Friday, February 4, 2011

BD impressions: The Social Network

2:55 PM / BD Impressions / Comments10 Comments

BD Impressions
Blu-ray

The film: I purposefully avoided writing this post until after the release of Movie Matters Episode 5, because otherwise it would have been blatantly obvious what my personal number one film of 2010 was. That film is indeed THE SOCIAL NETWORK, pipping TOY STORY 3 to the post at the last minute and a welcome return to form for David Fincher after the toe-curling THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON.

Someone (I forget who) recently wrote (I forget where) that Fincher is in his element when he gets to indulge his misanthropic side, which I suspect is why, for me, BENJAMIN BUTTON was such a disappointment: it was sickeningly sentimental and an incredibly ill fit for the director of SE7EN and FIGHT CLUB. Happily, THE SOCIAL NETWORK finds him back in his old stomping ground, aided by Aaron Sorkin's biting and frequently hilarious script about the man who created the world's most popular social network but in the process found himself with no friends. There has been a lot of debate as to the authenticity of the film's depiction of Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook, but I can't say it worries me unduly. If THE SOCIAL NETWORK was a complete work of fiction it would be no less brilliant than it is: a riveting two-hour account of the creation of a web site... except it's about a lot more than that, and it's in the film's exploration of loneliness and betrayal that its real strengths lie. Fincher has more than redeemed himself after the blip that was his previous film, and I now await his take on THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO with some anticipation (which is quite an achievement, given that I'm still not sure it's a film that has any valid reason to exist). 10/10

Image quality: Fincher continues down his post-PANIC ROOM digital path, and the resulting image is on some occasions brilliant but on others slightly disappointing. Close-ups are often highly detailed, but wider shots tend to suffer, with less detail than I would have expected and some noticeable ringing. 7/10

The Social Network
studio: Sony Pictures; country: USA; region code: A;
codec: AVC; aspect ratio: 2.39:1

The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network

 
10 Comments

1. Anonymous said:

Interestingly enough you should be able to compare to the other film you recently watched, Winter's Bone, both used the same camera and lenses, the only difference is the aspect ratio and possibly the lab used for the digital intermediate, the latter could potentially make a huge difference to the image.

Red One Camera, Zeiss Master Prime and Angenieux Optimo Lenses were used on both Winter's Bone and The Social Network.

(Posted on Friday, February 4, 2011 at 3:37 PM)

2. FoxyMulder said:

I forgot to sign myself above.

(Posted on Friday, February 4, 2011 at 3:38 PM)

3. David S.H. said:

Sorry for the off-topic nature of this post but you have Inception don't you Michael?

Apparently Warner are doing a replacement program for the DVD in the triple play sets, to address the aliasing and poor compression problem with "certain batches".

http://www.dvdactive.com/news/industry/inception-replacement-programme.html

(Posted on Friday, February 4, 2011 at 4:27 PM)

4. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Foxymulder:

WINTER'S BONE struck me as being the better of the two image-wise - I certainly didn't notice any ringing.

I must confess, though, that the best-looking BD I've seen of a film shot on the Red One is the remake of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (review forthcoming).


David:

I haven't actually looked at the DVD copy of INCEPTION, but my brother did mention that it was atrocious. I can't say I'm overly fussed - I consider the bundled DVDs and digital copies to be little more than Frisbees these days.

(Posted on Friday, February 4, 2011 at 5:29 PM)

5. Toecutter said:

I got the soundtrack to this movie on Blu-ray Audio, it's really great.

(Posted on Friday, February 4, 2011 at 11:38 PM)

6. Marcus said:

I enjoyed The Social Network, but there isn't a single doubt in my mind that its appeal and relevancy will decrease with every passing year. All the President's Men comes to mind.

(Posted on Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 5:30 AM)

7. ChuckZ said:

I agree with the image quality remarks. Some shots of faces and other close ups look sharpened and slightly denoised, giving them a pasty-like appearance. People still can't figure out what to do with 4K RED footage.

(Posted on Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 7:32 PM)

8. Anonymous said:

So much goddamn brown in this movie!

(Posted on Sunday, February 6, 2011 at 3:09 PM)

9. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Anonymous:

I know - it would be my one criticism of the film, mitigated by the fact that it's probably Fincher's least visually-driven film ever. His move from film to HD seems to have coincided with a torrid love affair with the urine filter.

(Posted on Sunday, February 6, 2011 at 3:15 PM)

10. Marcus said:

There's nothing wrong with a dialogue driven film as long as it's done well, and personally I feel Fincher did it well. It's quite a challenge to pull off a film whose strengths rely entirely on dialogue, and Fincher succeeded IMO. I still think the college campus looked very atmospheric at points, especially the pool where the twins practice their rowing.

(Posted on Sunday, February 6, 2011 at 7:27 PM)

 
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