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

[atfree]

Just received an email from Amazon UK and my order for "The Apartment" has been dispatched.

Me too!

 

[BarryR]

For those who are attempting to follow the flow of inventory; mine is due on Tuesday, January 16th.

Same here. Probably sharing the same airline row seats.

 

[TexasRex]

I'm pleased to confirm that Mr. Wilder's The Apartment, The Best Picture of 1960, is everything that I had hoped that it would be, coming from Arrow.

Meticulously restored, with a black & white image, that may allow those new to high end releases, to understand what proper black levels and shadow detail are all about.

Magnificent in every regard.

Image - 5

Audio - 5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Upgrade from DVD - Absolutely

Very Highly Recommended




Old Blu-ray:

View attachment 41594

New Arrow Blu-ray:

View attachment 41595

Old Blu-ray:

View attachment 41596

New Arrow Blu-ray

View attachment 41597

I ordered mine from Amazon, then got a message that this release was no longer available! Do you know what happened, Mr. Harris??

 

[TexasRex]

I added some spoilers to various posts for those of us that has never seen this film beforehand. For many people, it's a great film.

Why were the Amazon US orders cancelled?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Rex:

Read the last few pages of the thread for info...STARTING HERE.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Amazon said they would be unable to fulfill them.

No official explanation has yet been released by Amazon or Arrow. Frankly, I would not expect one to be forthcoming.

 

[Robin9]

Why were the Amazon US orders cancelled?

My guess - and I emphasize it's only a guess - is that Arrow made one production run to cater for both Zone A and Zone B markets, but the U.K. demand was higher than expected so Arrow devoted the first production run to that market. That would explain why this disc is available in the U. K. while there is a delay elsewhere.

 

[Alberto_D]

"The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director Scanner at EFilm, Burbank. Upon inspection it was discovered that several sections in the original negative had been removed and replaced with a duplicate negative element, resulting in a noticeable shift in quality. These substitutions were not limited to the optical sections, which would have been standard lab practice at the time. Although lab documentation could not be found, these substitutions were likely performed prior to the film's original release, as all subsequent intermediary film elements also exhibit these changes. The trims from the original negative could not be found as these were likely discarded long ago, but a separate 35mm fine grain positive was sourced and compared against the duplicate negative element for these sections. In each of these instances the best source element was selected to ensure the highest quality presentation possible. "

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Apartment-Blu-ray/190017/#Review

First they said the thse removed camera negative sections was present in all intermediary film elements. So why they checked the fine grains master (that should be a generation aways with dupe sections a generation awys comapred to the dupe insetion on camera negative?
So not all intermediary elements had thse changes.

 

[Cineman]

I love how Wilder and Diamond chose to pen the name as that of Miss Kubilick;
as she elevates and delivers all of the employees to the various floors of their own cubicle.
One could even take it further; as her own character is boxed in, as well.

I like that the Broadway show tickets Sheldrake corners Baxter into swapping for his key after a bit of masterful hard selling is for The Music Man. The tickets aren't merely mentioned in passing as though the name of the show doesn't matter. When asked by his wife which show he is taking the imaginary colleague to, Sheldrake says with a chuckle, "Music Man, what else?" in a way that clearly suggests he and his wife had already seen and loved it. Baxter comments on it, too, mentioning that he hears it's "One swell show".

Note that The Music Man takes an amusing, ultimately exonerating view of a salesman who is in fact a con man. Going by the masterful hard selling techniques applied to Kubilick, Baxter and anyone else in the vicinity, Sheldrake might very well have worked his way to the top of the ranks at the insurance company as their star salesman and probably felt an especially warm spot in his heart for Professor Harold Hill's preferred methods.

 

[Robert Harris]

"The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director Scanner at EFilm, Burbank. Upon inspection it was discovered that several sections in the original negative had been removed and replaced with a duplicate negative element, resulting in a noticeable shift in quality. These substitutions were not limited to the optical sections, which would have been standard lab practice at the time. Although lab documentation could not be found, these substitutions were likely performed prior to the film's original release, as all subsequent intermediary film elements also exhibit these changes. The trims from the original negative could not be found as these were likely discarded long ago, but a separate 35mm fine grain positive was sourced and compared against the duplicate negative element for these sections. In each of these instances the best source element was selected to ensure the highest quality presentation possible. "

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Apartment-Blu-ray/190017/#Review

First they said the thse removed camera negative sections was present in all intermediary film elements. So why they checked the fine grains master (that should be a generation aways with dupe sections a generation awys comapred to the dupe insetion on camera negative?
So not all intermediary elements had thse changes.

Not unusual. Most likely field enlargements, or repositioning. As to fine grains, depends upon the date of production, and purpose.

 

[Alberto_D]

Thanks for the sharp clarification Mr Harris.

I supose the reviewer didn't notice that. The refered noticeable difference in quality it's probably from the enlargment and not from the fine grain.

 

[haineshisway]

One should really take reviews on that particular site with a large container of salt. I just finished watching it - a) the movie is a classic, Wilder-wise, and b) it looks fantastic - I wasn't that thrilled with the previous Blu-ray - this is miles above that. One slight annoyance, well, more than slight for me personally - when you have one sound level for the film itself, it's a pretty nifty idea to make sure the extras are at that same level rather than the 10-20 db hotter that they are - it's really amateur and really unnecessary - but I don't care about extras and only watched two of them, but turn your sound down before watching them But the film's the thing and both film and transfer are great.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I just received an out of stock cancelation notice from Deepdiscount DVD for the order I placed after Amazon canceled my order. It appears I will be waiting for a non-limited release from Arrow for this one, as I am not going to pay the higher price at Amazon.uk.

 

[Rodney]

I just received an out of stock cancelation notice from Deepdiscount DVD for the order I placed after Amazon canceled my order. It appears I will be waiting for a non-limited release from Arrow for this one, as I am not going to pay the higher price at Amazon.uk.

Same here.

 

[Garysb]

It seems that all orders from US suppliers were cancelled. 3rd party sellers on Amazon.com are asking $200 for this plus shipping. There is no mention of it being region locked. Did any Region 1 discs ship?

 

[Mark VH]

It seems that all orders from US suppliers were cancelled. 3rd party sellers on Amazon.com are asking $200 for this plus shipping. There is no mention of it being region locked. Did any Region 1 discs ship?

I received two - one from Barnes and Noble and one from Best Buy.

 

[David Norman]

It seems that all orders from US suppliers were cancelled. 3rd party sellers on Amazon.com are asking $200 for this plus shipping. There is no mention of it being region locked. Did any Region 1 discs ship?

There are scattered reports of Region A people getting shipments from Amazon.com and Walmart.com but 10-20x:1 cancellations dominated.
A handful of copies were found at and BN B&M and a couple of independent stores like Amoeba, Bullmoose. I see 2 NYC area stores with stock listed at BN, but no telling if those are "on reserve" or open copies. None of the Chicago/LA/DC-Balt/Houston/Dallas/Atlanta/Boston/Seattle stores are reporting B&M inventory

A very few via BBY or the ALLIANCE companies.

I received two - one from Barnes and Noble and one from Best Buy.

The BN order -- was that online or through a B&M. If the latter, was it a NY area or another region (if you don't mind saying). I heard of a couple people that were able to order over the phone for a store to home shipment which I've never been able to accomplish.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I’m playing the UK release right now and I can confirm it plays Region A.

 

[PMF]

I just received an out of stock cancelation notice from Deepdiscount DVD for the order I placed after Amazon canceled my order. It appears I will be waiting for a non-limited release from Arrow for this one, as I am not going to pay the higher price at Amazon.uk.

Same here.

Okay, so we lost out on the lowest price.
And we lost out on having "The Apartment" state-side, after being strung along through Xmas and abruptly dumped.
But, with shipping from the UK included, I still got the second best deal world-wide.
$33.16 to be exact.
That's still a very decent savings from the original price.
Less than a Criterion and equal to a newly released Twilight Time; with iron-clad plaudits for its 4K restoration and transfer.
As a matter of fact, I actually got THE best deal world-wide; because the UK actually has a stock.
This is certainly far better than being held hostage by those Marketplace Sellers who are vying for 70, 120 and 200 bucks.
Also, by buying through the UK, you may possibly be helping to cripple the scalpers ways.
First we were left holding the bag, but now it'll be their turn; at least for this round.
So, what's more important?
Mourning the few bucks that could have been saved or actually having the film?
And just how sure can anyone be that Arrow will release "The Apartment", again?
What if they don't? Then where would you be? You'll win, now, by shifting your energies over to the UK.
I assure you, receiving an email with the word "Dispatched" was far sweeter than reading that sour word of "Cancelled".

 

[Mark VH]

The BN order -- was that online or through a B&M. If the latter, was it a NY area or another region (if you don't mind saying). I heard of a couple people that were able to order over the phone for a store to home shipment which I've never been able to accomplish.

Both my BB and B&N orders were online (I live in the Raleigh, NC area) When it looked like Amazon had stopped selling through their main site (around Dec. 21) I got spooked and assumed (correctly, it would seem) that they had sold out their allotment. So I quickly hopped onto the BB and B&N sites and ordered a copy from each, hoping I’d get at least one. Turned out that both shipped without issue.