385 Army of Shadows

Discuss releases by Criterion and the films on them. Threads may contain spoilers!
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
jindianajonz
Jindiana Jonz Abrams
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:11 pm

Re: 385 Army of Shadows

#151 Post by jindianajonz » Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:34 pm

Did anything change from the original release?

Glowingwabbit
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 1:27 pm

Re: 385 Army of Shadows

#152 Post by Glowingwabbit » Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:36 pm

jindianajonz wrote:
Wed Jan 15, 2020 5:34 pm
Did anything change from the original release?
No it's exactly the same

User avatar
cdnchris
Site Admin
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:45 pm
Location: Washington
Contact:

Re: 385 Army of Shadows

#153 Post by cdnchris » Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:45 pm

Since Godzilla got a better encode in the new set I figured maybe this could be slightly better, but that isn't the case. Other than the film now opening with the new Studio Canal logo (dropping the old one and the Rialto title card) it looks the same. So it's "okay," but that's about it.

User avatar
Adam X
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:04 am

Re: 385 Army of Shadows

#154 Post by Adam X » Sat Mar 28, 2020 10:28 am

I’m kind of relieved. Getting a little sick of being tempted into upgrading from older blu-rays.


User avatar
PfR73
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:07 pm

Re: 385 Army of Shadows

#156 Post by PfR73 » Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:31 pm

I can see a slight color difference, with the Criterion having a little more red, and the new Criterion is slightly zoomed in.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: 385 Army of Shadows

#157 Post by domino harvey » Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:37 pm

Can't believe we gotta break out the memes here for this one, but we do

Image

User avatar
solaris72
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:03 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

Re: 385 Army of Shadows

#158 Post by solaris72 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 11:18 am

I can see some macroblocking on the new disc, but it's subtle enough that I doubt it's an issue in motion.

User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: 385 Army of Shadows

#159 Post by hearthesilence » Wed May 17, 2023 7:05 pm

Just out of curiosity, when Pierre Lhomme supervised the 35mm and digital restorations that were used for the belated U.S. release (2006 and beyond), was he able to match the look of the original 1969 release, or did he make any tweaks or changes?

User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: 385 Army of Shadows

#160 Post by hearthesilence » Thu May 18, 2023 1:56 am

hearthesilence wrote:
Wed May 17, 2023 7:05 pm
Just out of curiosity, when Pierre Lhomme supervised the 35mm and digital restorations that were used for the belated U.S. release (2006 and beyond), was he able to match the look of the original 1969 release, or did he make any tweaks or changes?
I've found the answer.
[Lhomme] reveals that Melville wanted to shoot the picture in black-and-white, but the financiers mandated color. The filmmakers subsequently strove for images that were as desaturated as possible, leaning toward the blue tones. “Melville hated warm colors, so every effort was made to avoid them, and bright colors in general,” says Lhomme. In addition, a thin orange-yellow wash of paint was sometimes added to the set walls and later timed out by adding blue; this allowed the filmmakers to achieve paler skin tones while keeping the walls gray.

The restoration of Army of Shadows was initiated by Studio Canal with assistance from the CNC, the French National Center for Cinema. Lhomme was involved in the timing of the restored print and the digital master, working with restoration supervisor Ronald Boullet and color timer Raymond Terrentin at Eclair Laboratories. (Beatrice Valbin of Studio Canal shepherded the project from start to finish.) When asked whether the restored version matches the original 1969 print, Lhomme replies with a laugh, “I don’t remember what the original print looked like anymore!” The truth underlying his jocular response is that because the prints have faded, there is no absolute reference for the look of the timed print.

During production, Lhomme shot a reference shot, called a “Lily” in France, with a small grayscale for each setup. He kept a few frames of the negative of these Lilys and stuck them to the appropriate pages of his script. Prints from these Lilys served as a reminder of what was on the negative, and as a starting place for timing.

Lhomme notes that the digital-intermediate (DI) process allowed him to create a restored negative that is perhaps more faithful to Melville’s vision than the original print was, in that he was able to further desaturate the images and increase the blue tonalities. The DVD might be even more faithful, he continues, because it was a further refinement of the DI created for the new “digital” negative. “By doing the restoration of this film, I restored my own memo­ries — no joke,” says Lhomme. “To restore is to discover, and 35 years [after I shot this film], I rediscovered it on the big screen and saw its extraordinary cinematic qualities.”
Original source: American Cinematographer, July 2007 pp. 62-70

I wonder what they'll do with the new 4K restoration announced by the CNC? (A 4K restoration was done several years before the pandemic, so this would be a second 4K restoration.)

Post Reply