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FUNNY FACE and SABRINA Eye Popping Blu-rays (1 Viewer)

kagemusha98

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I just watched FUNNY FACE and SABRINA Blu-rays which I bought in Paris a few days ago. The transfers, especially with the Vistavision Funny Face are spectacular! "Think Pink" practically looks 3D! Goods news is that they will play on my Region A Blu Ray player.
 

kagemusha98

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No SABRINA is 1.33. Great B&W transfer....First shot after credits is a bit blurry but that about a minute....then sharp and detailed.
 

John Hodson

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I read this on another forum (apologies in advance for the language):
I'm sorry to report the French Funny Face is an unmitigated disaster.
As I feared they didn't do a new harvest/4k scan from 8 perf Vista elements. They have stuck with the telecine they used for the previous two DVD releases (the last was the Centenary) which are very nice in themselves but are almost certainly 2k taken from a 35mm Reduction print. Despite the hugely overwhelming scrub job you can still see the exact same small surface print nicks and scratches from the older SD versions. (THey did get rid of the imprinted gate hair in the Vistavision/Mountain title credit however.)
If they had simply done the encode straight for the Blu Ray and not otherwise tampered with it the transfer would have been "acceptable". But no, never fear - they've put it through so much fucking DNR Fred and Audrey's faces in CUs and two shots are clay central, and detail generally has taken a powder. Just as bad they've done some hideous blowout with white levels so contrast and grayscale are knocked sideways, and the color palette has taken a hit in a much more muted direction. It's absolutely heartbreaking. Especially to anyone like me who reveres the film so much. The BD image blown through a projector onto a very large screen (120 inch diagonal) looks ghastly, but not surprisingly just letting the Oppo uprez the SD Centenary disc (576 p for PAL) is totally superior viewing experience. Don't waste your money.
Sabrina is OK. But anything would look OK after the catastrophe that is the Funny Clay Face BD. One can only hope (like it wont happen folks) there will be some groundswell of complaint on the web and Paramount will see fit to redo the encode for the US release. As though anyone gives a shit.
Can't comment; I haven't seen it.
 

haineshisway

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It's on its way to me, as is Sabrina. My fear with every Paramount title now, especially the VistaVision stuff is that they've let Ron Smith go - he was responsible for The Ten Commandments, White Christmas, and Tiffany's, all stellar and wonderful transfers. I have no idea what others he did and didn't work on and there seems to be a large disconnect here between these sets of comments, but my fear is that the regime now doing everything at Paramount has no interest in doing any further restoration work or new scanning, hence the Chinatown transfer.
 

NY2LA

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haineshisway said:
It's on its way to me, as is Sabrina. My fear with every Paramount title now, especially the VistaVision stuff is that they've let Ron Smith go - he was responsible for The Ten Commandments, White Christmas, and Tiffany's, all stellar and wonderful transfers. I have no idea what others he did and didn't work on and there seems to be a large disconnect here between these sets of comments, but my fear is that the regime now doing everything at Paramount has no interest in doing any further restoration work or new scanning, hence the Chinatown transfer.
You think the departure of Mr. Smith is why they f-ed up My Fair Lady and left the overture off Scrooge?
 

lukejosephchung

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Originally Posted by NY2LA /t/320526/funny-face-and-sabrina-eye-popping-blu-rays#post_3923050
You think the departure of Mr. Smith is why they f-ed up My Fair Lady and left the overture off Scrooge?
Both those titles were controlled by CBS, not Paramount. Ron Smith would've had nothing to do with either one of them whether he'd stayed or not!!! Paramount was only handling distribution...
 

RKR1970

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A DCP of FUNNY FACE was screened at the TCM Classic Film Festival this past April coming from 4k scans of the 8-perf OCN. Sorry to report it was scrubbed to death, very smeary, with color pumped up to 14. Mr. Smith started this project early on, but Andrea Kalas, VP of Archives, supervised color and grain management on the new FUNNY FACE restoration. Will THE QUIET MAN and SUNSET BOULEVARD, titles Ms. Kalas and her team are working on now, have these same issues? Time will tell.
MY FAIR LADY and SCROOGE were handled by CBS mastering, not Paramount.
 

kagemusha98

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Well...I can see every wrinkle and line on Kay Thompson's face.....I had never seen that on any other incarnation of FUNNY FACE.
 

Bob Furmanek

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82848257_Sabrina.jpeg

SABRINA began filming in late September 1953, 6 months after Paramount went 100% widescreen.
According to Boxoffice, the aspect ratio is 1.75:1.
 

haineshisway

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RKR1970 said:
A DCP of FUNNY FACE was screened at the TCM Classic Film Festival this past April coming from 4k scans of the 8-perf OCN. Sorry to report it was scrubbed to death, very smeary, with color pumped up to 14. Mr. Smith started this project early on, but Andrea Kalas, VP of Archives, supervised color and grain management on the new FUNNY FACE restoration. Will THE QUIET MAN and SUNSET BOULEVARD, titles Ms. Kalas and her team are working on now, have these same issues? Time will tell.
MY FAIR LADY and SCROOGE were handled by CBS mastering, not Paramount.
While no one laments the loss of Ron Smith more than I, if he began this I'll wait and see the disc - why would they need to "scrub" a 4K scan off the VistaVision negative? There would be little grain, which was the point of VistaVision. In other words, exactly what are they scrubbing? Grain would be EXTREMELY fine and not so visible off the original negative.
 

RKR1970

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haineshisway said:
While no one laments the loss of Ron Smith more than I, if he began this I'll wait and see the disc - why would they need to "scrub" a 4K scan off the VistaVision negative? There would be little grain, which was the point of VistaVision. In other words, exactly what are they scrubbing? Grain would be EXTREMELY fine and not so visible off the original negative.
His involvement was sending the negative over to Technicolor for scanning and that was it. The last title Mr. Smith worked on fully was SAMSON AND DELILAH
Fred and Audrey look plastic, close-ups were smooth, waxy, and movement was smeared at times, with no trace of any grain on the screen. The normal tight grain structure you would see from a 5248 negative, in 8-perf, was completely removed. If you have seen Ron’s restored THE TEN COMMANDMENTS projected from DCP, it looked nothing like that. I’m truly puzzled by Paramount’s handling of this title.
 

haineshisway

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RKR1970 said:
His involvement was sending the negative over to Technicolor for scanning and that was it. The last title Mr. Smith worked on fully was SAMSON AND DELILAH
Fred and Audrey look plastic, close-ups were smooth, waxy, and movement was smeared at times, with no trace of any grain on the screen. The normal tight grain structure you would see from a 5248 negative, in 8-perf, was completely removed. If you have seen Ron’s restored THE TEN COMMANDMENTS projected from DCP, it looked nothing like that. I’m truly puzzled by Paramount’s handling of this title.
Well, I'll let you know what I think after I've seen it - it should be here mid-week.
 

flixyflox

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John Hodson said:
I read this on another forum (apologies in advance for the language):
Can't comment; I haven't seen it.
John please feel free to ascribe the quote to its author, language and all. (Im not that precious when it comes to misadventures like this transfer.)
 

flixyflox

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RKR1970 said:
A DCP of FUNNY FACE was screened at the TCM Classic Film Festival this past April coming from 4k scans of the 8-perf OCN. Sorry to report it was scrubbed to death, very smeary, with color pumped up to 14. Mr. Smith started this project early on, but Andrea Kalas, VP of Archives, supervised color and grain management on the new FUNNY FACE restoration. Will THE QUIET MAN and SUNSET BOULEVARD, titles Ms. Kalas and her team are working on now, have these same issues? Time will tell.
MY FAIR LADY and SCROOGE were handled by CBS mastering, not Paramount.
Ive just seen a 720p HDTV of Sunset Blvd. It looks very good in this resolution, good grain, good black levels, and considering the issues with weak dupe elements I think it's very pleasing, and these 720ps are usually a very reliable indicator of 1080p BD quality. It's better than Sabrina for instance which I think has issues with softness and rez..
 

John Hodson

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flixyflox said:
John please feel free to ascribe the quote to its author, language and all. (Im not that precious when it comes to misadventures like this transfer.)
Apologies David; it's precisely the fact that I think you know of what you speak that I quoted you in the first instance.
I've also seen a broadcast HD version Sunset Blvd (in 1080i); it looked very good.
 

RKR1970

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SUNSET BOULEVARD is being re-restored now. You're seeing the older HD master on TV.
 

bigshot

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I saw the French Funny Face bluray too, and on my projection system it was absolutely stunning. Amazing looking film with incredible color. Tons of detail.
 

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