What a pleasure!
It is extremely seldom that films from the early talkie era appear on Blu-ray, and even more seldom when they truly represent the film that is intended to be encoded to the disc.
Fritz Lang's1931 German uber-classic M is such a film.
I've been watching M for almost fifty years, and have viewed it in many permutations, cuts and incarnations.
And even though I've seen it in 35mm several times, I have never seen it look anywhere near as beautifully textured and clean and with such perfectly restored audio as appears on the new Criterion Blu-ray -- spine number 30, for those who keep track of such things.
M was scanned from a 35mm fine grain master of the restoration negative, which in turn was derived from multiple generations of elements, inclusive of much original negative, and the image appears almost luminous, with full black & white textures, beautiful blacks, and superb shadow detail. The track, which has been meticulously prepared, is silent during the non-sync sound footage, as opposed to the norm, which in the past has been hiss and noise.
A mixture of silent footage combined with sync sound, the film jumps back and forth between a slower silent speed, which appears slightly under-cranked when played at 24fps, and normal sound footage at 24. As director Fritz Lang's first sound project, the new technology is used not as a gimmick, but rather to advance the story, and is a central part of the drama. As an example, before we see Peter Lorre in the lead role, we hear him.
M is a true restoration, supervised by archivist Martin Koerber in 2000, with the Netherlands Film Museum, and collarboration with the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchive, The Cinematheque suisse, KirthMedia and ZDF/ARTE. Funding came from the Mondriaan Foundation. The image harvest, via Spirit Datacine, was overseen by Torsten Kaiser along with colorist Ulrich Buchschmid.
Throughout the decades, M has been cropped and re-cropped, until the image appeared out of balance. Restored in its native aspect ratio of 1.19:1, that pictorial balance is finally returned.
It should be noted that Criterion's Blu-ray is encoded as A. Those seeking a similar experience should seek out the Masters of Cinema version from Eureka!, which will play back in B territories. I have told that additional clean-up was performed for the Criterion version.
For the first time in almost 75 years, M may once again be viewed as intended. The film's ability to affect its audience has not diminished through the years.
If one wishes to support both one's library of great cinema, as well as film restoration, Criterion's new Blu-ray of the restored M, is a wonderful way to achieve both goals.
M is Highly Recommended.
RAH
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/299769/a-few-words-about-m-in-blu-ray
It is extremely seldom that films from the early talkie era appear on Blu-ray, and even more seldom when they truly represent the film that is intended to be encoded to the disc.
Fritz Lang's1931 German uber-classic M is such a film.
I've been watching M for almost fifty years, and have viewed it in many permutations, cuts and incarnations.
And even though I've seen it in 35mm several times, I have never seen it look anywhere near as beautifully textured and clean and with such perfectly restored audio as appears on the new Criterion Blu-ray -- spine number 30, for those who keep track of such things.
M was scanned from a 35mm fine grain master of the restoration negative, which in turn was derived from multiple generations of elements, inclusive of much original negative, and the image appears almost luminous, with full black & white textures, beautiful blacks, and superb shadow detail. The track, which has been meticulously prepared, is silent during the non-sync sound footage, as opposed to the norm, which in the past has been hiss and noise.
A mixture of silent footage combined with sync sound, the film jumps back and forth between a slower silent speed, which appears slightly under-cranked when played at 24fps, and normal sound footage at 24. As director Fritz Lang's first sound project, the new technology is used not as a gimmick, but rather to advance the story, and is a central part of the drama. As an example, before we see Peter Lorre in the lead role, we hear him.
M is a true restoration, supervised by archivist Martin Koerber in 2000, with the Netherlands Film Museum, and collarboration with the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchive, The Cinematheque suisse, KirthMedia and ZDF/ARTE. Funding came from the Mondriaan Foundation. The image harvest, via Spirit Datacine, was overseen by Torsten Kaiser along with colorist Ulrich Buchschmid.
Throughout the decades, M has been cropped and re-cropped, until the image appeared out of balance. Restored in its native aspect ratio of 1.19:1, that pictorial balance is finally returned.
It should be noted that Criterion's Blu-ray is encoded as A. Those seeking a similar experience should seek out the Masters of Cinema version from Eureka!, which will play back in B territories. I have told that additional clean-up was performed for the Criterion version.
For the first time in almost 75 years, M may once again be viewed as intended. The film's ability to affect its audience has not diminished through the years.
If one wishes to support both one's library of great cinema, as well as film restoration, Criterion's new Blu-ray of the restored M, is a wonderful way to achieve both goals.
M is Highly Recommended.
RAH
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/299769/a-few-words-about-m-in-blu-ray
