Drowning by Numbers (Peter Greenaway) 4K UHD - Severin Films 5/30/2023 (1 Viewer)

[JoshZ]

Severin Films has a 5/30/23 preorder up for Peter Greenaway's Drowning by Numbers on 4K UHD, "featuring a new 4K scan from the original negative personally supervised by Greenaway" and an "Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Peter Greenaway."

Drowning By Numbers [2-Disc 4K UHD w/Exclusive Slipcover]

In between his celebrated THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT and THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER, writer/director Peter Greenaway – “one of the most distinctive, provocative talents of his generation” (The Guardian) – shocked/delighted international audiences with this slyly deranged black...

severinfilms.com

The $40 price is a bit painful, but should still be exciting news for fans. Peter Greenaway has always had Bad Video Karma. Very few of his movies (and none of the major ones) are available on Blu-ray or high-definition. Half of them didn't even get released on DVD, and the ones that did were mostly poor quality. To see one jump into 4K UHD is kind of a big deal.

I wouldn't say this is Greenaway's best movie, but it's a more accessible work than a lot of his later efforts where he let his pompousness and pretentiousness get the better of him.

 

[Dick]

This is interesting. Too bad Greenaway's back catalog is damn near unavailable on Blu.

 

[jayembee]

This is interesting. Too bad Greenaway's back catalog is damn near unavailable on Blu.

Almost half of his features have been released on Blu-ray, though most are Region B locked.

 

[jayembee]

To see one jump into 4K UHD is kind of a big deal.

It is. This'll be the first Greenaway on UHD. I was glad to get the new BFI release of The Draughtsman's Contract, but disappointed that they didn't release it on UHD.

 

[titch]

Almost half of his features have been released on Blu-ray, though most are Region B locked.

Only the recent BFI 4K restoration of The Draughtsman's Contract actually looks nice. The other titles from his 1980's output, which established Peter Greenaway as an auteur, are dated masters. I missed the 2020 Indicator B-locked release of The Pillow Book, which is sold out. Peter Greenaway does have his fans and I wondered why Criterion so far have not added him to the collection. He is ripe for a career retrospective.

 

[Martin_Teller]

Finally!

 

[JoshZ]

I missed the 2020 Indicator B-locked release of The Pillow Book, which is sold out.

As prior video editions did, the Pillow Book Blu-ray unfortunately misframes the entire movie. Theatrically, it was projected at 1.85:1 with some shots letterboxed to 2.35:1. The video transfer is a fully open-matte scan of the entire 35mm frame, pillarboxed in the middle of a 16::9 window.

The 1.85:1 scenes are open-matte 4:3, and the 2.35:1 shots are windowboxed with black bars on all sides.

 

[JoshZ]

Peter Greenaway does have his fans and I wondered why Criterion so far have not added him to the collection. He is ripe for a career retrospective.

My read on this (which could be entirely my own interpretation) is that Greenaway doesn't see himself as a movie director. He considers himself an artist who happens to use film as his medium. His preference is for his work to be exhibited in museums and art galleries. He doesn't like the idea of them playing in multiplexes, and the thought of anyone watching them at home is a little appalling to him, like judging a Rembrandt based on looking at a Xeroxed photocopy. As such, he's paid little attention to their status on home video. That he actually appears to have participated in this one is quite a breakthrough.

When I've seen him speak, he has the most hilariously pretentious pronunciation of "cinemaaaah." It's so over-the-top you'd almost think he must be pulling your leg, except that he seems to be completely sincere about it.