Criterion Three Colors: Blue disc: cropped?

I was on another forum today and I saw a comparison between the old Miramax DVD and the Criterion blu ray, and looks to me like there has been a framing issue. Has anyone here noticed this?

I don’t see this here:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/bluer2vsr1.htm

So is this an issue or not? I’ve been wanting to get the Three Colors box set, but if the entire film is cropped incorrectly, I’m not gonna buy it.

I’d like to know this as well. I’m at the verge of getting the Kieslowski ‘Three Colors’-set from either Criterion or Artificial Eye. Which one is more preferable (and why)?

I didn’t notice any issues with the Criterion release. If anything, the set looks glorious – if I didn’t know better, I’d think these were brand new films.

I bought the Miramax set years ago, so I’m in no hurry to get the Criterion release, but I cannot imagine Criterion cropping in for any reason.

This image – http://postimage.org/image/tg032wdl5/ and this topic overall – http://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-movies-north-america/179829-three-colors-trilogy-blu-ray-nov-15-review-9.html – worries me though.

But if you guys say the Criterion set is fine, I’ll take your word for it.

nm

Damn, and I was getting ready to buy that Three Colors set.

I think I’m going to wait and see what happens with Blue.

So can anyone shed any light on this? If not I’ll stop bugging you people ;)

It’s entirely possible that different pieces of film were used for the master and that could explain the difference. You should know that Criterion letterboxes DVD releases so they can fit better on televisions that are not high definition. Whether or not this carries over to Blu-Ray is anyone’s guess. Criterion Blu-Rays differ in the technical department so it might be worth it to check.

It seems to be on the blu-ray as well as the DVD. Also, the recent MK2 release has the same issue.

I noticed that the Three Colors Criterion set got pulled from Amazon the other day – looks like they’re inspecting the product. Maybe we’ll get a new release with it fixed? I’m hoping so… so I can buy it.

Yeah, hopefully. I already bought the set before any of these problems were brought to light, so I imagine those can be replaced if they end up redoing the transfer.

I’ve already bought the set as well. I’m curious as to how long it would take them to correct this issue. Does anyone have any experience with these sorts of problems? I’m assuming if they do correct it, they’ll be sending out replacement discs. Has anybody contacted Criterion regarding the issue?

I wonder if the set was pulled from Amazon in response to the audio issues on White, which I believe affected only the Blu-ray release and have already been corrected by Criterion.

I have contacted Jon Mulvaney at Criterion and he has said the he will speak to some of his colleagues regarding the framing issue, and that he will get back to me within the coming week.

Again, does anyone know how long something like this would take to fix?

I’m glad you contacted him!

I’m assuming he’ll get back to you fairly quickly, but I’m also curious how long it will take to fix the entire issue. This is why I’ve still held out on the set, but I also don’t know how long it will take for them to correct it all together/re-release the set – if ever.

Keep us posted.

I just received a response from Jon Mulvaney at Criterion regarding the issue:

Thanks again for alerting us to the differences between our master and the Miramax edition. (You’ve got a great eye for spotting the boom in our edition!) We’ve now viewed the two versions side by side (Miramax’s master and ours, which was taken from producer MK2’s new transfer), and we can see clearly that Miramax chose to zoom in about 25% to get rid of the boom. In so doing, they’ve completely altered the shot’s composition. In general, the MK2/Criterion master shows more information from side to side and at the top, and it’s likely that what we’ve presented is more true to what was seen in theaters. Aesthetic choices were made during the transfer sessions of BLUE by MK2 and by Miramax, none of which can be considered wrong. I hope this answer helps and we sincerely appreciate your support and interest in film!

This seems logical given the added amount of information on the sides in Criterion’s transfer, compared with the Miramax DVD below:

Regarding the off-center presentation of the title:

I am again inclined to believe that Criterion’s transfer is correct, after having reviewed WHITE and found that its placement of the title was correspondingly off-center, though it skewers even lower than BLUE’s title. Confusingly, RED’s title is perfectly centered. Of course, this may have been deliberate.

This all appears in the recent Artifical Eye bluray release of BLUE as well, compounding the likelihood that Criterion’s transfer is the correct version. Perhaps we’ve all just grown too accustomed to the Miramax DVD.

So basically Mulvaney is saying it was an intentional choice, one that’s more accurate, they’re sticking with it and that’s just how it is? Because if so, I’ll just go ahead and buy it.

Also – is there still an audio issue with White or has that been corrected?

Essentially, yes. It seems to be a stylistic choice that they feel more accurately represents what was intended by Kiéslowski and, as such, will not be changed.

The audio issue with WHITE has been corrected. If you buy the set from Criterion, you’ll receive the corrected disc as part of the box. If you buy it from some other distributor, there’s the off-chance that you’ll receive the malfunctioning disc. The corrected disc will have “Second Printing” stamped onto it, as seen below:

Alright, thanks a lot. I’m buying the set through Amazon – so I guess I’m risking the audio issue.

You mentioned earlier that the set was pulled from Amazon for a while, which I’m guessing was in response to the audio issue on WHITE. Outside of Criterion, if anyone has the updated stock, it would be Amazon, so I imagine your safe.

Yeah, they pulled it for a bit and then put it back up for sale – so I’m hoping the same thing. We shall see!

Huh… I checked my blu-ray disc and I do not have this second printing, as I pre-ordered. I wonder if I can swap out my white disc, I have yet to watch it but this so called “audio issue” does not sound ideal.

^the audio issue is subtle, but i preordered mine as well so i wonder if i can get in on this second printing business fo’ free!

i’ll be sending some emails

I emailed Criterion but have yet to hear anything, it’s been 10 days >_>

So I got my Amazon order of this and also received the first printing – not sure if Criterion replaces discs not purchased directly from them..

That’s rough Takaawesome… hopefully criterion will do right by this.

I believe that if you email them, they will replace your disc regardless of where it was purchased. They even send you an email with a $10 gift certificate for the Criterion online store. Occasionally it takes a while to get a response, but be patient. Jon Mulvaney alone handles Criterion’s customer service, and I would imagine he has more than enough to do. Of course, if you haven’t heard back within a week, try re-sending the email––sometimes it just gets lost in the shuffle.

I guess some on this forum http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=5926033&highlight=three+colors+trilogy#post5926033 don’t seem to think the transfer on Blue is right. How can we determine which one is right at this point?