This is both an exciting and a bewildering release.
On the fabulous side the box includes not only the existing 4K mastered disc of The Red Shoes and I Know Where I’m Going (both of which Criterion has already released in superb editions) but it’s adding more new and newish restorations in Blu only of Black Narcissus, Colonel Blimp and One of our Aircraft is Missing as well as Oh Rosalinda! and Battle of the River Plate. The latter two are very far from peak Powell for me but their inclusion is rewarding for completists. Most importantly the box releases the first 4K UHD Dolby Vision discs worldwide of both The Small Back Room (an underrated Powell to be sure) and the most important title for me a 4K DV of Tales of Hoffmann. Given the whole box is credited to Fidelity In Motion for encoding I have not an atom’s concern about quality. And given my worship of Hoffman as a total, unfettered masterpiece of celestial beauty This box would make me an even happier man than I already am.
BUT….
This press release only presents the Powell box for RRP in tandem with several other boxes including what I consider a redundant Kubrick box bringing the cost over 500 bucks Oz. Does this mean they will perhaps never release the Powell box as standalone? If they don’t they’ve lost a customer. And equally important for people like me who already have everything in this box already except for the world prem 4K discs of Hoffman and Small Back Room, are these titles likely to be picked up in a parallel boxset or singly as 4K discs from somebody like Criterion? We don’t know and these days throwing around this sort of money on something not ideally priced for some of us who are already rabid and going-broke collectors?
(Mike Baard followed this up by sending this info...
David, good news, you will be able to purchase P&P set as a standalone.
BUT BACK TO DAVID
One thing I didn’t mention: the new 4K discs of IKWIG as well as Red Shoes will have DV/HDR. Criterion’s IKWIG is also mastered and encoded by FIM /MacKenzie but SDR/2160p. Only David MacKenzie could encode something so beautiful in both 8 bit and 10 bit 2160p and make them both sing. This is why I am risking a small fortune basically for the same deft hand with a new 4K of Hoffmann.
This is Imprint’s trailer for the Powell/Pressburger box in August. The music sample track is largely from Brian Easdale’s score for Red Shoes. What a masterpiece, what a score!
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