Saturday, November 12, 2011

#1099: Three Colors

10:11 PM / Blu-ray / Comments8 Comments

BD

(BD, Criterion, Region A, USA)

Given the cost involved, I tend not to pick up many of Criterion's releases. I do make the odd exception, though, and Krzysztof Kieslowski's THREE COLOURS trilogy had to be one of them. I went through a period of BLUE being one of my favourite films, and though it's been a long time since I saw it, I still have incredibly vivid memories of the opening car crash and Juliette Binoche swimming at night in that completely blue-lit indoor pool. I have fond memories of WHITE and RED too (WHITE probably less so than the others), but BLUE was always my favourite.

 
8 Comments

1. Kuroneko said:

My personal favourite has to be red. Gorgeous photography and a plot that abounds in mirrors and circularities, not to mention the warmth and empathy Irene Jacob brings to her character , which is the polar opposite of Julitte Binoche's role in "Blue" a film that I admire and like a lot but that always managed to keep me "outside" somehow.

It will be interesting to see how the Criterion edition compares with the forthcoming Artificial Eye BD's of the trilogy.

(Posted on Monday, November 14, 2011 at 6:51 PM)

2. Matthew McKinnon said:

I'd imagine this release would wipe the floor with the Artificial Eye, since the latter generally source their transfers (indeed, port the entire package directly) from MK2 French releases; and the Three Colours MK2s are apparently very poor.

DVDBeaver on Blue:
ADDITION: MK2 - Region 'B' - Blu-ray - (December 2010) - Ughhh - what a disappointment. Revisiting Blue reminded me why it is on my Top 10 films of all-time and again the digital production is lackluster. Single-layered, interlaced (1080i), plenty of noise, with a puny feature file size/ bitrate and it appears to be in PAL time (4% sped-up - shorter - from theatrical). Why? Why? Why?

(Posted on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 6:59 AM)

3. Phil Quail said:

"Given the cost involved, I tend not to pick up many of Criterion's releases."

Likewise - there's a (very) long list I'd like to buy, but given the already high prices, plus the fact they've just reduced the import limit from £18 to £15, I feel obliged to wait for Amazon's occasional sales. Very frustrating.

Regarding the Artificial Eye releases, I'm hoping enough time has passed that they'll have seen the negative reaction to the MK2 Blu-rays and somehow produce better versions. On the other hand, if they're very bad at least I won't end up buying both the Criterion and AE versions, like I did with "The Double Life of Veronique".

(Posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 6:42 PM)

4. Author Profile Page Michael said:

I don't know what the MK2 releases look like, but I'm very pleased with how the Criterions look. Not out of this world amazing, but very solid interpositive transfers for the first two and a neg scan for the third (though, to be honest, I don't really see any appreciable difference in image quality between any of the three films), excellent encoding and film grain left intact. Definitely a lot better than the Artificial Eye release of THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE.

(Posted on Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 1:06 PM)

5. Christopher D. Jacobson said:

I'm happy about the 50% off MSRP sales we have here at Barnes & Noble. Criterion Blu-rays can typically be had for $20; this Three Colors release was $30 (and will be something I'll hopefully pick up during the next sale). Shame you guys don't seem to have those kinds of Criterion sales overseas. :(

(Posted on Monday, November 21, 2011 at 10:17 PM)

6. Derrick King said:

It turns out there is a problem with the audio on WHITE http://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-movies-north-america/179829-three-colors-trilogy-blu-ray-nov-15-review-3.html#post5472905

Criterion is fixing it http://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-movies-north-america/179829-three-colors-trilogy-blu-ray-nov-15-review-4.html#post5482845

(Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 9:15 PM)

7. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Derrick:

Urgh, that's a pain in the ass. I wonder if they'll ship me a copy to the UK.

(Posted on Monday, December 5, 2011 at 1:05 PM)

8. Derrick King said:

Don't know if they will or not. As you can see in that thread, some people outside the US have had success at getting various replacements from them and others haven't. I'm convinced that the response one gets from Criterion depends on who is playing Jon Mulvaney and answering the mulvaney@criterion.com emails.

(Posted on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 8:07 PM)

 
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