TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Simon Howson]

Schawn from Fox said that they discovered the original camera negative for the flat version, which they thought was lost. It was in cans for a Spanish print of the film, that he thinks was prepared for a TV transfer.

Thanks to Schawn and HTF for the chat, and Ron for moderating it.

 

[Steve...O]

Ditto - it was a very enjoyable chat. Schawn Belston's insight and comments were very enlightening and enjoyable to read. Thanks to Ron, Parker, and HTF for making this possible and to Mr. Belston for giving the membership 2 hours out his busy schedule.

 

[Simon Howson]

Oh, yeah everyone who didn't attend the chat, that is REAL blood dripping on Burton during the crucifixion scene!

 

[Bob Furmanek]

We had a master of the flat version back in 1995 when I worked for American Movie Classics.

 

[Joe Caps]

i amso sorry I n ever got toaskmy question last night. IN the early 90s Fox found a stereo track for the flat version - do they stilll have it?

When the question was asked - where is theflat version, the answer is its in the PIP on the bd only.

Can;t wait for thefox release of Star Wars a new hope - all the other five Star Wars films will be reloeased as five addtional PIPs on the BD only.

Is Fox kidding? I felt completely screwed over by Fox (again !!).

 

[Simon Howson]

To be fair to Schawn, he doesn't decide what actually gets released on home video. It is just his job to preserve the assets so they can be released if the marketing folks want to.

 

[John Hodson]

The whole of Europe appears to be on a Fox moretorium as far as new back catalogue releases is concerned; that, combined with their policy on BD regional coding, means a significant amount of pain for classic film fans...

 

[Brian Borst]

That's unfortunate, I was really looking forward to this release.

 

[Charles H]

Although "The CinemaScope Story" is listed as a Special Feature on the back cover of the SD of THE ROBE, it is not included.

 

[BillyFeldman]

One of the best transfers of a film with problematic elements ever, and a role model for how to do it. Reading the chat with Schawn Belston, I guess the big difference in getting it right is having a dye transfer print and using it for color timing. The color is fantastic. I'm even enjoying the film because it looks and sounds so good - something I've never done before.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Am I the only one who thinks the image is often REALLY REALLY soft? Is there some inherent problem with the source that makes this inevitable? I don't want to criticize the transfer if it's unavoidable, but I thought the movie looked awfully soft much of the time...

 

[Simon Howson]

Have you compared it to the shocking original DVD?

During the chat the other day, Schawn from Fox explained that the negative for this film has been over printed. If a section of the negative started falling apart, the lab people at Deluxe as a matter of company policy would throw out the damaged negative, and replace it with a duplicate negative.

Over the years this has meant the negative for the film is now 15 different types of negative stock, about 40% was unusable, which had to be replaced by digitally recombining the separation masters, but even some of that material was unusable meaning they had to revert to even older generation elements.

There is a lot more detail in the chat transcript:
Home Theater Forum - Announcements in Forum : SD DVD - Film and Documentary

 

[Tim Tucker]

After reading that transcript, it looks like The Robe has barely survived by the skin of its teeth.

 

[BillyFeldman]

The transfer is a miracle. I don't find it soft and I'm sure it looks even better on that other format.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I'll give that a look - thanks.

No, I never saw the original DVD, so I can't compare. I'm just going on what I saw when I watched it yesterday. Parts of it looked quite good, other parts were awfully soft.

Really, the softness was my only complaint. Colors occasionally seemed a bit smeared, but they usually were fine, and everything else was A-OK. The softness was a major distraction, though...

 

[Colin Jacobson]

You really don't think it ever looks soft? I can appreciate that the new transfer may be a "miracle" and a vast improvement on its predecessor, but that doesn't mean it's flawless in an objective sense.

Out of curiosity, what display are you using?

 

[Jack Theakston]

If you think the BD looks soft, you should see an original print!

 

[BillyFeldman]

A 65 inch DLP TV. For me, with the exception of a few shots where I believe the softness is inherent in the production photography, nothing looks soft to me.

 

[Simon Howson]

My copy of the DVD arrived today. It is a bit annoying that the 5.1 audio track (which on my DVD player played as the first track) modernises the audio design by placing the dialogue in only the centre channel. I hope this doesn't become the standard approach on other CinemaScope films Fox releases to Blu-ray.

However, thankfully they have included a 4.0 track that respects the original audio channeling.

Complaints about softness in effect is a credit to the restoration. It just demonstrates that the Chretien prototype lens used for this film possessed a lot of optical flaws, but to me this further underscores Fox's desperation to release something new to cinemas at all costs.

 

[Simon Howson]

LEFT IMAGES, RESTORED (NTSC) DVD, OLD (PAL) DVD RIGHT IMAGES

Click the images for larger versions.