bad future wrote: ↑Fri Mar 31, 2023 7:35 pm
In that panel on the restoration presented at Il Cinema Ritrovato last year, they said that grain management was used in a select few sections featuring duplicate elements, particularly the title sequence and some of the "psychedelic moments on the rock" but only in those instances. Otherwise they say it was restored from the negative (whereas the restoration on the Criterion blu was from an interpositive) but because of the natural lighting and slow film stock it's "definitely not a grainy film." Assuming they were being candid then, I hope there wasn't additional detrimental tinkering since then!
I had a more thorough look at the film yesterday evening, and it's definitely weird looking. If anything, it confirmed (IMO) that the movie has been as a whole DNRed to some extent (ie not just during the more dupey moments - title sequence + psychedelic edits with overlapping images), and that at least part of the DNRed scenes have then been most likely artificially re-grained.
I'm likely to do the comparative caps with the Criterion BD this weekend (I'm quite certain the second pass on my computer to do the caps will reveal I was absolutely wrong when looking at it on my TV, but I'm curious to seize more precisely what has advanced from the older master, as I'm sure there still has been an improvement), but the possibly-regrained shots are best described (to me) as excessively smooth shots with a fake digital grain emulation on top, not unlike a movie digitally shot that received a fake grain emulation in post.
My issues are that :
* the grain doesn't look like 35mm OCN grain. I've seen hundreds of proper 35mm OCN 4K restorations, grainy movies and not grainy movies, to the point I can pretty much guess just by looking at a restoration at which resolution it was performed and what element was used (because yes, no matter what people say about this : 35mm OCN 4K restorations look like... 35mm OCN 4K restorations). This doesn't look like any of those, but like a smooth movie with fake grain on top. It's not organic, and thus quite displeasing to look at (though I'm certain YMWV (Your Mileage Will Vary) on this). It shouldn't = not normal.
* it doesn't change the underlying smoothness of the picture. Many shots feel like they have the resolution and details of an old HD master from a US studio (but with fine grain on top). In particular, faces in mid-to-close shots show too few details compared to what one would expect from such a workflow. Again, it's not organic to look at, which it shouldn't be (= nor normal).
* many shots just look like they're DNRed full stop. They look digitally smoothed, possibly with a touch of EE also, and don't look "slightly" grain management but intensely so. Shots with faces in them aren't far from showing waxy faces and wouldn't stand particularly out in a 20 years old HD master or a movie shot on digital. They shouldn't = not normal.
* extension to the last point : the movie looks weird straight from the opening credits, but I never include these segments when judging a restoration since I know there usually are explanations for this... except here, even the opening credits look weirdly digital (and not just dupey), but the movie just, well, go on looking like this. It would be logical for a movie to have the same look from opening credits to finish if the restoration was performed from an IP, but it's not anymore when the restoration is based on the OCN (except when the textless-OCN is used for the credits and the credits are recreated digitally, but otherwise, you have different look). Not logical = not normal. (Edit : comparing with the Criterion discs : it looks like the opening credits are newly recreated ones).
While it's definitely not a Wake in Fright trainwreck (though it might be debated that the lower-lit shots actually aren't far from it), it's another restoration from Australia that makes me weary of whatever is coming from there.
PS : DC and TC presentations are pretty much identical (chapter stops are even placed at the same points in both cuts).
