SAhmed
Supporting Actor
I second the special edition that has the restoration of 'M' by Torsten Kaiser even though I have the great release from Criterion.
Regards,
Regards,
Why is everyone talking about the German Blu as if it's any different than the Ripley - it uses the Ripley restoration so why is Torsten Kaiser's name being used as if he restored it, or did I misread something. I just watched a bit of both the German Ripley and the Italian Ripley - they're pretty much the same although I think the Italian looks a bit better to my eye.
I don't have either disc. Certainly you could see if the Restoration extras are identical or not and if the participants are speaking German or Italian. I assume that if the head restorer were interviewed his name would be on screen while he was talking. The back covers of both discs also say that there are English subtitles so perhaps the extras are subtitled too.Why don't you just tell us what those restoration extras say? Since I neither understand German or Italian. I'm sure everyone here is interested.
The Italian version says the restoration was done by Ripley's Film and CSC - Cineteca Nazionale....does Mr. Kaiser travel to Italy to restore films? Come on Bruce check out the restoration featurette - it's probably less than 5 minutes long!Someone said Mr. Kaiser is mentioned in this very thread, unless I misread that.
Fistful of Dollars, was the earliest of the Clint Eastwood / Sergio Leone Italian western imports.
There were thousands that followed, mostly with unidentified talent, and sold packaged with the better films, if you wanted those for distribution.
It was photographed in Techniscope, 35/2.
For those unaware, the process, designed by Technicolor, specifically for dye transfer 35/4 anamorphic prints, allowed a production to shoot in scope format, using 50% of the raw footage, and end up with 35/4 anamorphic dye transfer prints for distribution. Generally, the process worked well, with the exception of a more grainy appearance.
The antithesis of Technicolor's majestic Technirama process, it was used for low budget productions, first appearing in films such as Gladiators 7, an Italian production released in October of 1962, and arriving in the U.S. in May of 1964.
Also, in 1964 it was used (strangely) for Paramount's Roustabout, as well as Fistful of Dollars, released in Italy in September of 1964, and in the U.S. in January of 1967.
It would become the standard of many beloved "spaghetti" westerns.
Fistful was produced on a tiny budget, which can be seen in obvious problems with Kino Lorber's new Blu-ray.
Constantly shifting colors, and lack of overall color continuity, may be processing problems - they tend toward yellow, mixed with cyan-blue - along with what appears to be light struck shots, possibly some sort of camera or later optical problem, as the bottom of certain shots flares to yellow-orange.
Those fans of the genre will want to add this film to their libraries, but be forewarned that quality is all over the map, presumably based upon MGM's transfer, as delivered to Kino.
Image - 2
Audio - 4
Pass / Fail - Fail
Upgrade from DVD - Doubtful, unless there is a need
RAH
Here is the full featurette on the Ripley's restoration, it is in Italian and about 17min long.
As you can see, they did extensive work on the film, removing flicker and damages throughout, a completely new color correction etc. Of course all this work was thrown out the window when they did the new 4k scan and it seems like they didn't bother to fix all the issues with the negative again, judging from the review here.
So the film was scanned (and restored?) at Digital Film Lab of Copenhagen under the supervision of Johan Alexander Prijs and Franca Farina. Sound was restored at L.E. Diapason and supervised by Fabio Venturi.
Interesting that "Bob Robertson" is listed as the film's director in the restored credits section of the featurette. I looked up "Fistful" on Wikipedia - Gian Maria Volonte is credited as Johnny Wels and Ennio Morricone is called Dan Savio. I don't think I've ever seen this movie.
Why is everyone talking about the German Blu as if it's any different than the Ripley - it uses the Ripley restoration so why is Torsten Kaiser's name being used as if he restored it, or did I misread something. I just watched a bit of both the German Ripley and the Italian Ripley - they're pretty much the same although I think the Italian looks a bit better to my eye.
Trying to get definitive BDs of The Man with No Name Trilogy is frustrating..... you wouldn't think it would be so hard.