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A Few Words About A few words about...™ Lawrence of Arabia -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Paul Rossen

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ShellOilJunior said:
Isn't the quality of the HD tracks offering far superior to than that of the CD?
The only HD tracks offering I have is Come Away With Me in 192/24 bit and it blows away the CD version.
I can't answer that since I'm not equipped for HD tracks. That said the performance and being complete is paramount to my listening. Of course the upcoming original recording release via the blu-ray 'should' sound better than the Varese cd release. But it won't be nearly complete.
 

ShellOilJunior

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Paul Rossen said:
I can't answer that since I'm not equipped for HD tracks. That said the performance and being complete is paramount to my listening. Of course the upcoming original recording release via the blu-ray 'should' sound better than the Varese cd release. But it won't be nearly complete.
Ah, I see. I may just purchase the HD tracks release as I have a discount code. Also, I have the Northwest by Northwest theme conducted by The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and it's really awesome.
I have high hopes for Lawrence in flac.
 

Peter Apruzzese

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ShellOilJunior said:
Isn't the quality of the HD tracks offering far superior to than that of the CD?
Depends what you mean by "quality". The new Tadlow CD is far, far superior in terms of performance and completeness. Sound quality is stunning. The HD Tracks version pleased neither its producer nor Jarre due to its performance problems.
 

lukejosephchung

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Originally Posted by Dee Zee /t/324904/a-few-words-about-lawrence-of-arabia-in-blu-ray/60#post_3998095
Wait a minute. Is the soundtrack in the box set on blu-ray or CD?
Disc 4 is an expanded soundtrack CD with Maurice Jarre and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
 

Dortmunder

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I received my Deluxe Box over the weekend but waited until last night to, carefully, open it up. It truly is a thing of beauty. Never mind actually watching the the motion picture, I was almost moved to tears with the box itself!
As Richard Gallagher detailed earlier the design is clean and simple, with the die-cut front of the box actually being the cover of the book. The book is gloriously presented with beautiful quality images. At the foot of the first page there is a little explanation of the image used for the box and book cover, stating that this was the design deployed on the original posters in December 1962 to emphasise the enigma and mystery of Lawrence. One month later the Columbia marketing people decided to change tack and emphasise the action elements of the film and the image was dropped.
The book is levered out of the box via a white ribbon to reveal the 70mm frame presentation card and the double amaray case buried side by side in the white base. I may have been on something of a high at this point, but I was suddenly strangely moved. To see this tiny little beautiful 70mm frame, and to imagine each one of the 300,000+ frames being digitally scanned over six months or so, and the whole subsequent laborious digital process that went in just to produce the astonishing artefact nestled alongside it, was a very moving thing. A 'sappy bastard', I know. (Taking into account the previous gargantuan photochemical efforts of Mr. Harris that mark the jumping off point of this endeavour laid before me, one is even more moved.)
My frame, by the way,is numbered 26309 and features Lawrence and Colonel Brighton atop their camels. Even on a 70mm wide frame O'Toole's eyes pierce out. As has been avowed previously ~ 'There are no bad frames'.
I still have not viewed the disc(s) yet. I wanted to give it my full unwavering attention, which I couldn't do last night. I may inspect them tonight, whilst I wait up all night for the US election results (I'm in the UK.) I'm also uncertain as to whether to watch the full motion picture, as I found out yesterday that my local cinema is screening it at the start of December. Sadly only in 2K, but it is in a beautiful vintage theater, where the projection is generally very good. The last time I saw it was around 18 months ago in a sublime 70mm print at the Edinburgh Filmhouse, so I feel I can wait another month or so to see it in a cinema once more. In the meantime I shall have to satisfy myself with morsels of the blu-ray, carefully rationed!
 

dendodd

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Robert Harris said:
It has been my understanding that Sir Adrian conducted either the overture or main title.
RAH
I recall reading somewhere, many, many years ago (so my recollection may be faulty), that Sir Adrian turned up and at the podium conducted a few bars and then said: "This is impossible" put down his baton and walked away (probably leaving chaos in his wake). As I said, my recollection may be faulty but I have always believed that nothing that was heard on the film was conducted by him.
 

AdrianTurner

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The story of the music in Lawrence is fairly well documented and I apologise if it's already been done in this epic thread. Briefly, it goes like this. Spiegel wanted music and he also wanted musical presitige: if Beethoven was alive he would have been offered the job. The offer went initially to Sir Malcolm Arnold who had scored Kwai. Sir Malcolm showed up at a screening room with Sir William Walton who had scored Hamlet and Richard III. Apparently both men were slightly drunk and laughed at the endless procession of camels crossing the desert. Ann Coates told me that were 'laughing and nudging each other like schoolboys.'
Spiegel then went global: Khachaturian could write the exotic Oriental music and Benjamin Britten could write stuff for the limeys. Apparently Khactaturian wasn't able to leave Mother Russia and Britten was too expensive.
Thus Maurice Jarre entered the frame and wrote his stuff in a considerable rush. Apart from the fairly conventional symphonic main theme, the score was contemporary, tonal, experimental, more in tune with his work for directors such as Alain Resnais and Georges Franju.
Still insisting that someone with a knighthood should get his name on the movie, Spiegel employed the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, thus giving the film the seal of Royal approval. The band's principal conductor was Sir Adrian Boult who really couldn't conduct and watch a screen and hit precise timings with any skill. So Jarre waved the baton throughout the show but Boult's illustrious name survived.
Movies really are all about happy accidents as well as bad crashes.
 

Alan Tully

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I've had the UK release for a couple of months (well I am in the UK), & I haven't seen it yet, I've had a quick look through & know it looks fantastic. This is not a film & restoration to be casually viewed, it has to be looked forward to, a Saturday in a couple of weeks I think (I might even sell myself a ticket!). So last year the big resoration was Ben-Hur, this year it's Lawrence Of Arabia....will there be one next year?
 

DSmith1984

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I never cease to be disappointed by the denizens on blu-ray.com. Among their statements are complaints of "overabundant DNR" and they're still bitching about the movie not being split despite having RAH's approval of quality on the transfer.
I've not seen the UK version and I'm waiting for the US version to come next week but they're the only people I've seen that have hurled the DNR criticism at it and they're the last holdouts on the movie not being split.
 

Powell&Pressburger

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I trust what Robert Harris says about the transfer etc... and while I would have liked the film split across 2 discs esp for intermission... if SONY and Harris etc all say everything is good then I won't complain esp if they state spreading the film on 2 discs wouldn't increase the image quality.
 

Brianruns10

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I think they are able to manage such a long film on a single dual layer blu-ray in part because since the film's aspect ratio necessitates black bars on top and bottom, that area of black is able to help keep the file size down when they encode it. There is literally less image (for the purposes of a 1920x1080 monitor) to have to encode. It's why they could fit Gone with the Wind (a longer film) onto a single blu-ray as well.
 

Stephen_J_H

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50GB is a helluva lot of space, especially with newer, more efficient codecs like AVC; and as stated above, the presence of substantial black bars cuts down on the amount of information to encode, as do Lean's sweeping vistas, which quite frequently do not change much from frame to frame.
 

JoshZ

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The people on that other site don't watch movies. They watch their previous bit rate meters.
 

Damin J Toell

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I am dusting off my HTF account after nearly 5 years of dormancy to congratulate RAH. Although my set hasn't shipped yet, of course, I take RAH at his word that this will be a home run. Just as Young & co. welcomed him into LAWRENCE all those years ago, Mr. Harris has been welcomed as a part of my life many times through his contributions, both in film itself, as well as through his willingness to participate in the public discussion thereof. I presume the same is true for many, many other people.
Once the set arrives and I take yet another journey with LAWRENCE, I will raise a drink to RAH. Bravo, sir.
 
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Oh, are you in for a treat! I envy you to be able to see movie for the first time in this presentation. I hope you have a large screen.
Make sure the lights are out or low, shut off the telephone and just dig in. It's worth it.
 

Mark-W

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I normally skip box sets.
I feel compelled in this case to buy it
in order to vote with my money to best show my fervent support
of those who allowed this to happen at this level of perfection and asset protection.
 

dendodd

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AdrianTurner said:
The story of the music in Lawrence is fairly well documented and I apologise if it's already been done in this epic thread. Briefly, it goes like this. Spiegel wanted music and he also wanted musical presitige: if Beethoven was alive he would have been offered the job. The offer went initially to Sir Malcolm Arnold who had scored Kwai. Sir Malcolm showed up at a screening room with Sir William Walton who had scored Hamlet and Richard III. Apparently both men were slightly drunk and laughed at the endless procession of camels crossing the desert. Ann Coates told me that were 'laughing and nudging each other like schoolboys.'
Spiegel then went global: Khachaturian could write the exotic Oriental music and Benjamin Britten could write stuff for the limeys. Apparently Khactaturian wasn't able to leave Mother Russia and Britten was too expensive.
Thus Maurice Jarre entered the frame and wrote his stuff in a considerable rush. Apart from the fairly conventional symphonic main theme, the score was contemporary, tonal, experimental, more in tune with his work for directors such as Alain Resnais and Georges Franju.
Still insisting that someone with a knighthood should get his name on the movie, Spiegel employed the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, thus giving the film the seal of Royal approval. The band's principal conductor was Sir Adrian Boult who really couldn't conduct and watch a screen and hit precise timings with any skill. So Jarre waved the baton throughout the show but Boult's illustrious name survived.
Movies really are all about happy accidents as well as bad crashes.
Thank you Mr. Turner for telling the story of this piece of history, your articulate clarification is a pleasure to read. My recollections were somewhat sketchy.
 

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