Richard III (1995) - April 14, 2015

[gr451]

Just finished watching this, fantastic movie, PQ very strong overall. Don't miss out folks!

[Sporkies]

Originally Posted by gr451

Just finished watching this, fantastic movie, PQ very strong overall. Don't miss out folks!

Great to hear that it's a good transfer. My copy should be here tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing it for the first time.

[Sporkies]

A few random screenshots: http://postimg.org/gallery/12puqvb7o/. Click on the thumbnail and then again on the image it brings up to see them full sized.

[Wernski]

You'd think they could at least throw in the featurette from the UK DVD...

[James Luckard]

Does anyone else have about a half a second where the digital frames get all messed up?

At 8:43-8:44, during the opening party scene.

Right as a lady in a purple dress walks in front of the camera in the foreground, the video suddenly skips back about ten frames, and she is about five feet behind where she was. This lasts for one frame, then for the next one frame, the whole middle is all pixely, then she's back on course in the next frame, ten frames ahead again.

Wondering if it's my disc or the master that's defective.

Thanks!

edit: one kind member of the forum has checked their disc, and it does not seem to have this flaw. I'll call tomorrow for a replacement. Hopefully it's just my disc and not the master that's defective.

[Sporkies]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Does anyone else have about a half a second where the digital frames get all messed up?

At 8:43-8:44, during the opening party scene.

Right as a lady in a purple dress walks in front of the camera in the foreground, the video suddenly skips back about ten frames, and she is about five feet behind where she was. This lasts for one frame, then for the next one frame, the whole middle is all pixely, then she's back on course in the next frame, ten frames ahead again.

Wondering if it's my disc or the master that's defective.

Thanks!

edit: one kind member of the forum has checked their disc, and it does not seem to have this flaw. I'll call tomorrow for a replacement. Hopefully it's just my disc and not the master that's defective.

I don't see this happening on mine either. The lady in the purple dress enters dancing backwards at that spot and then it cuts to another shot once she hits about the middle of the picture. I don't observe any odd behavior in the split second she's on screen.

[James Luckard]

I just got a replacement disc, and it's there again. It's clearly a flaw in the master. Oh well.

It's literally only two frames, but still jarring. In one frame, the lady in the purple dress jumps back about six feet, and in the next frame, she's a ghostly blur of pixels covering the space between that spot and the spot where she should be. In the next frame she's back to normal.

However I just tried the disc on my Orei, off-brand regionless player, and the issue is not there. Only my Panasonic picks it up.

How bizarre.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I just got a replacement disc, and it's there again. It's clearly a flaw in the master. Oh well.

It's literally only two frames, but still jarring. In one frame, the lady in the purple dress jumps back about six feet, and in the next frame, she's a ghostly blur of pixels covering the space between that spot and the spot where she should be. In the next frame she's back to normal.

However I just tried the disc on my Orei, off-brand regionless player, and the issue is not there. Only my Panasonic picks it up.

How bizarre.

Is it possible it's a player issue rather than a disc one?

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Is it possible it's a player issue rather than a disc one?

I can't imagine so, since it happened with two different copies of the disc. It seems to be a flaw that only shows up on some players.

I remember something similar happened with Danny Boyle's SUNSHINE. It played fine on some players, but on others, the PiP videos played the whole time and could not be stopped, Fox had to to reauthor the disc.

This is such a tiny flaw, I'll just have to live with it.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Wernski

You'd think they could at least throw in the featurette from the UK DVD...

It has a different distributor in the US, so that might have been exclusive to them. And the TT transfer is in the proper 2.35:1 ratio rather than the UK DVD's 1.85:1.

[LRSIII]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I just got a replacement disc, and it's there again. It's clearly a flaw in the master. Oh well.

It's literally only two frames, but still jarring. In one frame, the lady in the purple dress jumps back about six feet, and in the next frame, she's a ghostly blur of pixels covering the space between that spot and the spot where she should be. In the next frame she's back to normal.

However I just tried the disc on my Orei, off-brand regionless player, and the issue is not there. Only my Panasonic picks it up.

How bizarre.

My copy does the same thing. It skips on my Panasonic 310 Blu-ray player, but is fine on my Oppo 93.

Since you've found the same issue on your replacement disc, I agree with your conclusion that they are all this way. I'll just have to remember to play it on my Oppo in the future.

[James Luckard]

By the way, now that I have a replacement disc, I've watched it all the way through. While it looks as good as an obscure catalog title like this probably ever will, and I'm grateful to have it on BD at all, I would like to point out another minor flaw, in case other people notice it on their disc.

At 1:08:43, as Richard and his court are watching a newsreel of his coronation, the score drops out, bizarrely, for a fraction of a second, leaving only the sound effects. I checked both my BDs, and it's definitely in the master. However I checked my old DVD, and the score plays normally.

[oddbox83]

BFI release is apparently from a new 2K scan of the neg. I'll be very interested if anyone can do comparison shots.

[James Luckard]

Yep, it's a new 2K restoration that played in UK cinemas in April, followed by a simulcast chat with Ian McKellen and director Richard Loncraine, which is included on the BD.

BFI release specs:

Special features
- Newly remastered and presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition
- New commentary by Ian McKellen and Richard Loncraine
- New trailer (2016)
- Play the Devil - Making Richard III (2016, 6 mins)
- Shakespeare on Stage, Screen and Elsewhere with Ian McKellen (2016, 79 mins)
- Ian McKellen and Richard Loncraine in Conversation (2016, 21 mins)
- Complete annotated screenplay with full credits (Downloadable PDF - DVD only)
- Illustrated booklet with an extensive essay by Ian McKellen

UK / 1995 / colour / 104 mins / English language, with optional hard of hearing subtitles / original aspect ratio 2.35:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, 5.1 DTS-HD master audio (48kHz/24 bit) / DVD9: PAL, 25fps, 5.1 Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (320 kbps)

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org....2016-05-31.pdf

Restoration trailer:

YouTube

[Rizor]

I might need to get the BFI release then. :O

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Rizor

I might need to get the BFI release then. :O

It's less than £10 and right now is, sadly, a very inexpensive time to be ordering anything from England.

[James Luckard]

My UK disc arrived yesterday and I watched it last night. I can confirm it's Region B-locked, but also that it plays with the "Stop, Top Menu" method on my Panasonic.

The transfer looks gorgeous, as good as this forgotten minor classic is ever going to look on home video. This is a Criterion-level package.

Going to explore the bonus features tonight.

BTW, in case anyone is wondering, the lengthy introduction from Ian McKellen in the booklet is not new, it's reprinted from the published screenplay in 1995. It looks like the entire book is included as a PDF extra on the DVD disc.

Oh, and while the compression flaw in the TT disc at 8:43-8:44 is obviously gone, since this is a stunning, brand new transfer, the audio flaw is still there. It's at 1:08:30, and it's present on both the 5.1 and 2.0 tracks. No idea why it wasn't present on the DVD, but it's clearly in the master for the film at this point, sadly. At least it can be explained away within the world of the film as a technical problem with Richard's speaker system, since the music is source music for a newsreel he and his court are watching.

[Mikezilla3k]

Are the UK and/or German releases region free?

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by Mikezilla3k

Are the UK and/or German releases region free?

The post right above yours says the U.K. is Region B locked.