663 Shoah

[djproject]

And now for something completely different:

I've been gradually upgrading my Criterion titles to the Blu-ray editions now that I finally have a Blu-ray player. I've already obtained this on DVD (last year around this time and yes, it was exploiting the B&N sale). I have read about the compression issues for the Blu-ray. Is it still worth the upgrade if I already have it on DVD?

[tenia]

Yes it is.
Shoah has a very grainy look due to its 16mm material. Even though compression could have been better (IMO and others' opinion), the upgrade is notable.

[djproject]

Both Filip Müller and Rudolf Vrba testified at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials.

(I recognized them whilst watching the 1993 German-made informative film/documentary, Auschwitz vor Gericht or Verdict on Auschwitz)

[hearthesilence]

I've been reading that one of the secretly filmed Nazis actually discovered he was being filmed and assaulted Lanzmann on the spot - which one was it?

[Numero Trois]

This gives some info on that:

Heinz Schubert was Otto Ohlendorf's adjutant in Einsatzgruppe D. He was sentenced to death in the Einsatzgruppen trial at Nuremberg for his role in the massacre of Jews in the Crimean town of Simferopol. His sentence was commuted to ten years in prison. Schubert never admits to much criminal or moral guilt. The interview ends when Schubert discovers that Lanzmann has been filming it. Several men, among them Schubert's son, attack Lanzmann and his interpreter, Corinna Coulmas. The Schuberts pressed charges against Lanzmann and he was forced to give up filming clandestinely. Lanzmann is eventually cleared after writing an impassioned letter to the prosecutor and his camera (called a Paluche) is returned to him. The filming and the discovery is recounted in Lanzmann's memoir The Patagonian Hare (see pgs. 458 - 465 in the English translation that appeared in March 2012).

Here's the transcript. I read elsewhere that Lanzmann spent a month in the hospital for that incident. The Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah documentary short supposedly includes several Shoah outtakes including that violent encounter.

[hearthesilence]

Thanks for the links. I didn't realize how difficult it was to make this film until I started going through the supplements - it's pretty astonishing what he had to do and put up with to get the film we have today.

[Costa]

I have a question about this now that I saw some recent posts in the other forum.

Criterion released the unaltered Ritrovata restoration and Eureka got the SAME restoration and corrected the color?
OR they released another restoration?

[tenia]

It's the same restoration. David wrote at the time that what is on the MoC disc reproduces exactly the color of the digital restored file he was sent to be compressed.

the color and gamma of the MoC version are exactly as per the supplied master.

So to date, no one knows why the Criterion has this green tint (matching the previous restoration / DVD releases) but it looks like it's their internal doing.

[Costa]

It's the same restoration. David wrote at the time that what is on the MoC disc reproduces exactly the color of the digital restored file he was sent to be compressed.

the color and gamma of the MoC version are exactly as per the supplied master.

So to date, no one knows why the Criterion has this green tint (matching the previous restoration / DVD releases) but it looks like it's their internal doing.

Oh, I would have never guessed that!
Thanks!

Now I can't help but wonder if Criterion was sent another master for Fantastic Planet, and the resulting color was their own doing!
Although, seeing the other Eclair restorations released by other labels, they are in the same color area, so maybe not..
(I know, I'm stuck in this release.. But i was so impressed by the Criterion detail and it was such a pity for me that it ended up like this. i don't think I have been disappointed that much for another bluray, except for the degrained Disney Blurays)

[Drucker]

It's the same restoration. David wrote at the time that what is on the MoC disc reproduces exactly the color of the digital restored file he was sent to be compressed.

the color and gamma of the MoC version are exactly as per the supplied master.

So to date, no one knows why the Criterion has this green tint (matching the previous restoration / DVD releases) but it looks like it's their internal doing.

I was under the impression that an improperly-encoded disc could produce weird color anomalies? I thought the answer was that simple. (see also: slightly brighter versions of films when Kino/Olive put them out).

[tenia]

The gamma could be off, yes, but I don't think it would turn a "natural" color-grading into one with a slight overall green bias.

[andyli]

My favorite teal revisionism has to be Gaumont's transfer of Atlantic City. All the others I can live with, but this one, man, there is virtually no other color present.

[MichaelB]

Thief, while clearly not remotely resembling what came out in 1981 (there is no way that not one single critic from the time would have failed to mention the wildly unusual colour scheme), works surprisingly well otherwise - although I daresay the direct input of the film's director helped.

[tenia]

While I totally gets the criticism about Thief's 4K resto color-timing, it indeed works very well (though blacks are a bit too deep to me).

[hearthesilence]

Claude Lanzmann retrospective coming to Quad Cinema, spotlighting his latest and final work. Program will include a 35mm screening of Shoah, which happens once in a blue moon in NYC but definitely very rare elsewhere.