Saturday, July 2, 2011

#1070: Don't Look Now

7:30 PM / Blu-ray / Comments35 Comments

BD

(BD, Optimum, Region B, UK)

Sorry to report that this appears to be a CAT O' NINE TAILS style degraining job (albeit without the harsh noise overlaid on top of it). I'm really disappointed and considering just returning the disc. I actually think I prefer the look of the Paramount DVD, and I don't often find myself saying something like that. I hold Optimum, who have a very good track record, to a far higher standard than this:

Don't Look Now Don't Look Now Don't Look Now Don't Look Now Don't Look Now

Serious question, but does anyone know if the Italians somehow got their hands on this? Going by past experiences, this looks like "their" sort of mess.

Updated Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 08:56 PM: Sod it, I'm returning it. The old DVD looks considerably better:

Don't Look Now Don't Look Now Don't Look Now Don't Look Now Don't Look Now

 
35 Comments

1. Bleddyn Williams said:

Holy shit! I wasn't expecting this!

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 9:40 PM)

2. Bleddyn Williams said:

That Donald Sutherland shot is incredible!

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 9:42 PM)

3. Phil Quail said:

I saw this at the cinema today, coincidentally.

I actually thought it was the Blu-ray they were screening, to tie in with the release. It was very, very grainy, and the majority of scenes looked fairly soft, but it didn't look like those Blu-ray caps!

Damn, and Amazon have just sent my copy. I sill have the previous Optimum DVD, but sold the old Warner edition.

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 9:45 PM)

4. Count Fosco said:

Funnily enough, I watched a screening of DON'T LOOK NOW at the EMPIRE cinema at Leicester Sq. this afternoon. As a way of appreciation the FightFest people had arranged for this film and THE WICKER MAN to be shown for free to people like myself who joined the infamous 'sleepy queue' for Full Weekend Festival tickets.

Anyway, I wondered whether they were actually screening a blu-ray rather than a film print but more importantly I noticed that the image quality of DON'T LOOK NOW was noticeably inferior to that of THE WICKER MAN. Perhpas it was this disc from Optimum I saw on the big screen?

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 9:50 PM)

5. Count Fosco said:

Ha! ha! Phil Quail beat me to it, lol! I must have been at the same screening.

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 9:50 PM)

6. Phil Quail said:

Fosco, it was grainy but I'm sure it didn't have a shitloa of clumpy digital noise like these Blu-ray caps! It is indeed like the "Cat O'Nine Tails" Blu-ray all over again.

Look at the fifth cap, their hair, their clothes, the background detail! I'm sure what we saw at the Empire was nowhere near this bad.

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 9:56 PM)

7. Count Fosco said:

I'd agree that these still image captures do look worse than the less than stellar image quality of DON'T LOOK NOW witnessed today - very grainy is bang on Phil. Perhaps these flaws were somewhat compensated for by seeing the film in motion but either way I'd be keen to know whether both (THE WICKER MAN/ DON'T LOOK NOW) were screened from BDs or not.

If so, I'm snapping somebody's hand off to get THE WICKER MAN disc as by and large I thought the image quality of that film was superb.

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 10:01 PM)

8. Count Fosco said:

By the way Phil are you on Twitter? Be good to keep in touch and have a natter at the festival in August?

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 10:03 PM)

9. Phil Quail said:

No, no Twitter (or Facebook, or anything else) for me, I'm afraid. I don't even have a mobile with an internet connection. I spend too much time on the net already! ;)

Now, time to watch Adam Gierasch's FERTILE GROUND. Wish me luck....

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 10:40 PM)

10. Sergio said:

DVD power!

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 10:48 PM)

11. Frank M said:

What about this review?
http://homecinema.thedigitalfix.com/content/id/74040/dont-look-now.html

Video 8/10 - filmlike thanks to an appropiate level of grain? A very nice visual experience?

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 10:55 PM)

12. Author Profile Page Robert S said:

From what I can tell, this has the odd textural look of Arrow's The Beyond. Mine's in the post. Naively hoping that this will look [I]far[/] better in motion. Very disappointing.


(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 11:04 PM)

13. FoxyMulder said:

When i saw the brightened captures and degrained image i immediately thought it was an Arrow release, this reminds me a little of Highlander, i think thats also Optimum, anyways i have screencaps at my site of that one and some shots looked degrained while others had minimal grain and other scenes seemed to retain all the film grain, that was a mixed bag, not going to link, spam filter gets me when i do.

Regarding that linked review, well he also gives 8/10 to Inferno despite admitting in the review that dnr is present and brightening of the image, his review for Tenebrae is much more consistent with a lower score, i guess this just shows that a scoring system is never perfect, some reviewers sometimes see noisy grain or grain which has been DNRed too much, you know its there and can be seen but its not film type grain, people sometimes see this and make mistakes and call it filmic.

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 11:10 PM)

14. The Phantom said:

"Supervised and approved by Nic Roeg"..?

I just ordered this last night too. :(

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 11:32 PM)

15. jdrouette said:

Apparently Roeg approved this transfer so it's unlikely it will be redone anytime soon. I was SO looking forward to this.

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 11:42 PM)

16. Author Profile Page Robert S said:

Didn't Roeg also supervise Criterion's [I]Walkabout[/I] and [I]The Man Who Fell to Earth[/I] HD masters? They certainly don't share this look.

(Posted on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 11:59 PM)

17. David M said:

Wow. Who the hell still uses 2D NR filters?

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 12:24 AM)

18. BluBrew said:

Going from the screenshots, this has to be one of the worst transfers this year. Heck, even Patton or the original Gladiator release look relatively solid compared to this mess.

I don't hold Optimum in too high regard to be honest. Some of their transfer are excellent, but their track-record is rather bumpy. Peeping Tom also has a questionable amount of DNR applied.

I'd send it back.

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 1:18 AM)

19. Kram Sacul said:

Looks like it was encoded in Cinepak.

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 1:28 AM)

20. Daniel Joseph Sardella said:

That Blu-ray sticker on the cover is a total Criterion rip off!!

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 4:25 AM)

21. Derrick King said:

According to the booklets, Roeg supervised and approved Criterion's THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH transfer and only approved their WALKABOUT transfer, but neither of them look anything like DON'T LOOK NOW.

I'm kind of shocked that Roeg, a former cinematographer, would approve of the way DON'T LOOK NOW looks and I'm really curious to see what Criterion's (Roeg supervised and approved) INSIGNIFICANCE looks like.

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 6:25 AM)

22. ChuckZ said:

Kram wins this thread with the Cinepak comment.

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 8:06 AM)

23. FoxyMulder said:

His prize could be a brand new copy of Don't Look Now on blu ray.

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 11:02 AM)

24. Phil Quail said:

The more I look at those Blu-ray captures the more horrific they are. Look at the grass and leaves in the first picture - it's like a watercolour painting left out in the rain....

I wonder if there's any chance of a US release on a different label? If it's still Paramount, they're hardly rushing to put out their back-catalogue on Blu-ray.

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 11:58 AM)

25. Paku said:

StudioCanal crack me up. They invest who knows how much in setting up a new restoration facility with a Northlight 2 scanner in order to restore their British film library, then they let one guy crap all over and negate the entire effort by pressing the proverbial DNR button. There's clearly a modern, high-quality scan underneath the filtering. Perhaps Roeg approved of it before that stage.

Peeping Tom is another fairly recent Optimum title from a new scan that suffered from some rather poorly done, unsightly and completely unnecessary noise reduction, although that wasn't anywhere close to this.

@Derrick King, Insignificance looks pretty good. It's not Taxi Driver, but it's filmlike with a decent grain structure and thankfully little to no edge enhancement (which I expected to see more of). It's in the upper end of the typical Criterion Spirit 2K transfers.

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 12:41 PM)

26. Jules said:

Blubrew,

The original Gladiator blu was quite possibly the definitive case of DNR overuse - with other titles, the textures are dissolving/dissolved, but the arrows disappeared mid-flight!

And there seems to be some positive revisionism going on with the Patton blu - a couple of years ago, it was the worst DNR job ever; now people are beginning to say "well despite the waxiness, you can see some detail." Why did no one speak up at the time if they felt that way?

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 12:52 PM)

27. Thomas Rostock said:

Totally in agreement about the Paramount Region 1 DVD besting this vomitorious output from Optimum. Always felt that the US disc had the correct color temperatures as opposed to all of the Region 2 releases from Arthaus, Studio Canal and Optimum which used a transfer that had a slight green and purplish hue to it as well a being a little too bright. Always made me feel uncomfortable looking at the skin tones. Ah well, return to sender!

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 7:38 PM)

28. FoxyMulder said:

Jules;

DNR didn't cause the disappearing arrows in Gladiator, thats scratch removal tools.

For the worst case of DNR and processed look that i have seen on blu ray check out the North American release of Basic Instinct or check out the screencaps of it on my site.

Its good that Patton will finally get a good transfer and i am so glad that Criterion may be releasing Spartacus next year, both classic titles i will pick up.

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 8:33 PM)

29. Matthew McKinnon said:

Michael, you sometimes review for The Digital Fix, don't you?
Could you have a quiet word with your colleagues there.
I bought the DLN Blu-Ray on the strength of this here review...

http://homecinema.thedigitalfix.com/content/id/74040/dont-look-now.html

"...film features a smashing, director-approved transfer..."

Cheers.

(Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 8:45 PM)

30. Author Profile Page Michael said:

BluBrew:

Optimum certainly haven't been perfect, it's true, but they've done enough good work that I'm generally optimistic whenever I pick up one of their discs - as I was with DON'T LOOK NOW until the film started. They certainly haven't, to my knowledge, ever put out anything looking like this before. The blackest mark against them remains their upconvert of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.


Matthew:

I actually haven't written for The Digital Fix for some time - not since it changed its name from DVD Times. I don't really want to get into the business of debating the merits of other people's reviews, particularly not those I've worked with in the past - but yes, that review is very, very surprising and I couldn't disagree more with it.


As for Nic Roeg, his approval of the transfer does add a somewhat different spin to the proceedings, particularly given that, as Robert and Derrick pointed out, he has supervised and/or approved BDs of his other films that don't look anything like this. Maybe he genuinely did give the thumbs-up to this horrible smeary mess, but it doesn't fit with previous practice. It does give me some slight hope that there's a Roeg-approved, pre-DNR master sitting somewhere that could eventually see the light of day.

(Posted on Monday, July 4, 2011 at 5:16 PM)

31. Phil Quail said:

"The blackest mark against them remains their upconvert of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK."

Speaking of Carpenter on Optimum, I think THE FOG was pretty ropey too. Probably not an upconvert, I never actually saw it, but I remember researching reviews and deciding it wasn't worth bothering with. Could be wrong, maybe it was just the lack of extras which clinched it.

(Posted on Monday, July 4, 2011 at 6:54 PM)

32. PJ Bourke said:

Happy Birthday! The best Blu-ray in your collection is "Once Upon a Time in the West". It looks and sound really great. Paramount did a great job with that masterpiece. It's the best Western ever made. I hope to see a review for you in the future...

P.S. Did you see the Japanese Blu-ray of "Suspiria"? I also want to see you review Arrow's "The Funhouse".

(Posted on Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 12:31 AM)

33. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Phil:

I've been told THE FOG is an upconvert too, though I haven't seen it for myself.


PJ:

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I'll report back on ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST when I get the chance to watch it.

I haven't seen the Japanese BD of SUSPIRIA myself - just screen captures. Sadly (though not surprisingly), it's derived from the same overly contrasty master as every other BD release.

Must admit THE FUNHOUSE isn't really one I'm planning on picking up.

(Posted on Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 10:42 PM)

34. Phil Quail said:

DON'T LOOK NOW review now up on Blu-ray.com. They never strike me as over-critical, but it only gets 2.5/5 for video quality. Strange how some people are so determined to defend it (and quite aggressively so on the Digital Fix)!

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dont-Look-Now-Blu-ray/18547/#Review

My own copy has just arrived....

(Posted on Wednesday, July 6, 2011 at 11:29 AM)

35. Kuroneko said:

Well, that's disappointing! I was so eagerly waiting to pick this one up, now I'm going to give it a very wide berth indeed! I owe you one, Michael.

(Posted on Wednesday, July 6, 2011 at 2:46 PM)

 
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