Criterion: Cropping & Original Aspect Ratios

[stroszeck]

I finally got the time to watch Tales of Hoffman last night, and in my opinion, a pretty glorious transfer, but again, I noticed this same damn Criterion cropping problem. So far this year, both Pickpocket and Tales showed significant "slicing" in the left and right hand sides of the frame. CLEARLY cut were whole words from the individual booklet introductions to the tales in Hoffman, which made it difficult and annoying to read so I had to pause or rewind to read the character descriptions.

I still don't understand how in spite of their otherwise flawless work, that Criterion would allow something like this, which I was told by a friend occurred especially severly on his original Playtime issue, to continue on? Its friggin annoying, to say the least. Are we supposed to shoot off more e-mails to Mulvaney?

[glueman]

CLEARLY cut were whole words from the individual booklet introductions to the tales in Hoffman, which made it difficult and annoying to read so I had to pause or rewind to read the character descriptions.

I watched this on my computer and didn't notice anything missing from the introductions; reviewing these just now via TV, however, I can see what you mean. Regardless of any 'cropping' there may be, the practical problem here is TV overscan.

[thechallenger]

What is Criterion doing to address the following releases with wrong aspect ratios.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (102)
- The correct aspect ratio is 1.66:1 but the transfer is around 1.78:1

Gertrud (127) from the Dreyer Box Set.
- The correct aspect ratio is 1.66:1 but the transfer is around 1.78:1

The Marriage of Maria Braun (204) from the Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy.
- The correct aspect ratio is 1.66:1 but the transfer is around 1.78:1

Are there any other Criterion releases suffering from this problem?

Monsters and Madmen - all four films at cropped and/or reformatted bogus 1.33:1 ratios, when they should be 1.66:1 or 1.85:1.