[Blu-ray] Latest and Upcoming Releases šŸ“€

My fault. :open_mouth:

Really annoyed they (I donā€™t know who it was) filtered (the grain away) the Requiem for Gringo release. Itā€™s obvious from the DVD screenshots that were posted at http://dirtypictures.phpbb8.de (according to other posters there the Blu-Ray is the same). Oh well, people seem to like it when a film does not resemble film anymore.

Since I donā€™t really understand German, maybe @stanton or someone could help please, what is the excuse for this travesty? :wink:

I guess if it was scanned (and you were not allowed to scan it elsewhere) with one of the shitty scanners at LVR (although I have been told the scanner would have been replaced with better one some time ago) or some other similar place then I guess there is nothing that can be doneā€¦ it would look shit either way. And at least itā€™s not teal or yellow like some other places doing restorations think everything should look now.

Translation from a guy named anti-hero at that forum: ā€œThe only negative was in a very bad condition . A sample without the filter would have meant a detour through another Lab and would have been extremely expensiveā€

You beat me with the translation.

Donā€™t know if this is true. I donā€™t understand why they could not have digitised the film elements simply without this filter. I donā€™t care for a few visible scratches or some dirt on the image. Better than filtering all the grain away with a very soft image as result

Iā€™m in 100% agreement with you (which is rare). However, I have the feeling most people donā€™t share the feeling. They look at the scratches and see a beat up print, which they donā€™t want to pay top $ for. I will be buying the disc though, as there are no other options regarding the movie. Too bad, but it is what it is.

Yes, and most people will not accept visible grain either.

And then there are those who will watch a b/w films only in color

I sometimes wonder if itā€™s the consumer or just the publishers mistakenly thinking they know the consumer.

This one is truly baffling. I mean some of the best photography ever put on celluloid was done during the b&w era. I think this practice must have people like James Wong Howe and John Alton turning in their graves.

Thanks @Bad_Lieutenant for the translation.

I wonder what the negative condition has to do with grain removal. Itā€™s easier to remove damage if itā€™s first filtered?

Camera Obscura was going to release one of their Bluā€™s with the grain filtered away and then with added fake grain. Negative was in very bad condition (I think there was even mold on it). But in the end they did this:

"Weā€™ve talked a lot with our two labs in the last few days and ultimately
decided to abandon all reason and sanity and start the SHORT NIGHT OF
GLASS DOLLS transfer from scratch. This means a new scan with optical
scratch removal tools to reduce defects, scanning the entire content of
the 2P-frame, new filtering of the remaining defects without de- and
regraining. In the end, this means a bitter loss of a couple thousand
euros, 3.5 weeks of lifetime for the manual restoration that was done on
the old master (plus the time for the manual restoration of the new
one), but in exchange, being able to release the discs in all
conscience. And our reputation is always more important to us than
profit. There will definitely be more small remaing defects than in the
first transfer, but therefore the filmā€™s naturalness is retained ā€“ the
way we and most of you like it."

EDIT: I also donā€™t understand why Colosseo would have to get the negative to another lab? I donā€™t think any of the scanners have filters in them that cannot be removed. So just scan it again. But I would even think it wasnā€™t filtered during scanning but after and non-filtered files would have at least existed at some point. But who knows.

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There are definitely a lot of people who do not like grain and want a smooth picture. Though i often wonder how many of them donā€™t know to turn the sharpening down, and are really complaining about digital noise.

Vamos a matar, compaƱeros by DNR Master :cry:

Yea probably gonna be terrible. Shitty labels should be outlawed :wink:

More pleasant pieces of news:
Mƶrder des Klans - Western Unchained (Prega il morto e ammazza il vivo) (Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead) &
Die Zeit der Geier - Western Unchained (Il Tempo degli avvoltoi) (Last of the Badmen)
in August by Koch Media.

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Wow. Very nice info. But why oh why didnā€™t they just put them out on blu-ray initially? Got both releases already in their Western Unchained (which is a dreadful title) line but on dvd. The bastards :slight_smile:

do you have a link? first I am hearing about it

The releases are mentioned here:

http://www.italo-cinema.de/571-koch-media-zeit-der-geier-moerder-des-klans-in-hd

Oh thanks, must have skipped that one then.

Official links:
Last of the Badmen

Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead

Amazon links will appear soon.

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Thanks! List updated: Koch Media Western Unchained Collection - The Spaghetti Western Database

Those covers are, still, awful. I doubt slapping Tarantino on everything had much effect on the sales.

Does the ā€œWestern Unchainedā€ blu-ray of ā€œNavajo Joeā€ have the correct audio on it then? I recall the earlier German Blu-ray not having the correct audio in spite of the DVD having it correct.

I wonder what percentage of the people who saw ā€œDjango Unchainedā€ had actually ever seen the original ā€œDjangoā€ or watched it later as a result?