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Excalibur


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I know crazy! I even used this new device called a dolly, and another new invention....the camera jib. It makes the shots like all crazy smooth and stuff.

 

R,

[/quote

I know, just like that young punk Kubrick, with his hand-held 65mm and throwing a Newman-Sinclair out of the window.

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This is a film that I always enjoy watching when it comes on TV. I first saw it back in primary school in the early 80s. One of the things that stands out for me is the mist. There was a lot of mist in this film! I think they had their smoke machines running overtime.

 

it can be pretty foggy or misty down there in wicklow. I have not seen the blu ray release, but how does it look? Excaliber is one of my favorites for many reasons, the saucy Helen Mirren being one of them.

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I still remember a 1980's TV transfer framed at 1.66:1 ("E.T.", "Gremlins" or "The Color Purple" also come to mind as 1.66:1 films when transferred to VHS and broadcast versions).

 

Those films, including "Excalibur", probably used an 1.66:1 hard-matte, protecting that frame for TV, with a 1.85:1 intended theatrical aspect ratio. Don't forget Kubrick himself had lots of trouble to show "Barry Lyndon" at 1.66:1 in the mid 70's and then composed his later films for 1.85:1 projection, protecting for 1.33:1 for broadcasts and home video versions. To my eye, "Excalibur" HD transfer looks fine at 1.77:1, while the new transfer of "Barry Lyndon" at 1.77:1 crops some vertical information and has been tilt-and-scanned to hide the fact.

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If a transfer looks great, I'm inclined to not lose sleep over the minor framing differences between 1.66, 1.78, and 1.85 on a TV set. I still remember the old days when almost everything ended up in a 4x3 pan & scan or open-matte transfer, so the fact that we can nitpick over some minor side or top & bottom cropping is a great improvement.

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Was this an influence on your new film Big Sur do you think?

 

love

 

Freya

 

"Excalibur" is one of my favorite movies so it probably always is influencing me in some way or another, but in the case of "Big Sur" it was not a reference for me as much as it was in "Northfork".

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If a transfer looks great, I'm inclined to not lose sleep over the minor framing differences between 1.66, 1.78, and 1.85 on a TV set. I still remember the old days when almost everything ended up in a 4x3 pan & scan or open-matte transfer, so the fact that we can nitpick over some minor side or top & bottom cropping is a great improvement.

 

Yes, I agree, the Blu-ray looks superb and it is a vast improvement over the previous DVD. But they should have released the film at its proper aspect ratio. Warner just re-released "A Clocwork Orange" on Blu-ray at 1.66:1, and "Lolita" was released on Blu-ray at 1.66:1 the same day "Barry Lyndon" came out cropped. I just don't see the reason behind this (Leon Vitani now claims the film is and has always been composed for 1.77:1, but the letter sent by Kubrick with instructions to film projectionists clearly states that he composed for 1.66:1). While I can live with the 1.77:1 ratio, I would have preferred the OAR.

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If a transfer looks great, I'm inclined to not lose sleep over the minor framing differences between 1.66, 1.78, and 1.85 on a TV set. I still remember the old days when almost everything ended up in a 4x3 pan & scan or open-matte transfer, so the fact that we can nitpick over some minor side or top & bottom cropping is a great improvement.

Obviously It is easy to spot the difference between 2.35 and 1.85. However I find it harder to differentiate between 1.66, 1.77 and 1.85 on my 55" HDTV.

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