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Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

post #1 of 17
5/20/09 at 11:05am
Thread Starter 
HTF'ers may find this link interesting (you may have to put up with a brief ad at the start), a piece from The Guardian on the showing of the newly restored The Red Shoes at Cannes; clicking on the video reveals a fascinating interview with Thelma Schoonmaker, glimpses of the gorgeous new restoration and the news that 'Blimp' is next.

The gussied up The Red Shoes is due for release on SD and BD in the UK at the end of June from ITV DVD (the BD release appears to be, for now, a HMV 'exclusive'); a US release surely can't be far behind.
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post #2 of 17
5/20/09 at 12:44pm

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

This seems a bit strange to me, as the current dvd from Criterion looks great and indeed looks like Technicolor prints I have seen.
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post #3 of 17
5/20/09 at 1:07pm

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

As a companion-piece to the article John referenced, here is a link to an article published Sunday in the Los Angeles Times.

'The Red Shoes' shines anew - Los Angeles Times
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post #4 of 17
5/20/09 at 2:34pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

Thank you Dave.

Here is a link to the Film Foundation's news page about The Red Shoes; at the bottom of the page check the link to the PDF booklet. Quite nice.

Very decent as both the Criterion and the old Carlton DVD transfers are, I am confident that this restoration will result in socks being blown off...
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post #5 of 17
5/20/09 at 2:50pm

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

You mean ballet slippers being blown off, right?
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post #6 of 17
5/20/09 at 4:15pm

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

Red Shoes Blu-ray!
Red Shoes Blu-ray!

Hooray!!
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post #7 of 17
5/20/09 at 9:46pm

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Caps
This seems a bit strange to me, as the current dvd from Criterion looks great and indeed looks like Technicolor prints I have seen.

Oh, I disagree - it could look MUCH better, as the PAL DVD release available for years indeed does. The transfer used for the DVD was created for the mid-90s Laserdisc release. Excellent for the time, yes. Does it compare to a new HD transfer? No no no... Even the later PAL DVD release is far superior.

Take a look at Criterion's BLACK NARCISSUS - it is the worst of all DVD releases of the film! The UK release is amazingly good, with the French just barely besting in. The UK BD release is even more stunning than the French DVD, obviously taken from the same master but upgraded to HD.

Criterion's BLIMP is awfully off-color also when compared to the UK DVD release, which many find superior.
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post #8 of 17
5/21/09 at 6:31am

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

I caught THE RED SHOES on the MGM-HD channel, and the film had been cropped to make it widescreen. What an abomination!

I'm sure an official Blu-ray release won't do such a stupid thing to it.
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post #9 of 17
5/21/09 at 6:40am

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

Quote:
Originally Posted by MattH.
I caught THE RED SHOES on the MGM-HD channel, and the film had been cropped to make it widescreen. What an abomination!

I'm sure an official Blu-ray release won't do such a stupid thing to it.
Call / Email / Fax / carrier Pigeon the station and complain.

I have a serious fear that a lot of HD channels are going to start doing this to Academy format content.
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post #10 of 17
5/21/09 at 7:19am

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Howson
Call / Email / Fax / carrier Pigeon the station and complain.

I have a serious fear that a lot of HD channels are going to start doing this to Academy format content.


Yet they showed COLONEL BLIMP pillarboxed within the 1.78:1 frame. There is no rhyme or reason sometimes with the format MGM HD shows movies.

Though they rarely show anything of any merit, check out the HD channels of LIFETIME, LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK, ABC FAMILY, etc. - They ALL crop and stretch 4x3 content to 16x9 and just upscale to HD. Hardly an HD channel does that make...
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post #11 of 17
5/21/09 at 7:52am

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chuck Pennington
Though they rarely show anything of any merit, check out the HD channels of LIFETIME, LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK, ABC FAMILY, etc. - They ALL crop and stretch 4x3 content to 16x9 and just upscale to HD. Hardly an HD channel does that make...
The problem is politicians are always a decade behind the curve on new technologies, so they have absolutely no clue how to regulate and set standards so consumer knows what they are getting.

An HD channel IMO should only be able to show HD sourced content, i.e. new HD video footage, or new HD film scans. If they simply upscale SD content, it shouldn't be allowed to advertise itself as an HD channel.

Most of the HD channels in Australia crop all 2.4:1 Panavision films to 16:9. Most 2.4:1 Super 35 films look open matted, but FORTUNATELY they don't currently crop 4:3 content to 16:9. I'm sure it will start up in a few years though as ill informed idiots start complaining about pillar boxing the way they complained about letterboxing.
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post #12 of 17
5/21/09 at 9:04am

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

Quote:
Originally Posted by MattH.
I caught THE RED SHOES on the MGM-HD channel, and the film had been cropped to make it widescreen. What an abomination!

I'm sure an official Blu-ray release won't do such a stupid thing to it.

Ironically, some of their 4x3 films are the correct aspect ratio. This one was not. I deleted this one from my DVR instantly when I saw the cropping.
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post #13 of 17
5/21/09 at 11:09am

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

There is certainly no standard for HD movie broadcasting. As mentioned above, Col. Blimp was the correct OAR (and looked better than the criterion DVD, BTW). Moby Dick was shown in a 16:9 version that I think was merely a blow-up, and I constantly see 2.35:1 reduced to 16:9. Encore HD had a lot of the Bond films in HD, but sadly, none of the 2.35:1 films were shown properly.

Also, Universal HD shows a lot of blown up to 16x9 TV shows (Hogan's Heroes, The Equalizer), etc.

I find I have to go ahead and record the movie to see what I will get, and delete it if it is messed up. I have missed recording some films because I assumed it would be cropped, only to catch a few minutes while scanning to find it was actually in OAR.
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post #14 of 17
5/22/09 at 8:18am

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

Criterion's DVD has great color, but it doesn't seem to have much dirt/scratch removal and it's typical of older DVD releases having subpar compression. Great for 1998, but a remaster is more than overdue. The sound could use work, too. Count me in for a BluRay for this fantastic work of cinema!
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post #15 of 17
5/22/09 at 3:25pm

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

The UK BLACK NARCISSUS BD looks great, and I'm sure the BD of THE RED SHOES will look even better. I'm looking forward to this one.
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post #16 of 17
5/24/09 at 12:59am

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

UK ITV Blu-ray of The Red Shoes set for June 29th:
The Red Shoes [Blu-ray] [1948]: Amazon.co.uk: Marius Goring, Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook, Robert Helpmann, Leonide Massine, Albert Bassermann, Esmond Knight, Ludmilla Tcherina, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger: DVD
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post #17 of 17
5/24/09 at 4:23am
Thread Starter 

Re: Thelma Schoonmaker on restoring The Red Shoes

As I said in the first post Simon, though it was available to pre-order from several etailers, it now appears to be a HMV exclusive (who have now hiked thr price BTW, concurrent with its 'exclusive' status).
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