Colour-Vivid, What's the most dazzlingly colourful film you've seen?

[Freddy]

The Duellists is like an oil painting, speaking of which Derek Jarman's Caravaggio is wonderfully rich. The is also the scene from Lawrence of Arabia where the match is blown out and in that moment the desert sky appears.

[Windthrop]

Of recent films (as Powell and Pressburger have already been mentioned) Hugo, despite its subject matter of black and white.

[CaptainWaggett]

It has some reds from the Guardsmen's tunics when they're on parade and khaki when they're in barracks or on exercise and lots of sand in the Libyan desert (aka Camber Sands), but the colour isn't the first thing that strikes you about it

Steve

It's the best thing about it though

[slartybarty]

If there was any one reason that convinced me to buy a Bluray player (and I speak as one with around 5000 DVDs),it was "THE RED SHOES". It is unbelievable how much vividness and clarity one gets. The colours are amazing - I have compared both the ITV Blu-ray and the Criterion Collection from the US. I can see no difference. Beware of buying Criterion Blu-rays as they are now Region locked and won't play on European machines.No matter, ITV has issued Red Shoes and Black Narcissus already, Blimp is on it's way, hopefully we will eventually get Matter of life and Death sooner rather than later(I can't wait that long Steve!)
Other fantastic Blu-rays that display the greatest of colours are - Adventures of Robin Hood 1938 (Warner USA Region free) This Happy Breed 1944(Network UK)and
GWTW 1939 (Warner Region free).
The enhancement of B/W is just as amazing - Brief Encounter is a case in point.
The oldest films that have been given a decent restoration are the ones that convince that Blu-ray is not just some expensive gimmick.
I certainly don't intend replacing all my collection, but I am always on the lookout for the next P & P or other great british classics.
slarty

[Andy H]

A while ago I saw a battle scene from Henry V (Laurence Olivier 1944) and stood aghast at the superb picture quality and the vivid, almost glowing colours. I'm assuming it has been 'done'?
I'm surprised to learn that This Happy Breed has such vivid colouration - every time I see it I am impressed by the slightly wan colours and I always think that appearance was intentional. It suits it very well IMO.
How do the restoration team know how much colour was intended?

As for Blimp and AMOLAD, these may finally get me to the Blu-ray shop......

[Windthrop]

A while ago I saw a battle scene from Henry V (Laurence Olivier 1944) and stood aghast at the superb picture quality and the vivid, almost glowing colours. I'm assuming it has been 'done'?
I'm surprised to learn that This Happy Breed has such vivid colouration - every time I see it I am impressed by the slightly wan colours and I always think that appearance was intentional. It suits it very well IMO.
How do the restoration team know how much colour was intended?

As for Blimp and AMOLAD, these may finally get me to the Blu-ray shop......

Henry V has always been available in decent brightly coloured copies. The TV one I saw in the 80s looked very good.

This Happy Breed had slightly muted colours to please Noel Coward.

[Steve Crook]

Beware of buying Criterion Blu-rays as they are now Region locked and won't play on European machines.

it's hard to find a DVD player in the UK or Europe that can't be easily made to play DVDs from any region. With Blu-ray there are also quite a few players that will play discs from any region.

I have no compunction about mentioning this as region restrictions are of dubious legality, especially where the countries concerned have signed free trade agreements

Steve

[Steve Crook]

How do the restoration team know how much colour was intended?

In the case of the P&P films, by talking to the people that made them and who saw them when they were first released. But also by getting people with a good artistic eye to do the colour balancing. That's why they cost so much to restore properly

Steve

[slartybarty]

I found a very nice firm in chicago that shipped me a doctored Blu-ray panasonic about a year ago - it's great. I used PayPal and it arrived ready to go.
the only negative was the cheap and cheerful 110 volt power converter that was not strong enough and conked out after a few days - I got a stronger one from Amazon with no further problems.
When I commented on This happy Breed, I meant to say that the upgrade to Blu-ray is staggering against the quality of the DVD.
I can't imagine that the film has ever looked better -the colours are muted but striking none the less. I'm afraid my old computer won't play Blu-rays otherwise I would do a few screen captures. However there is a superb comparison site where one can see screen grabs of the different DVDs and where applicable - blu-rays and that
is dvdbeaver.com - highly reccomended. They even have their P & P section.
slarty

[Steve Crook]

I found a very nice firm in chicago that shipped me a doctored Blu-ray panasonic about a year ago - it's great. I used PayPal and it arrived ready to go.
the only negative was the cheap and cheerful 110 volt power converter that was not strong enough and conked out after a few days - I got a stronger one from Amazon with no further problems.

I got the Technika BRSS10 Blu-ray player. It also plays DVDs and with a simple code entered via the remote, it plays Blu-rays & DVDs from any region

However there is a superb comparison site where one can see screen grabs of the different DVDs and where applicable - blu-rays and that
is dvdbeaver.com - highly reccomended. They even have their P & P section.

Yes, I know Gary and admire what he does with his DVD Beaver site. Although I do sometimes query the equipment he uses because some of the things he highlights in his comparisons, I just don't see such drastic differences when I play the same discs on my equipment

Steve

[slartybarty]

I think he must be using some kind of reference equipment - I think that I read somewhere that he uses a 60 inch plasma screen - that would certainly show up the kind of deficiencies that he mentions.
I am just grateful that my tired old eyes can still see the tremendous difference between DVD and Blu-ray especially when vivid colour is concerned.
Imagine a "Red Shoes" type restoration on "Gone To Earth" and "Oh Rosalinda" . Being a devoted fan of Fledermaus and P & P - I would break down doors for that.
Steve - did "Rosalinda" ever have any kind of commercial release? Sorry , this is not the thread for this.
I found a horrible download from the Kickass site (which I no longer use) of Rosalinda which someone had recorded from CH4 years ago and uploaded.
I have two old documentaries of P & P - the BBC Arena and the South Bank Show.
slarty

[Steve Crook]

I think he must be using some kind of reference equipment - I think that I read somewhere that he uses a 60 inch plasma screen - that would certainly show up the kind of deficiencies that he mentions.

I don't see why any "reference equipment" would show things like the differences he reports and the size of screen won't make that much difference. Have a look at his page about The Red Shoes and scroll down to the direct comparisons down towards the bottom of the page. I suspect that a lot of the difference might be in his PAL to NTSC conversion, or just in NTSC itself - which is known as "Never The Same Color"

I am just grateful that my tired old eyes can still see the tremendous difference between DVD and Blu-ray especially when vivid colour is concerned.
Imagine a "Red Shoes" type restoration on "Gone To Earth" and "Oh Rosalinda" . Being a devoted fan of Fledermaus and P & P - I would break down doors for that.

So would Captain Waggett

Steve - did "Rosalinda" ever have any kind of commercial release? Sorry , this is not the thread for this.
I found a horrible download from the Kickass site (which I no longer use) of Rosalinda which someone had recorded from CH4 years ago and uploaded.
I have two old documentaries of P & P - the BBC Arena and the South Bank Show.
slarty

No, it's never been released commercially. Not yet. Most bootlegs of Oh... Rosalinda!! are from when it was shown on one of the early Sky Movies channels.

The BBC Arena documentary, "A Pretty British Affair" is on the Criterion DVD of 49th Parallel
There are various other P&P related documentaries that have been made over the years. Some of them are available on some of the DVDs or Blu-ray releases

Steve

[CaptainWaggett]

Imagine a "Red Shoes" type restoration on "Gone To Earth" and "Oh Rosalinda" . Being a devoted fan of Fledermaus and P & P - I would break down doors for that.

Now I've got someone to join me in my 24/7 picket of Marty's house Surely now he'll see reason and bump it up the list

Meanwhile, surely the most Technicolour film ever made is The Adventures of Robin Hood - as the tagline accurately said 'Only the rainbow can duplicate its brilliance!'/

[Richard_in_wales]

Another wonderfully vivid film

[narabdela]

Another wonderfully vivid film

Ford's masterpiece imho. The Blu-Ray transfer is stunning.

[GRAEME]

Another wonderfully vivid film

It is indeed beautiful as befits the epic scale. The snow scenes are my favourites - the contrasts are incredible.

Compare with Three Godfathers that has a much more pastel story-book quality - I presume that it was dictated by production conditions - but it lacks the clrity and contrast, but feels more in keeping with the "fairy-tale" nature of that story.

[christoph404]

Ford's masterpiece imho. The Blu-Ray transfer is stunning.

In terms of visual quality I think this is the best film I've ever viewed on Blu Ray, its startling, so incredibly detailed and vivid.

[Steve Crook]

Now I've got someone to join me in my 24/7 picket of Marty's house Surely now he'll see reason and bump it up the list

I was speaking to some people from the Vienna Film Archive and telling them what an amazing film Oh... Rosalinda!! is, so maybe they join your campaign once they've seen it

Steve

[christoph404]

The old 3 strip technicolor process and single strip colour processes of the 60s required a lot of lighting to record an image on the film and that lighting was much harder and direct than the type of lighting used in filmaking today. Nowadays film stock is of a higher ISO and requires lower light levels and consequently modern films seem to have a much softer naturalistic look, they are all lit with the spotlights placed behind large softening white fabric screens, so as well as the film stock I think the lighting required adds to the "vivid colour" feel of vintage films. If you compare a Bond film like "Thunderball" for example which is very vivid, to a modern Bond film the difference is startling, but that is due to the style of lighting as well as the film stock, movies of the 1960s were often lit with bare spotlights pointing into the scene which juices up the colour...and quite importantly....the contrast, so a film like Zulu for example not only has vivid colours but because the sunlight is being supplemented by bare spotlights and silver reflectors pointing light directly back into the scene the contrast is also adding a lot to the vivid nature of the colour. Many modern films to my eye are completely lacking in that vivid contrast, but my point is that it is also down to lighting style as well as the process used. Incidentally the most recent Bond film is the first to be shot using an entirely digital process, I'll be interested to see whether it will mimic film or have its own unique quality.