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Kubrick goes HD in 2006

1 by darkness
Other planned 2006 day and date HD DVD and standard DVD releases are two-disc special editions of Forbidden Planet and four Stanley Kubrick directed classics: The Shining, Clockwork Orange, 2001: Space Odyssey and an uncut version of Eyes Wide Shut.
Link

I'm assuming "uncut" means Eyes Wide Shut without the cgi figures, something we in America finally will get. Full Metal Jacket has already been announced for HD-DVD in April or May, so that means five Kubrick titles will be out in HD by the end of the year.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

3 by klimov
yay! Although I this was almost inevitable... and where the fuck is Barry Lyndon? Also, where the fuck are the Blu-Ray editions?! It would seem that Warner are being pretty back-handed, pretending to support Blu-ray on paper only...

4 by darkness
No, Warner has said they'll release Blu-ray versions as soon as the format launches as well. So if Blu-ray is going by the time the HD-DVD and DVD releases come out, you'll see them in all three formats. It's just that no one really knows when Blu-ray will get it's act together and actually launch. There are rumors of the first player being out in May, but it looks like that may get pushed back. Sony is counting on the PS3 to be their major launch vehicle, and that may not be out till the end of the year. I went ahead and ordered an HD-DVD player anyway. I figured with the lower prices they're at (more than half what the cheapest Blu-ray player costs) plus the fact that they're actually launching in a couple of months, it's worth getting one to hold me over until Blu-ray get's it's act together. Plus it gives me access to Universal titles.
I don't know why no Barry Lyndon. I can only assume Warner decided it wasn't a big enough seller for a full remasterng and SE.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

5 by klimov
all the Kubrick titles were remastered in Hi-def a few years ago.

My guess is they'll release a boxset in a year or two when the format is more established, forcing Lyndon-lovers to buy the films all over again. It makes sense, 'cause Lyndon is a less attractive proposition to the casual buyer but essential for the genuine fan, therefore they can take the piss something cronic... I hope they bring out Gone With the Wind soon, the remaster of that is so beautiful even just on DVD...

6 by klimov
p.s. talking about real high-quality video -
I'm just downloading an uncompressed 2k quicktime of the trailer for the Great Ecstasy -
75 seconds = 4.4Gb :D

7 by darkness
klimov wrote:all the Kubrick titles were remastered in Hi-def a few years ago.

These are all brand new remasters. Technology has improved since the previous remasters and they decided to do them again for the new dvds and HD formats.
klimov wrote:My guess is they'll release a boxset in a year or two when the format is more established, forcing Lyndon-lovers to buy the films all over again. It makes sense, 'cause Lyndon is a less attractive proposition to the casual buyer but essential for the genuine fan, therefore they can take the piss something cronic... I hope they bring out Gone With the Wind soon, the remaster of that is so beautiful even just on DVD...
I'm sure Gone With the Wind will be one of their first catalog titles on HD-DVD. All the big box set ones such as it and Ben-Hur will probably be among the first. I don't know if I see a Kubrick box set in the works though. At least not for the first couple of years or so. Given the higher price of HD titles, a box set might be too high a premium for them to go with. More likely they'll dump the title out seperately way down the line when they start to get around to releasing lower selling catalog stuff.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

9 by darkness
Info on the Kubrick titles from HTF's Warner chat last night:
[JeffNewcomb] I was pleased to see four Kubrick films announced for 2006. What about the others? Will they be revisited?

[Warner] It is very likely we will revisit the other Kubrick titles as well in the future.

[VincentP] There's just one real improvement I'd like to see, especially with the upcoming SE of A Clockwork Orange. I'd like to know when is Warner going to start doing 16x9 enhancement for 1.66:1 films?

[Warner] Thank you, Vincent. Your wish has been granted. We haven't had to release a 1.66 film since GIANT, and since then, company policy is now to release 1.66:1 films with side bars within the 16x9 frame. So yes, CLOCKWORK is being remastered in HD as we speak, and the new transfer will have the proper aspect ratio . No more 4x3 slight letterboxed DVDs of 1.66 from WHV. They have gone the way of the Snapper!

JackBaxter] Also, what aspect ratios will The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut be presented in?

[Warner] THE SHINING and EYES WIDE SHUT will be 1.77 (16x9)

[SeanW] Are the upcoming Kubrick re-releases going to be in the aspect ratio which they appeared in theatres in?

[Warner] The Kubricks will be released as seen in theaters. Not like the previous releases.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

10 by O-dot
Kubrick-ish news at the IMDb:
Kubrick Was Despondent Over 'Eyes' Before His Death, Says Actor
R. Lee Ermey, the actor who played the menacing drill instructor in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987), says that two weeks before his death, Kubrick phoned him to express his despondency over Eyes Wide Shut, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, which reportedly had taken longer than any film in history to film and which was only in a rough-cut state. "He told me it was a piece of s**t," Ermey said in an interview with the online Radar magazine, "and that he was disgusted with it and that the critics were going to have him for lunch. He said Cruise and Kidman had their way with him -- exactly the words he used." Ermey did not explain what he thought Kubrick may have meant by the expression, except to remark, "He was kind of a shy little timid guy. He wasn't real forceful. That's why he didn't appreciate working with big, high-powered actors. ... He would lose control."
Now, I recall others (whose names escape me right now :mrgreen: ) saying that Kubrick was pleased with the movie and relieved that the screening for the stars and studio bosses went over well, right before his death.

I watched EWS for the first time in a few years this past winter ... it seemed to hold up pretty well. Maybe a little draggy in the last hour ... :roll:
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

11 by Alexhead
I'm sure Kubrick would have definitely made some cuts, but considering his untimely death I think we were left with a pretty solid final document. I don't doubt Ermey's conversation either, but Kubrick was mercurial in his own way and may have been down on things that particular day. He wasn't afraid to shelve things that he didn't feel were working, and not even Scientology Boy himself could have forced it to be released if Kubrick wanted to pull the plug.

Looking at the particular literary tradition/source material EWS was based on, Kubrick did justice to a much trickier genre--Freudian psycosexual German fantasy drama, we'll call it--than he'd ever tackled before. Did he do as well with FPGFD as he did with, say, Sci Fi in 2001 or War in Paths of Glory? Well hell no, but again, those particular genres are shooting fish in a barrel compared to what he tried to pull off in EWS.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

12 by O-dot
Alexhead wrote:I'm sure Kubrick would have definitely made some cuts, but considering his untimely death I think we were left with a pretty solid final document.
That's an inner discussion I've had ever since '99. How different would EWS have been had SK been able to tinker with it up till its release, as he did with pretty much every previous movie? The latter SK movies (especially FMJ) all possessed a supreme fluidity - not a wasted shot, nor moments that go on too long or end too suddenly. EWS lacks that: the pacing of the last hour is all over the place, and he overplays the Ligeti theme (both audiences I saw it with were laughing after about the fifth or sixth cue), which leads me to believe that it was only a temp track for some of those moments. Then there's the billiards scene - a great sequence in of itself, yet it brings the movie to a dead halt right when we're almost at the end.
Alexhead wrote:I don't doubt Ermey's conversation either, but Kubrick was mercurial in his own way and may have been down on things that particular day. He wasn't afraid to shelve things that he didn't feel were working, and not even Scientology Boy himself could have forced it to be released if Kubrick wanted to pull the plug.
True. Look at his Holocaust project, which he killed because he apparently believed it wouldn't measure up to Schindler's List, or something like that.
Alexhead wrote:Looking at the particular literary tradition/source material EWS was based on, Kubrick did justice to a much trickier genre--Freudian psycosexual German fantasy drama, we'll call it--than he'd ever tackled before. Did he do as well with FPGFD as he did with, say, Sci Fi in 2001 or War in Paths of Glory? Well hell no, but again, those particular genres are shooting fish in a barrel compared to what he tried to pull off in EWS.
Well said. It's a fascinating project, certainly.
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

13 by klimov
Lee Ermey is a nutball. Read the rest of his interview... Quite possibly he's misinterpreting, or misremembering what was said. Possibly he dislikes the film and wants to create stir. Or maybe Kubrick did say something like this in a down moment! Either way, it's fairly meaningless.

The film does not need 'some cuts'... The Billiards scene is fucking brilliant and there's nothing wrong with the music cues. Also, Alexhead, why are you praising Paths of Glory over Full Metal Jacket, have you lost your mind?

14 by Alexhead
That's an inner discussion I've had ever since '99. How different would EWS have been had SK been able to tinker with it up till its release, as he did with pretty much every previous movie? The latter SK movies (especially FMJ) all possessed a supreme fluidity - not a wasted shot, nor moments that go on too long or end too suddenly. EWS lacks that: the pacing of the last hour is all over the place, and he overplays the Ligeti theme (both audiences I saw it with were laughing after about the fifth or sixth cue), which leads me to believe that it was only a temp track for some of those moments. Then there's the billiards scene - a great sequence in of itself, yet it brings the movie to a dead halt right when we're almost at the end.
Yeah, you point out some good examples of things that would have been cleaned up...and yes, what probably would have been a pretty tense second half/denoument in the pool room with a few deft cuts does tend to drag. I think some of this probably relates back to script issues; you may recall long ago that I read Frederick Rafael's wannabe tell-all on the creation of the screenplay, most of which is selfish b.s. but does illustrate that Kubrick struggled mightily with what he wanted to do with the source material. Still, the story moves along in a linear fashion, albeit probably a touch more slowly than Kubrick's true final cut might have been. [/quote]


True. Look at his Holocaust project, which he killed because he apparently believed it wouldn't measure up to Schindler's List, or something like that.
Or A.I., for that matter.
Well said. It's a fascinating project, certainly.
Really one of my favorites in many ways, I love the dreamy atmosphere and the way danger alternately creeps and stabs its way in.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

15 by Alexhead
klimov wrote:The film does not need 'some cuts'... The Billiards scene is fucking brilliant and there's nothing wrong with the music cues. Also, Alexhead, why are you praising Paths of Glory over Full Metal Jacket, have you lost your mind?
Considering Kubrick's history of tinkering with final cuts even beyond their theatrical release date, he would have disagreed with you. We all have a great love of plodding eurocinema pacing, to be sure, but Kubrick was in many ways an American entertainer.

I happened to pick Paths over FMJ in that particular example, somewhat arbitrarily, but I'd certainly put them on par with each other. In the end FMJ probably wins out in my book too, though, it's not as old-school Hollywood as Paths...then again, Paths is in many ways far from wrote old-school itself...
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

16 by chainsaw
Measure up to SCHINDLER'S LIST?? :roflmao:

Firstly, Kubrick had done his usual amount of obsessive research on the subject and concluded that the Holocaust would be a subject too horrific for filmic interpretation, to the extent that to make a true representation of such an event would require making a film that every member of the audience would walk out on. Not because the film is of poor quality (like SL) but because it would be absolutely intolerable. Pulling that off is no mean feat. Maha, your next project!

Secondly, the famous quote from Kube regarding SL was: "That was about success, wasn't it? The Holocaust is about six million people who get killed. Schindler's List' was about six hundred people who don't." (my interpretation of this is: Spielberg made a comfortable, hopeful film and of course, this is backed up largely by the film itself).
Image

17 by O-dot
chainsaw wrote:Measure up to SCHINDLER'S LIST?? :roflmao:

Firstly, Kubrick had done his usual amount of obsessive research on the subject and concluded that the Holocaust would be a subject too horrific for filmic interpretation, to the extent that to make a true representation of such an event would require making a film that every member of the audience would walk out on. Not because the film is of poor quality (like SL) but because it would be absolutely intolerable. Pulling that off is no mean feat.
Thank you for correcting my recollection. Off to see the new Scorsese in a bit...
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

18 by Alexhead
chainsaw wrote:Measure up to SCHINDLER'S LIST?? :roflmao:

Firstly, Kubrick had done his usual amount of obsessive research on the subject and concluded that the Holocaust would be a subject too horrific for filmic interpretation, to the extent that to make a true representation of such an event would require making a film that every member of the audience would walk out on. Not because the film is of poor quality (like SL) but because it would be absolutely intolerable. Pulling that off is no mean feat. Maha, your next project!

Secondly, the famous quote from Kube regarding SL was: "That was about success, wasn't it? The Holocaust is about six million people who get killed. Schindler's List' was about six hundred people who don't." (my interpretation of this is: Spielberg made a comfortable, hopeful film and of course, this is backed up largely by the film itself).
That quote's from the Rafael book, as a matter of fact.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

19 by klimov
Alexhead - it's one thing for Kubrick himself to make some subtle tweaks to his work approaching or even during the release. Quite another for some unqualified lughead to start passing judgement :)

20 by TC
O-dot wrote:Thank you for correcting my recollection. Off to see the new Scorsese in a bit...
ah, please report back. i think it looks killer.
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