Comments

ADDITION: ITV DVD Blu-ray (June 08'): NOTE: These Blu-ray captures were ripped directly from the Blu-ray disc and are linked to their 1920X1080 counterpart if you are interested to see.

Firstly, the great news - despite rumors to the contrary this release is REGION FREE and will play on Blu-ray players world-wide. Whewwww!

NOTE: BUT the 24 minute extra feature, Profile of Black Narcissus (also found on the two PAL releases), does NOT play on my region 'A' Blu-ray player. It appears to be PAL and/or region 2 encoded. I haven't checked but doubt my SD region-free player will be able to pick it up either (being on a Blu-ray disc). It will probably only play on a Region 'B' Blu-ray player.

Secondly, equally as good news to the region-free attribute - it looks absolutely marvelous. Colors fully support the restored transfers on both PAL editions, but this runs full theatrical 1:40:43 without 4% speedup. Detail is, of course, improved and had me swooning. At times it looks almost unbelievable it is so tight, clean and clear. Remember all captures are in native resolution but the Blu-ray are reduced in size to fit this webpage. I don't know if the resized image is doing enough justice to the Blu-ray hence our linking to the full-resolution images.  I've also added more linked images at the very bottom to help convey how tremendous this Blu-ray appears. A favorite film, this has vaulted to be one of my most valuable discs and will be the Feature DVD of July 08'.   

Audio is 2.0 channel mono (never understood that) but sounds just fine - as good or better than I have heard before (sounded very 'strong' to me - maybe I just mean 'loud'). There are optional English subtitles in a reasonable white font.

Now, it could look even better. This is a single-layered Blu-ray disc and the film only takes up 16 Gig. Mathematically it could be further improved but this probably won't be coming along very soon. It does have some infrequent speckles and shows a bit of noise but is far superior to the older SD editions. I can easily assure anyone that this is the best home theatre representation of Powell and Pressburger's immortal classic.

Our goal at DVDBeaver is to disseminate knowledge of important films looking the best on DVD. Sometimes we succeed. I am very proud to acknowledge this Blu-ray of Black Narcissus is now one of the most prized discs I own (and I own a lot).  

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ADDITION: Warner Home Vidéo (April 06'): For many of us we really did not require this validation that the colors on the Network edition were more accurate than those on the Criterion. The Network colors are much closer to the new Warner Home Vidéo, but the image quality on this new French release is even sharper!

All we can say is 'Wow' - this new DVD release, labeled from the 'Collection Institut Lumiere' as are the other new Powell and Pressburger offerings from Warner Home Vidéo in Europe, looks outstanding. The colors are perfect and the slight haziness apparent in the Network is replaced by a crisp image that may have some minor black-level boosting (but nothing compared to the manipulation on the Criterion). The image is the best I have ever seen of this film.

The extras in the Warner package are fairly extensive clocking in at almost 2 hours worth - it only seems slighted by the lack of commentary (available on both the Criterion and the Network). I am also a fan of subtitles (optional English) but it seems like a small point when the image quality is this tremendous. The entire package is stunning. After a 2nd viewing of the Warner disc, I can confirm that it is the definitive digital transfer for the film and we strongly recommend!

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ADDITION - NETWORK - Region 2- PAL - October 05'

The new transfer is directly off a new interpositive struck directly from the YCMs... which the Criterion isn't. And the colors, for me, are just perfection. (Thanks Bruce!)...

Bruce's comments ring true and I think this shows the value of direct frame comparisons as we initially had the Criterion on of our ESSENTIAL DVDs (already changed) but side-by-side against the new NETWORK release we can identify a few flaws. Portions of the Criterion are not progressively transferred, hence we can see 'combing' in two of the screen capture below. The NETWORK is far more filmic looking than the Criterion which has some fluctuating contrast, chroma bug and an appearance of color bleeding. The Criterion looks very thin in comparison and it also has more scratches, dirt and damage. It appears to have been brightened. The NETWORK does not have a subtitle option. In the area of extras, the commentary is the same as is the featurette 'Painting With Light' but the NETWORK brings a few new supplements with the 24 minute 'Profile of Black Narcissus'. Audio appears on a par with the Criterion - and may actually be slightly clearer. 

Although the Criterion states 'Created with the participation of cinematographer Jack Cardiff' I suspect transfer methods have improved in the past 4 years and the NETWORK source was obviously superior.

DeeF says:

'I've seen Black Narcissus several times in the theater, the last being about the year 1999, at Film Forum in NY.

The Technicolor of a projected film really can't be reproduced properly on a digital video, and I admit to always being disappointed in the Criterion disk.

In addition to odd color problems, the Criterion has audio-synch issues.'

(thanks Dee!)

Cliff says:

'Some of the screen shots from the Network disk (e.g., that shot with the golden metal thingie) remind me of Fantoma's DVD of "Tiger of Eschnapur". Technicolor on DVD doesn't get much better.' (thanks Cliff!)

The Network edition is a must-own DVD. No question.

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Gary W. Tooze