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Finch wrote: Tue May 09, 2023 8:35 pm trailer for the restoration

colinr0380 wrote: Sat May 13, 2023 4:29 pm Not that it particularly means anything but that trailer made me unreasonably annoyed without thinking about any restoration issues! Aside from the incongruous musical score slathered all over that trailer, how could they ruin that "Get into your Alfa, Romeo" pun!

Before the opening credits, a disclaimer pops up that reads, "The original cut of this film contains scenes that are missing from the English version. We now present these scenes with their original soundtrack and English subtitles." From the looks of it, these scenes were sourced from entirely different elements than the rest of the film, having a softer, flatter, almost- duped look that makes them stand out oddly. That said, there are only a few of these scenes—all quite short—and I appreciate having a more complete cut of the film.

What the hell happened here? This disc looks terrible. Absolutely terrible. If the Studio Canal Collection is meant to be a competitor to the Criterion Collection, Studio Canal should at least attempt to match the quality standards that Criterion employs. It hasn't even tried. Comparing 'Contempt' to Criterion's release of Godard's 'Pierrot le fou' shows a night-and-day difference in how the two movies have been treated.

'Contempt' opens with a disclaimer that some footage that was previously cut from American releases of the film has been restored. The American theatrical release in 1964 was trimmed of about a minute from the original 103 minute length. One might be willing to forgive Studio Canal if that restored footage were in a little rougher condition than the rest of the movie. It's a lot harder to forgive when the entire movie regularly experiences dramatic drops in picture quality, often shot-for-shot within scenes. Much of the film is soft and faded, and looks like a multi-generation dupe print.

Graham wrote: Wed May 10, 2023 11:11 am

Finch wrote: Tue May 09, 2023 8:35 pm trailer for the restoration

this trailer looks great to my eyes. Whites are white, for instance.

therewillbeblus wrote: Sat May 13, 2023 7:27 pm Unlike most, I didn't have a problem with the old SC transfer, but this does indeed look terrific. I was happy to sell off my SC blu, since I imagine they'll port over the same features for the upgrade?

rrenault wrote: Wed May 24, 2023 10:31 pm Are the source materials for this film just in poor shape, because I saw the new 4K restoration today in the cinema and was admittedly somewhat disappointed. I can only presume issues with the source materials are partly to blame here.

Also, some sections of the film still look completely unrestored in the new restoration for whatever reason. As an example, refer to the snippet between roughly the 27:40 and 28:00 marks per the Criterion Channel stream of the film.