171 Contempt

[onedimension]

Second Criterion blu-ray strikeout. This is a sad day for home cinema enthusiasts.

[Telstar]

Lovely. I sold my copy the day I heard the blu-ray announced.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

On the upside, Canal have announced a Dutch BD release for September 3rd, so it's coming out somewhere. No specs yet, though.

[Cinephrenic]

I wouldn't be surprised if Criterion will have page on Amazon asking which DVD's to strikeout from being released on Blu-ray.

[domino harvey]

You guys are going to have to do a lot of voting to negate all my votes for Fishing With John in the first poll

[LightBulbFilm]

You guys are going to have to do a lot of voting to negate all my votes for Fishing With John in the first poll

I am also one who thinks Criterion needs to give the show a second look and update the DVD.

[psufootball07]

Out of Print according to the CC website.

[FerdinandGriffon]

Out of Print according to the CC website.

This is such a pain. I force myself to put off buying the DVD because I know the Blu-ray's coming, then as soon as they announce that they've lost the rights to the Blu the DVD goes OOP too. There've been some very important and I assume lucrative properties Criterion has been losing their grip on recently (Contempt, Ran). I wonder why they've been dropping the ball.

[Napier]

I wonder why they've been dropping the ball.

They are not dropping the ball, shit happens and rights to put films on DVD get revoked. This is also old news.

[kaujot]

If I remember right, it's a Studio Canal license, so hopefully they can get the rights back relatively quickly, a la the Clouzots.

[aox]

Blu Ray.com weighs in on the new Optimum blu release... not great, but not spectacular.

[brendanjc]

Blu-ray coming to the US on 2/16/10 from Lionsgate.

“Contempt” bonus materials include an introduction by British film producer and Godard expert Colin MacCabe, a “making-of” documentary “One Upon a Time There Was…Contempt,” a documentary on Godard’s legacy in film “Contempt…Tenderly,” a discussion between Godard and director Fritz Lang “The Dinosaur and the Baby,” the theatrical trailer, BD-Live and a 20-page collectible booklet.

[knives]

Rewatching this and I have to admit that when Lang first comes on screen it turned me into a grinning idiot. The film is somehow even better than I remember even if the DVD is shit when it comes to subs. At first I couldn't tell Palance was talking because they hate the deaf. Probably more a sign I need to watch this one more often though.

[Tom Hagen]

The theatre rehearsal scene in Contempt would be a nightmare to explain to the deaf.

[accatone]

Rather trivial, but still...

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

That's probably the budget of his last two features combined.

[accatone]

And its just the script, on the screen its pictures...

[rrenault]

http://www.filmforum.org/movies/more/contempt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

^^An improvement on the initial SC Collection disaster to come, even if not from Criterion?

[repeat]

"Disaster", really? I haven't opened mine yet, but the Blu-ray.com review only reported "minor inconsistencies" (and even those resulting from the condition of the unrestored elements).

[RossyG]

To my untutored eye the Studio Canal BD looked fine. A handful of scenes are of slightly lesser quality, but that's explained in the set: they came from an inferior source.

So there's room for improvement, but I don't consider it a disaster at all. In fact, I'd give the whole disc a solid 4 out of 5.

[rrenault]

By inferior source, you mean shots like these?






Also, what's the deal with these two stills I always see, which make no appearance in the actual film:

[RossyG]

By inferior source, you mean shots like these?

Yes, that's one of the scenes. From memory, it affects about five minutes of material.

[JonasEB]

To my untutored eye the Studio Canal BD looked fine. A handful of scenes are of slightly lesser quality, but that's explained in the set: they came from an inferior source.

So there's room for improvement, but I don't consider it a disaster at all. In fact, I'd give the whole disc a solid 4 out of 5.

Also, wasn't the Criterion DVD precisely the same? If they had done the Blu-ray they probably would have ended up with the same result.

[repeat]

No, the Criterion transfer is much darker and more bluish, it's not the same at all (see Beaver). The StudioCanal looks much better to me - but would be cool to see this new restoration on Blu eventually!

edit: sorry, you meant the same source materials of course, which is probably true - but either way the colours look better on the SC

[Drucker]

I saw the trailer for the film at Film Forum the other day, and there was a noticeable golden hue to the look of the film that I don't think is captured on the Criterion DVD or Studio Canal blu ray.