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

[Robert Harris]

Bernardo Bertolucci's 1970 The Conformist is a gorgeous political drama that played art houses. After all, it's in Italian, with sub-titles.

As shot by the great Vittorio Storaro, it's also one of the most beautiful films you'll see.

Home video releases have generally been sub-par, but it's now being offered by Kino via Rare Video, which is not always a great label.

In this case - I've been looking forward to this - these've done well.

Colors and densities mimic the appearance of dye transfer Technicolor prints, which was how the film was released originally. And to the best of my memory, all looks (generally) well.

But something in this "restoration" is a bit disturbing in that the opening discussion of said restoration makes note of the 2009 print used as reference. Where was the original 1970 reference? Were the filmmakers uninvolved in the original release?

Absolute modern classic cinema, and should be in every serious collection. Disc 2, which is the 2011 "restoration," has a 57 minute doc.

One of the great films.

Image – 9

Audio – 10 (DTS-HD MA 2.0 - (the packaging notes stereo, but the film was mono)

Pass / Fail – Pass

Plays nicely with projectors - Yes

Worth your attention - 10

Slipcover rating - 3 (It's pretty and different from what's found within)

Very Highly Recommended


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See on Amazon

 

[JoshZ]

Wasn't there some controversy about this being given a heavy yellow grading, a la everything out of L'Immagine Ritrovata? Or was that the older Blu-ray?

 

[Robert Harris]

Wasn't there some controversy about this being given a heavy yellow grading, a la everything out of L'Immagine Ritrovata? Or was that the older Blu-ray?

I believe that was the older grading. This appears to be in the realm of proper, but the 2009 reference concerns me. I used to have an original dye transfer on the title, but gifted to a friend for his birthday.

 

[titch]

I had this on preorder, but Amazon sold out their stock immediately.

 

[cda1143]

.... There was a new transfer done in 2022 with is discussed transfer, in the HTF thread about the new 4K here

 

[compson]

I believe this is a reissue of the 2014 Raro release which has been OOP for a while. There was a new transfer done in 2022 with is discussed transfer, in the HTF thread about the new 4K here

Kino says this is a “new 4K restoration of The Conformist from the original camera negative.”

The Conformist | Kino Lorber - Experience Cinema

Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece is a political drama set in Mussolini's Italy starring Jean-Louis Trintignant as a repressed man trying to purge memories of a youthful, homosexual episode – and murder – who joins the Fascists in a desperate attempt to fit in.

kinolorber.com

 

[cda1143]

Kino says this is a “new 4K restoration of The Conformist from the original camera negative.”

The Conformist | Kino Lorber - Experience Cinema

Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece is a political drama set in Mussolini's Italy starring Jean-Louis Trintignant as a repressed man trying to purge memories of a youthful, homosexual episode – and murder – who joins the Fascists in a desperate attempt to fit in.

kinolorber.com

Thank you. I'll try to edit.

 

[cda1143]

I had this on preorder, but Amazon sold out their stock immediately.

Kino has stock if you want to order direct.

 

[titch]

Kino has stock if you want to order direct.

Unfortunately, Kino do not ship overseas.

 

[Peter Neski]

I got a real 4k version from Japan ,it has no English subtitles, you have to add them, but overall, it's the best version.
Maybe if Criterion wasn't so blind to Bertolucci we might have an even better version.

 

[JoshZ]

Maybe if Criterion wasn't so blind to Bertolucci we might have an even better version.

I wonder if Criterion has shied away from Bertolucci after getting burned by The Last Emperor... even though the problems with that transfer were really Vittorio Storaro's doing.

(FWIW, Criterion did also release Last Tango on Laserdisc back in the day.)

 

[JoshZ]

So, hold on, is this Blu-ray not from the same yellow-stained "4K restoration" that played in theaters earlier this year?

 

[cda1143]

So, hold on, is this Blu-ray not from the same yellow-stained "4K restoration" that played in theaters earlier this year?

Most likely it is.

 

[JPCinema]

I have the real 4K from Italy and it has English subtitles

 

[JoshZ]

Would love for RAH to weigh in on whether the new Blu-ray resembles that restoration trailer. Thanks.

 

[Robert Harris]

Would love for RAH to weigh in on whether the new Blu-ray resembles that restoration trailer. Thanks.

Where is the trailer?

 

[cda1143]

Josh’s previous post. Five above this one.

 

[Robert Harris]

Where is the trailer?

I don’t want to use a non-OLED iPad as reference, but the film had a warm look. I don’t buy off on the reference for the restoration, however. So all bets are off.

Does the new Blu generally appear as I recall the original prints? Generally. But I’m not one who believes in going from memory. I want true reference. And that would be 1970 dye transfer.

 

[sbjork]

But I’m not one who believes in going from memory. I want true reference.

And that's a big reason why some of us respect you, aside from the fantastic restoration work that you've done. Never, ever trust in memory.

 

[Robert Harris]

And that's a big reason why some of us respect you, aside from the fantastic restoration work that you've done. Never, ever trust in memory.

Nuances of color, density, gray scale, black and white levels cannot be recalled even ten minutes after viewing reference on a bench. Reference must be properly projected directly beside a digital image. Once a reference is attained, the rest of a sequence can be colored without it, as settings and memories have been set and locked.

I’ll mention again, that I dispute the use of a 2009 print as reference. In 2007, we had problems with new prints recorded from our 4k data, that almost perfectly matched the 1972 and 1974 dye transfer reference.

New prints were tested on both Kodak Vision, as well as Vision Premier. We presented these tests to both Allen Daviau and Gordon Willis, and everyone agreed that while the Vision was very close, the Premier was better.

However, even the premiere tended to make the air just below black, a bit too black. The projected 4k data files were the closest to the original prints. The look of dye transfer prints is extremely difficult to attain and reproduce on Eastman negatives and prints.

Even if one created a totally different LUT toward the creation of a recorded negative, the resultant prints (like dye transfer prints from different runs, or as matrices wear) would not always accurately reflect the intent, as printing stocks and emulsion batches change.

I know I’m getting a bit into the weeds here, but this is my reasoning for rejecting the use of an “approved” 2009 Eastman print over an accurate 1970 dye transfer original, unless one is seeking expedience over near perfection.

I spent weeks culling through original prints of GF2, once we had our GF reference, to find accuracy. Even the original GF answer print had a few inaccuracies, which needed to be corrected.

Why not be expedient, and simply use one of over 50 1997 prints available to us?