Criterion News and Discussion

[Gold Trumpet]

From a post at the Criterion forum:


"An article interviewing yet another Criterion cover designer, confirming the release of Alex Cox's WALKER and showing an alternate piece of artwork for TWO LANE BLACKTOP -- perhaps an outer or inner sleeve?"

[edison]

From a post at the Criterion forum:


"An article interviewing yet another Criterion cover designer, confirming the release of Alex Cox's WALKER and showing an alternate piece of artwork for TWO LANE BLACKTOP -- perhaps an outer or inner sleeve?"

and here is the article.

[edison]

Swedish filmmaker Alf Sjöberg's visually innovative, Cannes Grand Prix–winning adaptation of August Strindberg's renowned 1888 play brings to scalding life the excoriating words of the stage's preeminent surveyor of all things rotten in the state of male-female relations. Miss Julie vividly depicts the battle of the sexes and classes that ensues when a wealthy businessman's daughter (Anita Bjork, in a fiercely emotional performance) falls for her father's bitter servant. Celebrated for its unique cinematic style (and censored upon its first release in the United States for its adult content), Sjöberg's film was an important turning point in Scandinavian cinema.

Special Features

* - New, restored high-definition digital transfer
* - New video essay by film historian Peter Cowie
* - Archival television interview with director Alf Sjöberg
* - 2006 television documentary about the play Miss Julie and dramatist August Strindberg
* - Theatrical trailer
* - New and improved English subtitle translation
* - PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by film scholars Peter Matthews and Birgitta Steene

Glamorous leading man turned idiosyncratic auteur Cornel Wilde created a handful of gritty, violent explorations of the nature of man in the sixties and seventies, none more memorable than The Naked Prey. In the late nineteenth century, after an ivory-hunting safari offends an African tribe, the colonialists are captured and hideously tortured. Only Wilde's marksman is released, without clothes or weapons, to be hunted for sport, and he embarks on a harrowing journey through savanna and jungle. back to a primitive state. Distinguished by vivid widescreen camerawork and unflinching savagery, The Naked Prey is both a propulsive, stripped-to-the-bone narrative and a meditation on the notion of civilization.

Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Audio commentary by film scholar Stephen Prince
- "John Colter's Escape," a 1913 written record of the trapper's flight from Blackfoot Indians—which was the inspiration for The Naked Prey—read by actor Paul Giamatti
- Original soundtrack cues created by director Cornel Wilde and ethnomusicologist Andrew Tracey, along with a written statement by Tracey on the score
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Michael Atkinson and a 1970 interview with Wilde


One of the finest British films ever made, this benchmark of "kitchen-sink realism" follows the self-defeating professional and romantic pursuits of a miner turned rugby player eking out an existence in drab Yorkshire. With an astonishing, raging performance by a young Richard Harris, an equally blistering turn by fellow Oscar nominee Rachel Roberts as the widow with whom he lodges, and electrifying direction by Lindsay Anderson, in his feature-film debut following years of documentary work, This Sporting Life remains a dramatic powerhouse.

Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Audio commentary featuring Paul Ryan, editor of Never Apologise: The Collected Writings of Lindsay Anderson, and David Storey, screenwriter and author of This Sporting Life
- Theatrical trailer
- Lindsay Anderson: Lucky Man? (2004, 30 min), a documentary from BBC Scotland featuring interviews with many of the director's close friends and collaborators
- New video interview with Lois Sutcliffe Smith, Anderson's close friend and president of the Lindsay Anderson Memorial Foundation
- Meet the Pioneers (1948), Lindsay Anderson's first documentary short
- Wakefield Express (1952), Anderson's short-film contribution to England's Free Cinema series, shot in the same town that served as the location for This Sporting Life
- Is That All There Is? (1992, 50 min), Anderson's autobiographical, final film


The great Agnes Varda's career began with this graceful, penetrating study of a marriage on the rocks, set against the backdrop of a small Mediterranean fishing village. Both a stylized depiction of the complicated relationship between a married couple (played by Silvia Monfort and Philippe Noiret) and a documentary-like look at the daily struggles of the locals, Varda's discursive, gorgeously filmed debut was radical enough to later be considered one of the progenitors of the coming French new wave.

Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Agnes Varda
- New video interview with Varda
- Archival 1964 television episode from Cinéastes de notre temps, in which Varda discusses her early career
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation


Though married to the good-natured, beautiful Therese (Claire Drouot), young husband and father François (Jean-Claude Drouot) finds himself falling unquestioningly into an affair with an attractive postal worker. One of Agnes Varda's most provocative films, the art-house hit Le bonheur examines, with a deceptively cheery palette and the spirited strains of Mozart, the ideas of fidelity and happiness in a modern, self-centered world.

Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Agnes Varda
- Actor Jean-Claude Drouot revisits the film's setting forty years later
- A 2006 interview with actors Claire Drouot and Marie-France Boyer
- A 2006 discussion with four scholars and intellectuals discussing the concept of happiness and its relation to the film
- Srchival footage of Varda shooting Le bonheur
- 1998 interview with Varda, discussing Le bonheur
- Du Côté de la côte (1958), a short film directed by Varda exploring the tourist destination of the Côte D'Azur
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation

Sandrine Bonnaire won a César award for her portrayal of Mona, a defiant young drifter who is found frozen in a ditch. Using a largely non-professional cast, famed New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda recollects Mona's story through the flashbacks of those who encountered her, producing the splintered portrait of an enigmatic woman. Told in sparsely poetic images set against the frozen landscape of mid-winter Nîmes, this is Varda's masterpiece. Criterion presents Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi) in a brilliant color transfer supervised by the director.

Special Features
- New restored digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Agnes Varda
- Remembrances: a 2003 documentary on the making of the film, including interviews with Sandrine Bonnaire and other cast members
- The Story of an Old Lady: Varda's 2003 short film revisiting actress Marthe Jarnias, who plays the old aunt in the film
- A 2003 interview with Varda and composer Joanna Bruzdowicz
- A 1986 radio interview with writer Nathalie Sarraute, who inspired the film
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by Chris Darke and written introduction by Agnes Varda


Agnes Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer (Corinne Marchand) set adrift in the city as she awaits test results from a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman's life, Cleo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

Special Features
- New, restored digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Agnes Varda
- Remembrances: a 2005 documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with Varda, Corinne Marchand, and Antoine Bourseiller
- Excerpt from a 1993 French television program featuring Madonna and Varda talking about Cléo
- Cleo's Real Path Through Paris, a short film from 2005 in which Varda retraces Cleo's steps through Paris, on a motorcycle
- Les Fiancés du Pont Macdonald (1961), a short film directed by Varda, featuring Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina, and Varda explaining why this film was featured as the film within the film L'opéra Mouffe (1958), an early short by Varda, with a score by Georges Delerue New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by Adrian Martin and a written introduction by Agnès Varda

[last days of gerry the elephant]

Wow, I almost bought Cleo from 5 to 7 earlier today too...

[grand theft sparrow]

From the latest newsletter:



Ice Storm?!!   

[Sunrise]

From the latest newsletter:



Ice Storm?!!   

Has to be...and that is a definitely a surprise.

[MacGuffin]

- Excerpt from a 1993 French television program featuring Madonna and Varda talking about Cléo

As much as I love Cleo... and look forward to finally having extras on the DVD, can I get a Madonna-less copy please?

[Ravi]

http://www.criterion.com/blog/2007_09_01_archive.html#1663497146515801199

September 13, 2007
Reality at 25/24 Frames per Second

Here's a Criterion discussion that won't die. It has to do with Berlin Alexanderplatz, and it came up again this week, thanks to a couple of customers writing in. We were standing there in a clump outside our production manager's door—the disc producer, the head of audio, and a few more of us—running through the same arguments one more time and ending up, once again, at the same conclusion. It all starts when Rainer Werner Fassbinder chooses to shoot Berlin Alexanderplatz , his epic masterpiece, at 25 frames per second (fps). It makes sense, since in Europe television runs at 25 fps, and the film was being shot for European television. But what happens when you need to make a 24 fps HD master? Or a print that will be projected in theaters at 24 fps? Either you do what we've done, let the film run naturally at 24 fps—which means the running time will be 4 percent longer and the pitch of the audio will drop down slightly—or you could try to solve the problem with digital processing and pitch correction, crushing 25 frames worth of information into 24 frames.

If the film weren't fifteen hours long, we probably wouldn't even be having this discussion. The actual differences in timing and pitch are mostly perceptible in a side-by-side comparison, and on an episode by episode basis we're really only talking about a couple of minutes—an hour-long episode would run a little over sixty-two minutes. By sacrificing actual clock time we preserve the integrity of the picture, ensure natural movement between frames, and avoid introducing digital artifacts. Subjecting the master to massive signal processing based on the ugly math it takes to display 25 frames worth of data each second, but using only 24 frames, would result in a huge amount of interpolated picture information that doesn't actually exist on celluloid. Instead of a frame-accurate picture of the film, you get an image of what the frames would look like if we start from the assumption that frames 1, 2, 3, and 25 are actually .96, 1.92, 2.88, and 24. Clearly there is no 2.88th frame, so the signal processor has to derive one. Here's an example of what that would look like:



Changing the running time also causes a 4 percent change in the pitch of the audio. Just as with a record player, when the sound gets played back more slowly, the pitch drops. The only way to correct the pitch would be to change the actual sample values, which would mean introducing a whole new series of interpolations as we replaced the entire soundtrack with a derivative soundtrack based on math. In order to avoid creating artifacts and distortion, we chose to present a frame-accurate rendering of the image and sound and put up with the 4 percent time and pitch difference. This is the same compromise (in reverse) as the one that is made when a 24 fps theatrical film is mastered at 25 fps for a PAL broadcast or DVD release.

Still, because Berlin Alexanderplatz is almost fifteen hours long, the 4 percent difference adds about thirty-five minutes. Surely that must change things. That's a half hour more of my life dedicated to this already epic movie. If I start watching this film at the same moment as my colleague Robert Fischer in Germany, he will meet Barbara Sukowa's character, Mieze, something like fifteen minutes before I will. It means that what took a minute of real time on Fassbinder's set will take 1.04 minutes on a theatrical print or on our DVD. I know it's the right way to handle it, but I'm still having a hard time accepting it. Isn't that a form of distortion too? I know that the alternative, the processed image, looks terrible—jumpy, distracting, and unacceptable on every level. But theoretically speaking, does audiovisual fidelity necessarily outweigh the obligation to replicate the experience the director intended us to be having over a certain interval in clock time? Would Fassbinder have cut the film differently if he looked at the total running time as fifteen and a half hours instead of fifteen? These are not merely technical questions; they are artistic ones, and unfortunately there is no good answer, just a best one, and that's why we keep having the conversation. Yesterday I promised that we'd be having the conversation for the last time, so I just thought I'd take a moment and get the whole thing out of my system once and for all. Isn't that what blogs are for?

posted by Peter Becker at 2:10 PM 

[bonanzataz]

maybe i'm stupid. why didn't they just make the transfer using NTSC framerates? 25fps mathematically can be transferred w/o distortion into NTSC standard of 29.97fps. i've seen PAL transferred into NTSC and it looks just fine. i've also seen PAL footage transferred to 24fps on 35mm film (dancer in the dark, for example) and that looked fine to me as well. any tech wizards care to explain this to me?

personally, i think that speeding up or slowing down a film is way worse. it completely changes everything. my copy of perfect (starring john travolta and jaime lee curtis) is a pal dvd (ntsc is full screen only) and the high standard of quality that that movie strives to achieve is totally undermined by characters that look like they are moving a little too briskly in a british sitcom (albeit a widescreen british sitcom).

[The Sheriff]

i think its because of this

If the film weren't fifteen hours long, we probably wouldn't even be having this discussion.

[bonanzataz]

i think its because of this

If the film weren't fifteen hours long, we probably wouldn't even be having this discussion.

yeah, but not at all. k thanks.

[The Sheriff]

but you cant do it directly from pal to ntsc without doubling or skipping frames (dancer in the dark and other dogma films go from pal to film then the film to ntsc)

i guess its to preserve quality

check this out though http://www.dvfilm.com/atlantis/index.htm

[Ravi]

maybe i'm stupid. why didn't they just make the transfer using NTSC framerates? 25fps mathematically can be transferred w/o distortion into NTSC standard of 29.97fps. i've seen PAL transferred into NTSC and it looks just fine. i've also seen PAL footage transferred to 24fps on 35mm film (dancer in the dark, for example) and that looked fine to me as well. any tech wizards care to explain this to me?

Transferring PAL to NTSC is undesirable because it introduces interlacing artifacts.  The most common form of this is when a 24fps film is transferred to 25fps PAL video, then converted to NTSC.  Most Fox Lorber DVDs of films from PAL countries are like this.

Speed Problems with Transfers

(see link before reading next paragraph)

Ideally when transferring a 24fps program to DVD, each frame will be stored as two fields.  On a non-progressive-scan TV, the DVD player will display two fields of one frame, then three of the next frame, then two of the next, and so forth.  This way extra fields are not stored on the DVD, and the progressive signal can be reconstituted for a progressive TV with a progressive-scan DVD player.  I'm not sure how PAL DVDs work, but ideally the film will be sped up to 25fps, and each frame is stored as two fields.  NTSC video can display 24fps video because of the 2:3 pulldown with 60i, but trying to display 24fps footage at the normal speed in PAL will result in artifacts.  Hence, they simply speed it up by 1fps.

Berlin Alexanderplatz is a unique case because it was filmed at 25fps since it was going to be shown primarily on German television.  There's no way to transfer it to NTSC video without a trade-off, either slowing it down or interpolating the fields and causing interlacing artifacts.

I'd get the PAL DVD of BA but I have no easy way to watch non-region-1 DVDs on my Mac.  I'll deal with the slowdown.

[bonanzataz]

Berlin Alexanderplatz is a unique case because it was filmed at 25fps since it was going to be shown primarily on German television.  There's no way to transfer it to NTSC video without a trade-off, either slowing it down or interpolating the fields and causing interlacing artifacts.

i suppose, but does anybody notice these artifacts when watching the office or any other show filmed for british television? i never have. i have a player that converts pal to ntsc on the fly and i've never been able to see any artifacting, but maybe i'm not as nitpicky as others?

[Ravi]

I'm pretty sure The Office and most British TV comedies are shot on videotape.  Maybe its easier to convert PAL video to NTSC?  I'm not sure how they do that.  Surely some sort of field blending is involved.