Don't Look Now & The Man Who Fell To Earth from Optimum

I respect the right of anyone's opinion, but frankly, anyone who damns the disc on a bunch of screenshots without seeing it in motion themselves wants their bumps feeling; another review

Guess my comment above was too good to be true eh? :D

BTW, watched it through tonight - if this is not THE perfect movie, a flawless piece of film-making, then it's damned close. And they'll have to prise the BD from my cold dead hands...
 
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Just ordered "Don't Look Now" from Play.com. Pretty decent price £9.49.Looking forward to this.I originally saw it on the big screen about a thousand years ago:eek:.It was an instant hit with audiences.
An other film I associate with those times is "Death in Venice". a totally different type of film but even more stylish and with wonderful shots of Venice.Just no sign of a blu ray release unfortunately.
I visited Venice in late Oct. 2001 with my wife when tourist nos. were well depleted and I did think of "Dont Look Now" when I first saw the little humpback bridges and tiny alley- ways peculiar to Venice
 
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I respect the right of anyone's opinion, but frankly, anyone who damns the disc on a bunch of screenshots without seeing it in motion themselves wants their bumps feeling; another review

I think the reviewer in question has seen the disc in motion.

Re: screenshots - I remember looking at the online caps of Arrow's The Beyond and noticing a very unusual texture to the image. Despite my observation, I bought a copy, and whilst I found the quality to be better in motion, the textual "issue" remained.

So I think correctly captured shots can be useful, to an extent.

Anyway, my copy of Don't Look Now is in the post. I'm still looking forward to it.
 
I think the reviewer in question has seen the disc in motion.

I respect *his* opinion, just not the queue of people responding to his review who haven't and are even now wailing and renting their garments...

Personally, what I'm seeing bears no relation to those 'caps. YMMV. You hate it when you've seen it, fine. You love it when you've seen it, equally so.
 
BTW, watched it through tonight - if this is not THE perfect movie, a flawless piece of film-making, then it's damned close. And they'll have to prise the BD from my cold dead hands...

It's one of the great British films. It's Roeg's best, as far as I'm concerned.

Personally, what I'm seeing bears no relation to those 'caps. YMMV. You hate it when you've seen it, fine. You love it when you've seen it, equally so.

That's very encouraging to know! :)
 
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Those caps don't replicate anything close to my viewing experience, Still stand by my comments that it looks great, Even fantastic for the most part with a few soft shots here and there. Very, Very happy with it :thumbsup:
 
Right; I can actually replicate the look of those screencaps when I (a) stand *real* close to the screen and (b) freeze frame, which indicates that there has indeed been something going on in the digital jiggery-pokery department. But I have a solution.

I won't do either (a) or (b).
 
I've a lot of respect for John Hodson but Michael from Land of Whimsy is usually very accurate with his caps and comments (I would say 100% spot-on), so it looks as though we'll have to wait a while longer for a good Blu-Ray release of Don't Look Now. There is definitely a heavy layering of DNR on the disc. This practise seems to have come in in the early-to-mid 2000s when the studios were re-releasing older catalogue titles and claiming they'd been spruced-up, so there is obviously a train-of-thought which sees using DNR as a valid method of improving a video image. They're wrong. I doubt if Roeg "approved" the transfer, probably simply gave his OK for the movie itself to go out on Blu-Ray and why wouldn't he ?
 
After wrestling with this for a few hours since watching the film through last night, I don't think there's any doubt that DNR has been implemented. Now, am I about to return the disc and announce to the world that I'm sticking with the DVD? Not that it would amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but am. I. Buggery.

Although this is no Walkabout, and on reflection the transfer probably could be better (though 'better' is subjective I hastily point out; I had to (a) and (b) above to set off any alarms other than a bizarre niggle that it appeared too perfect), I'm not going to wallow in a sea of angst about this. I'll leave that to others more technically proficient.

I've been through this once with The Searchers and never again; I took the position then that I know it's 'wrong', but I'm not going to deny myself the experience. A few more viewings down the road, I'll probably take the same pragmatic position with Don't Look Now. In fact, I know I will.
 
...and though it's OT, many thanks John for the head's-up on Vera Cruz. I would have missed out on a very good Aldrich movie if you hadn't posted about it.
 
Did you see Whimsy's review of BU Cat O' Nine Tails, He described the transfer as looking like wet newspaper :confused: Lost all confidence in his reviewing skills then and there.

Still think his caps look a little off on DLN.
 
Here's a decidedly less enthusiastic reaction to the new transfer:

Land of Whimsy
I was going to post the other day when I got the disc, but I have to agree with Mr McKenzie to some degree (he's usually correct). Something looks off with the image to my eyes. It looks heavily processed and quite unnatural in places.
 
Nothing is as it seems:

John: Oh God! The deeper we get, the more Byzantine it gets. I'm restoring a fake!

Laura: Incredible that you can't change your course?

John: They haven't got enough bread. The options are restore the fake or let it sink into the sea...

Laura: This one who's blind. She's the one that can see...
 
Just had a look at this on my projector. Yup, some DNR has been applied, but it's rather subtle and it doesn't distract from the cinematography and it certainly doesn't ruin the film for me. It isn't anywhere near in the same league as Arrow releases' weird digital grain that they slap over the DNR. At last I can watch (and enjoy!) another one of my favourite films on my projector.

Maybe it's because I grew to love film in a pre-home video era where we had to search out out favourites at repertory houses where they often showed faded prints, which were scratched and often had frames missing, that I'm so grateful for the quality with we can watch films at home now. Sure, the finesse of a Criterion job would have been appreciated here, but this still looks and sounds better than many dodgy prints I've seen this film on at repertory cinemas.
 
I'm pleased to read the views of the film projected; very welcome. And from someone who takes a sensible approach.
 
Just had a look at this on my projector. Yup, some DNR has been applied, but it's rather subtle and it doesn't distract from the cinematography and it certainly doesn't ruin the film for me.

I expect that'll be my reaction. Shame about the degraining, but the film is a favourite of mine, so I'm happy to spend what is really a very small amount on even a small upgrade.

I'm also glad to hear (and see) that more green has been introduced to the colour balance. I'm not so enthusiastic about the Paramount dvd's colour scheme, even if the disc has been the only feasible viewing option until now due to the Optimum dvd's botched audio track.
 
Just had a look at this on my projector. Yup, some DNR has been applied, but it's rather subtle and it doesn't distract from the cinematography and it certainly doesn't ruin the film for me.

But it should, especially for PJ owners, according to the Blu-ray.com forum:

I watched the film last night. Our review will be up in about 24 hours.

To make a long story short, I am unsure how anyone could think that this is an acceptable presentation. Something went terribly wrong - even though clearly the transfer is struck from a newly restored master (color reproduction and contrast levels are vastly different in comparison to various SDVD releases that I have seen), there is a very thick layer of machine noise that affects the integrity of the presentation. At times detail is extremely poor. On a very small screen the machine noise could be - perhaps - mistaken for grain, but anyone with a projector is in fact better off with the SDVD (UK) release. This is a very strange situation because under the machine noise most everything appears to be fine.

Machine noise? I give up...
 
thankfully i have a 'tiny' 50" kuro...so hopefuly it shouldn't be that bad.
this is terrible news on all accounts, i got so excited about the early ravings regarding the quality of presentation.
did anyone attend the screening a few weeks ago in london with nic roeg q+a....how was the 35mm presentation ??
 
thankfully i have a 'tiny' 50" kuro...so hopefuly it shouldn't be that bad.
this is terrible news on all accounts, i got so excited about the early ravings regarding the quality of presentation.
did anyone attend the screening a few weeks ago in london with nic roeg q+a....how was the 35mm presentation ??

Why do you already assert that this is terrible news ? Why not wait and judge for yourself ? It looks like you've already accepted something as fact that is merely an opinion of forums. That's exactly how these things snowball out of control with people bleating about how this is a terrible transfer without having seen it for themselves. Look at the LOTR controversy, which a week ago was a major drama sweeping though forums around the world and which has died down now since people have actually seen the Blu-ray and apparently it looks great.

The Don't Look Now Blu has a perfectly acceptable transfer and despite what the idiot quoted in John's post said, it looks far better on a large display than a DVD. Maybe it could have been better, but the film has never looked so good on any home video format.
 
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Why do you already assert that this is terrible news ? Why not wait and judge for yourself ? It looks like you've already accepted something as fact that is merely an opinion of forums. That's exactly how these things snowball out of control with people bleating about how this is a terrible transfer without having seen it for themselves. Look at the LOTR controversy, which a week ago was a major drama sweeping though forums around the world and has which died down now since people have actually seen the Blu-ray and apparently it looks great.

The Don't Look Now Blu has a perfectly acceptable transfer. Maybe it could have been better, but the film has never looked so good on any home video format.

come on TT easy with the trait response, of course i will be judging for myself when my copy arrives, static screenshots are meaningless compared to motion and mass hysteria is hardly going to influence my purchase.
i assert and stand by that it is terrible news as previous reports almost sounded like perfection also i don't think i have looked forward to a uk blu release with so much anticipation since the sublime second sight release of picnic at hanging rock.....this is hardly snowballing ( not in the clerks sense :D ) now is it ??!! the simply fact is whimsy is usually correct.

regarding the lotr debate - sounds like you like me are yet to see it, so how on earth would you know if the controversy was indeed warranted or not ??.....actually it looks like you've already accepted something as fact that is merely an opinion of forums. that's exactly how these things snowball out of control with people bleating about how this is a terrible transfer without having seen it for themselves.
 
regarding the lotr debate - sounds like you like me are yet to see it, so how on earth would you know if the controversy was indeed warranted or not ??.....actually it looks like you've already accepted something as fact that is merely an opinion of forums. that's exactly how these things snowball out of control with people bleating about how this is a terrible transfer without having seen it for themselves.


I haven't accepted the LOTR PQ as a fact, please note my use of the word "apparently". I have on the other hand noticed that the hysteria on forums has died down. Can you see the difference there ? I wasn't talking about the Blu-ray's PQ, but the reaction to it.
 
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I haven't accepted the LOTR PQ as a fact, please notice my use of the word "apparently". I have on the other hand noticed that the hysteria on forums has died down. Can you see the difference there ?

actually that was the whole point hence placing it in bold.
'apparently' would suggest that you haven't viewed the fellowship, yet you use it to parallel the don't look now situation which you tell me to make my own mind up on viewing. having never viewed the disc you neither know a) if the controversy was/is indeed valid or b) what side you may take when you do finally view it..........christ you may even be in more uproar than the those on the witch hunt last week wishing that the hysteria had not died down.

so how does stating 'that it is terrible news' suggest that i have accepted it as fact ?? if i had posted 'cancelled order and keeping my dvd' then your simplistic comments regarding the influence of forums reviews and opinions may be justified.
 
This film is absolutely in my top 10 movies and I have just watched the blu ray on my 7.5 ft screen and it looks fantastic. There are a few soft shots and a bit of dnr, but let me tell you something, I just got into the storytelling and once again was captivated by the story, the cinematography, the direction and the performances. Wow! what a film it just gets better with every viewing and this blu ray is the best I have ever seen it looking and sounding since seeing it at the cinema.

I am just grateful that one of the great British films has been released on a really good format for projection in the home that I forgot about so called the flaws.

Watch the film people, be amazed by the story and the virtuoso direction, cinematography, editing and performances. let the story carry you away!

Everything else is just *******t

Paul
 
Watch the film people, be amazed by the story and the virtuoso direction, cinematography, editing and performances. let the story carry you away!

The cinematography has been overlaid with a thick load of DNR.
 

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