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The 4K UHD of Polanski's Rosemary's Baby is reviewed/compared HERE
Horrifying and darkly comic, Rosemary’s Baby was Roman Polanski’s Hollywood debut. This wildly entertaining nightmare, faithfully adapted from Ira Levin’s best seller, stars a revelatory Mia Farrow as a young mother-to-be who grows increasingly suspicious that her overfriendly elderly neighbors (played by Sidney Blackmer and an Oscar-winning Ruth Gordon) and self-involved husband (John Cassavetes) are hatching a satanic plot against her and her baby. In the decades of occult cinema that Polanski’s ungodly masterpiece has spawned, it has never been outdone for sheer psychological terror. *** Perhaps not worthy of the fright-fest moniker it seems to have achieved, 1968 Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" is a taut psychological thriller anxiously building in tension with suburb performances by Cassavetes and Farrow. Adapted from the chilling novel by Ira Levin it attacks the one vestige of normal society that all child-rearing parents must cross - pregnancy and the desperate fear for a healthy newborn. Yes, it certainly is a horror with its satanic overtones but I would say the most abundant expression might be one of paranoia. Rosemary's Baby continued to announce Mr. Polanski as a viable directorial force and it easily ranks as one of his best films. |
Posters
Theatrical Release: June 12th, 1968
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
Comparison:
Paramount (Golden Classic) - Region 2 - PAL vs. Paramount - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Big thanks to Arvid and Gregory Meshman for the DVD Screen Caps!
Box Covers |
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Released on Blu-ray by Paramount in May 2021: |
Distribution |
Paramount Region 2 - PAL |
Paramount Region 1 - NTSC |
Criterion Collection - Spine #630 - Region 'A' - Blu-ray |
Runtime | 2:11:0 (4% PAL speedup) | 2:16:30 | 2:16:58.835 |
Video |
1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio
16X9 enhanced |
1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio
16X9 enhanced |
1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 47,454,732,278 bytes Feature: 28,387,799,040 bytes Video Bitrate: 23.99 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video |
NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes. |
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Bitrate:
Paramount (Golden Classic)
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Bitrate:
Paramount
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Bitrate:
Blu-ray
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Audio | English Dolby Digital Mono, German Dolby Digital Mono |
English Dolby Digital Mono, French Dolby Digital Mono |
LPCM Audio English 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit |
Subtitles | Arabic, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Polish, Swedish, Turkish, Hungarian, Bulgarian, English, Dutch, Norwegian, Rumanian, Czech, German, none | English, None | English, None |
Features |
Release Information: Studio: Paramount Aspect Ratio:
Edition Details: Chapters 32 |
Release Information: Studio: Paramount Aspect Ratio:
Edition Details:
DVD
Release Date: August 19, 2003 Chapters 32 |
Release Information: Studio: Criterion Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 47,454,732,278 bytes Feature: 28,387,799,040 bytes Video Bitrate: 23.99 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Edition Details:
Blu-ray
Release Date: October 30th, 2012 Chapters 18 |
Comments |
The 4K UHD of Polanski's Rosemary's Baby is reviewed/compared HERE NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were obtained directly from the Blu-ray disc. ADDITION: Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray (October 2012): Advertised as 'restored digital transfer, approved by director Roman Polanski'. The 1080P looks solid - dual-layered with a decent bitrate and colors gain some vibrancy and tightness. The image quality has wonderful film grain textures and contrast is at Criterion's usual Hallmark standard. Everything is sharper and the more intense colors breathe new life in the viewing presentation.Krzysztof Komeda's score is brilliant - haunting and brooding and gains some notable prominence with a lossless linear PCM mono track at 1152 kbps. It is a large part of the presentation and comes across authentically flat but with some perceived depth in uncompressed. There are optional English subtitles on the region 'A'-locked Blu-ray disc. We get a new 47-minute documentary - Remembering Rosemary's Baby - featuring interviews with Polanski, actress Mia Farrow, and producer Robert Evans. There is also a 20-minute audio-only interview with author Ira Levin from a 1997 broadcast of Leonard Lopate’s public radio program New York and Company, about his 1967 novel, its sequel, and the film and Komeda, Komeda, a 1-hour 10-minute documentary on the life and work of jazz musician and composer Krzysztof Komeda, who wrote the score for Rosemary’s Baby as well as Polanski's Dance of the Vampires and Cul-de-sac among others. There is a liner notes booklet included in the transparent Blu-ray case featuring an essay by critic Ed Park; Levin’s afterword to the 2003 New American Library edition of his novel; and Levin’s rare, unpublished character sketches of the Woodhouses and floor plan of their apartment, created in preparation for the novel. Great release - one of the most anticipated of the year - and it doesn't disappoint. As well as getting this brilliant film in magnificent HD - with all its benefits - the extras are worth the price alone. Buy this Blu-ray with extreme confidence. *** ON THE DVDs: Not an appreciable difference here. I think the PAL edition may be marginally sharper, but I suppose only you can judge whether it is enough for an upgrade. The Pal edition has the preferable white removable subtitles as opposed to the gaudy yellow of the NTSC. Both offer an audio dub and subtitle options are more plentiful in the PAL release. The digital extras are the same but the PAL "Golden Classic" gives and extra slipcase and booklet. PAL is marginally superior in all areas. - Gary Tooze
This is the
Paramount PAL Golden Classic edition which compares very favorably
with the Paramount Region 1 release (we will compare a frame soon). It
is the same as the original release but with an extra slipcase and a
booklet. Lines are tight and the image is excellent. Color balance is
good and its only flaw is that it may look a bit heavy, but not to the
level of saturation. Strongly recommended!
This is my favorite Polanski movie, its
the second one in his building block trilogy. The other ones are
Repulsion and
The Tenant. I really like the performance of the two
main characters played by Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes. -
Arvid
The Region 1 NTSC DVD
comes from the same color-poor analog master Paramount used for TV
broadcast and the old 12" LaserDisc, material obviously repeated for the
PAL version. After having the NTSC edition for a long while, I had a
chance to screen the film in a decent 35mm print and was shocked just
how superior the colors were on film with a difference that should not
be the case versus the DVD format. The sound was also more compressed on
the DVD than expected. Since they are supporting HD-DVD, Paramount
should make this one of their first classic titles to get the upgraded
treatment. Hopefully, the fact that it has monophonic sound will not
cause a delay versus multi-channel titles. |
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(Paramount (Golden Classic) - Region 2 -
PAL - LEFT vs. Paramount - Region 1 - NTSC - RIGHT)
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Blu-ray
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CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Screen Captures
1) Paramount (Golden Classic) - Region 2 - PAL - TOP 2) Paramount - Region 1 - NTSC - MIDDLE3) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM |
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1) Paramount (Golden Classic) - Region 2 - PAL - TOP 2) Paramount - Region 1 - NTSC - MIDDLE3) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM |
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1) Paramount (Golden Classic) - Region 2 - PAL - TOP 2) Paramount - Region 1 - NTSC - MIDDLE3) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM |
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1) Paramount (Golden Classic) - Region 2 - PAL - TOP 2) Paramount - Region 1 - NTSC - MIDDLE3) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM |
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Report Card:
Image: |
Blu-ray |
Sound: |
Blu-ray |
Extras: | Blu-ray |