A Few Words About A few words about...™ Dr. Zhivago -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[marsnkc]

Originally Posted by Vincent_P

Love your site, Steve, and thank you for it. RAH's 1989 interview with Cineaste on the Lawrence restoration is a nail-biter - a reminder of how close we came to losing it. Lean's notes on the post-premiere editing of Lawrence are fascinating.

I got Adrian Turner's bio of Robert Bolt. Am in the middle of reading another book so just skimmed through the introduction and acknowledgements section - itself beautifully written and fascinating. I was embarrassed to read that he edited Kevin Brownlow's magnificent bio of Lean - this after quoting the book to him in earlier posts!

 

[Vincent_P]

As an unapologetic lover of HEAVEN'S GATE, I'll disagree with you regarding the film's artistic merits. But I have to correct one thing- HG did not "bankrupt" UA. UA was in decent financial shape even with the flop of that film. What the hysterical over-reaction to HG did was make UA a laughing stock in the eyes of the industry and much of the media, and thus easy prey for a take-over, which is what happened when MGM bought the company from Transamerica. It may have "destroyed" the company in the sense that it would never be the same after the sale to MGM, but HEAVEN'S GATE did not bankrupt the company.


Vincent

Originally Posted by marsnkc

...except that Lean's over-budget would undoubtedly have resulted in a masterpiece, swelled the coffers of UA and further enhanced its reputation, while Cimino's dud resulted in its bankruptcy.

 

[marsnkc]

Amazing how memory plays tricks, Vincent (not for the first time!). I read 'Final Cut' back in 1995 and the impression that stays with me is that HG bankrupted UA, leading to its downfall.

If ever there was a nail-biter, that book is. I've got it hidden away in one of many uncataloged boxes in the garage but will have to dig it out.

 

[marsnkc]

I think I can be forgiven for thinking that HG 'bankrupted' UA. The Wikipedia article on HG quotes the Bach book's title and subtitle as, 'Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists'.

While the title doesn't have the word 'bankrupt' in it (the studio still had its Bond, Panther and Rocky franchises) the Wikipedia article on United Artists says, 'The Studio, which was essentially bankrupt following the disaster of Heaven's Gate..........'


United Artists was destroyed the day it was bought by Transamerica. Typical of essentially clueless corporations when it comes to the movie industry (or any industry outside their expertise) they bought it because it was a going concern, then proceeded to destroy it by interference - in this case causing Benjamin and Krim to bail out, prior to HG. Those guys WERE Unitd Artists! (The interferences included objections to the 'X-rated' nature of some of their films, including 'Midnight Cowboy' and 'Last Tango in Paris', resulting in Transamerica having its 'good name' removed from the credits).

 

[Stefan Andersson]

Hello Mr. Turner! Thank you for participating in this discussion!


Have you seen the materials regarding the Bounty project in the Melvyn Bragg archives? If so, did you find any substantial new info?


The Bragg files were recently referenced online in a blog dedicated to Harold Pinter and Peggy Ramsay:

(schttp://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/pinter_archive_blog/2010/02/mutiny-in-the-archives-melvyn-braggs-papers-go-to-leeds.html

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by marsnkc


United Artists was destroyed the day it was bought by Transamerica. Typical of essentially clueless corporations when it comes to the movie industry (or any industry outside their expertise) they bought it because it was a going concern, then proceeded to destroy it by interference - in this case causing Benjamin and Krim to bail out, prior to HG. Those guys WERE Unitd Artists! (The interferences included objections to the 'X-rated' nature of some of their films, including 'Midnight Cowboy' and 'Last Tango in Paris', resulting in Transamerica having its 'good name' removed from the credits).

I had read the Transamerica had watched how Paramount had helped the stock price of Gulf & Western since its purchase and went after a couple of studios but ended up with United Artists. However, Transamerica did not have a Charles Bluhdorm that watched not over Paramount but his other interests carefully and placing the right people in the correct job. In the end the United Artists had not helped Transamerica's stock at all and more than likely hindered it and they were glad to rid themselves of the problem child.

 

[Stefan Andersson]

Q & A video – Tom Courtenay and Rita Tushingham on Dr. Zhivago. London, 2015:
http://explore.bfi.org.uk/56680560cc476

An interview with director Bernard Rose about Nicolas Roeg, with brief mentions of Roeg´s work on Doctor Zhivago (Rose says Freddie Young shot less than half of the film) and Lawrence of Arabia.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/interviews/bernard-rose-nicolas-roeg

 

[Malcolm Bmoor]

There's a way to establish the truth of this. Freddie Young took over from Nicolas Roeg when he (Roeg) wasn't pleasing David Lean with the big street scene, in which the soldiers ride down the people and Zhivago, after seeing it from his balcony, comes down to help.


So looking at the schedule will give the answer. Everything including and after that scene was shot by Freddie Young.

 

[Robin9]

There's a way to establish the truth of this. Freddie Young took over from Nicolas Roeg when he (Roeg) wasn't pleasing David Lean with the big street scene, in which the soldiers ride down the people and Zhivago, after seeing it from his balcony, comes down to help.


So looking at the schedule will give the answer. Everything including and after that scene was shot by Freddie Young.

Geraldine Chaplin in one of the "extras" makes clear that Mr. Roeg went quite early. Eddie Fowlie in his memoirs makes the same point.

 

[ArnoldLayne]

If you want to find the cinematic roots of David Lean's Dr. Zhivago, you're best to visit Criterion's DVD of his 1946 Great Expectations, still one of the finest representations of Dickens on film. Once you've viewed it, you'll see where I'm coming from.

What all of this means to the Blu-ray is that virtually everything that could be done to promote a high quality final result, has been done. MPI colorist Janet Walker has use a unique original print as a source of color and density, and has created a final product that appears dead on.

The image has been cleaned, and now appears much as it did in 1965.

The final result is gorgeous.


RAH

7 years on, I'd like to see if improvements can be made, including elimination of the haloing, and AVC encode at 30mbs instead of the VC1 @ 18mbs. I do appreciate its current form though. I watch it every two years...

 

[willyTass]

I'd like it in UHD

 

[benbess]

This is a movie I love, and I've watched it about once a year since the blu-ray came out.

 

[Robert Harris]

One of the most interesting starts to a second half.

The 70mm blow-ups were gorgeous, but put a great deal of wear on the OCN.

The version that we have today is quite different from the original.

 

[Robin9]

One of the most interesting starts to a second half.

The 70mm blow-ups were gorgeous, but put a great deal of wear on the OCN.

The version that we have today is quite different from the original.

Yes, those blow-ups were really impressive. I saw a 70mm print and didn't realise it was a blow-up from 35mm. In a magazine interview Freddie Young said - and I think this is an exact quote - "I defy anyone to see the difference."

 

[WilliamMcK]

Sometime in 1977, the Capri 70 in Knoxville, TN had a 70mm "festival." A 70mm blow-up of ZHIVAGO was screened for a week. I saw it twice. It's still one of the most amazing things I've seen in a movie theater (along with the same theater's presentation of HELLO, DOLLY! during the same "festival").

 

[haineshisway]

Certainly I wouldn't mind seeing it with some color that actually matched the color of the original prints

 

[john a hunter]

Yes, those blow-ups were really impressive. I saw a 70mm print and didn't realise it was a blow-up from 35mm. In a magazine interview Freddie Young said - and I think this is an exact quote - "I defy anyone to see the difference."

Yes MGM went to great lengths with the 70mm blow up down to matching prints of a certain density to certain cinemas.
However there was certainly one person who saw the difference( and despite what Freddie Young said,he was not alone )and that person was David Lean!
He ensured that 70 was used on his next picture and is on the record regretting that 35 anamorphic was used on Zhivago.

 

[DP 70]

I remember in 1977 they had a David Lean season at the NFT in London and they screened his personal 70mm print and it looked
excellent.

 

[Paul Rossen]

I remember in 1977 they had a David Lean season at the NFT in London and they screened his personal 70mm print and it looked


excellent.

I wonder where this print is now and what shape it's in... if the film today looks so different today couldn't someone
mention this to WB so that if they are contemplating a 4K release it could be color corrected to Lean's original specifications.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

I wonder where this print is now and what shape it's in... if the film today looks so different today couldn't someone
mention this to WB so that if they are contemplating a 4K release it could be color corrected to Lean's original specifications.

It would have faded by now unless he kept it in a refrigerated vault.