My fault.
Really annoyed they (I donāt know who it was) filtered (the grain away) the Requiem for Gringo release. Itās 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 donāt really understand German, maybe @stanton or someone could help please, what is the excuse for this travesty?
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 itās 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: āThe 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.
Donāt know if this is true. I donāt understand why they could not have digitised the film elements simply without this filter. I donāt 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
Iām in 100% agreement with you (which is rare). However, I have the feeling most people donāt share the feeling. They look at the scratches and see a beat up print, which they donāt 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 itās 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. Itās easier to remove damage if itās first filtered?
Camera Obscura was going to release one of their Bluās 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:
"Weāve 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 filmās naturalness is retained ā the
way we and most of you like it."
EDIT: I also donāt understand why Colosseo would have to get the negative to another lab? I donāt think any of the scanners have filters in them that cannot be removed. So just scan it again. But I would even think it wasnāt filtered during scanning but after and non-filtered files would have at least existed at some point. But who knows.
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 donāt know to turn the sharpening down, and are really complaining about digital noise.
Yea probably gonna be terrible. Shitty labels should be outlawed
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.
Wow. Very nice info. But why oh why didnāt 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
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.
Those covers are, still, awful. I doubt slapping Tarantino on everything had much effect on the sales.
Does the āWestern Unchainedā blu-ray of āNavajo 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 āDjango Unchainedā had actually ever seen the original āDjangoā or watched it later as a result?