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Wow....These reviews have made me really juiced for this release. I can't imagine the collaboration with Lynch and Criterion ends here.

I'm even excited for the extras even though I was disappointed that there were no shorts included.

If you already own the Studiocanal release, do you think the Criterion improves just enough to justify the upgrade?

Both reviews say yes, at least for the image quality.

pzadvance wrote:Blu-Ray.com

Not sure how these extras justify a Five Star rating. Seems like pro-bassoonist just wanted the pretty all five stars ranking and adjusted accordingly. A Master Builder similarly featured mostly just extensive interviews for extras (with a combined length longer than those found here) and a trailer and yet only received a 3.5 for extras from the same reviewer. Are one measly deleted scene and an EPK really enough to bump a not dissimilar batch of extras up to a perfect score?

The Criterion transfer really does look stunning and certainly supersedes the Studio Canal, so that in and of itself gives this release the edge. It is still disappointing that the extras are merely interviews (and one EPK), but it does help that they are with the most important cast and crew members, as well as reasonably lengthy. Still not worthy of 5-stars on Blu-Ray.com, but that's how Pro-B rolls (see Heaven's Gate).

domino harvey wrote:

pzadvance wrote:Blu-Ray.com

Not sure how these extras justify a Five Star rating. Seems like pro-bassoonist just wanted the pretty all five stars ranking and adjusted accordingly. A Master Builder similarly featured mostly just extensive interviews for extras (with a combined length longer than those found here) and a trailer and yet only received a 3.5 for extras from the same reviewer. Are one measly deleted scene and an EPK really enough to bump a not dissimilar batch of extras up to a perfect score?

I think Svet also factors in quality to his special feature score (rather than just adding up minutes). He added slightly more detail in that regards on bluray.com's forums:

The supplemental features are excellent as well. Very, very informative, and one of them is incredibly moving. (See the final twenty or so seconds from the interview with David Lynch and Naomi Watts).

There is no evidence in his write-up of A Master Builder that he even watched the interviews, or else he might have done more than just vomit back Criterion's own sell-sheet

Speaking of blu-ray.com ...

Then you have people in the forums complaining not only the "infamous" shot, but also how it has a "low bitrate". It's a good thing we only complain about things that truly matter. =D

And as if we need perspective on this ... The Thin Red Line has a slightly lower average bitrate than Mulholland Drive - according to [censored via optical fog ... =] ] - and that film was much longer ... and that is still considered one of, if not the, best Criterion Blu-rays technically speaking. (Hey, another excuse to reference Jack Fisk! =D )

Then you have people in the forums complaining not only the "infamous" shot, but also how it has a "low bitrate". It's a good thing we only complain about things that truly matter. =D

I'm biased here because I'm a compressionist, but it absolutely does matter for the highest quality - and that's what Blu-ray is about.

Agreed on the "infamous" shot though. It's clearly different on the home video versions to take the different viewing circumstances into account - you can't turn up the black level to see crotch in a movie theater!

flyonthewall2983 wrote:If you shut off your Blu-ray player, would it ask you to resume where you left off?

Even though the blu-ray doesn't have bookmarks, the disc still gave me the option to resume where I left off just like other Criterion blus.

I think this is a great release. The supplements are pretty fantastic if you think about it, just the sheer amount of them -- what's it, like five or six interview segments, each about 20-30 min? Not bad at all. The interviews are good, too -- I especially enjoyed Justin Theroux's (just such a funny and likeable guy, on and off camera), and his account of how the Cowboy scene was shot. Then the deleted scene might not be huge, but it's interesting, and a nice inclusion on Lynch's part. It makes me wish he had included at least two or three others. I also liked the inclusion of the Lynch on Lynch chapter in the booklet. The packaging is truly beautiful, one of my favorites in the collection. I've warmed on the cover art over time, and I now think the only thing really wrong with it is the weird way that Lynch's name comes in at an angle to the title and is styled in such a way as to clash with it jarringly. Take that out and it's good.

The transfer is probably the most problematic thing about this release, honestly. It's not that different from the old DVD, at least in picture. The sound is a great upgrade, but visually it doesn't pop as much as expected. Still, it doesn't look bad at all.

Wishful thinking but I cannot wait for the Criterion of Lost Highway and am already practically visualizing the packaging (just like Eraserhead's and Mulholland's of course). That's a film that deserves a high quality R1 transfer. None of the available blu-rays have captured how the film actually looks in 35mm -- it's an incredibly dark film, with the blackest of blacks, yet all these R2 releases have the palette all out of whack and practically make some night scenes look like day. I recently saw it for the second time in 35mm, and the Universal R1 DVD is the only release thus far to capture the look of the film correctly.

oh yeah wrote:The transfer is probably the most problematic thing about this release, honestly. It's not that different from the old DVD, at least in picture.

I watched my blu-ray today. Problematic transfer is right. I never thought it would be quite this distracting. The noise and encoding issues are bad. There are times when it reminds me of my dad's old Zenith when he tried to pick up hokey games broadcast from Canada.

Disappointed.

Smafdy wrote:

oh yeah wrote:The transfer is probably the most problematic thing about this release, honestly. It's not that different from the old DVD, at least in picture.

I watched my blu-ray today. Problematic transfer is right. I never thought it would be quite this distracting. The noise and encoding issues are bad. There are times when it reminds me of my dad's old Zenith when he tried to pick up hokey games broadcast from Canada.

Disappointed.

I've got to watch it again, but the first time I did I had the same reaction. The flickering, rolling and popping visual disturbances were just subtle enough to make me wonder if I was simply too tired when I was watching, or whether my TV was maybe getting jacked up, but no, the image appears fine on other films. Likewise, it was a surprise that it was just as distracting as it was.

I'm eagerly waiting my copy because I wanted to revisit the movie through the Criterion release instead of my old Canal BD, but what I've seen so far about PQ is, to be honest, not especially thrilling. All the more disappointing since it's sourced from a brand new 4K resto from the OCN.
I recall when the SC BD was released and people were saying "the BD is soft but this is down to the elements, you'll never have better" but the SC BD is actually filtered and thus softer than it should, so I had some expectations about the Criterion BD.

Watching this again last night, I was amused to be reminded about Rita getting her name from a poster of Rita Hayworth in Gilda hanging in the bathroom! Quite cute that Criterion announced Gilda on the month they released Mulholland Drive!

I didn't really notice any of these visual artifacts being talked about above, but then these things go over my head normally. It looks better than my DVD, that's all I know, and I still love the rolling all-consuming 'clouds of memory' that engulf a couple of the major scenes. That immediately takes the film all the way back to Eraserhead territory of hard facts revealed yet almost immediately, and thankfully, obscured. Doesn't The Elephant Man also feature clouds of white gases that link both to the look from their condition of the main character and also to the cosmic bookending?

I did however notice in the HoH subtitles that the lyrics during "16 Reasons Why I Love You" featured one tiny spelling error - I think it was meant to be "silent sighs" rather than "silent sides"!

I was surprised at how candid everyone was in the interviews. I loved that all the actors found the comic side to the film too, and it was finally great to see Robert Forster in more than one brief scene at the start of the film finally! Though I actually love the way he is used in the final film, almost as if he is a Greek God mournfully looking down from Olympus on the city stretched below him, unable to intervene any more than that. Perhaps that also fits in with Camilla leading Diane up that pathway to the fateful party on the mountain in which everyone's roles get recontextualised. That walk through up the small path is still the most beautiful series of shots, heartrending for being so brief, and the centre of the whole film, I feel.

colinr0380 wrote:Perhaps that also fits in with Camilla leading Diane up that pathway to the fateful party on the mountain in which everyone's roles get recontextualised. That walk through up the small path is still the most beautiful series of shots, heartrending for being so brief, and the centre of the whole film, I feel.

Well said! I'm glad somebody else loves that beautifully haunting sequence.

Thanks! It is also interesting in re-watching Mulholland Drive to see kernels of ideas that seemed to get enormously expanded upon in Inland Empire - that scene with the hitman querying the prostitute about "whether any new girls have turned up on the streets", or the crowded room for the audition scene similar to "Let's do it!" that kicks off the filming. Or the lady with dire premonitions of warning at the door of the dream apartment sort of like Grace Zabriske's unnerving opening visit to Laura Dern's mansion.

Or the way that Diane is kind of trapped in her dingy apartment at the end, which is a little like the Polish woman locked away in her own apartment watching television (or Laura Dern in her bathrobe in the home of her character in the film within the film). Only in Mulholland Drive there will not be anything as comforting as the lead character of the drama being willed out of the screen and into the world in order to embody, empathise with and free the Polish lady!

I use the new Criterion Blu-ray of MULHOLLAND DR. as a jumping off point to discuss the career of David Lynch in general on the latest episode of my new podcast: http://www.transistorchicago.com/wccrh" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is no technical issue with this disc, right? My copy does not have any chapter selection. I wanted to go forward by pressing next (for chapter selection) button of my remote. Every time I pressed it, it took me to the main menu! I see there are only 2 chapters. First one is for the company titles - Universal/StudioCanal, and the 2nd chapter represents the whole movie. Finally I fast forwarded to reach to the point where I left before. I thought this is weird. I haven't paid much attention to the other discs, but I will now.

Lynch's preference is to include no chapter stops. Just about all of the previous DVDs have also had no chapters.

Wow, he is a weird one. Thanks for the information. I hope his circuit breaker never goes off

As with all of Criterion's recent Blu-rays, the disc does have a "resume playback" option after re-loading so the lack of chapter stops isn't too detrimental. Are there Blu-ray players that don't support this feature?

Roger Ryan wrote:As with all of Criterion's recent Blu-rays, the disc does have a "resume playback" option after re-loading so the lack of chapter stops isn't too detrimental. Are there Blu-ray players that don't support this feature?

I know what you mean. I think almost all of my discs showed that feature. Even after 1 or 2 years, I inserted a disc for rewatching and the player showed the option - "resume playback". For some reason, this time It did not recognize the disc, and I have to fast forward to reach the point where it was when my circuit breaker went off!

If you know your player intimately, you can enter an exact time code as well.