On 4K UHD - David Hare rhapsodizes over the Imprint Powell & Pressburger Box set

As I was test driving the four UHD/Dolby Vision discs of RED SHOES, I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING, THE SMALL BACK ROOM and TALES OF HOFFMANN, my heart temporarily jumped into my mouth when the HOFFMANN disc refused to load the menu page. Turned out the fucking plastic disc holder in the fucking boxes had led my clumsy hand to get a finger smudge over the disc which managed to half-blind the menu page. Anyway the usual window cleaner and linen tea towel rubbing center to out gig did the trick.

Some very short words then for anyone contemplating it: The hand of David McKenzie and FIM is all over these encodes. Gorgeous is not strong enough a term. Already great Dolby VIsion THE RED SHOES suddenly gains a step up in primary color pop and the sharpness is surgically exact down to ultra fine grain which never floats or sticks. The grain management is so beautiful thatI KNOW WHERE I'M GOING, whose UHD 8Bit encode released by Criterion which is already quite lovely now takes off into the realm of a pristine 35mm virgin 35mm print. The grain is again flawless even in the most disparate shots from DP Hillier shooting in Magic Hour for the exteriors.Image is so perfect you can perceive details within the detail of scrawling cumulus clowds while the sky and the shadow on the land change by the millsecond.I would rate this as one of the five best so far B&W Academy Ratio films to get an encode that seriously emulates to perfection the actual qualities of film emulsion .

THE RED SHOES is also a lift in several areas complementing the Criterion, itself a very beautiful transfer for their debut UHD release back a few years now. But wait: colors are popping like crazy and this is all happening within the enlarging envelopes of production design and costume. And then in the sequence when Vicky arrives at Monte Carlo, shot outdoors in daylight, the primaries really start to sing, and pop like crazy, all the while the wide shot opening is, for the first time I’ve ever seen, really sharp with Warner Archive level three strip alignment down to the microdot. When the figures moving to the hotel in the Criterion looked a tad soft, they’re now sharp as a pin in depth and the whole sequence looks like something out of first gen three strip registration. 

These are all perhaps little things but they carry on through the picture to the end giving what can only be a called a definitive presentation. And I have to say much the same for HOFFMANN for which this is the first UHD/4k disc ever, plus Dolby VIsion again. You really notice it in the fine detail, movements from distant to close retain razor sharp definition, grain breathes and lives without a trace of clinging and freezing. All this does however slightly magnify the color grading which is the same as the Blu-ray and which feels to me slightly gray edged to the skin tones and the baseline. But that’s for another day.

I decided to lash out on this if only for HOFFMANN and I’m glad I did but the steps up in rendition for the other three UHD 4K discs I think really make it worthwhile.

 

For Blu-ray and Ultra 4K UHD discs - Here's why David Hare recommends the Hisense C3 Ultra triple laser projector

Top screen the new Capelight UHD 4K of the Robert Wise's WEST SIDE STORY.

Below it's my newest toy, a new Hisense C3 Ultra triple laser projector which I’ve now had for a week and will take to my grave.

It’s only been in the last couple of years that projectors, and in particular Laser-based DLP beamers like this and Valerion, XGIMI and others, started making top tier light power bomb tech. Back a couple of years ago when I bought some new Hifi to replace very old and fading gear I became a convert to the emerging Chi-FI world with fabulous products like Shanling and more, which are so good in their tech and design they have as many of you know overtaken the great traditional Brit sound Hifi titans including Arcam and others who themselves retain the spec and design for their amps but go to manufacturers in China.

I have been having the newbie’s kiddie time fiddling with this and that but quite frankly the preset options for the usual parameters have been flawlesssly enabled in the “FilmMaker” mode where presets are minimally adjustable to, well, perfection. I can blow the image from this baby out to 300 inch diagonal but I am happy (for now) to stick with a 130 inch 4:3 screen.

And to wallow in Dolby VIsion which has up until now has been unavailable to me in its full glory.

It certainly gives the 4K of Wise’s 1961 movie a depth and level of detail that really does reflect the 70mm original elements, notwithstanding reported degradation in the neg. Sometimes the DV is overwhelming. Certainly every smear of the dusk makeup on some of the honky boys playing Hispanics is VERY loud and clear. The sheer level of detail in this is unbelievable. If anyone out there is wondering about a keen projection deal I cannot recommend this highly enough. I don’t know if it’s luck but I did not see a skerrick of Rainbow effect/RBE, not even in the 3D setting here.

And in closing, Imprint Australia shipped the Powell/Pressburger box last week and I expect to receive it in the next few days. One of several unique joys of that set is the first time worldwide release of a UHD 4K disc presentation of TALES OF HOFFMANN in Dolby Vision. I can safely admit this single event (of many surprises with that new boxset) was what prompted me to pull the trigger on this gorgeous new projector last month. 

Having just watched new 4K discs like WEST SIDE STORY and the new UHD of AUNTIE MAME with the full gamut on the projector, the next screening of HOFFMANN will, I expect transport me back to an afternoon in June 1982 in NYC at a West Village screening room when a friend and I attended a semi-“private” screening of what must have been Scorsese’s IB print of HOFFMANN. It was my first viewing and it left me speechless on the floor with pleasure, sufficient to stay and sit through the very dull LUNA DE MIEL ( a total stinker) to watch HOFFMANN again. Merci Powell and Pressburger (and Hein Heckroth and Chris Challis and Beecham and the cast, and indeed Offenbach lui-même) who between them all took me to paradise. And will no doubt again.

On 4K UHD and Blu-ray - David Hare risks a small fortune and welcomes and asks some questions about the Imprint edition of THE CINEMA OF POWELL & PRESSBURGER - Collection Two (1942 - 1956)

 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.

Just Click Here

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!

A FACEBOOK COMMENT

@jnoe635098 

5 days ago

All the clips (on the trailer) you are showing are in the wrong aspect ratio. Not a good presentation.

On 4K UHD Disc - David Hare welcomes the likely "last and final incarnation" of the work of Jean Vigo (out in November)

This 4K UHD release must surely be the last and final incarnation for these gorgeous restorations for Gaumont which were first screened at Bologna in 2017, and released in a sublime Blu-ray coffret in 2018.

I went back to review the Gaumont box released last night. Frankly I don’t think a 4K release could possibly improve on the gorgeous Blu-ray transfers done by Gaumont. They are at absolute peak for clarity and definition with intact grain and spectacular gray scale.

But being the sucker for Vigo that I am, I’ll doubtless shell out 61 Euros/USD/UK plus postage for this boxset in November.

But I must keep the Gaumont, not least for its two discs of extras including the staggering full length collection of alternate takes for L’Atalante, titled “tournage en hiver” which includes completely sublime footage of sequences not included in the restoration including Père Jules’ muscle-man tat parade and his harem of cats, several takes of the singing “vendeur” pitching his routine at the circus especially for the newly married couple. 

Perhaps most mystifying and magical of all are several minutes of long shots, after the wedding as the new couple apparently walk directionlessy back and forth, zig-zagging between the hay bales on their way to the boat. That particular sequence was retained in a privately curated “restoration” cut by a gifted follower on a well-known back channels site. I think it is the one genuinely glaring omission from Eisenschitz’ basically perfect total restoration for Gaumont’s new 4K master in 2016. 

The beauty of this 60 minute-plus extra is that it contains every imaginable outtake you could ever hope to see down to Dita Parlo inspecting the preserved creatures in Père Jules’ cabin.

The 4K UHD disc is due out in the UK late November.

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.

On 4K UHD - David Hare enthuses over BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (Ang Lee, USA, 2005) + THE CONVERSATION (Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1974)

 New arrivals.

Brokeback Mountain has a very nice new 4K scan and transfer from Universal, released on Kino Lorber. I have plenty of time for it still, especially for the critically ignored beauty of Michelle Williams’ sweet, nuanced performance. Lee was and still is too sophisticated a chronicler of sexual mores for the Anglophone world where Brokeback died in a welter of Bumfuck Texas gaggery. Alas.

The new 4K scan and especially the color grade for Coppola's The Conversation is absolutely astonishing. It’s as though he’s finally enabled a kind of dual extreme hot-cold color scheme for razor sharp blues, grays and greens which are always in some sort of aesthetic suspension with fiery reds and skin tones. The opening telephoto shots have a previously unseen warmth, as though they had magically gone back to the original dye transfer printing in 1974 (which closed shortly after The Conversation was made.) The new image looks in some ways like IB printing on acid, but without a hint of fakery or artificiality. This single disc bare bones option is backed up for English and German options and gets an Oz release here at the most competitive price. There’s no regular Blu-ray in the box, nor any of the deluxe edition tat. A must get, but you need to be 4K enabled.

On 4K Ultra HD - David Hare finds two showstoppers DEEP RED (Dario Argento, Italy, 1975) and NO TIME TO DIE (Cary Fukunaga, UK, 2021)

To call these two showstopping is to deny them justice.

Arrow’s Deep Red was mastered by Dave McKenzie and Fidelity in Motion and like everything they do it is quite simply flawless. Thus a film shot in 1975 in two perf Techniscope stock with, of course original prints done in dye transfer Technicolor from the Technicolore Italiana outfit is now a new 4K disc breathtaking for its depth and detail.

No Time to Die’s director Cary Fukunaga and DP Linus Sandgren chose a film based medium for shooting, rather than digital and the film was photographed with four perf 65mm Imax Cameras, mastered for 2.35 Scope widescreen. I didn’t see it theatrically, and our local venues could only show 4K DCP, but in my limited experience of 4K UHD discs this is the most spectacular ever. On my own projection system the sharpness, detail, depth, stability, color spectrum and dynamic range are the best I’ve seen, and that ain’t chopped liver. 

The picture itself may go on for probably 30 minutes too long, indeed the credits don’t start until the 32 minute point, but so did several of the other Daniel Craig Bond movies. In this case Craig’s character is actually reflecting on a strange life , and with more Proustian references than a window full of Madeleines the picture is constantly imbued with melancholy and a sense of personal darkness which Fukunaga I believe brilliantly plays against the outrageously big action sequences.

And for once I have to agree with a comment by Peter Bradshaw in his Guardian review last year, the movie breathlessly lifts us out of our two year plus isolation under the current plague and does what every Bond movie ever did, it takes us out and away on a glorious, impossibly exciting journey across the world.

Loved it.