Artificial Eye / Curzon Film World

[TMDaines]

Le Havre coming July 9th.

Amazon lists it as PAL,hopefully they don't release Future film's(Finnish distributor) 1080i/25fps transfer.

PAL means nothing in terms of Blu-ray (other than for extras). It's just a hangover from DVD listings.

[JPJ]

I guess I knew that TMDaines,I'm just hoping that AE will release a proper 1080p24fps transfer.Both blu and dvd of Future film's Le Havre have the same running time,89 mins.I think blu should be around 93 mins.I have no idea why they did this.

[Peacock]

Amazon are almost always wrong, they don't base their figures on what the DVD company provides them and they don't base them on the disk themselves. I don't understand why people continue to even read running times/tech info etc from an Amazon product page.

[MichaelB]

They also make up release dates.

I completely agree: relying on Amazon for concrete info about anything is a fool's errand. They still claim that Blu-rays are PAL and Region 2!

[ShellOilJunior]

The release news was posted by Blu-ray.com. I chose to post the Amazon link.

[Peacock]

We were referring to JPJ's post about what format it is.

[Felix]

If you're lucky enough to have a TV set that does the 16:9-anamorphic resolution correctly. For instance, my set always stretches a 1.66 anamorphic film to 1.78. It's not very perceptible, but still isn't right. I've seen documentaries or dvd extras in 16:9 anamorphic format in which the embedded 4:3 film clips were also slightly stretched to a format of about 1.40. Of course, that's just my particular set, though I remember that this was discussed here a long time ago and others also had that problem. So I'm not fully sure about whether I would really end up with a correct 4:3 image with these films.

I assume you'd actually be more likely to end up with a correct 4:3 image, because the DVD image consists of an anamorphically-squeezed 4:3 image within a 16:9 frame.

So as far as it's concerned, the TV will be displaying a 16:9 image, and therefore shouldn't feel the need to adjust anything, assuming you've set it up so that the TV doesn't interfere with what the DVD player serves up. Assuming this is possible, but that's how I've always set up my own 16:9 displays - in my experience, the less that the TV is given to do, the better!

I received the DVD set today and it is definitely 4:3 anamorphic. It is the first time out of more than 1000 DVDs that my Sony DVD recorder has ever not stretched the image to 16:9 regardless of OAR (see my earlier posts). The menu is 16:9 anamorphic, film(s) 4:3

[Felix]

Interesting review of the Mizoguchi set in Sight And Sound...

"The Blu-ray editions make the picture grain far more evident, to the extent that darker sequences on Osaka Elegy and Sisters Of Gion seem to be taking place behind a lace curtain: ironically the cheaper DVDs provide a more satisfting viewing experience."

[Michael Kerpan]

Interesting review of the Mizoguchi set in Sight And Sound...

"The Blu-ray editions make the picture grain far more evident, to the extent that darker sequences on Osaka Elegy and Sisters Of Gion seem to be taking place behind a lace curtain: ironically the cheaper DVDs provide a more satisfting viewing experience."

My premonition appears to have been well-founded. ;~}

[feihong]

In the screencaps on dvdbeaver, though, the improved contrast provided by the blu-ray makes more of the picture visible. I can see background detail better than in the DVD discs.

What is a "satisfying viewing experience" of an ancient, classic film in a home theater environment? It seems to me the S&S reviewer is content to know less of more. Where Mizoguchi is concerned, I'd rather see every available detail of the setting. I'd like to see patterns on fabric and the textures of surfaces. You know, the stuff that Mizoguchi worked out in painstaking detail.

I wonder what kind of depth-of-field the blu rays have. Has anyone who has the set noticed whether or not the depth of the compositions looks improved over the dvd editions?

[Duncan Hopper]

I've not got the issue yet, but the website says the review is by Brad Stevens, he sometimes frequents these parts, so maybe he'll expand on his views?

[JPJ]

Le Havre coming July 9th.

Amazon lists it as PAL,hopefully they don't release Future film's(Finnish distributor) 1080i/25fps transfer.

I sent an e-mail to Future Film regarding their 1080i/25fps release of Le Havre.Here's their reply:

Thank you for your feedback.
Explanation is quite simple.
I ordered Le Havre's materials from France(?)in this format.
This material was available when we were planning a release.
It's difficult to see a difference between 1080i and 1080p on a regular display
so we made a decision to do authoring in this format.
Like you say it's quite unusual that HD materials are done in 25fps speed.
Usually all our blu-rays are in 24fps.

Well at least they are relatively honest about their rush job...I presume Artificial eye's disc will be a proper release of Le Havre.

[Peacock]

Well there's another reason to wait for the Criterion then.

[Zot!]

Can anyone familiar with post production clue me in on why 25fps is continuing to be a popular frame rate to shoot or finish in? Is the whole effort simply to make PAL conversion easy? Still seems counterproductive when they know that there will be 24fps film prints and NTSC conversion necessary as well.

[MichaelB]

Well there's another reason to wait for the Criterion then.

Why not the Artificial Eye? Which will almost certainly be considerably cheaper, and probably sourced from the same master.

[TMDaines]

Well there's another reason to wait for the Criterion then.

Why not the Artificial Eye? Which will almost certainly be considerably cheaper, and probably sourced from the same master.

Oh Michael, you're missing out the all important wacky C.

[matrixschmatrix]

I can usually get Criterions for about $15, so AE releases aren't necessarily much cheaper- and hopefully Criterion will bother to put some meaningful extras on the disc, as with Certified Copy.

[Peacock]

No, they lack an RHV as well.

It's because
a) 1080i50 transfers don't play on the majority of US players
b) interlaced transfers aren't as detailed as progressive ones
c) Criterion of course will no doubt have more extras than the AE, as they have for all their other IFC releases

Sure the AE will end up £5-8 cheaper than the Criterion, when both editions are on sale, but already there are too many marks against it for me to bother.

edit: Oh, Matrix beat me on some of these.

[MichaelB]

but already there are too many marks against it for me to bother.

Are you confusing the Artificial Eye release with this Finnish disc, or do you know more about it than AE have so far revealed?

[jwd5275]

Criterion of course will no doubt have more extras than the AE, as they have for all their other IFC releases

Even more likely due to the fact that this is not an IFC release, but a Janus release of a new movie and they likely have even more invested the success of the release.

[Peacock]

but already there are too many marks against it for me to bother.

Are you confusing the Artificial Eye release with this Finnish disc, or do you know more about it than AE have so far revealed?

No, if you check my previous comment I list some reasons, I can list them again if you like, and the sources too.

And oops, forgot this was a Janus title not an IFC one

[Calvin]

No, if you check my previous comment I list some reasons, I can list them again if you like, and the sources too.

And oops, forgot this was a Janus title not an IFC one

I believe that Michael was referring to your assumption that the AE disc will be 1080i50 even though no details have been announced.

[MichaelB]

No, if you check my previous comment I list some reasons

All those reasons seem to apply to the Finnish release. Is the Artificial Eye a clone? And if so, what's your source?

Without concrete confirmation, I don't think there's any reason to assume that it will be a clone - they've improved on other European discs in the past, most notably Katyn. I can't remember whether the Polish disc was 1080i, but it was definitely cropped to 16:9, whereas the Artificial Eye disc is 1080p and correctly framed.

[Peacock]

Guys, I'm sorry and very embarrassed right now.
I misread JPJ's email as coming from Artificial Eye rather than the Finnish company. I'll go back to lurking!

[MichaelB]

Interesting review of the Mizoguchi set in Sight And Sound...

"The Blu-ray editions make the picture grain far more evident, to the extent that darker sequences on Osaka Elegy and Sisters Of Gion seem to be taking place behind a lace curtain: ironically the cheaper DVDs provide a more satisfting viewing experience."

The review has just appeared on the Sight & Sound website.