New Kubrick SE's (1 Viewer)

[Travis Brashear]

Nicely stated, and if you are defending me (or at least my assertions), then I appreciate the courtesy. To beat rich_d to the lackluster punch, though, I'm sure he'll argue that he accused me of being a quasi-expert, not an actual one, therefore my arguments have all the weight of vapor with him. Funny, though, because the weight of one's alleged expertise should be measurable by the saliency of one's facts, and here I am arguing with someone who's brand of retort consists of vacuous statements like "Silly me, yet again, I must have stumbled into the art forum by mistake" when the very issue we are debating is...brace yourselves...art work.

 

[Craig Beam]

Hmmm. Smells like piss in here.

 

[Travis Brashear]

... that it does; touché! I'm afraid you'll have to blame the asparagus undertone on me...

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Sorry to move us off the topic, but What is this you're talking about?

And does anyone have any links to pictures of the controversial artwork? (I tried looking at the DVD Talk link, but that didn't work - for some reason the picture wouldn't load.)

 

[Dustin James]

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Now that you show me, I do remember having seen that poster over the years. I had no idea Saul Bass did the art - but I'm not surprised. It has that precise capture of the film that Bass was so great at.

 

[Dion C]

I, too, recall that original Saul Bass artwork, and seeing it again reminds me how wonderful, evocative, and effective that simple piece of art is. It's stunning.

I would swap out my current "The Shining" DVD cover (from the new set) to that Bass one in a heartbeat.

 

[Travis Brashear]

I've always liked the Saul Bass poster but desperately wished it was white or red. Yellow in no manner evokes any part of this icy horror film for me.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Yellow was a strange choice. Don't eat the snow!

In my 2001 Blu-Ray, there was a sheet of upcoming BD releases that included the "Kubrick Collection" logo. I haven't heard anything official about an HD release of the boxed set though.

 

[Keith I]

I finally get this today and play Eyes Wide Shut Disc 1 when the animated menu seems different, more upbeat, more jazzy. Then a red airplane swishes across the screen and Ocean's Twelve appears! Huh? Now I have to return the entire box via Media Mail to Amazon's return center from Hawai'i which will take about three weeks, then another 7 to 14 days to process the return.

I wish I could just mail the EWS discs to Warner but I have to attempt to return it to the retailer first.

 

[rich_d]

Too bad, perhaps WHV eyes are wide shut.

Another option, would be to just return it and wait for the DDD 20 percent off sale that will be here pretty soon.

 

[Anthony Neilson]

Jan Harlan discusses the Kubrick set here -

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/10/30/073219.php

and here:

http://uk.dvd.ign.com/articles/833/833528p1.html

He's hopeful that LOLITA and BARRY LYNDON will appear soon and confirms the long-awaited Taschen book on NAPOLEON.

 

[Simon Howson]

This answer doesn't really make much sense. Excluding the experimentation in the early early 1900s and again in the early 1930s, Widescreen became popular in the mid 1950s - well before multiplexes. In fact some multiplexes have quite narrow screens meaning the image isn't actually projected properly.

As with the whole anamorphic transfer debate regarding the last set of Kubrick DVDs, again someone associated closely with the Kubrick estate doesn't seem to have a complete knowledge of how Kubrick's films were original presented theatrically, and how best to convert that experience to video.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Actually, the lack of complete knowledge is more about the history of widescreen cinema than how the films were presented in theaters. He covered the latter by saying Kubrick "had to go along". In any case, the controversy has always been due to claims from SK and close associates that he preferred the films presented at a different aspect ratio on video than in their theatrical runs. Folks on either side of the argument now have decent video presentations to choose from on standard DVD for EWS, FMJ, and The Shining, so happiness abounds, right?

Regards,

 

[rich_d]

One would hope.

However, a more cynical view is that true happiness comes from not only being right but your opponent being wrong and knowing it.

It's like a scene in the film Annie Hall, where Alvy Singer pulls Marshall McLuhan out from the crowd to settle a disagreement with a self-described expert on McLuhan's work. McLuhan just doesn't tell the man that he's incorrect but tells him that he knows nothing of his work crushing him like a grape. IIRC, Alvy looks at the screen and says something like 'if only life were that simple.'

 

[Simon Howson]

Do you think Harlan was trying to say that Kubrick liked the Academy format, but disliked having to compose for matted widescreen in the widescreen era? His connection of the widescreen era and megaplexes is so way off as to be completely confusing.

But I guess I should've been clearer, in my previous post I was referring to the last set of Kubrick DVDs where in a few interviews Leon Vitali didn't seem to understand the difference between a film photographed with anamorphic lenses, and a DVD matted to 1.66:1 and encoded in anamorphic widescreen.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Vitali was discussing lenses of different focal lengths being used for shots with the camera placed at different distances. The analogy with 16:9 enhancement was equally incorrect, but not grounds for completely dismissing the rest of his statements on other topics any more than Simon's mis-rembering of it as having to do with anamorphic lenses would be grounds for dismissing other points that he makes, which are almost always well informed and reasonable (with a better batting average than mine, I bet ).

Regards,

 

[Charles_Y]

Just purchased the sets and not having seen this discussion I was not aware of the "special covers" chosen for this box set. I was REALLY let down. Warner should have made the buyer aware of this more overtly.

Looking them over I agree they are somewhat minimalist and I suppose they work. However, the one cardinal sin here is that The Shining shuns this approach and uses what I believe is the general release cover completely nullifying the unified look to this set. Warner really blew it on this one. The Art Director and Product Manager were asleep at the wheel here.

I for one would have preferred Bob McCall's original artwork for this 2001: a Space Odyssey re-release. The "Star Child" revisioning used in the general release is ok but I prefer the former.

 

[TravisR]

Should there be a warning? It's just a cover.

 

[Craig Beam]

Yeah, maybe they should include it as part of the ratings system. "Rated R for Adult themes, violence, and minimalist cover art."