A Few Words About A few words about...™ Stay As You Are -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Cult Epics is releasing Stay As You Are, with Marcello Mastroianni and Nastassja Kinski, and like some things better of left unsaid...

Miss Kinski is a lovely creature to look at, and equally delightful in person, but viewing her through the imagery of this new Blu-ray is an unpleasant experience.

The source for this release is problematic.  And no matter what one tries to do with a poor dupe, there just isn't any way to make it look great.

Overall, the image is soft, and at times, just weird looking.  Color is occasionally decent, but usually problematic.  Grain generally isn't.  Black levels are unfortunate.

Need I continue.

I support what Cult is trying to do, but my take on this release, would have been to put out a decent DVD, and leave the Blu-ray arena to better quality fare.

Image - 1.5

Audio - 3

Pass / Fail - Fail

RAH

I will have this Blu tomorrow(by grace of the PO Gods) along with the two Soledad.

I have, arguably, the best DVD of this(no idea if the companion DVD here is better, but I doubt it).

Not expecting great things on this. My view will be tempered with "expected expectations".

I do get all the "up in arms"...but...

Shoe string budget movie on a shoe string disc.

The BD of "Moon in the Gutter" is unfortunately in the same league. Horrible.

Same goes for the Blu release of The Hollywood Knights. Crummy PQ.

Watching now.

Crummy picture, but it is better than my PAL DVD, which even that disc is a subpar DVD.

Best this will ever look, sad fact that still isn't very good.

There is the scene where he finds the pictures of Flora. You can actually tell, finally, the picture on the left is just out of focus. You can read the writing on the other picture clearly. Can't do that on the DVD.

Thought I'd add...

This is definitely not the same element used on the DVD I have. The opening sequence, before asking for the gardener, has frame jumps and "filmic issues" not present on the DVD. The major difference here...

Color is washed. Almost no vibrancy at all.

The sad part, I bet this is a HD scan. Not an upscale(like somebody else, elsewhere, trumpeted from the hilltops in disdain). There is detail here. Problem is...it is all washed out wart.

However, for me...worth the update(not calling it an upgrade).

(regarding sound. This movie has never been given a decent sounding release, not even back on VHS when the film prints were new)

Kyrsten Brad said:

Same goes for the Blu release of The Hollywood Knights. Crummy PQ.

Click to expand...

Actually. Hollywood Knights looks pretty good for such a low budget film. Decent detail, no DNR, good grain.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Stay-As-You-Are-Blu-ray/126550/#Review


The stills show that this is not a bad HD transfer at all. It's simply not a HD transfer. It's upsampled standard definition and bad standard definition too. If a top PAL studio master is a 10 this is a 2 or 3. As HD it's a solid zero.

Cult Epics is trying very hard to build a cult following of people who prefer their Blu-rays to look like composite masters from the VHS era. They must be saddened to see that their effort just isn't appreciated all that much.