A few words about…™ Reflections in a Golden Eye – in Blu-ray

Robert Harris said:

The way to view Warner Archive's beautiful new Reflections in a Golden Eye is definitely as the filmmaker intended.

Full color appears wacky in comparison.

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While I'm happy that the color version is included, I doubt I could watch it all the way through.

Counting down the days until I receive my copy! I'll watched the golden hue version one night, and the full-colour version the next.

Thanks for being so good to Elizabeth Taylor fans this year, WAC!

Andrew Budgell said:

Counting down the days until I receive my copy! I'll watched the golden hue version one night, and the full-colour version the next.

Thanks for being so good to Elizabeth Taylor fans this year, WAC!

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Didn’t know she could ride a horse

Robert Harris said:

Didn’t know she could ride a horse

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I was about to bring up a certain 1945 movie before I realized your tongue was in your cheek!

Robert Harris said:

Didn’t know she could ride a horse

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Ms.Taylor exhibits a talent for multiple riding in this film.

You guys are too much!

Thomas T said:

While I'm happy that the color version is included, I doubt I could watch it all the way through.

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As I've stated in another thread, I first saw the full color version, and I was blown away by the richness of it. I've kept the image of Ms. Taylor's red velvet riding jacket against the pure white of the horse all these years, and the golden hued SD did nothing to change my mind. But I'm certainly willing to give it another try.

lark144 said:

As I've stated in another thread, I first saw the full color version, and I was blown away by the richness of it. I've kept the image of Ms. Taylor's red velvet riding jacket against the pure white of the horse all these years, and the golden hued SD did nothing to change my mind. But I'm certainly willing to give it another try.

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It’s an interesting concept, being able to select.

I’ve only previously seen the “golden” version, beginning at a screening several weeks before release.

As I recall only a small number of premiere prints were produced before Technicolor was instructed to make new printing matrices.

The new Blu is actually the first time I’ve seen the film in normal color.

Robert Harris said:

It’s an interesting concept, being able to select.

I’ve only previously seen the “golden” version, beginning at a screening several weeks before release.

As I recall only a small number of premiere prints were produced before Technicolor was instructed to make new printing matrices.

The new Blu is actually the first time I’ve seen the film in normal color.

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It might have something to do with what one first saw.

From your comments, you clearly thought the golden version was sumptuous and dazzling.

I thought the same about the full color version. The release print I saw was absolutely stunning, and the colors really aided in giving an emotional heft and a fugitive poetry to the film, as well as an hypnotic visual quality, which the golden version in SD didn't for me.

Of course, I know you felt the same way towards your experience of seeing the golden hued one. So maybe it's not the different versions which dazzle the eye, but the film itself.

The version that one first saw is the one that remains definitive.

lark144 said:

It might have something to do with what one first saw.

From your comments, you clearly thought the golden version was sumptuous and dazzling.

I thought the same about the full color version. The release print I saw was absolutely stunning, and the colors really aided in giving an emotional heft and a fugitive poetry to the film, as well as an hypnotic visual quality, which the golden version in SD didn't for me.

Of course, I know you felt the same way towards your experience of seeing the golden hued one. So maybe it's not the different versions which dazzle the eye, but the film itself.

The version that one first saw is the one that remains definitive.

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Agreed. But while my only previous exposure was to the initial version, the color and densities on what is considered the “normal” release have a full, rich Technicolored look to them. Must of it probably comes down to a beautifully, fully exposed negative.

Robert Harris said:

Didn’t know she could ride a horse

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Kudos, Mr. Harris, for displaying what may be the driest and often funniest sense of humor I have run into.

Robert Harris said:

Agreed. But while my only previous exposure was to the initial version, the color and densities on what is considered the “normal” release have a full, rich Technicolored look to them. Must of it probably comes down to a beautifully, fully exposed negative.

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That was one of the most beautiful release prints from the 1960's I ever saw; and I was especially surprised, as it was at the Vairiety Photoplays, where the quality of the prints were generally bottom of the barrel, which certainly matched the decor. But this print of REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, it put me in mind of the Venetian School; Titian and Veronese. Of course, this was shot by Aldo Tonti, & Oswald Morris, two of the all time greats, in Rome. I imagine the developing was done there, but I'm not sure about the prints. The saturated colors, especially the reds and whites, reminded me of Visconti. I guess you could say it had "a full, rich Technicolored look" but I always thought that kind of look implied a candy-colored kind of two-dimensional flatness, and this was the opposite. I'm sure Stephen Grimes or someone did detailed storyboards, as I recall the primaries were very carefully arranged in the foreground, and appeared to underline emotional and psychological elements of the relationships. Something we haven't yet talked about is avant-garde composer Toshiro Mayuzumi's score, which creates dissonances from tonal chords and passages; a bit like Bernard Hermann's "Psycho" but lusher, more exotic; finding its equivalent in the compositions.

I hope we'll soon see Huston's Night of the Iguana on Blu ray from WAC.

Sam Huston never played Nevada, Mo.

Robert Harris said:

Didn’t know she could ride a horse

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In National Velvet she rode a horse quite well; although she did have a fall that resulted in lifelong back pain.

The golden version is the way Huston intended it to look. It adds so much to the Southern gothic mood of the film.
I tried to watch the color version once....it was garish and ruined the mood of the film.

Ken Koc said:

In National Velvet she rode a horse quite well; although she did have a fall that resulted in lifelong back pain.

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Refer you back to Post 12

David Norman said:

Refer you back to Post 12

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LOL...... I should have known better .

I’ve never heard of or known about this film. I looked up Roger Ebert’s review and it is an unusual film from what I’ve gathered from the review. I might have to check this title out and in the desaturated version. It sounds like it was very unusual role for Brando. I read that Montgomery Clift was to have starred had he not died.