Park Circus

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peerpee
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Re: Park Circus

#26 Post by peerpee » Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:49 am

Until someone has seen both BDs side by side, I'm not sure they're identical, David. They could be the same filesize but one have more cleanup than the other.

Damage-less stills, from both BDs, look ostensibly very good -- but there's so much damage evident from frame-to-frame in the Park Circus BD, that the Beaver review of the Kino BD simply does not tally with what's on this Park Circus BD:

"...there is some damage remaining that was probably not able to be removed. Unfortunately, I didn't catch any in the screen captures but the infrequent speckles and underlying scratches seem frame specific and are generally unnoticeable. This Blu-ray looks VERY strong in my opinion and it was such a pleasant surprise - especially beside the previously released DVD."

"Generally unnoticeable" and "this Blu-ray looks VERY strong" are way off describing the damage and general appearance of the Park Circus BD.

Perkins Cobb
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:49 pm

Re: Park Circus

#27 Post by Perkins Cobb » Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:29 pm

david, does that constitute a non-recommendation for the Way of a Gaucho disc? My finger has been on the Buy button for a while now.

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MichaelB
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Re: Park Circus

#28 Post by MichaelB » Mon Aug 23, 2010 1:18 am

The Digital Fix on Pandora:
To heavily criticize the restoration work done seems, quite honestly, beyond my expertise. I'm not fully aware of the limitations that restricted the finished product. Even so, what Park Circus has released is a tad below reasonable expectations of a new high definition transfer on Blu-ray, regardless of the source materials. I realize this was filmed in Technicolor and thus fluctuations in color tones and the like are normal but the inconsistencies here seem to go beyond any expected level of such imperfection. Skin tones alternate between overly red to almost ashen at times. Darker scenes lose a great amount of detail and exhibit rather poor levels of contrast. Some scenes can look dipped in a rosy pink color. A sickly, yellowish green cast is noticeable at times, often making its home on the left edge of the frame.

Most unfortunate, though, is the disturbing amount of dirt that remains in this restoration, indicating a lack of digital cleanup at every turn. There are frequent specks and bits of debris swirling around the image almost from start to finish, and in multiple colors (blue, green, red). The problem with this is that the viewing experience becomes poor. Screen captures remain an unreliable judge in determining how a digital transfer actually plays on one's home viewing system because they fail to convey how the image looks in motion. In this instance, the Park Circus Blu-ray is a significant disappointment in my mind. It's surely an improvement on the previous DVD releases around the world, but that's simply not enough to honestly float comparisons to, for example, the other recent restorations of Jack Cardiff's work brought to the marketplace like Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes and The African Queen. It's an insult to those various releases to place Pandora on the same plane.

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JamesF
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Re: Park Circus

#29 Post by JamesF » Mon Aug 23, 2010 9:19 pm


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Dick Laurent
Joined: Fri Jul 30, 2010 4:39 am

Re: Park Circus

#30 Post by Dick Laurent » Tue Aug 24, 2010 11:13 am

I hope Last Night will be at least widescreen full frame, the US DVD is sadly 1.33:1. It's a great Don McKellar and Sandra Oh vehicle, still waiting for a better edition of Twitch City, i just love that series, but i guess that will never happen.

DanV
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Re: Park Circus

#31 Post by DanV » Sat Aug 28, 2010 12:12 pm

10/4 - Kitano's Brother

DanV
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Re: Park Circus

#32 Post by DanV » Mon Aug 30, 2010 7:21 am

Just received my copy of Modern Times and I can confirm it is (almost) the same Kinowelt disc. Don't mind the greenish haze (it must be a flaw of my PC, since it shows a perfect b/w on my TV), however it is slightly cropped. Just sayin'. Regards!

1. Park C. vs 2. Kinowelt
Image

Image
Last edited by DanV on Mon Aug 30, 2010 7:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

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MichaelB
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Re: Park Circus

#33 Post by MichaelB » Mon Aug 30, 2010 7:38 am

Dick Laurent wrote:I hope Last Night will be at least widescreen full frame, the US DVD is sadly 1.33:1.
The Park Circus checkdisc I have is definitely 1.33:1 - and with some glaring interlacing thrown in as a bonus.

However, the label prominently says "Screening DVD - not representative of final master', and it has no menus, so that's not necessarily definitive.

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Dick Laurent
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Re: Park Circus

#34 Post by Dick Laurent » Tue Aug 31, 2010 7:04 am

hmm, fingers crossed then, after some snooping around i found out that the latest canadian version is 16:9, so if I buy a new version it will be that one. On a side note on the McKellar/McDonald scene, i just saw on imdb that McDonald is making Hardcore Logo 2, pretty strange to make a sequel to that movie.

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pro-bassoonist
Joined: Wed Jun 07, 2006 12:26 am

Re: Park Circus

#35 Post by pro-bassoonist » Sun Sep 05, 2010 2:39 pm

David,

I am sorry for the delay. I received the U.S. release but had to finish a different load of discs.

I will have a review for the UK release shortly, but here's what I can tell you:

1. Even though the Kino and Park Circus high-definition transfers appear to have been sourced from the same element, they are not identical. They look very, very similar but, I repeat, they are not identical.

2. The UK release is slightly darker, with marginally weaker contrast levels. I also noticed some obvious discrepancies in the color-scheme; reds and blues, for example, are oversaturated.

3. The two discs appear to have been encoded differently - and on larger than 60' screens it is very easy to see that there is some sort of extremely mild denoising on the UK release; yet it is enough to make the U.S. release look sharper. The UK release looks smoother and even softer; the U.S. looks sharper (and no, this isn't contrast boosting). Additionally, a lot of the mild background flicker, and specifically the color pulsations, that pop up on the UK release are not as prominent on the U.S release.

4. Last but not least, as far as I could tell, the flecks, scratches, and debris are identical on both transfers.

5. The exact running times:

U.S. release - 02.03.45
UK release - 02.03.11

To sum it all up, I am unsure if one would immediately be able to tell that these two releases are not identical, but if one has both discs and pays very close attention to detail(s), one should see that there are indeed discrepancies.

Pro-B

peerpee
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Re: Park Circus

#36 Post by peerpee » Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:28 am

Geoffrey Macnab phones in his Park Circus PANDORA disc review in the latest Sight & Sound:
This is the version restored by George Eastman House - the transfer does full justice to the extraordinarily rich visuals.
All the more galling and inconsistent when published alongside Michael Brooke's painstakingly accurate reviews in the same section. Second Run's ADELHEID gets "The source print is overly dark and the colours are a little pasty.." and PANDORA gets off scot-free.

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MichaelB
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Re: Park Circus

#37 Post by MichaelB » Tue Sep 07, 2010 6:15 am

peerpee wrote:All the more galling and inconsistent when published alongside Michael Brooke's painstakingly accurate reviews in the same section. Second Run's ADELHEID gets "The source print is overly dark and the colours are a little pasty.." and PANDORA gets off scot-free.
Well, to be fair, they're as painstakingly accurate as I can squeeze into about twenty words!

And while I haven't seen the final printed version of my Adelheid review yet, I hope the subs didn't edit out the bit where I went on to stress that it's superior to the Facets edition and currently the best version you can get - because that quote makes it sound more negative than I intended.

UPDATE: Here's the full 'Disc' section of the review as printed:
The source print is overly dark and the colours are a little pasty, but this is still a distinct advance on the lacklustre Facets release. The biggest improvement is with the subtitles, which are white, optional and correctly synchronised. Peter Hames' typically thorough booklet essay provides ample historical context.

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manicsounds
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Re: Park Circus

#38 Post by manicsounds » Sun Sep 26, 2010 11:35 pm

I hope Park Circus' DVD of "Brother" will be the best of them. Never got the movie because the US version was cut, the UK DVD went out of print, and the Japanese DVD was too expensive. Too bad Park Circus couldn't get a BD out....

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perkizitore
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Re: Park Circus

#39 Post by perkizitore » Mon Sep 27, 2010 4:59 am

Watched the restored From Here To Eternity last night. Pretty good restoration, the only flaw i noticed was a change in contrast for a few minutes, but that may be the projectionist's fault.

MB17
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 8:32 pm

Re: Park Circus

#40 Post by MB17 » Mon Sep 27, 2010 10:34 am

pro-bassoonist wrote:David,

I am sorry for the delay. I received the U.S. release but had to finish a different load of discs.

I will have a review for the UK release shortly, but here's what I can tell you:

1. Even though the Kino and Park Circus high-definition transfers appear to have been sourced from the same element, they are not identical. They look very, very similar but, I repeat, they are not identical.

2. The UK release is slightly darker, with marginally weaker contrast levels. I also noticed some obvious discrepancies in the color-scheme; reds and blues, for example, are oversaturated.

3. The two discs appear to have been encoded differently - and on larger than 60' screens it is very easy to see that there is some sort of extremely mild denoising on the UK release; yet it is enough to make the U.S. release look sharper. The UK release looks smoother and even softer; the U.S. looks sharper (and no, this isn't contrast boosting). Additionally, a lot of the mild background flicker, and specifically the color pulsations, that pop up on the UK release are not as prominent on the U.S release.

4. Last but not least, as far as I could tell, the flecks, scratches, and debris are identical on both transfers.

5. The exact running times:

U.S. release - 02.03.45
UK release - 02.03.11

To sum it all up, I am unsure if one would immediately be able to tell that these two releases are not identical, but if one has both discs and pays very close attention to detail(s), one should see that there are indeed discrepancies.

Pro-B
Is it right to assume that for systems up to 60" the differences are minimal in PQ (with some color discrepancies being the most evident difference)? I ask this because the Park Circus version would cost me 30% less...

Thanks.

cineman2002
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:12 pm

Re: Park Circus

#41 Post by cineman2002 » Mon Sep 27, 2010 11:11 am

MichaelB wrote:
Dick Laurent wrote:I hope Last Night will be at least widescreen full frame, the US DVD is sadly 1.33:1.
The Park Circus checkdisc I have is definitely 1.33:1 - and with some glaring interlacing thrown in as a bonus.

However, the label prominently says "Screening DVD - not representative of final master', and it has no menus, so that's not necessarily definitive.

The Park Circus release is in fact 16:9 from the same new transfer at the Canadian version.

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MichaelB
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Re: Park Circus

#42 Post by MichaelB » Mon Sep 27, 2010 3:46 pm

cineman2002 wrote:
MichaelB wrote:
Dick Laurent wrote:I hope Last Night will be at least widescreen full frame, the US DVD is sadly 1.33:1.
The Park Circus checkdisc I have is definitely 1.33:1 - and with some glaring interlacing thrown in as a bonus.

However, the label prominently says "Screening DVD - not representative of final master', and it has no menus, so that's not necessarily definitive.
The Park Circus release is in fact 16:9 from the same new transfer at the Canadian version.
Well, more fools them for sending me something else - because it's too late to change my review (the next issue is already at the printers), and so I therefore slagged it off for being fullframe and really obtrusively interlaced.

But that's what they sent me, so that's what I reviewed.

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pro-bassoonist
Joined: Wed Jun 07, 2006 12:26 am

Re: Park Circus

#43 Post by pro-bassoonist » Mon Sep 27, 2010 11:26 pm

MB17 wrote:
pro-bassoonist wrote:David,

I am sorry for the delay. I received the U.S. release but had to finish a different load of discs.

I will have a review for the UK release shortly, but here's what I can tell you:

1. Even though the Kino and Park Circus high-definition transfers appear to have been sourced from the same element, they are not identical. They look very, very similar but, I repeat, they are not identical.

2. The UK release is slightly darker, with marginally weaker contrast levels. I also noticed some obvious discrepancies in the color-scheme; reds and blues, for example, are oversaturated.

3. The two discs appear to have been encoded differently - and on larger than 60' screens it is very easy to see that there is some sort of extremely mild denoising on the UK release; yet it is enough to make the U.S. release look sharper. The UK release looks smoother and even softer; the U.S. looks sharper (and no, this isn't contrast boosting). Additionally, a lot of the mild background flicker, and specifically the color pulsations, that pop up on the UK release are not as prominent on the U.S release.

4. Last but not least, as far as I could tell, the flecks, scratches, and debris are identical on both transfers.

5. The exact running times:

U.S. release - 02.03.45
UK release - 02.03.11

To sum it all up, I am unsure if one would immediately be able to tell that these two releases are not identical, but if one has both discs and pays very close attention to detail(s), one should see that there are indeed discrepancies.

Pro-B
Is it right to assume that for systems up to 60" the differences are minimal in PQ (with some color discrepancies being the most evident difference)? I ask this because the Park Circus version would cost me 30% less...

Thanks.
I think that it is fair to say yes.

Pro-B

MB17
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 8:32 pm

Re: Park Circus

#44 Post by MB17 » Tue Sep 28, 2010 9:50 am

MB17 wrote:
pro-bassoonist wrote:
Is it right to assume that for systems up to 60" the differences are minimal in PQ (with some color discrepancies being the most evident difference)? I ask this because the Park Circus version would cost me 30% less...

Thanks.
I think that it is fair to say yes.

Pro-B
Thanks!

DanV
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2008 3:34 pm
Location: Rome

Re: Park Circus

#45 Post by DanV » Tue Sep 28, 2010 1:48 pm

perkizitore wrote:Watched the restored From Here To Eternity last night. Pretty good restoration, the only flaw i noticed was a change in contrast for a few minutes, but that may be the projectionist's fault.
Oh, could you tell me in which aspect ratio it was shown (1.33 or 1.85:1)?

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perkizitore
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Re: Park Circus

#46 Post by perkizitore » Tue Sep 28, 2010 2:38 pm

It was 1:33:1 i believe.

DanV
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Re: Park Circus

#47 Post by DanV » Tue Sep 28, 2010 3:21 pm

thanks!

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tojoed
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Re: Park Circus

#48 Post by tojoed » Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:43 pm

Robert Flaherty's Man of Aran in March.
Digitally Restored
'How the Myth was Made' Documentary
Short Film: Return of the Islander
Short Films by Robert J. Flaherty: The English Potter and Industrial Britain
Outtake Footage from the Irish Film Archive
Gallery.

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Gropius
Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2006 5:47 pm

Re: Park Circus

#49 Post by Gropius » Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:03 pm

tojoed wrote:Robert Flaherty's Man of Aran in March.
Somewhat absurd that it's taken more than a decade for a Flaherty feature to get a UK DVD release. And still no sign of Nanook.

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antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
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Re: Park Circus

#50 Post by antnield » Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:18 pm

Gropius wrote:
tojoed wrote:Robert Flaherty's Man of Aran in March.
Somewhat absurd that it's taken more than a decade for a Flaherty feature to get a UK DVD release. And still no sign of Nanook.
There's been a few Man of Aran releases in the UK that I'm aware of. MovieMail's own label Film First issued a disc a while back (though it may very well have been exclusive to their website/mail order catalogue). And then there's the British Sea Power album/alternative soundtrack which included the film on DVD alongside the CD.

Don't forget Elephant Boy was co-directed by Flaherty too - Network have put out a disc of that.

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