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To heavily criticize the restoration work done seems, quite honestly, beyond my expertise. I'm not fully aware of the limitations that restricted the finished product. Even so, what Park Circus has released is a tad below reasonable expectations of a new high definition transfer on Blu-ray, regardless of the source materials. I realize this was filmed in Technicolor and thus fluctuations in color tones and the like are normal but the inconsistencies here seem to go beyond any expected level of such imperfection. Skin tones alternate between overly red to almost ashen at times. Darker scenes lose a great amount of detail and exhibit rather poor levels of contrast. Some scenes can look dipped in a rosy pink color. A sickly, yellowish green cast is noticeable at times, often making its home on the left edge of the frame.

Most unfortunate, though, is the disturbing amount of dirt that remains in this restoration, indicating a lack of digital cleanup at every turn. There are frequent specks and bits of debris swirling around the image almost from start to finish, and in multiple colors (blue, green, red). The problem with this is that the viewing experience becomes poor. Screen captures remain an unreliable judge in determining how a digital transfer actually plays on one's home viewing system because they fail to convey how the image looks in motion. In this instance, the Park Circus Blu-ray is a significant disappointment in my mind. It's surely an improvement on the previous DVD releases around the world, but that's simply not enough to honestly float comparisons to, for example, the other recent restorations of Jack Cardiff's work brought to the marketplace like Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes and The African Queen. It's an insult to those various releases to place Pandora on the same plane.

Dick Laurent wrote:I hope Last Night will be at least widescreen full frame, the US DVD is sadly 1.33:1.

This is the version restored by George Eastman House - the transfer does full justice to the extraordinarily rich visuals.

peerpee wrote:All the more galling and inconsistent when published alongside Michael Brooke's painstakingly accurate reviews in the same section. Second Run's ADELHEID gets "The source print is overly dark and the colours are a little pasty.." and PANDORA gets off scot-free.

The source print is overly dark and the colours are a little pasty, but this is still a distinct advance on the lacklustre Facets release. The biggest improvement is with the subtitles, which are white, optional and correctly synchronised. Peter Hames' typically thorough booklet essay provides ample historical context.

pro-bassoonist wrote:David,

I am sorry for the delay. I received the U.S. release but had to finish a different load of discs.

I will have a review for the UK release shortly, but here's what I can tell you:

1. Even though the Kino and Park Circus high-definition transfers appear to have been sourced from the same element, they are not identical. They look very, very similar but, I repeat, they are not identical.

2. The UK release is slightly darker, with marginally weaker contrast levels. I also noticed some obvious discrepancies in the color-scheme; reds and blues, for example, are oversaturated.

3. The two discs appear to have been encoded differently - and on larger than 60' screens it is very easy to see that there is some sort of extremely mild denoising on the UK release; yet it is enough to make the U.S. release look sharper. The UK release looks smoother and even softer; the U.S. looks sharper (and no, this isn't contrast boosting). Additionally, a lot of the mild background flicker, and specifically the color pulsations, that pop up on the UK release are not as prominent on the U.S release.

4. Last but not least, as far as I could tell, the flecks, scratches, and debris are identical on both transfers.

5. The exact running times:

U.S. release - 02.03.45
UK release - 02.03.11

To sum it all up, I am unsure if one would immediately be able to tell that these two releases are not identical, but if one has both discs and pays very close attention to detail(s), one should see that there are indeed discrepancies.

Pro-B

MichaelB wrote:

Dick Laurent wrote:I hope Last Night will be at least widescreen full frame, the US DVD is sadly 1.33:1.

The Park Circus checkdisc I have is definitely 1.33:1 - and with some glaring interlacing thrown in as a bonus.

However, the label prominently says "Screening DVD - not representative of final master', and it has no menus, so that's not necessarily definitive.

cineman2002 wrote:

MichaelB wrote:

Dick Laurent wrote:I hope Last Night will be at least widescreen full frame, the US DVD is sadly 1.33:1.

The Park Circus checkdisc I have is definitely 1.33:1 - and with some glaring interlacing thrown in as a bonus.

However, the label prominently says "Screening DVD - not representative of final master', and it has no menus, so that's not necessarily definitive.

The Park Circus release is in fact 16:9 from the same new transfer at the Canadian version.

MB17 wrote:

pro-bassoonist wrote:David,

I am sorry for the delay. I received the U.S. release but had to finish a different load of discs.

I will have a review for the UK release shortly, but here's what I can tell you:

1. Even though the Kino and Park Circus high-definition transfers appear to have been sourced from the same element, they are not identical. They look very, very similar but, I repeat, they are not identical.

2. The UK release is slightly darker, with marginally weaker contrast levels. I also noticed some obvious discrepancies in the color-scheme; reds and blues, for example, are oversaturated.

3. The two discs appear to have been encoded differently - and on larger than 60' screens it is very easy to see that there is some sort of extremely mild denoising on the UK release; yet it is enough to make the U.S. release look sharper. The UK release looks smoother and even softer; the U.S. looks sharper (and no, this isn't contrast boosting). Additionally, a lot of the mild background flicker, and specifically the color pulsations, that pop up on the UK release are not as prominent on the U.S release.

4. Last but not least, as far as I could tell, the flecks, scratches, and debris are identical on both transfers.

5. The exact running times:

U.S. release - 02.03.45
UK release - 02.03.11

To sum it all up, I am unsure if one would immediately be able to tell that these two releases are not identical, but if one has both discs and pays very close attention to detail(s), one should see that there are indeed discrepancies.

Pro-B

Is it right to assume that for systems up to 60" the differences are minimal in PQ (with some color discrepancies being the most evident difference)? I ask this because the Park Circus version would cost me 30% less...

Thanks.

MB17 wrote:

pro-bassoonist wrote:
Is it right to assume that for systems up to 60" the differences are minimal in PQ (with some color discrepancies being the most evident difference)? I ask this because the Park Circus version would cost me 30% less...

Thanks.

I think that it is fair to say yes.

Pro-B

perkizitore wrote:Watched the restored From Here To Eternity last night. Pretty good restoration, the only flaw i noticed was a change in contrast for a few minutes, but that may be the projectionist's fault.

tojoed wrote:Robert Flaherty's Man of Aran in March.

Gropius wrote:

tojoed wrote:Robert Flaherty's Man of Aran in March.

Somewhat absurd that it's taken more than a decade for a Flaherty feature to get a UK DVD release. And still no sign of Nanook.