WELLESNET MESSAGE BOARD

I just received it. First impressions- It doesn't look like an upconvert. That said, overall picture doesn't look amazing. Detail is just all right; the image seems too bright (milky blacks) and there's a lot of dirt/film damage. As per reports that the Japanese company releasing the RKO Collection ...

Interesting that the Criterion will use the same source as the Espanola. I expected it to bypass that restoration completely. That said, judging from the interview, it does seem they are doing their darndest to bring it up to snuff; correcting the contrast and cleaning it would be the biggest issue....

To respond to a point in A Sled in Flame's post above, I don't think the food poisoning in the salmon was attributed in the film to the Russians. My recollection is that the Harvey character says that it was not commercially canned and that the other couple had canned it themselves. I had a feeling...

Fantastic news! The Filmoteca Espanola restoration seemed pretty flawed. As I mentioned, even before the Bongo, the TCM broadcast and YouTube video looked far too bright. The aspect ratio was strangely variable with hard mattes occasionally visible. I believe I even heard that they unnecessarily res...

Thanks for the info, Mr. Ryan! That makes a lot of sense.

Incidentally, Mr. Drossler gave an admiring nod to your magnificent Magnificent Ambersons reconstruction during his introduction to this.

I've already ordered it, so, come January, I'll be sure to report my findings over here.

Went to all 4 nights. I posted thoughts about The Merchant of Venice, The Dreamers, and The Deep in their respective threads, leaving me with one movie about which I haven't talked: Journey into Fear was a wonderful watch on the big screen. When I watched it in the past, I never really registered th...

Watched it and loved it! Despite the workprint quality of the footage, of all the things shown at MOMA, I wish this would be released... perhaps with a Criterion BD of Chimes at Midnight (though the more likely supplement would be Merchant of Venice). :D Though Welles's was moving onto more experime...

I was also at the screening. The clips from "The Dreamers" were certainly one of the high points of the night. Welles is wonderful in a role similar to the ones he mastered throughout his film career, starting with Kane-- the old man, marching on in the face of regrets. Though what exists ...

Add me to the list of people impressed by the MOMA screening. I really didn't expect much, but came away thinking Welles's incomplete Merchant of Venice was better than his finished Immortal Story! As Mr. Drossler pointed out in his stellar but concise rundown of Welles's Shakespeare career, the two...

Bought this on Amazon UK. But, unfortunately, I won't be able to screen it until I come back home in late December!

Will report findings then, though I can't imagine it NOT being an improvement over the previous DVDs.

As someone mentioned in another thread, there is also a Japanese BD coming out. http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Falstaff-Chimes-at-Midnight-Blu-ray/141867/ I suspect it'll be the same transfer, but hopefully with the black levels corrected. It's an easy brightness adjustment that any self respecting e...

I assume this is going to be the same master that's been used on the WB DVD and previously the Criterion LD.

Of course, I'd be happy to be proved wrong. Occasionally, a brand new master surfaces early in Japan like the BD for Rocco and His Brothers...

I tried to PM you, though it appears my message is stuck in "Outbox" instead of "Sent." If you didn't receive the PM, please just PM me, I think I can help.

In any case, I'm interested in seeing scenes 3 and 4 if you can assist me in turn.

Has anyone done a direct comparison between Bongo's new BD and the Studio Canal DVD (source- not YouTube re-encode or DVDrip)? The Bongo, despite its awful encoding, can look somewhat presentable when one (radically) adjusts the brightness of their TV manually. That being said, even a cursory glance...