During the 14-minute recording Ray talks about his first day of shooting and his general nervousness that did ease over time, and his thoughts on how to obtain authenticity. Pather Panchali’s supplements start out with A Long Time on the Little Road, which is a recording-made by Gideon Bachmann-of Ray reading from a 1957 essay he wrote on the making of the film.
The box set features a nice assortment of features spread out over the three discs, with supplements specific to the related film and then the trilogy as a whole. I was expecting something quite a bit worse, but, all things considered, the film looks remarkable and everyone involved should be commended. The restoration work has been exceptional and it’s easy to forget the rough history this film has been through. As I mentioned fine vertical scratches are the more common issue, but they don’t distract. Though these few scenes present some heavier, more glaring damage (again, looking to come from less than ideal sources), the majority of the film is in extraordinary shape. In cases where the source is obviously less than ideal damage can get a little heavier and the gray scale shifts a little bit.
There are also a couple of instances where it looks like frames are missing. Edges are clean, gray levels and black levels look pretty spot on (for the most part) and the level of detail is shocking at times, remarkably rendering textures.Īs to the print it shouldn’t be a shock that damage remains, and it is obvious, though primarily in vertical scratches and some minor pulsating in a few spots, with some of the transitions between scenes presenting jumps and heavy damage. No compression issues were apparent and the film’s grain is nicely handled, no blocky patterns showing up. The digital transfer itself is actually one of the better ones I’ve seen on a Criterion release lately (and the same can be said for the other titles in the set), delivering a very filmic look throughout. Coming from the at least three different sources (what could be saved of the original negative, a duplicate negative from the Academy Film Archive, and a fine-grain master from the BFI), Pather Panchali’s transfer and restoration is superb. Criterion, along with the Academy Film Archive, undertook an extensive restoration project for all three films and we see the fruits of that labor here. The new high-definition, 1080p/24hz presentation comes from a new 4K restoration.Īs most know the original negatives for the Apu Trilogy (as well as for a number of other films by Ray) were severely damaged-if not destroyed-in a fire. The first in the trilogy, Pather Panchali, is presented on the first dual-layer disc in its original aspect ratio of about 1.33:1. What feels like a long time coming, Criterion releases Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy on Blu-ray.
0 kommentar(er)
