L BENDER

Russian WAR AND PEACE

This might just be the greatest film ever made . First saw it during a trip to New York in the sixties. Saw part one during the afternoon and part two in the evening. There has not been anything like it since and no doubt never will be again. Yes I do have the widescreen dvd but lets be honest, the video quality is not the greatest. Colors are not very good though that might be due the Soviet color process. Could we ever see a restoration of this masterpeice? One can only dream.

Jim*Tod

Re: Russian WAR AND PEACE

I agree... this is one of the all time great films and pretty much unbeatable purely as spectacle. I was lucky enough to see a 70mm print of the Russian version at AFI in Silver Spring a few years back... this had subtitles and was longer than the official U.S. release which had horrible dubbing. The image quality varied but the sound was incredible. I know recently a "restored" 35mm version was making the rounds... it showed at the Film Forum in NYC last year... and it was said then that the original elements have yet to be found. The Russico dvd has some problems image wise, but again the sound was great... I have never heard such elaborate use of the surround tracks.

So---- add my vote for a new and improved dvd.

Peter Overduin

Re: Russian WAR AND PEACE

Here's the link to the Kultur films edition, but I don't know anything about it. I too have been searching for this film on DVD, but it seems a good edition is impossible to find.

http://estore.websitepros.com/1652646/Categories.bok

Peter

My Collection

Ken Horowitz

Re: Russian WAR AND PEACE

Per this story in Variety, next year's Berlin Film Festival will have a sidebar featuring screenings of 22 films in 70mm, including "War and Peace", "Lawrence of Arabia", "Ben Hur", and "Celopatra".

Berlin pays homage to 70 mm films - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

Jim*Tod

Re: Russian WAR AND PEACE

Do not buy the Kultur version... it is not letterboxed and is basically horrid. What you want is the Russico version which while not perfect is vastly better. Check this link to DVD BEAVER for comparisons:

"War and Peace (1967)" RusciCo vs Kultur

Darth Lavender

Re: Russian WAR AND PEACE

Avoid the NTSC Ruscico, too.

Basically, Ruscico has a policy of producing all their DVDs in PAL and then transfering (badly) to NTSC.

This is especially serious with War & Peace, given the frequent use of a sort of early steady-cam type contraption. (ie. lots and lots of ghosting) It's not evident in the comparison for some reason but, trust me, in motion, it looks terrible. (I bought it a few years ago for, all up, about $100 (without knowing about PAL>NTSC,) and I haven't bought a single Ruscico DVD since. That should give you some idea of my impressions)

Beyond the ghosting (an obvious transfer problem) it gets a little hard to say how much of the image-quality is director's intent and how much is an unfortunate side-effect of the loss of the original negative.
Certainly, the subdued colors are consistant with Bondarchuk's later 'Waterloo' (shot on completely different film-stock and without as many problems as Voina i Mir)