On 4K HD - David Hare swoons over PARIS TEXAS (Wim Wenders, 1984) and adds a thought about THE THIRD MAN (Carol Reed, 1949)

Direct from Paree aujourd’hui.

Wenders’ Paris Texas in a new 4K 2024 restoration. I have the earlier 2022 Criterion and honestly wondered how much better this could get.

 

It is amazing. The clarity’s more film-like than ever. Depth and grain are like velvet. You get the feeling from watching this 4K that Robby Mũller was really falling in love with the super clean light of the Texas locations. The 2014 version which was the basis for previous discs managed all of that, but the new 4K with HDR/DV seems to capture the real “bloom” of Eastman Kodak stock (perhaps the “Vision” line.) There is a feeling of textural refinement that seems to cocoon each image, regardless of the striking slices of colour that constantly play with the eyes. 

 

If you are thinking about making a move to 4K this might be a decider, along with next month’s 4K remaster of The Searchers.

 

I bought the Carlotta release because they usually get all their encodes from David McKenzie. This release is only enabled for English French and German territories and comes with the expected language and audio options, including a totally gorgeous 5.1 mix which knocks the Ry Cooder score outta the room. 

 

Madman is releasing a version of this next month in Australia, but for reasons I cannot comprehend only in DVD and Blu-ray formats. But that’s their nightmare I guess. 

 

Oh, the Canal disc of the Carol Reed’s The Third Man picture… that’s another McKenzie encoding and is, if it could be possible, even more refined and texturally cinematic than the Canal/Criterion Blu-ray of two years ago. 

 

Worthy distractions from the circus that is now becoming the slow death of the American Empire.