Annie Hall: Buy now or wait for anamorphic SE? (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Porter]

I saw this movie this past week and I loved it. I want to buy it but I found it's non-anamorphic. Are there any plans for a SE in the future? I know Woody isn't very partial to Special Features but since this won Best Picture and all. Anyone have the dirt on this one?

~Kevin

 

[StevenA]

I've steadfastly refused to buy this disc since its release, not so much because of the anamorphic factor but because the famous "subtitled thoughts" scene is wrecked by the use of closed captions rather than burned in subs (anybody who's seen the disc and who's familiar with the film will know what I'm referring to).

Well, this is the 25th anniversay of the film's release, is it not? A perfect time for an anamorphic reissue with burned in subtitles!!

 

[Derek U]

I think MGM said in a chat that they have no plans to revisit the title. Since it's not my favorite Woody Allen film, I would say buy it if you find it for a really good price.

Derek

 

[Robert_eb]

If you enjoy the film then just buy it.

 

[ChristopherM]

If you can play R2 PAL, then I suggest you go for the UK edition. No extras of course, but it is anamorphic.

 

[Jason Whyte]

Of course there will not be an "SE" version of Annie Hall, however I would love a remastered 16x9 transfer with the respective subtitles burned into the image.
Yet, I don't see it happening anytime in the future, so get it now (and get the box sets while you're at it, )
Jason

 

[ChristopherM]

I've now checked my European R2 copy for the subtitles. They are not burnt-in and the language seems to default to whatever language is chosen for the menus. However, I didn't even notice that they weren't burnt in when I first watched the DVD. Is this a problem? I know that the Terminator's burnt-in subtitles were designed to integrate themselves into the "look" of the movie, but this wasn't the case with Annie Hall was it?

By the way, I said above that the anamorphic R2 edition had no extras - in fact it has a 2-minute P&S trailer.

 

[Brian W.]

The problem for most people is not that the disc uses electronic subtitles rather than burned in ones. It's the fact that the intial subtitles say "(thinking)" above them. The reason for this is that the subtitles for the deaf naturally say "(thinking)" above the first subtitle. Whether this was put in at the instruction of MGM or it was a choice by the company that did the subtitling of the disc and MGM didn't catch it, it shouldn't be in there.

 

[Rich Malloy]

If you can play R2 PAL, then I suggest you go for the UK edition. No extras of course, but it is anamorphic.

Ok, thread resurrection time...
Is the Universal R2/PAL anamorphic transfer of "Annie Hall" the best available version? Better than the non-anamorphic R1? Others?
I think many more of us now have all-region players, so I hope I'm not alone in wondering about this. Also, I just got a widescreen TV, so the whole anamorphic-enhancement thing has taken on an all-new significance for me!

 

[Mark_TS]

it is a shame that we have to wait for either a full-blown SE, or for someone to die before we get an upgraded 16:9 edition of a DVD.

In other countries, studios upgrade a bare bones flat disc to a bare bones 16:9 disc without a big hoopla, or crying about how much it will cost them-and they sell far few units in some of these territories than here in the US..

Sure I like SEs-but some films should get better treatment than their 1997 DVD transfers, or even earlier Laserdisc transfers now on DVD...

Id take a bare-bones 16:9 ANNIE HALL any day over the curent disc.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Mark, there are 16:9 "Annie Hall" DVDs out there (I believe a R2/PAL UK and another from France, as well as a possibly OOP R4 from Australia). The question is "are these transfers really any better than the non-anamorphic R1?" I suspect the answer is "yes", but I'm surprised that I can't seem to find so much as the briefest comparison, much less a definitive answer. Only DVD Compare ventures a conclusion, but I'm sceptical of that site. Unlike DVD Beaver, it seems to me that DVD Compare simply reads the specs without actually viewing the discs. Big difference.
It's been said a million times, but I might as well say it again: good quality, all-region/PAL->NTSC converting DVD players are available to everyone for as little as $50 all the way up to the high-end. If you're nutty enough about movies to spend a significant amount of your disposable income on DVDs, then you can surely afford such a relatively nominal charge to have access to every disc made in the world.