With sensible film buffs dreading the inky arrival of the forthcoming 4K Casablanca Bluray (11.8), it's worth reminding ourselves that for years Criterion has been the father of the shadows-and-ink aesthetic. The Criterion tech guys never met a mineshaft they didn't like, a shadow that didn't brighten their day.
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When it comes to older black-and-white films, Criterion has shown a tendency to make them appear darker and inkier than in previous home-video manifestations (Rebecca, His Girl Friday, Only Angels Have Wings). Will they dim the lights for their restored, 4K-scanned Bluray of George Cukor’s The Philadelphia Story (due on 11.7), or will they surprise us all and not do this?
Sony’s forthcoming Ultra HD Bluray of David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai may be the very first instance of a classic-era Hollywood Oscar-winner being released in 4K. It’s due on 10.3.17. A few more 4K releases in this vein and I might actually spring for a 4K Bluray player. Yes, I purchased a very good-looking Ultra HD streaming version of Kwai three or four months ago, but streaming, I’m told, doesn’t deliver a true 4K image.
Three days ago Criterion laid off 16 staffers, or roughly 20% of its 80-person workforce. Peter Becker called it a “reorganization” brought about by new “challenges and opportunities." What he meant is that Criterion income has been shrinking and they have no choice but to cut back on expenses. The home-video world is changing. Physical media is dying and streaming is king. And Criterion's film-snob appeal isn't what it used to be. Hell, they're still dragging their feet in the matter of 4K Blurays.
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Almost every time the Criterion guys deliver a Bluray remastering (4K or 2K) of a classic film, they make it look darker and inkier than in previous home video manifestations (Rebecca, His Girl Friday, Only Angels Have Wings). Look at the difference between their Rebecca Bluray and previous versions. And my review of their Friday Bluray.
So given this history I’m not understanding why their new All About Eve Bluray doesn’t do the same inky-dinky. Are they the Princes of Monochrome Darkness or not? Gary W. Tooze‘s DVD Beaver comparison shots tell us there’s no noticable difference between the Criterion and the previous Fox Home Video Bluray, and that the monochrome renderings are identically crisp and velvety.
“Is this an aviation film directed by Howard Hawks or what? Yes, much of it takes place after dark but this is also a film with a certain merriment and esprit de service and drinks and songs on the piano. Why so inky?
“I lost patience after a while and turned the brightness all the way up, and it was still too dark. I much prefer the high-def Vudu version that I own; ditto the TCM Bluray that I bought a year or two ago. Mark this down as a case of Criterion vandalism — it’s just not the film I’ve been watching all these years.” — from HE pan of Criterion’s Only Angels Have Wings Bluray (“Dark Angels, Black Barranca, Noir All Over“), posted on 4.19.16.
The realm of Only Angels Have Wings is all-male, all the time. Feelings run quite strong (the pilots who are “good enough” love each other like brothers) but nobody lays their emotional cards on the table face-up. Particularly Cary Grant‘s Geoff, a brusque, hard-headed type who never has a match on him. He gradually falls in love with Jean Arthur but refuses to say so or even show it very much. But he does subtly reveal his feelings at the end with the help of a two-headed coin.
It’s not what any woman or poet would call a profound declaration of love, but it’s as close to profound as it’s going to get in this 1939 Howard Hawks film. If Angels were remade today with Jennifer Lawrence in the Arthur role she’d probably say “to hell with it” and catch the boat, but in ’39 the coin was enough. Easily one of the greatest finales in Hollywood history.
Criterion’s just-released Bluray of Howard Hawks‘ His Girl Friday (’40) is a slight disappointment, I’m afraid. It looks reasonably decent — strong blacks, nice detail here and there, good monaural sound — but I didn’t get a satisfying Bluray “bump” feeling, which is what Hollywood Elsewhere always requires from Blurays of classic films.
An HE “bump” is a significant improvement from the last upgrade in whatever format, and for me the last time the resolution of His Girl Friday really popped my eyeballs was when I watched a “Columbia Classics” DVD from 16 years ago. (Released on 11.21.00, it contained a superb commentary track from Hawks biographer Todd McCarthy.) I had watched Friday on laser disc, VHS, broadcast TV and once or twice in a Manhattan repertory cinema, but this Columbia DVD made it look richer, crisper and cleaner than ever before.
I’m sorry but the Criterion Bluray really doesn’t look that much better than the way the DVD did 16 years ago on my old 480p Sony flatscreen. Yes, it’s a higher-quality transfer (if you project it on a big screen it’ll look much better than the DVD) but it’s completely smothered in digital grain mosquitos. I kept thinking to myself “poor Ralph Bellamy, playing that poor dope from Albany and having to sit there and suffer as those billions of mosquitoes crawl all over his head and neck and hair, not to mention Cary Grant and Rosaland Russell and all the rest besieged by the same swarm.”
For comparison’s sake I rented an Amazon high-def streaming version, and the main difference is that it looks a bit brighter than the Criterion, which has a saturated inky look. The sound and the image sharpness seemed relatively similar.
I haven’t seen the forthcoming 4K Casablanca Bluray (WHE, 11.8) but to go by the DVD Beaver screen captures it just looks darker, which is what 4K versions of classic films often provide…inkier, buried in shadow.
Compare the stills of the 4K version vs. the old 2007 Bluray — details you could see with the 2007 Bluray (which is still my favorite) you can’t see as clearly on the 4K. How is that an improvement?
Were the techs who created this inky Casablanca inspired by Criterion’s 2016 Bluray of Only Angels Have Wings? — one of the most bizarre and totally needless experiments in pointless shadow baths?
Home Theatre Forum‘s Robert Harris, posted on 11.4.22: “Casablanca looks fine in 4k. Blacks may be a bit richer than the previous Bluray, but beyond that I’m not seeing a great deal of difference. I’m seeing some constantly shifting grain patterns, which I can understand as much of the film is taken from dupes.
“Extremely fine in some facial close-ups and medium shots, far more normal in exterior long shots and other bits of the film. The management is obvious, but not a problem.
“If one owns [an earlier 1080p] Bluray version, is there enough of a 4k bump to purchase the film again? I’m not seeing it.”
My favorite is still the good old DNR’d 2007 Bluray. Perfect — I love it like family. I hated the 2012 70th anniversary Bluray, which covered Casablanca in billions upon billions of grain mosquitoes…infinite swarms swirling around the heads and inhaled into the lungs of poor Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Dooley Wilson, etc. Ghastly.
As to the 4K, why would anybody want to watch a Casablanca that’s been shadowed and darkened all to hell? Where is the upside in that? 4K treatments almost always smother with unneccessary inky darkness that often obscures detail.
The 2007 Casablanca Bluray is good enough for me. It’s my little baby, my teddy bear, my blue blanky.
Question: Why does the 4K Bluray jacket use a shot of younger Bogart (taken in the mid to late 30s) wearing a black tuxedo, which his somewhat older character, Richard Blaine, doesn’t wear in Casablanca? Why? What kind of perverse or diseased mind says “yeah, that’s fine — Bogart looks a few years younger but so what? And who cares about the black tux?”.
If you know anything about Criterion Blurays of late 1930s Cary Grant films, you know that the results tend to be (a) smothered in billions upon billions of digital grainstorm mosquitoes and (b) are a little too much on the dark and inky side. I’m not saying the forthcoming Bringing Up Baby Bluray (7.6.21) will deliver the same textures and treatments given to The Awful Truth, Only Angels Have Wings and His Girl Friday, but a wise consumer should do a lot of research before purchasing. Team Criterion generally cares much more about grain structure than about making an old film look great with that old silvery, silky-smooth sheen that we all love.
N.Y. Times critics A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis are celebrating His Girl Friday in their latest Coronavirus Viewing Party piece. Partly, they write, because this 1940 Howard Hawks film explores “the glories and outrages of a subject that is especially dear to both of us — journalism,” but mostly because Rosalind Russell‘s Hildy Johnson is a feminist icon — a flinty, whipsmart reporter and a complete professional equal of Cary Grant‘s Walter Burns.
What got my attention was their acknowledgment that “there are disgracefully battered copies” out there, and that “the best-looking ones we found are on the Criterion Channel and a free HD version on YouTube.” I’ve just watched the latter (portions actually) and it’s significantly better than the competition, which is to say blissfully free of the Egyptian mosquito swarm that smothers the Criterion Bluray, which is presumably identical to the Criterion Channel version.
Excerpt from HE review, posted three years ago: “I’m sorry but the Criterion Bluray really doesn’t look that much better than the way the old Columbia Tristar DVD did on my 480p Sony flatscreen.
“Yes, it’s a higher-quality transfer (if you project it onto a large screen it’ll look much better than the DVD) but it’s completely blanketed by digital mosquitoes. I kept thinking to myself ‘poor Ralph Bellamy, playing that poor dope from Albany and having to sit there and suffer as those billions of mosquitoes crawl all over his head and neck and hair, not to mention Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell and all the rest besieged by the same swarm.”
Two nights ago I watched the new Criterion Bluray of Alan Pakula‘s Klute (’71). For me this fascinating noir has always been a 50/50 thing — half about Jane Fonda‘s brave, naked, brilliantly anxious performance as Bree Daniels, a brittle, self-isolating call girl in a cold, predatory city save for the steady, somewhat doleful presence of Donald Sutherland‘s Pennsylvania detective, and half about Gordon Willis‘ smooth, swoony cinematography and particularly his mineshaft blacks…those inky shadows and crisp capturings just take me away, I’m telling you.
I was in hog heaven during those 114 minutes, and I could probably watch it again next weekend without the slightest hesitation. It’s so honest, believable, restrained, focused, whipsmart. And it was so hard to get right. Sculpting a good film is always an uncertain, touch-and-go process, and doubly or triply so, I imagine, when the final product is a masterpiece.
There’s a nicely written Mark Harris essay in the little booklet, “Trying To See Her,” but as far as Fonda’s journey of self-doubt and pain is concerned, I prefer this excerpt from the Klute Wikipage:
“To prepare for her role as Bree, Fonda spent a week in New York City observing high-class call girls and madams; she also accompanied them on their outings to after-hours clubs to pick up men. Fonda was disturbed that none of the men showed interest in her, which she believed was because they could see that she was really just ‘an upper-class, privileged pretender’. She had doubts about whether she could portray the role and asked Alan Pakula to release her from her contract and hire Faye Dunaway instead, but Pakula refused.
“Eventually Fonda turned to her memories of several call girls she had known while living in France, all of whom worked for the famed Madame Claude. Three had been sexually abused as children, and Fonda used this as an entry to her own character, and as a way to understand Bree’s motivations in becoming a prostitute.”
You’d think that the guy playing the titular character would be an essential part of the conversation, but Sutherland, steady and true as his performance is from start to finish, is fourth-ranked. He’s completely fine, but Klute is dominated by Fonda, Willis and Pakula, in that order.
With its frequent descent into a jet-black palette and all kinds of shadowy gradation, Alan Pakula‘s Klute (’71) is a prime candidate for a 4K re-viewing. Not to suggest that Criterion’s forthcoming 1080p Bluray (7.16) won’t look great or that it isn’t worth the price, but an actual 4K Bluray would be that much better. Alas, Criterion doesn’t do those. The copy promises a “new, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by camera operator Michael Chapman, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack.”
Posted on 7.24.14: “I haven’t seen Alan Pakula‘s Klute (’71) since…well, I might have watched it on laser disc in the ’90s or at a repertory cinema in the early ’80s…maybe. But I haven’t seen it on a big screen in eons. Slow burn whodunit + ’70s Manhattan + richly-drawn characters + wide-open emotional exposure + simmering sexuality. Plus a wonderfully inky, occasionally spooky vibe care of dp Gordon Willis (i.e., the Prince of Darkness)
Nothing makes my blood run colder than to read the words “much richer grain textures” in a DVD Beaver Bluray review. But that’s what it says in Gary W. Tooze‘s assessment of Criterion’s forthcoming Bluray (4.17) of Leo McCarey‘s The Awful Truth.
That’s pretty damn close to Tooze’s assessment of Criterion’s His Girl Friday Bluray (“it has more, and consistent, grain”), and I’ve learned through hard experience what this actually means. Tooze also reports that the Awful Truth Bluray “looks wonderfully film-like“…good God.
I bought Criterion’s His Girl Friday Bluray and discovered that it’s “completely smothered in digital grain mosquitos,” as I said in a 1.13.17 review. “I kept thinking to myself ‘poor Ralph Bellamy, playing that poor dope from Albany and having to sit there and suffer as those billions of mosquitoes crawl all over his head and neck and hair, not to mention Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell and all the rest besieged by the same swarm.”
This plus the DVD Beaver screen captures of the Awful Truth disc show that this 1937 screwball classic has been grainstormed to a fare-thee-well.
I’ve said it 10,000 times, but I don’t like heavy grain. No one does except for grain monks (i.e., perverse aficionados) like Tooze. Call me a plebian but I prefer my older black-and-white films to be tastefully DNR’ed — I want them to look as sharp, clean, unfiltered and un-muddied as possible, and that means no swarms of Egyptian mosquitoes covering each and every frame.
Ditto.
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