Artificial Eye

Region 0 - PAL

1.62:1 Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 8.18 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

1.66:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 4.83 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Artificial Eye (Tales of the Four Seasons)

Big World Pictures

Potemkine Films
 Blu-ray

French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen letterboxed - 1.62:1

Edition Details:
•  Interview with Eric Rohmer (4:3; 9:26)
•  Theatrical Trailer (4:3; 1:50)
•  Rohmer biography

DVD Release Date: 26 September 2005
Amaray

Chapters 15
 

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.66:1

Edition Details:
•  Theatrical Trailer (16:9; 1:58)
•  Trailers for 'Curling' and 'Rebels of the Neon God'

 

Chapters

Chapters 13

ADDITION: Potemkine Films - Region 'B' - Blu-ray (April 2015): I have already stated- I now own the Coffret Rohmer intégral combo blu ray + livret + pochette photos [Blu-ray] - it is 25 Rohmer films and 52 discs, book and more! There are DVD discs included and supplements (although extras don't seem to be English-friendly) although the features themselves that I have checked so far have optional English subtitles. A Winter's Tale is progressive - 1080P - (while some in the set are interlaced) runs in theatrical running time, and it supports the color scheme of the most recent 'Big World Pictures' DVD - both probably from the same source. Where it separates itself from the SD transfers is the support of the grain - which looks great - most notable in the outdoor sequences. It offers original mono French audio, in a lossless DTS-HD transfer and sounds predictably flat but very clean. The English subtitles are fully optional. The supplements are only in French (no subs)  a 22-minute piece with Jean Douchet meets Eric Rohmer, an 18-minute interview with Mary Stephen + Pascal Ribier and an audio only piece from 1992 - plus the included PAL DVD. Rohmer fans should indulge - We have already reviewed the Blu-ray of A Summer's Tale - also in both sets.

***

ON THE Big World Pictures: Superficially, Big World Pictures' single-layer, anamorphic 1.66:1 DVD - a follow-up to their DVD of Rohmer's A SUMMER'S TALE - looks softer than the UK disc, but the latter - based on Henrik's comments below - was heavily manipulated and poor overall (as well as cropped compared to the US caps) with more detail evident on the newer transfer. The US DVD had as its source the brand new high definition restorations that premiered on Blu-ray in France last year. The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio is crisp and clear and the burnt-in English subtitles are smaller than the optional UK ones but always readable.

Henrik on the Artificial Eye release: Approved by Rohmer himself, the masters for all of the Tales of the Four Seasons were obtained from Rohmers' production company, Les Films du Losange, and were the best available for Artificial Eye.

Directorial approved or not, the transfer is very poor. Presented in non-anamorphic 768px, it most of all looks like a transfer from video carried over to DVD5, then blown up to take up 6.9GB of storage. Considering this is a film of 110 minutes on a DVD9, the quality of the image and the bitrate simply doesn't make sense.

The image is very, very compressed. Edge enhancements, color banding, chroma and other artifacts are very visible. You can basically count the pixels when zooming in to 300%. They stand out as clearly as mosaic. Again, holding such a compressed image up against its size and a bitrate of 8.18 doesn't make sense. This is a DVD5 image at best.

Additional material consists of Michel Ciment talking with Rohmer about the film. A bit short, but it is nice to hear the master reflect, even if it is briefly.

 - Eric Cotenas