On 4K UHD - David Hare notes ''a great disc" - NORTH BY NORTHWEST (Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1959)

 Some comments on the new 4K UHD of North by Northwest.

First thing to notice if you’re familiar with the older Blu-ray is how “true” this is to that transfer’s color dynamic. But with four times the resolution, grain and texture are miles ahead of the 1080p. You really wish Hitch had been able to take the Vistavision 8-perf cameras with him to far more exteriors. But he was of course effectively banned from filming “live” at both the UN on E42nd Street, and at Mount Rushmore. So 90% of the picture was studio shot. In this respect the new 4K is revelatory in emphasizing several things: one is the color design in which the occasional pops of color like the busboys’ caps at Chicago station are strikingly beautiful, awash as they are in a sea of gray and taupe suits and clothes. Eva Marie’s red dress for the auction nearly burns a hole in your eye, and the fine detail in decor and even utilitarian sets is detailed to maximum resolution. Grain, given the 8-perf neg exposure and reduction to 35mm IB projection prints in fact reduced the grain to near invisible in 99% of screening - only very very few cinemas worlwide were equipped to project the 8 perf positives.

Just as the now fifteen year old disc basically dodged much grain field at all, it’s all now back thanks to the 6K scanning of the negs for prime work. Hitch indulges in only one single highly gauze filtered close shot, not of Saint but Cary in profile at Mount Rushmore viewing the carved mountains through a pay telescope. One wonders if Hitch had chosen this quasi beatific soft wash shot for Cary if oniy because he has finally been initiated into the various puzzles and mysteries of Ernest Lehman’s labyrinthine screenplay.

And speaking of Cary, that deep unnaturally amber tan he sported in the old Blu-ray has finally been relieved of its somewhat jaundiced undertone, thanks to Warner’s scrupulous new color grading and encoding.

The picture is on a healthy 100Gb disc and supports all the extras from the older Blu-ray, down to Lehman's somewhat melancholic commentary track. The disc is encoded with HDR10, no DV, which was a wise idea as the restoration team have realized Hitchcock's color indulgences were spared for only the leads and for crowd shot highlights.

It’s a great disc, no question of retiring the older one now. My copy does not contain a second Blu, only the single UHD.