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

[Keith Cobby]

Kim Novak and Eva Marie Saint are favourites of mine and it is good to see Eva ageing gracefully. I am surprised about Kim appearing because if you have the Kim Novak Collection DVD set you will have noticed that in the supplements when she talks about the films and her co-stars there are no close ups of her and she is only seen in long shot.

 

[FoxyMulder]

The BBC are currently showing several Hitchcock pictures which included, last Sunday, an absolutely beautiful HD print of Vertigo. I've never seen the picture look so beautiful and even my wife this time thought the film was vaguely watchable.

I watched The Trouble With Harry on the BBC today, looked very good but for one issue, some sharpening has been applied, i could see halo's, particularly around the darker coloured outfits people were wearing, i have to say the colours were very rich and vivid, it was watchable, straight after this they started to show The Man Who Knew Too Much, i had to switch off, it looked awful, very soft filtered looking image, it's not my favourite Hitchcock and the HD presentation was lacking.

 

[Nelson Au]

With all the comments about how unwatchable The Man Who Knew Too Much has been posted on so many posts, I watched the blu ray shortly after the Hitchcock set was released.Not knowing the film as well as the other Hitchcock films, that was the second or third time I had seen it. But the first time in HD. While the parts in the bus were bad, and it's unfortunate it's not improved, it was watchable to me. I've pretty much expected Hitchcock films that use back projection or opticals to never look super. I do wish the tower sequence in Vertigo at the end had been improved. But it was watchable because the performances by Stewart and Novak were so strong. I'm also always amused to be able to see the skin on Novak's head crinkle a little from the tape use to hold her blonde wig on as she fights Stewart.

 

[AstonMartin007]

I never thought I'd see such a inane discussion about 'aging' here...and I wouldn't have if I hadn't checked my email. This really epitomizes modern media, everyone is so quick to spout their own blessed opinions, and damn whatever the facts are.

Novak didn't look great at the Oscars, everyone can agree about that. She hasn't looked too good for a while, as anyone who has followed her for the past few years would know. However, people think the reason is because of some desire for beauty or youth...that's projecting, more revealing of the media's interests than her own.

The truth of the matter is much simpler. Up until just a few years ago, she was, as everyone puts it, 'aging gracefully'. You can see her here. So what happened recently that changed things?

In 2010, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and went through chemotherapy. Now, anyone who has seen Breaking Bad would have an inkling of what that does to the body. Forgetting all the drug stuff, that was a fairly accurate portrayal of the body's reaction to cancer treatment. Add 30 years, major injuries and nerve damage from a horse fall in 2006, and bipolar disorder that went undiagnosed for decades, and the recovery can't have been easy. If she felt cosmetic surgery was a viable option at nearly 80 years old, with no record of having any work done before, one can only wonder what her 'natural' look was at the end of the treatment. In no way under these conditions could this be seen as a 'pursuit of lost beauty'. It was a mistake, she admitted it readily months beforehand, but to try and paint her as a plastic surgery addict is disingenuous and insulting. It was far more heartbreaking to see how fragile her body and voice (as well as Sidney Poitier's) were rather than pining for the looks captured over 55 years ago on film.

But then people don't seem to care about much other than looks, do they? Last year we had Seth MacFarlane singing about actresses' boobs. This year we had Ellen Degeneres laughing at Lisa Minelli. The fact that people seem to find pleasure in such cheap laughs says a bit more about us as a youth-obsessed culture than it does about them.

You know, maybe I'm just nuts, but what's the more problematic picture here, an old woman in poor health (or man, Sidney Poitier didn't look hot either), or a comedian who isn't funny (for 4 hours!), actors who stumble over simple lines, and a ceremony that seems to get more boring even though this is their 86th try at it. One of these is inevitable; the others are just pathetic.

 

[Robert Harris]

I'll chime in here with a quick comment. Ms Novak is an extraordinary lady. I had the pleasure of getting to know her back in 1996, traveling with her, and witnessing the reactions of film fans to her presence.

Always honest. Always forthright. And always going out of her way to answer questions and make other feel comfortable around her.

She is not about glamour, but rather, about a love for animals, people and the world around her.

She continues to have my greatest respect and admiration.

RAH

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I'm with AstonMartin007 and RAH on this one... she was never an actress who tried to perpetuate her youth on camera, but left to pursue a private life focused on her greater passion for innocent animals, which is actually pretty easy to understand if you ever had to work within the Hollywood system, deal with studio bosses, an agent, or all the other toxic humans that populate that environment.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I'll chime in here with a quick comment. Ms Novak is an extraordinary lady. I had the pleasure of getting to know her back in 1996, traveling with her, and witnessing the reactions of film fans to her presence. Always honest. Always forthright. And always going out of her way to answer questions and make other feel comfortable around her. She is not about glamour, but rather, about a love for animals, people and the world around her. She continues to have my greatest respect and admiration. RAH

If someone could write something like this, about me, I'd consider my life well lived.

 

[AdrianTurner]

I'm with AstonMartin007 and RAH on this one... she was never an actress who tried to perpetuate her youth on camera, but left to pursue a private life focused on her greater passion for innocent animals, which is actually pretty easy to understand if you ever had to work within the Hollywood system, deal with studio bosses, an agent, or all the other toxic humans that populate that environment.

I always thought agents, studio bosses etc were fairly low down in the animal orders, if you ask me.

 

[classicmovieguy]

Kim has always been a class act. I'll always applaud and love her. What has happened to society - we are so quick to judge on appearances alone. Same with Ellen and her misguided 'joke' aimed at Liza Minnelli. The Oscars ceremony was so tacky this year.

 

[John-Mg]

I just noticed the USA single disc preorders on amazon including Vertigo. Anything different about this release?

 

[Jari K]

Like a new transfer? I highly doubt it.

 

[alago197]

Hi,

I now know what RAH meant some scenes in BluRay looks like garbage. Take for example the shot along Scottie's line (at the Mission return) "he made you over just like I made you over". There's a lot more blur and a poorer color set than in the 1996 restoration I think

But the BluRay looks very good to me, esp. the daylight scenes (and many set scenes like the Elster's office, the meeting with Scottie at the club, Erni's, etc) are very nice, and the soundtrack is superb

 

[Robert Harris]

Hi,I now know what RAH meant some scenes in BluRay looks like garbage. Take for example the shot along Scottie's line (at the Mission return) "he made you over just like I made you over". There's a lot more blur and a poorer color set than in the 1996 restoration I think But the BluRay looks very good to me, esp. the daylight scenes (and many set scenes like the Elster's office, the meeting with Scottie at the club, Erni's, etc) are very nice, and the soundtrack is superb

Absolutely no reason why Vertigo should not have been frame perfect. Not difficult. Important film.RAH

 

[alago197]

Absolutely no reason why Vertigo should not have be frame perfect.RAH

Let's hope Universal give another try before current prints ages again!! . Btw, I watched several years ago the pre-1996 in VHS and truly, Robert, you did a wonderful job.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Yes, a great job.
I guess the two reissues we're all hoping for are 'Vertigo' and 'My Fair Lady', because we know just how good those transfers could have been..

 

[ljgranberry]

Yes, a great job.
I guess the two reissues we're all hoping for are 'Vertigo' and 'My Fair Lady', because we know just how good those transfers could have been..

Let's not forget SPARTACUS!

 

[alago197]

Let's not forget SPARTACUS!

I for one would love to hear restored the sound of Luis Buñuel's The Exterminating Angel (a mono track but full of hisses and bangs)

 

[moviebuff75]

I really enjoyed the "Vertigo" blu-ray.

 

[Paul Penna]

The web site Shorpy has published a Kodachrome slide taken by a user's father at the time second unit photography was underway in San Francisco in August 1957. His dad was on Clay Street close to the same time as a scene from the film was filmed, and happened to capture the same view with the same cars parked along the curb. There's a frame grab from the film in the comments accompanying the photo:

http://www.shorpy.com/node/18186

 

[alago197]

oh that's pretty close! from the far building's shadows it seems the photo was taken few minutes after the filming