabaret, but I still would like to get Monsoon Wedding for The Laughing Club of India, So Far From India, The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat, 11'09'01 - September 11, Migration and How Can it Be?

[JAG2045]

Back in July I remember seeing an email from BFI saying that they would be releasing Andrzej Wajda's The Promised Land

However the link just goes to a dead page now
https://shop.bfi.org.uk/the-promised-land.htm

Was this ever given a new release date?

[Yami]

Originally Posted by JAG2045

Back in July I remember seeing an email from BFI saying that they would be releasing Andrzej Wajda's The Promised Land

However the link just goes to a dead page now
https://shop.bfi.org.uk/the-promised-land.htm

Was this ever given a new release date?

First I've ever heard of that. It doesn't seem to have ever been mentioned on the BFI's social media channels and they don't even have the UK rights, which are with Second Run.

[mmarczi]

Originally Posted by JAG2045

Back in July I remember seeing an email from BFI saying that they would be releasing Andrzej Wajda's The Promised Land

However the link just goes to a dead page now
https://shop.bfi.org.uk/the-promised-land.htm

Was this ever given a new release date?

Originally Posted by Yami

First I've ever heard of that. It doesn't seem to have ever been mentioned on the BFI's social media channels and they don't even have the UK rights, which are with Second Run.

Yeah, I have no recollection, record, nor evidence of this either. A Google search for The Promised Land being tied to BFI reveals nothing. Maybe a Mandela effect? Do you actually have an e-mail in which you got that link from?

[Sinedd]

In France they are releasing all the Truffaut Antoine Doinel films in 4K in one box.
Any chance BFI will do something similar?

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Sinedd

In France they are releasing all the Truffaut Antoine Doinel films in 4K in one box.
Any chance BFI will do something similar?

I suspect BFI will be looking at the sales of their Seventh Seal release to evaluate further 4K titles.

Also, is it confirmed that they have rights to the Trauffaut films? AE used to have them, although their releases have gone OOP.

[xiiidan]

I don't think BFI will be doing 4K boxsets for a while, just single titles.

[yoloswegmaster420]

Originally Posted by ravenus

I suspect BFI will be looking at the sales of their Seventh Seal release to evaluate further 4K titles.

Also, is it confirmed that they have rights to the Trauffaut films? AE used to have them, although their releases have gone OOP.

BFI are hosting a Truffaut retrospective in 2022 that will also include bluray releases from BFI in Spring 2022.

[Yami]

I don't think there are any firm plans either way yet; when I asked the other week, Ben Stoddart of the BFI said "we'll be reviewing all of the masters and then we'll announce our specific home ent plans. I'm not saying no to any of them on UHD, but I am saying it won't be a whole load of them"