Eyes Wide Shut SE DVD

[Andy O'Neil]

Is there an "Eyes Wide Shut" SE DVD? If not, how is the transfer on the standard DVD?

[David Mullen ASC]

The transfer on the DVD has been somewhat controversial for looking TOO good. The theatrical prints were much grainier, the movie being shot on 5298 pushed two stops, but the DVD looks very rich, sharp, and not grainy at all. It's also 4:3 full-frame according to Kubrick's wishes, not letterboxed to its theatrical ratio.

 

The box set of Kubrick DVD's comes with a documentay called "Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures" which is worth owning -- all the clips look beautiful.

 

Watch out when buying any used DVD's -- Warners Home Video released them twice, the first time using the old transfers originally supervised by Kubrick for the laserdisc market ten years ago. Kubrick was finishing "Eyes Wide Shut" at the time and did not have the time to supervise new transfers, so he insisted that they use the old ones. After he died, there was enough pressure on Warners to redo the transfers, which they did under the supervision of Kubrick's assistant, executive producer, and brother-in-law, Jan Harlin. He followed the guidelines set by the old transfers but the new ones are much sharper and cleaner-looking. The new DVD's had the same cover as the old ones except for a little blue line near the top that said "DIGITALLY REMASTERED" or something like that.

 

For the mildly letterboxed ones -- "Barry Lyndon" and "Clockwork Orange" -- the newer DVD's are anamorphic with slight black borders on the sides to preserve the less-than-1.78 aspect ratio. "2001" is also now an anamorphic transfer in the theatrical aspect ratio.

 

Of course, there is also the difference between the North American version of the movie and the one released in the rest of the world. Region 1 DVD's have the "censored" version with digital figures blocking nude actors in the orgy scene -- I assume that the Region 2 DVD's don't have this.

[Andy O'Neil]

This info's great. Thank you, David.