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It's my understanding that this artifact is called "video jitter" or maybe "video judder"? There's that one moment where Stalker's cheek appears to be crawling up his face, but the most egregious I see is in the first scenes, particularly any shot of the bed which appears to be moving and vibrating independently of its surroundings.

I have the NTSC Ruscico - does anyone think it would be much of an improvement to shell out for a PAL version? If so, any preferences among the PALs?

Rich Malloy wrote:I have the NTSC Ruscico - does anyone think it would be much of an improvement to shell out for a PAL version?

The problem exists on every Ruscico sourced release (so all of 'em)... both PAL and NTSC have this same problem. there isn't really anything that can be done, to the best of my knowledge (short of a new transfer... and if they were to do that, they might as well do a 4K transfer).

I have the Ruscico/Artificial Eye Region 2 PAL discs which has the same shimmering crawl on the Stalker's face as the camera pans across the family in bed in the opening shots. The PQ on the discs improves startlingly in the last fifteen minutes, would've been good to see that level of quality on the film as a whole. Is anyone involved at a senior level in the production/acting still alive ? seemd to be an alarming number of deaths when I last looked at the cast and production lists.

stwrt wrote:Is anyone involved at a senior level in the production/acting still alive ? seemd to be an alarming number of deaths when I last looked at the cast and production lists.

I believe that only the Art Director is still alive. One theory about this is that the industrial area where Stalker was shot was so polluted that it caused health problems in most of the crew (some blame Tarkovsky's cancer on the shoot)... and having to endure the high levels of pollution twice probably didn't help.

there were others on the shoot, however, that are still alive... Konstantin Lopushansky, director of 'Letters From a Dead Man' (Pisma myortvogo cheloveka) was a production assistant.

This is funny. John Travolta! :-&

jmj713 wrote:This is funny. John Travolta! :-&

Ugh. I presume the rest of the cast of Wild Hogs will be filling out the roles of Scientist, Writer, etc.

...Oh great, and according to the IMDb, Mr. Travolta is also taking part in the ruining of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. 2009 is already shaping up to be another quality year for Hollywood!

Funny? "After a mysterious alien visitation..."

It's going to be another Scientology movie. And of course it'll come out on a gorgeous-looking blu-ray DVD, while Tarkovsky...ah, I should stop before I get really pissed.

richast2 wrote:It's going to be another Scientology movie. And of course it'll come out on a gorgeous-looking blu-ray DVD, while Tarkovsky...ah, I should stop before I get really pissed.

You never know, they might release it as a 'sweet and sour' double bill, similar to the way Universal released The Trouble With Charlie with a battered copy of that little known obscure film on which it was based, Charade!

colinr0380 wrote:

richast2 wrote:It's going to be another Scientology movie. And of course it'll come out on a gorgeous-looking blu-ray DVD, while Tarkovsky...ah, I should stop before I get really pissed.

You never know, they might release it as a 'sweet and sour' double bill, similar to the way Universal released The Trouble With Charlie with a battered copy of that little known obscure film on which it was based, Charade!

Ho-ho! I'd buy that for a dollar! Man, if that didn't get all you tight-asses to convert to Blu-Ray, I don't know what would!

colinr0380 wrote:

richast2 wrote:It's going to be another Scientology movie. And of course it'll come out on a gorgeous-looking blu-ray DVD, while Tarkovsky...ah, I should stop before I get really pissed.

You never know, they might release it as a 'sweet and sour' double bill, similar to the way Universal released The Trouble With Charlie with a battered copy of that little known obscure film on which it was based, Charade!

Actually, the DVD of Charade was pretty high quality (might be surpassed slightly by the Criterion, but at 4 times the price...) easily on a level with most classics on DVD. ALMOST made me want to buy it Trouble With Charlie, just for that. (I would have, except Charade is one of those films like Shawshank Redemption that I like and I can see why it's considered a classic, but it just isn't quite a personal favourite)

btw, did everyone know there was a Stalker videogame made a few years ago. Played some of it, and it was actually ok... A lot more Stalkers of course, and gun-fights with military, etc. but it managed to have a decent amount of mood and exploring. Even had the occasional shift to sepia tones. Think "Half Life" in the style of Tarkovsky.

There's a sequel coming out later this year, I think. Or 2009.

Darth Lavender wrote:btw, did everyone know there was a Stalker videogame made a few years ago. Played some of it, and it was actually ok... A lot more Stalkers of course, and gun-fights with military, etc. but it managed to have a decent amount of mood and exploring. Even had the occasional shift to sepia tones. Think "Half Life" in the style of Tarkovsky.

Don't remind me - I'm still stuck with my character glowing with radiation in the middle of one of the enormous maps!