The Stendhal Syndrome - thoughts on the Blu-ray? (1 Viewer)

[MattFini]

With Dario Argento being one of my favorite filmmakers, there was no possible way to pass on the first high definition release.

I watched the disc over the weekend and was taken aback by how grainy it was. Now, I'm not someone who wants OR needs every Blu-ray to "POP." It's just that I've never seen more thick or noisy film grain in my life.

It's in every frame and, being as it's so very noisy, I'd be lying if I didn't admit it was distracting.

I compared the transfer to the 2 disc, Blue Underground DVD from a few years back and the Blu-ray DOES offer more detail. It's interesting to see that the standard disc seems to be without much of the film grain but, of course, there's just not a lot of detail there, either.

I'm guessing this particular release is so good that it's revealing problems or issues that go back to the way in which this was filmed. But I'm really curious to know if I'm the only one that was caught off guard by this one.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

I watched it for the first time ever on this Blu Ray edition when it was released. It does have what I call a nice amount of grain. Usually the HD versions do since it bring it out more in the film stock used.

One technical thing to remember is that the grain of the film is what captures the detail of the images photographed.

I did read a review not sure if it was DVDBeaver or BluRay,com stated the grain the some of the best film grain they have seen. I admit it looks good to me. I can see how grain annoys some people, but usually if they use DNR on releases they usually come out looking clean and lose a bit of detail depending on the manipulation on the source material.

I think Blu Underground did a great release for the film. I can't imagine it looking any better in the theatre and blu ray and HD transfers should capture as close as possible the best theatrical viewing experience, that said I doubt Stendhal looked this good in theatres. I could be wrong.

 

[MattFini]

Cool ... thanks for your response.

Like I said, I certainly don't expect, or want, titles to suffer DNR application. That distracts me more than any film grain imaginable.

I was just surprised, since I've never seen so much grain before. I thought the image was very detailed but, admittedly, it took a little adjusting before I could "ignore" the grain.

Can't wait for more BU titles, though.

 

[Martin S]

I was interested to read this as I too am a big Argento fan and couldn't resist this. like yourselves I'm not put off by grain in a film but what bothered me a bit in this is that the grain seems to be heavier, almost like a band, across the middle of the film. Anyone else feel this?