In Search of Dracula (Kino)

[karsten]

All in all, I'm pretty impressed with this release:



https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/In-Se...lu-ray/263916/

The PQ isn't perfect by a long shot, but I previously owned the 2003 DVD, and the picture quality was terrible -- some scenes so dark that nothing was visible at all; others blown out and faded.

Not only does Kino's scan solve these problems, but for once, the colour timing of the blu-ray is more or less correct -- or at least, far better than that of the DVD. In a reversal of the customary situation, it was the DVD that had an overweening green tint in many scenes, whereas, while the blu-ray's colours aren't perfect, they are much closer to true.

Would that it were ever this way.

The only disappointing aspect is the very lacklustre cover.

The DVD had much more interesting cover art:



Incidentally, it's a pretty notable documentary, if you like this sort of thing. This doc, and the book on which it is based, popularized the association of the eponymous vampire with Vlad the Impaler, which until then had been little noted in the West. Much of the footage was shot in Romania during communist times, and is interesting for historical reasons.