Jingle bells December 26, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Technobabble, Miscellaneous, Movie Watching , 1 comment so far
In case you didn’t notice, yesterday was Christmas. As luck would have it, the various presents I had ordered all showed up on Saturday, contrary to all expectation (Saturday being the last day for the postal service until the 27th), and I got one or two surprises in addition to those. Thanks must go especially to Lee for sending me a copy of Burton on Burton, which, as you can probably guess, is a book on director Tim Burton and his bizarre gothic fantasies. I’m sure I’ll enjoy getting stuck into it when I next have a spare moment.
Otherwise, there were no huge surprises. I got The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - The Complete Recordings (what a mouthful!) on CD but haven’t had a chance to listen to anything but the first couple of tracks. And, in terms of DVDs, my collection now includes Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4, The Double Life of Véronique (Criterion), The Quiller Memorandum and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Ultimate Edition). I’ve not had the time to watch any of them, but I gave most of them a brief glance, and have collected my thoughts below.
- The Double Life of Véronique: This release looks slightly better than the French MK2 release (repackaged in the UK under the Artificial Eye label), but it’s a close call. There is less noise reduction and the compression is better handled, giving the image a more eye-pleasing, filmlike appearance. However, I am once again annoyed that Criterion, who are (wrongly, in my opinion) frequently held up to be the pinnacle of DVD production companies, have chosen to assault the image with edge enhancement and brick-wall filtering. Especially following the advent of HD DVD, I am acutely aware that the vast majority of DVDs simply aren’t of an acceptable level of quality.
- The Quiller Memorandum: Probably the worst transfer I’ve seen all year. This DVD was released only a month ago, and yet it looks almost like a LaserDisc master. The image is flat, detail is non-existent, and I once again find myself wondering how Fox, like Criterion, can garner so much praise for such feeble efforts.
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: This restoration, undertaken by Synapse’s Don Mar Jr., has been praised to the high heavens on the Internet, and with good reason: the film has undoubtedly never looked better on a home video format, and the material May had to work with can’t have been in particularly good condition. All the more reason, then, for my to be annoyed by Dark Sky’s DVD, which is indeptly encoded, resulting in some of the most blatant macro-blocking I’ve seen in a long time. At times, the screen is such an array of compression blocks that it resembles a UK Freeview TV broadcast (which anyone who has witnessed this ingenious but flawed “digital TV through an antenna” solution will agree is capable of looking very bad indeed).
That’s all for now. Thoughts on the Looney Tunes discs will follow eventually.
RIP Joe Barbera 1911-2006 December 19, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Miscellaneous , add a commentSource: USA Today
This really is the end of an era.
High definition, every hour on the hour December 18, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Technobabble, Miscellaneous, Movie Watching , add a comment
To get an idea of the general sales performance of the two rival HD formats, I generally refer to The DVD Wars, which provides a comprehensive run-down of Amazon.com’s DVD (which also encompasses HD DVD and Blu-ray, for some reason) sales rankings. The site is a valuable resource, but it has its shortcomings, among them an inability to display the sales rank of every available title. That’s where HD Game Database’s new HD DVD/Blu-ray Sales Rank page comes in.
According to them,
This page is a different representation of the same data. The primary reason for this page is due to curiousity raised by the top 10 listing on The DVD Wars…namely, what lies beyond each format’s top 10?
The data below is sortable by several different fields. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray are listed in one ranking list. All movies in the database have been scrubbed of any invalid DVDs (WMV-HD, etc.). The data retrieved from Amazon.com contains ALL available next-generation titles (including pre-orders). The data displayed below contains only those movies with a sales rank.
A studio summary is listed at the bottom and is updated according to the list size (Top 10, Top 25, etc.) selected in the drop down list.
There are certainly some interesting numbers on display, especially with regard to the number of titles released by each studio: for example Warner, the studio that, along with Universal, continues to be the most enthusiastic supporter of either format, has 55 titles on HD DVD, but only 33 on Blu-ray. The statistics are not infallible, however: while Paramount seems to have 16 titles on Blu-ray but only 15 on HD DVD, in actual fact this is due to U2 - Rattle & Hum inexplicably not being listed as available on HD DVD, when in fact it is.
Christmas list December 7, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Miscellaneous, Movie Watching , 1 comment so farIt’s nearly that time of the year again and, in order to avoid any potential disappointments, I’ve decided to put together my Christmas DVDs list and get my orders in now, rather than waiting till the last moment. Therefore, on the birthday of everyone’s favourite fictional deity (Mithras), I shall (hopefully) be receiving the following:
- Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 (R1 USA). For the last few years now, it has been something of a custom for me to receive the latest instalment in this collection of remastered (and sometimes mangled) cartoon classics, and to spend a copious portion of the morning watching them with Lyris. The notion of a whole disc full of Speedy Gonzales cartoons on this set doesn’t exactly seem like the most welcome prospect… although I don’t imagine it being considerably worse than the Road Runner disc in the previous set.
- The Double Life of Véronique: The Criterion Collection (R1 USA). Although Krzysztof Kieslowski’s brand of spiritualism doesn’t really do much for a heathen such as myself, I must confess to being absolutely enthralled by his use of colour and imagery. His Three Colours: Blue is one of my favourite films ever for its cinematography and lyricism. I already own the French release of Véronique from MK2, but, for some reason, I never got round to watching it, and the news that the new Criterion release duplicates all of its extras, plus adds several of its own, in addition to a better transfer, makes this a must-have in my book. Expect to see the French release on eBay before too long.
- The Quiller Memorandum and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Ultimate Edition (both R1 USA). Two catalogue titles picked up in the same order from DVD Pacific for a very reasonable combined price. I haven’t seen The Quiller Memorandum, but I do love me my Cold War-era spy thrillers, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of the greatest American horror films ever made, so it makes sense to add what is apparently the definitive edition to my collection (having previously sold the non-anamorphic UK release).
New Third Mother photos
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Miscellaneous, Movie Watching , add a commentSource: Dark Discussion
Éditions è®e has posted a summary of Bernard Joisten’s upcoming Crime Designer: Dario Argento et le Cinéma a French book on Dario Argento. The main point of interest in this article, however - for me, at any rate - is two black and white still photographs taken on the set of The Third Mother in Turin. The first, especially, shows some very nice decor and suggests that all those promises of a return to the baroque look of Suspiria and Inferno weren’t just marketing-speak. Of course, since the primary draw of these first two films was their outrageous use of colour, these black and white stills probably don’t do the film justice (and, indeed, much of the final colour will be achieved in post production through a digital grade), but even so, the more of these tantalisingly fleeting glimpses I see, the more excited I am about the film.
New Lizard DVD on its way (buy it!!!) December 4, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Technobabble, Miscellaneous, Movie Watching , add a commentOver the past few days, I have been in correspondence with Richard York of Media Blasters, who is supervising the company’s upcoming re-release of A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin. Since I’m apparently “the most vocal critic” of their previous release (which both alarms and thrills me in equal measure), he wanted to give me the opportunity to ask any questions that I might have about the version they were putting together, and, having discussed the matter with him, I am now supremely confident that the upcoming release will not only blow away the existing Media Blasters version, but should finally be the definitive release of the film that fans have been waiting for for years.
First of all, this will not simply be a straight copy of the Italian release by Federal Video. Richard is aware of and has viewed this release, but instead Media Blasters have created their own transfer from the same film elements used for that DVD. In doing so, they have been able to identify and avoid a number of the problems affecting that release, including material missing from the opening sex scene and Julia Durer’s party, as well as the mangled “rippled/unrippled” dream sequence and the dodgy splice where the same footage of Jean Sorel’s character appears in two different places. The running time of the final version will be 103 minutes, making this a proper NTSC presentation rather than a PAL to NTSC standards conversion.
Currently, Richard feels that it is unlikely that the new DVD will be ready in time to hit its announced December 19th release date, expecting a late December/early January release instead, but an official statement should be forthcoming as soon as the entire package is assembled and the final specifications are known.
One thing’s for sure, with this and One on Top of the Other (from Severin Films) on their way, early 2007 looks as if it will be an exciting time indeed for Fulci fans.
Alternative Bond titles November 30, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Miscellaneous, Movie Watching , add a commentSource: Dark Discussion
Well, it made me laugh at any rate. Actually, it made me guffaw. And spit up a little. I had the good fortune to see Bond’s Balls Get a Bloody Good Walloping quite recently, but I must confess that the majority of the others have so far passed me by. Bond Screws 8 Birds in This One, Lads sounds like a right cracker, though, as does All Black-skinned People are Drug Pushers, Pimps, Rapists and Corruptors of Civilised White Society… although I’m rather worried that the latter will now only be available under its politically-correct title of The Larger Majority of Black-skinned People are Drug Pushers, Pimps, Rapists and Corruptors of Civilised White Society. Ah well, that’s the nanny state mentality for you.
Giallo Fever!
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Miscellaneous, Movie Watching , add a commentHe’s a new blog that all you giallo obsessives will want to add to your bookmarks folder: Giallo Fever is run by Keith Brown, the webmaster of the excellent Kinocite and author of the dissertation Genre, Author and Excess: Dario Argento’s Deep Red and Suspiria. The blog has been live for less than a fortnight, but already it contains a number of fascinating posts and observations on giallo cinema. The main focus is on Argento’s films, which is absolutely fine as they are, in my opinion, the most fruitful from an analytical perspective. If you have any interest in these films, be sure to check this great site out!
Oops, I did it again - Profondo Rosso commentary November 29, 2006
Posted by Michael Mackenzie in : Miscellaneous, Movie Watching , add a comment
Well, it’s finally done: all 126 minutes of Profondo Rosso (or thereabouts - there are a handful of brief blank spots) have now been commented on, and the files are ready to be downloaded. It took a little longer to get another commentary up and running than I would have liked (over a year, to be precise), but I’m very happy with this one, and think it’s much better than its predecessor. On this track, I talk about everything from Jung to Michelangelo Antonioni to being scalded by espresso machines!
Once again, the commentary is split into two halves, to make it easier for people who want to burn audio CDs and not have to wrangle with chopping it in two to fit the 80-minute time limit themselves. Each half is accompanied by a “beep” sound to allow you to synchronise the track with the film. For Part 1, synchronise the beep with the first credit appearing on the screen; for Part 2, synchronise it with the first shot inside the police station (01:11:20 on the Anchor Bay DVD).
I would recommend running the film at a low level of volume in the background when you listen to this commentary.
- NTSC version
(use this version if you have the US Anchor Bay or Italian Medusa Film release)
Part One (24.2 MB, MP3 format)
Part Two (18.7 MB, MP3 format) - PAL version
(use this version if you have the UK Platinum Media release)
Part One (23.2 MB, MP3 format)
Part Two (17.9 MB, MP3 format)
If you don’t have one of the three versions listed above, you may have to try pot luck. Broadly speaking, if the running time of your copy is around 126 minutes, use the NTSC version; if it’s closer to 122 minutes, go for PAL. Also, bear in mind that this commentary was intended to be listened to in conjunction with the full-length uncut version of the film rather than the shorter English export version.
Hopefully you’ll find something in this to enjoy, even if I don’t happen to come up with any wildly original interpretations or observations. I was inspired by a number of sources, including my own dissertation, from which I re-use a couple of passages (which, if you’ve read it, you’ll probably be able to spot). This one is filled with a lot less “ums” and “ers” than my Suspiria’s commentary, too, so it should be less of a headache to listen to.
Let me know what you think of it!
Warning: this track contains spoilers for The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Strip Nude For Your Killer! If you’ve not seen the former, you may wish to do so before listening to this track. If you’ve not seen the latter… well… don’t bother.