ADDITION: Optimum - Region 'B' - Blu-ray - July 11': Plenty of positives here with Optimum's 'Special Edition' Blu-ray of Roeg's masterful Don't Look Now. It is notably brighter, with more vibrant colors and significantly more in formation in the frame. The dual-layered 1080P handles the textures so much better than the DVDs where it often came off as noise. There is a lot of soft-focus shots in Don't Look Now but the hi-def transfer doesn't export this as inferior - or less detailed. Overall this looks quite good and I was very curious to see how the new format would handle this film and Tony Richmond's cinematography. I'd declare it a big success - visually - and is director-approved.

The audio is in faithful stereo via a linear PCM Audio track at 2304 kbps. Some of the creepier moments benefit from the lossless audio transfer. Pino Donaggio's score seems all the more mysterious and dark. There are optional English subtitles (see sample below) on the region 'B'-locked disc.

Supplement have all the extras of the 2006 Optimum SE DVD - but add even more. Retained is the informative audio commentary by Roeg, the 7-minute introduction by Alan Jones, the 20-minute Looking Back featurette and the 'Death in Venice' interview with composer Pino Donaggio. The trailer also stays. What is new are over an hour's worth of additional interviews with Danny Boyle (15:10 in 576i PAL - as are all video extras), Donald Sutherland (23:14), Screenwriter/Producer Alan Scott (14:31) and cinematographer Tony Richmond (23:48), plus a delightful 5-minute 'Compressed Version' of Don't Look Now by Danny Boyle for BAFTA Tribute.

I'd say this is another in a long list of Region 'B'-locked discs that make consideration for a region FREE Blu-ray player all the more pressing for region 'A'-locked audiences. Don't Look Now is dramatically more impacting in 1080P and this Optimum package is one of their best. It gave me a memorable viewing presentation. We give this a resolute recommendation.

***

ON THE DVD: Henrik Sylow on the Optimum
The transfer of Optimum is stunning. No visible artefacts, sharp details, strong - original palette - colours. It is however slightly more overscanned than the previous R2, by apprx. 1%. Compared to both the Warner R2 and the Paramount R1, it stands out an improvement in all departments.

The sound is, as on the other versions, the original 2.0 Mono track. Nothing to be said about it.

What makes the Optimum even better is its additional features. While it ports Warners featurette, it has an added introduction by critic Alan Jones, an interview with composer Pino Donnagio (produced by Blue Underground for Optimum) and an audio commentary by Roeg and critic John Smith, where Roeg ranges between anecdotes and reflections upon influences and production.

Gary Tooze on the Warner and Paramount
Some really bad color manipulation has gone on with one of these DVDs. Looking solely at skin tones I would suggest that the Region 1 Paramount disc is the culprit for the more obvious altering. They both look to have the negligible differences in sharpness and contrast levels with both leaning a shade towards the NTSC version. The Paramount is cropped on the top and left edges more than we would appreciate - less so for the Warner on the bottom and right. The Paramount offers a French DUB option along with the original English audio. The Warner audio has some audio distortion and is less polished than the Paramount. The Warner offers no subtitles where the NTSC gives an English/French choice. Extras go the way of the PAL edition as the Paramount offers only a trailer. Overall the NTSC has badly altered the colors to such an extent that we are going with the Warner-PAL for the image. With the Warner audio problem, we feel overall the Paramount is the version to buy, regardless of its flaws (color and lack of extras).