The Bird with the Crystal Plumage – Technically Speaking

[doolahrock]

Can't say I would ever buy a disc because of the extra material unless it was of the quality of the documentary on The Thing. It's still the benchmark on extras and hasn't been surpassed for me.

[Pete]

Just watched the Arrow BD and the picture looks really good (although there is less grain than the BU edition). It's just a real shame it's cropped as it does effect the film and makes Argento look a bit incompetent as a filmmaker, like he's incapable of framing a shot correctly. Storaro is a total ****.

Not watched the extras yet.

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Got my copy of the BD this morning and I popped it in straight away to see how it looked. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! I think it was Nosferatu in his review, who mentioned that the camera viewfinder marks were present on both sides of the screen at the beginning of the film. Having looked at it, I can see how storaro managed it.......the crazy SOB has squashed the 2.35 image horizontaly so all the information is shown in the 2:1 ratio. FAIL!

[Legend]

This was my watch last night. Having not seen it before it didn't get in the way too much, but I can imagine that lots of shots would have been a lot, lot nicer had they been in the original aspect ratio. Otherwise a fantastic film, pretty different to what I've seen so far from Argento but great nonetheless. I'd probably place it kinda middle of the road in the grand scheme of things and really great films.

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by Pete

Just watched the Arrow BD and the picture looks really good (although there is less grain than the BU edition). It's just a real shame it's cropped as it does effect the film and makes Argento look a bit incompetent as a filmmaker, like he's incapable of framing a shot correctly. Storaro is a total ****.

Not watched the extras yet.

You are right about what you marked as .

Originally Posted by Legend

Having not seen it before it didn't get in the way too much, but I can imagine that lots of shots would have been a lot, lot nicer had they been in the original aspect ratio. .

As for the 2.00:1 aspect ratio in general: it does NOT destroy or harm the movie. There are approximately four or five scenes of 2 or 3 seconds each where I thought that there's something missing on the left. And I knew about Storaros desecration of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage!

I said it once and I say it again: for me, this is a minor issue and does not affect my joy at this wonderful Arrow package. There's one thing that shocked me a bit, though - see below!

Originally Posted by Stephen@Cult Labs

Got my copy of the BD this morning and I popped it in straight away to see how it looked. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! I think it was Nosferatu in his review, who mentioned that the camera viewfinder marks were present on both sides of the screen at the beginning of the film. Having looked at it, I can see how storaro managed it.......the crazy SOB has squashed the 2.35 image horizontaly so all the information is shown in the 2:1 ratio. FAIL!

You're absolutely right. Storaro should be put in the slammer for what he did to the beginning of the movie.

You get in trouble with the law when you go to Stonehenge and smear tomato ketchup all over it - therefore, I strongly support a law that forbids messing around with cinematic masterpieces. Or else...

Greetings!

[Daemonia]

Originally Posted by Prince_Vajda

As for the 2.00:1 aspect ratio in general: it does NOT destroy or harm the movie. There are approximately four or five scenes of 2 or 3 seconds each where I thought that there's something missing on the left. And I knew about Storaros desecration of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage!

Can't quite agree with that, Prince. You might as well say that pan and scan fullscreen transfers are acceptable. They're not and never have been. You're not seeing the film as the director intended and that's the crux of the matter here. It may well still be watchable and undoubtedly still a good film, but you're not seeing the film as the director intended and that's the issue for me.

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by Daemonia

Can't quite agree with that, Prince. You might as well say that pan and scan fullscreen transfers are acceptable. They're not and never have been. You're not seeing the film as the director intended and that's the crux of the matter here. It may well still be watchable and undoubtedly still a good film, but you're not seeing the film as the director intended and that's the issue for me.

I can see what you mean. And as you might guess from my post above, I'm no friend of changing aspect ratios either.

However, in this specific case it's not as bad as with other movies. The flick The Bird with the Crystal Plumage still offers the visual merits it had in 2.35:1.

There have been done worse things to other movies - How the West Was Won was shown on TV in 2.35:1 (or less) more than once.

But let's agree to state:
- Dear directors of photography - please do not change a movie's aspect ratio afterwards.
- Dear Mr Storaro - please retire and try to avoid any accumulation of Cult Labs members in order to avoid any fatal beatings.*

Greetings!

* = This would be performed by the headmaster, Mr Bean.

[Playzocker]

I'm not really happy with this film's BD transfer.

First and foremost - the picture doesn't appear in the original aspect ratio of 2,35:1 and has been cropped. Second, (and since I don't have the US BD, I can only use the BD.com screenshots for reference which I know isn't 100% exact), the image appears darker asnd softer than the US and has way less intense colors. Also, the film grain is much less present which makes me think that DNR was again used for this release.

I'm a big fan of Arrow and so far the BD transfers were alright for these kind of movies .... and yes, Bird also doesn't look bad. I just don't like the idea very much that the UK is WAY inferior to the US, which the cropped image and the screenshot comparison leave me to believe.

[vinncent]

Originally Posted by Playzocker

I'm not really happy with this film's BD transfer.

First and foremost - the picture doesn't appear in the original aspect ratio of 2,35:1 and has been cropped. .

What!!..You don´t say...;-)

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Mine arrived today.I'll try and give it a whirl over the weekend.