"New" CABARET - Whats the difference? Answer: none (MERGED THREAD) (1 Viewer)

[Joe Caps]

Digital Bits has the cover tonight of a new release of the film Cabaret due end of August. What is the difference. Why is Warners who owns so many musicals now giving us yet another Cabaret. How about a reissue of Camelto to replace the bastardized version they have now?

 

[Britton]

My father has the current Cabaret DVD and from watching it, I can tell you this is one movie that could use an upgrade.

 

[Stas T]

The Digital Bits has up some artwork for a re-release of "Cabaret," that seems intended to tie in to the release of "Chicago," (a blurb on the cover proclaims "From the songwriters and director of Broadway's 'Chicago'").

Anyone know if this is just a re-release of the current, non 16x9 edition, or a new, anamorphic version?

The Warner site doesn't have any info on it, and in fact, the don't even have any info on their current release -- the site says "Cabaret" is only available on VHS.

Thanks for any info.

 

[Paul_Scott]

i've always wanted to see this movie, but i've heard the current dvd is atrocious.
i hope this is an upgrade to coincide with all the Chicago business in May.

if so, i'll definitely be picking it up.

 

[PatrickL]

Why is Warners who owns so many musicals now giving us yet another Cabaret.

Hopefully, to finally give us a 16x9 enhanced version; the current R1 edition of this title is merely letterboxed while other regions already have an anamorphic version available.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I know I would spring for an upgrade to anamorphic. I love Cabaret but can hardly stand to look at this disc. :frowning:

 

[Joe Caps]

I wonder if they will keep the extras from the first edition

 

[John Swarce]

Oh, man, another double dip for me! I love this movie and have put up with the transfer, just because the story is so damn good. There is a lot of info on the current disc in the way of extras. Maybe they will do a 2 disc special edition.

 

[Rain]

As Warner is not usually in the habit of repackaging old DVDs, I'm optimistic that this might be a new anamorphic transfer.

Here's hoping.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Actually, they've repacked The Lord of the Rings. The original issue had the poster artwork.

Around when The Fellowship of the Ring came out, they changed to a shot of the fellowship crossing a bridge, with the title in Celtic font.

I'm betting this is simply a repackage... they would have said something at the HTF chat.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Patrick's right. I don't think they repackaged The Hobbit or Return of the King, just Lord of the Rings.

 

[Tim RH]

They also repackaged Gremlins, BEFORE they did the Special Edition.

Unfortunately, I'm guessing the Cabaret DVD will probably just be a repackaging to tie in with CHICAGO. (After all, there is no "Special Edition" label on the new cover.)

 

[Peter Kline]

Looks to me that it's just a new cover as stated elsewhere. The current DVD is not "atrocious" but it isn't state of the art either. (Actually anything 2 or 3 years old could fall into that category as well!)

 

[Jeffrey Gray]

A new transfer would be nice...I've seen screenshots from the DVD, and it looks very weird. Geoffrey Unsworth's use of lighting, filters, etc. only looks good when there is little or no grain on screen; a grainy transfer of an Unsworth-photographed film makes Unsworth's techniques look like they're simply the by-products of an overly soft/blurry print. (Think back to the old VHS transfers of 2001 and Superman, and you'll understand what I mean...)

 

[MattHenderson]

Just read on The Digital Bits about the Warner Bros. "Cabaret" announcement (with new box art). It looks like this is coinciding with "Chicago" coming out on DVD, but it doesn't say if this is simply a reissue with different art or a new release (if so, hopefully with a new transfer!). Anyone have any updates on this?

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Wow, this is news to me. Defintely a DVD that needs a nice new Hi-Def transfer and 16x9 WS. The current DVD *is* horrible and only looks good on televisions 27" or smaller viewed from a generous distance.

ALSO,

The audio is an absolute shame. There are litterally NO high-frequencies in the mix...it all sounds muffled and over-compressed. And I understand that the film was released in 4-channel at some point so there should be something better if usable.

The CD soundtrack/LP have much better fidelity to the musical scores than what we hear in the film (and they are the same recordings). It would be nice if WB could use the clearly-superior stereo sound mixes from the soundtrack elements to mix back into the film if no other improved source-mix can be located. If nothing else, at least the music should sound good.

-dave

 

[Rich Malloy]

As much as Ron rightly loves that other Fosse musical, I wonder if he could get the straight dope on this one? After all, a few promising words from Ron on this forum would certainly push the sales a bit...

This is a great movie. I'd love a DVD that does it justice.

 

[Brian W.]

From information I can gather at my "mysterious" unnamed job here in Hollywood, it looks unlikely that this is a remaster. Probably just a repackaging.

 

[MatthewA]

I believe the 4-channel stereo masters were lost. Warner didn't produce the film; it was an Allied Artists production; that company was bought by Lorimar, who was purchased by Warners in the 1980s. Whoever owned it before Warners probably took poor care of the 4-channel stereo tracks.

 

[SteveP]

Saw this first run at the Ziegfeld in New York in 1972--and it was in mono THEN!