Umbrellas Of Cherbourg- is a new remastered disc on the way? (1 Viewer)

[Marc Colella]

Here's the first review I've found of this:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=10171

Looks like it's a new transfer, but I'd like to get some more confirmation before ordering this.

Anyone get their's already and willing to give a breif impression of the transfer?

 

[Page]

If you watched this week's "Ebert & Roeper", Roger Ebert gave it a thumbs up video pick and said it was a new transfer.

(But does this guy have any legit film critque credentials? )

 

[Marc Colella]

Actually I saw that, but I figured Ebert was just relaying information that was told to him... I'm not sure he's actually made the comparison between the old and new release.

He can critique film, just not sure about his critiquing of picture quality.

 

[Rain]

It's a phenomenon known as "the bar has been raised." Besides, I never had a LD player.

 

[Mark-W]

Ebert also recommended a German horror boxed set that suffered from being process at the wrong speed (much too fast), and the following week he retracted his reccomendation stating that the speed issue had been brought to his attention.

Mark

 

[Jon Robertson]

While the HKL transfer is clearly superior, the completely botched 5.1 remix (with all kinds of terrible new sound effects and music cues added) and overtly-literal subtitles which seem to have been translated syllable-for-syllable and are extremely awkward and lengthy to read (two lines in the opening nightclub song are translated as "Even if there wasn't much hope/Having hope would be enough for me to look forward to the future") make the Criterion an overall better viewing experience. At least, that's my take on it, and I've owned both.

 

[Zen Butler]

Damn double-dips





But I will get to see it again on the big screen:
LOS ANGELES
Nuart Theater
April 23-29

So Rain, I will get to see this print on the large screen

 

[Jeff Adkins]

I wish HKL woulld've included the original audio as well. However, I find the Criterion unwatchable after viewing the HKL release. I own both as well.

Criterion is the only studio that didn't get criticized for putting out laserdisc transfers on DVD. Don't get me wrong, Criterion does terrific work these days but many of their earlier releases are lacking in quality. I've heard the Winstar version of The Killer be referred to as "looking like crap" several times. I've never heard anyone say that about the Criterion, despite the fact that the transfers are identical.

Jeff

 

[Damin J Toell]

Yes, except that transfer came out from Criterion seven years ago. The transfer was received better when Fox/Lorber released their DVD of it in 1997, too (for example, DVD File called the transfer "quite watchable" in 1998 and Gary Tooze and DVDBeaver said the colors were "magnificent" some time later). However, it isn't 1997 any more. Consumer expectations regarding video quality have changed just a tiny bit since then. It's not funny at all that a transfer that was acceptable in 1997 is now considered to be horrible; indeed, it makes perfect sense. Putting the fetishistic treatment of the Criterion label at the heart of this change in attitude misses out entirely on the real and important changes that have occurred in the last seven years.

DJ

 

[ThomasC]

I received my copy in the mail today. It looks like a new transfer; the picture is 16:9 and none of the credits are cut off, unlike the Fox Lorber transfer. I'll have screenshots up soon, they will be as similar as I can get them to be to the screenshots that are on DVDBeaver's site.

http://207.136.67.23/film/dvdcompare/umbrellas.htm

EDIT: I have the first two screenshots up; I'll have the rest up later.

http://www.users.muohio.edu/choongty/cherbourg/001.jpg

http://www.users.muohio.edu/choongty/cherbourg/002.jpg

If you compare the screenshots, you will see that the transfer is still cropped. The aspect ratio is 1.62:1, compared to France Video's 1.71:1 and Fox Lorber's 1.59:1. I only have a 2.1 Altec Lansing computer speaker setup, so take it with a grain of salt when I say that the audio transfer sounds just fine to me, but the other reviewers agree with me as well.

 

[Peter Kline]

Great news. Guess I'll be purchasing it.

 

[ThomasC]

The rest of the screenshots are up:

http://www.users.muohio.edu/choongty/cherbourg/

The link to DVDBeaver's site:

http://207.136.67.23/film/dvdcompare/umbrellas.htm