Awesome! I’m tempted to go for Down By Law or Au Revoir Les Enfants, since I love those films so much, but I think Kwaidan or Picnic at Hanging Rock deserve the blu-ray treatment more. Ahhhh, the choices!
When The Third Man was released on blu ray I upgraded from my wonderfully packaged double disc Criterion standard edition. I have a brand new Sony blu ray player, a new Sony 1080p tv, and am using high quality hdmi cables. With anticipation I popped in my newly purchased copy of The Third Man and to my surprise I saw absolutely no difference in picture clarity over the standard version dvd. I’m not sure if this is a result of my equipement optimizing the older version, the quality of resolution in Criterion’s standard HD version, or me just overlooking something. Don’t get me wrong, the Criterion blu ray edition looked incredible, but no more so than all my standard Criterions that are already in HD. I don’t plan to swap in another standard for a blu ray, but if given the option will choose blu ray over standard on future new releases starting with The Last Year at Marienbad.
Anyhow to any the question posed: Purple Noon
Interesting… I work for Sony in Oz and we’ve just put in two new blu-ray lines. The numbers thought previously that would be there for demand are not as yet and I think it’s due to the resolution difference not being great between current DVD’s and Blu-ray. I’ll wait until it becomes the default standard but I think that’ll take longer than previously thought.
I voted for “Kwaidan” in hopes that they’ll add more bonus features to it as well as an HD transfer
Please, please, please, 8 1/2
or Bergman’s “Trilogy”
But out of the list you’ve provided I’ll officially vote for:
Down By Law (if you can get Tom Waits in for a new commentary track)
but if no new features are being added then I’ll go for Picnic At Hanging Rock.
Sorry Michael, I just now realized the choice is narrowed to the five films you listed. Not that I’ll upgrade to it, but I voted for Au Revoir Les Enfants.
If others would like to vote click here
The Cook, The Theif, His Wife, & Her Lover.
I’m surprised more people aren’t taking to this thread.
Thanks for this link. I just voted for Au Revoir Les Enfants, although am slightly biased as I just read Phillip French’s “Malle on Malle”…
kwaidan on bluray would be amazing, even if it doesnt win at least it shows they’re considering releasing it
I voted for Picnic At Hanging Rock. Been wanting to see it recently, so I figured a BR release would be a good excuse.
I love how a couple of people have completely failed to read the first post and posted totally unrelated films.
KWAIDAN!!!!!!!!. It’d be f’n beutiful! Is there really any contest? If you own a blu ray and a big T.V. You kno what this would look like. Incredible! Not knocking the others but damn, There’s not really any contest on what would look the best.
Mayor – I’m not sure if your comments were directed at me, but if so a further explanation might put you at ease. I had so much anticipation with my first Criterion Blu-ray and was disappointed that there was no noticeable difference between it and the standard Criterion dvd I already owned. My intent in explaining my Blu-ray and tv setup was not to boast, but only to inform others that if they have a good setup themselves not to expect a better picture simply because the disc is Blu-ray.
No, not at all, I too got the third man and while it was a cleaner look then I remember I decided when it came to black and white I might just stick with the normal editions
It wasn’t directed at anyone really, I just know what a beutiful color film like Kwaidan can look like on 1080i So my preference for the blu ray treatment on color films is because of the third man blu ray really so good comment
I’d only vote for Kwaidan if they released the full version and fixed the colors. But what do I care I don’t even have a blu-ray player.
With regard to the question of noticeable quality improvement going from Standard def to Blu-ray the difference is definitely there, it’s just that sometimes it is a VERY subtle difference. I think this is a problem to the average consumer especially when it comes to older black and white films. When done properly as they have been so far from Criterion, the amount of grain is clear and it should be. There seems to be a lot of comments on these boards about the great letdown of some hi-def dvds in this regard. People who are expecting film grain to go away will be disappointed. This is not directed at you Christopher, I know you didn’t get into specifics on what you were expecting to find, but at a lot of other comments on hi-def vs dvd in general. I did do a close comparison with the discs and there is a difference. We were projecting on a large screen and in that case it was apparent. The problem Criterion is having in selling Blu-ray over their dvds is the fact that their dvds all look so damn good and most are coming from high definition transfers anyway. Before I purchased my Blu-ray player an older and much wiser friend of mine told me that the higher the price of equipment goes, the more subtle the change in quality is. The very same can be said of audio. I don’t plan to replace any of my current Criterion dvds with blu-rays, but at the same time I refuse to buy any new Criterions that I don’t have that aren’t being released in Blu-ray. I’ve got myself into trouble on this subject before so I’ll leave it there. Back to the topic at hand though, since I have DOWN BY LAW already, my vote goes to HOWARD’S END I think.
Thanks for the comments Strawdawg. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, just surprised I could not detect a difference. I agree that largely in part it’s due to the high quality of Criterion’s standard dvds that come in HD. The only Criterion Blu-rays I’ve tried are The Third Man(no difference) and The 400 Blows(no difference). Perhaps with Criterion’s Blu-ray films that are in color there is a noticeable difference, though my current color Criterions look just as good if not better than a several of the Blu-ray non-Criterions I’ve purchased. Bottom line – we’re on the same boat I think – keep the Criterions you currently have – but whenever given the option for Criterion additions choose Blu-ray.
M I
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_84233271_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000368291&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1TS35RM4JFRH3DBT3F86&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=476077351&pf_rd_i=193640011
Surprised this wasn’t posted here before. If it was and I missed it, apologies. I guess Criterion and Amazon are teaming up to let you vote for the next blu-ray Criterion.
“Together with the Criterion Collection, we’re offering customers the unique opportunity to select an upcoming Blu-ray release from the Criterion Collection. From now until May 25th, select from Au Revoir Les Enfants, Down By Law, Howards End, Kwaidan, and Picnic at Hanging Rock. The winning title will be released later in 2009.”