Sunday, November 14, 2010

BD impressions: Giallo

9:50 PM / BD Impressions / Comments2 Comments

BD Impressions
Blu-ray

See my previous post for my thoughts on GIALLO after my most recent viewing of the film.

Image quality: When I first saw GIALLO, at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last June, I wasn't impressed by the presentation at all, and I get the impression that the print itself was the problem rather than any wrongdoing on the part of the Filmhouse Cinema. It was extremely soft, something which really stood out when it came to the subtitles for the dialogue between the two Japanese women at the start of the film. On balance, I'd say this BD offers a superior presentation of the film, though it's still rather underwhelming.

The end titles include credits for a digital intermediate, but the source here is clearly a print at least a generation down - there is both black and white print damage. Detail is not amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but it's passable at least and (not taking into account the obvious difference in screen size) better defined than the print shown at the EIFF. The dynamic range looks crushed to my eyes, and the night scenes look overly grey with some heavy and clumpy grain (which gives the film a rather incongruous look, given that during the brighter scenes grain is absent to the point of looking smoothed over). I get the feeling the entire image has been brightened. It's passable enough, but Wild Side's BD of TENEBRAE, nearly thirty years this film's senior, looks noticeably better. 6/10

By the way, it's worth pointing out that, although this disc includes lossless Italian audio in both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio flavours, the only track featuring the original English is a plain old 448 Kbps Dolby Digital affair. It doesn't sound back, but during the first eighteen and a half minutes or so there is a slight but noticeable synchronisation issue (it pops back into sync right after Brody says "Shit!" to a pizza and there is a somewhat jarring cut). Additionally, the brief segments of Japanese dialogue spoken by the two tourist women during the opening scenes are subtitled in Italian only (burned-in). It's not too much of an issue, though - they don't say anything significant to the plot and you can basically get the gist of their conversation from their actions.

Giallo
studio: Dall'Angelo Pictures; country: Italy; region code: B; codec: AVC;
file size: 20 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 31.04 Mbit/sec

Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo Giallo

 
2 Comments

1. Neil said:

They're going for the Grindhouse Tarantino/Rodriguez look. The poor quality of the disc kinda suits this film. ;)

(Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 8:32 PM)

2. Thomas Rostock said:

Hi Michael,

Just received the GIALLO 2 disc "Deluxe Edition" DVD exclusive to Fnac and other online retailers and was genuinely surprised how unappealing the transfer looked with grey areas overtaking the blacks and a general washed out look about it. I don't recall the Polish DVD looking this battered, but my memory might be playing tricks with me.

Like you point out, it certainly looks like this is taken from a once removed, hand-me-down generation print. I happened to notice at the end credit that Fuji film stock was used to film GIALLO and I was once again reminded of the lesser range of this color film stock which perhaps can illuminate some of the print's problems: I have personally done some 35 mm underexposure tests with Fuji 500 ASA stock vs. Kodak's old 500 (5298) vs. the new Kodak Vision 500 where I first pushed all three films 1 stop (500 ASA to 1000 ASA and then 2 stops (1000 ASA to 2000 ASA) to see how they would fare. The results showed Kodaks stock managing one stop fine and first by underexposing 2 stops did the red tones and grain of the old Kodak (5298) break out along with the bizarre and strangely deadish/ghostly blue tones of the Vision films. The Fuji 500, however, already disintegrated by one stop push to 1000 ASA with the bluish, more pastel colors fading away leaving massive grey areas where there should be blacks. That's not to say that Fuji is a poorer film stock. Many fine films have been shot with this and looked great (Michele Soavi's DELIRIA (STAGEFRIGHT-AQUARIUS) being one of them) and the Fuji stock is often a DP's first choice if he/she wishes to convey a sequence taking place sometime in the past or wish to render a fantasy or dream sequence with a the trademark pastel colors.

But being pushed for low-light rendition is not the ideal way to use Fuji and if this was indeed the case with certain night time scenes in GIALLO, then this could very well explain the overall "greying" of the image. Duplication would add further insult to injury to an under-exposed negative of this nature by doubling the problem with each new generation being struck from the original. Again, I somehow feel that Argento's current DP Federico Fasano is not totally adversed in the art of cinematography to fully comprehend and execute his craft. There is something distinctly lacking from his craft and mediocrity has an all too easy tendency to c reep its way into his cinematic aesthetics (or lack thereof).

(Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 10:15 PM)

 
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