criterionforum.org

tenia wrote:Yes, it's taken from the Blu Ray. There seems to be quite some damages left (specks, dirt, a few scratches) and it seems quite bright, but otherwise, it seems quite nice indeed.

The Beaver screen shots look brighter than yours.

FrauBlucher wrote:

tenia wrote:Yes, it's taken from the Blu Ray. There seems to be quite some damages left (specks, dirt, a few scratches) and it seems quite bright, but otherwise, it seems quite nice indeed.

The Beaver screen shots look brighter than yours.

How can I write it while still remaining polite and PC towards Gary ?... :-"

Joke aside, when I started making screencaps, caps-a-holic and blu-ray.com were both very well established already regarding the faithfulness of their screen caps. I used Raiders of the Lost Ark as a reference, screencaptured a few shots they had captures of and compared my captures with them, and it turned out they were matching in RGB values and overall aspect.
On the other end, Gary's captures have been notoriously wrong a too-high amount of time, Dr Strangelove being a very recent example where they've been pointed out as being wrong : Gary's caps seems to say that the Criterion disc doesn't reproduce a pure B&W movie because of a slight color bias. The disc actually isn't, it's coming from his caps.

How do you get BR screen captures?

Michael Kerpan wrote:How do you get BR screen captures?

I use Total Media Theater 5.0.1.114 screen captures system (pressing the P key). They're output as 1920 x 1080 *.jpg files. I don't compress the output file (except for upload on my Retro HD reviews if they're bigger than 1425 ko, our server currently don't accept bigger screen caps, in which case I use Photoshop CS6 "Save for Internet" option).

Caps seems to be quite close in quality than the ones you can find on caps-a-holic, but I find them a bit more compressed (though I haven't found any option on TMT for this).

I might have to go back and check RGB values on a sample of a few movies where reference screencaps are available (just to be sure) but so far, I haven't been called out on them by anybody and haven't been unhappy either.

Seems like Total Media Theater is now out of production....

Michael Kerpan wrote:Seems like Total Media Theater is now out of production....

It is indeed, it stopped being maintained / updated a few weeks ago (months ?). But I kept my older version anyway, the newer ones have issues handling the Sony Cinavia protection.

"The Shop on the High Street is an extraordinary film that works sublimely on a number of levels... a perfect introduction for newcomers to the very real pleasures and rewards of Czechoslovak cinema."

"The tonal range of the monochrome image is quite delicious here, delivering solid black levels and blinding whites and a handsome greyscale range between the two, boasting the sort of seductive richness I still only associate with 35mm film. The picture is crisp and the sharpness of the detail exceeds even that of Second Run's best DVDs (and that's saying something, believe me)."

"Beautifully made, wonderfully performed and deeply moving, it may well be the best film I've seen this year, and is handsomely presented on Second Run's excellent Blu-ray release. Highly recommended."

CineOutsider rave about SHOP ON THE HIGH STREET

Did Criterion loose rights to this one? How is the Second Run disc region free (A/B/C)? I am sure that a little change in title can't allow that. Can "Main" to "High" make the UK release region free? I am just curious.

I imagine it might just be that Criterion's (very old at this point) license wasn't exclusive with regards to region locking. Also I imagine considering all of the restorations Criterion are sitting on for upgrades they have no plans whatsoever to put this one out in the near future.

Or, maybe it's worth pointing out that Arrow's Closely Watched Trains was similarly region free.

chatterjees wrote:Did Criterion loose rights to this one? How is the Second Run disc region free (A/B/C)? I am sure that a little change in title can't allow that. Can "Main" to "High" make the UK release region free? I am just curious.

In my experience (and I produced Arrow's discs of The Firemen's Ball and Closely Observed Trains from the same source), rightsholders from this part of the world rarely insist on region-locking.

I suspect it's pretty rare for them to get a title distributed simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic, so from that perspective there's a stronger argument against region-locking than in favour of it. If I remember rightly, the BFI's Jan Švankmajer package was only region-locked at the behest of one of the non-Czech rightsholders, but I've long since forgotten which one.

Obviously, the slight difference in title is completely irrelevant - the film has always been known as The Shop on the High Street in the UK, as it's a more colloquial local translation ("Main Street" is such an indelibly American phrase that it's jarring to a native British English speaker when applied to an obviously non-American film). Similarly, although the Czech NFA told me that they'd prefer Czechoslovakia's second Oscar winner to be called Closely Watched Trains in all English-speaking territories, I sent them a dossier of material demonstrating that both it and the source novel were so well known in the UK as Closely Observed Trains that changing it now would be needlessly confusing, and they accepted this.

Thanks for the insight, Michael. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest films ever made and it always finds a place in my list of top 10 films ever made. I was just curious when I saw the region coding on the back of the case and the same printed on the disc. I was just trying to speculate a reason. Obviously, I don't know anything about how these things work. Anyways, I am dying to revisit the film in its full glory. I am also excited and eagerly waiting to watch your video piece.

"The contemporary resonances are so obvious they hardly need pointing out, making this not some lauded exemplar of a moment in arthouse history, but very much a film for now - and always. A particular boon, too, to have it in such a pristine new edition"

Lead review in the 'Home Cinema' section of the latest Sight & Sound magazine. A terrific piece by Trevor Johnston.

I got a chance to watch the blu. A very solid PQ presentation of a great film. It will not disappoint. One of the very best films about anti-semitism and the holocaust during the Nazi era. There is no forced sentiment or melodrama. Everthing feels sadly real. Even that ugly tower. The two main actors were brilliant. And I love the reverence the directors show for Charlie Chaplin. Clearly they were huge fans. That respect is over this film.
My favorite being..

Spoiler

When Tono is walking through town in his suit and bowler with his brother-in-law, the town commander, trying to avoid giving the Nazi salute but not wanting his brother-in-law to see him not saluting. It was very Chaplin like.

MichaelB, well done! Your piece was very informative. It was a fast 40 minutes. Great stuff, thanks.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Shop- ... 70/#Review" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"This Slovakian masterpiece gets the royal treatment by Second Run... Essential and vital cinema... a seminal take on one of the worst periods in modern history"

Clydefro Jones at Digital Fix

"It remains a vital work - one you should seek out immediately "

An excellent and very perceptive review by Samm Deighan in the print and digital magazine Diabolique

This was a thought provoking and formative experience for me when I first saw this in the theatres at middle school age. If I didn't understand all of it, I understood enough to be shaken by it. Not to reduce the film merely to its educational value, but I would recommend this as a young person's introduction to some important historical concepts -- that anti-Semitism was prevalent across Europe at the time, and there were parallel fascist movements in some countries; that there were complex degrees of collaboration, from the reluctant to the enthusiastic, for various motives; that the Holocaust was implemented by a step-by-step deprivation of rights, and not (in most places) by an immediate roundup and massacre.

How very apt that the deportation occurs on a bright, sunny day, and peace descends on the town square immediately afterwards.

Revisiting this as an adult, I didn't find it as affecting (I'm not sure why), but the Second Run Blu-ray is superb, and the video appreciation is excellent.

A double whammy of splendid reviews (of SHOP ON THE HIGH STREET and PEOPLE OF THE MOUNTAINS) in the latest bulletin from World Cinema Paradise

THE SHOP ON THE HIGH STREET screens this Friday, 25th November, 8pm at Close-Up Film Centre as part of the Made In Prague Czech Film Festival

Chosen by James Oliver as one of Reader's Digest 'Best DVDs of 2016'

It's perhaps worth repeating, since I don't think the information was ever emphasized, that this Blu-ray is region free.

Watching this again, I'm even more impressed with the craftsmanship of it. Such a well managed progression from farce to tragedy. Or to put it another way, just think how easy it would have been to do it badly, to make some irremediable misstep in tone.

Almost everything Second Run has ever put out is totally region free. It's a pretty core part of their brand, in my opinion.

Ah, didn't realize that. I thought region free Blu-rays were something of an exception.

(I've ended up using a region-free Blu-ray I've left in permanently in region B mode (because it's developed a problem changing region), plus a region A player. My region A player spits out my Second Run DVDs, but not this Second Run Blu-ray. But I think maybe it's just retarded and thinks it can't play PAL discs. Well of course it can't if it won't even try.)

My Region A player does the same thing for any region free PAL discs, it's just one of those things

Did not realize it worked that way. Anyway, I hope this diversion into technical matters at least serves as a bit of a plug for Second Run. I mean, God bless them for making region free Blu-rays -- they should get the Nobel Peace Prize or something.