- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,272
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
I love Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist, which in many ways changed some of the ways that film was being viewed when it was released in 1970, in what I felt were dazzlingly beautiful dye transfer Technicolor prints, which brought Vittorio Storaro's imagery to the screen.
The new Blu-ray from Raro Video is purportedly a restoration. The color and densities mimic what I recall from dye transfer prints. Grain structure is perfect, as is shadow detail, with lovely rich blacks and pure whites.
Audio is superb.
But then the problems creep in, and I see them as the basis of a failed restorative effort.
There is an overall lack of image stability, with way too much movement within the frame. In some instances I'm seeing image distortion, the cause of which I presume can be found in the original scanning, and potentially from movement during scans caused by timing notches.
Someone during QC really needed to go through this looking at the trees as opposed to the forest, and given failing grades for an imperfectly rendered image.
What is, at least to me, an absolutely gorgeous Blu-ray should go back to the drawing boards, to the original data files, and have imagery handled correctly.
One of the truly great films of the past decades should have been treated with far more respect.
Image - 2.5
Audio - 5
Pass / Fail - Fail
Needs more work before release.
RAH