NEW DIRECTORS CUT

[drinkanddestroy]

...or for us in Australia 

well aren't you guys region B/2? Then you can play the new restored dvd/blu ray on your blu ray players. (Not sure about language though)

[Senza]

well aren't you guys region B/2? Then you can play the new restored dvd/blu ray on your blu ray players. (Not sure about language though)

Yeah, we are. I just playing around. I actually have a multi-region blu ray player built into my PC, so regions aren't a problem for me anymore. This way, I can buy cheap blu rays [the prices here in Australia are kind of ridiculous and the quality of the product is nothing compared to the ones I've ordered from overseas - I'm a sucker for packaging, and the packages overseas are of much higher quality and much more aesthetic] from anywhere and not have to worry about region coding.

Atm, my eye has been on this tin set of OUATIA - http://www.amazon.fr/était-une-fois-Amérique-Blu-ray/dp/B004Z02FFY/
But I'll probably just buy it from here, atm, it's $12.98 on blu-ray so it's not bad.

[Novecento]

The new version aired on Sky Cinema 1 HD in Italy yesterday (May 3 2013).  Some viewers say it looked better than the new BD.

Sounds promising...

[Novecento]

Interesting... keep us posted please!

[dave jenkins]

That's right, Andrea, blame Warner. And don't even bother to watch the Blu-ray. Remember, the goal is to get as much of D&D's money as possible. The best way to do that is to issue several sub-standard discs, in succession, each one incrementally improved over the last. By the time you finally release the Ultimate Enhanced I'm Not Kidding This Time Super Director's Cut edition, you'll have your villa completely paid for.

[drinkanddestroy]

if the new scenes look as they do in the YouTube clips I have seen – ie. vastly inferior image quality to the rest of the movie – I don't see how anyone could have possibly be happy with that. It's not a question of absolute image quality; it's a question of relative quality – it'll simply be an awful viewing experience if the new scenes look clearly different than the rest of the movie. It'd be extremely jarring for the viewer, and there is no way anyone could ever seamlessly consider the 250-minute movie if some of the scenes look different than the others. (Some people have speculated that maybe that's why the new blu-ray's image quality is supposedly so bad across the entire movie - ie. that the image quality was specifically made worse on the rest of the movie so that it shouldn't be so jarring that the new scenes are of such bad quality. In that case, there is really no good option: Fans won't accept a movie in which some scenes are of vastly inferior quality to the rest of the movie; and on the other hand, if you reduce the quality of the rest of the scenes to make them look as bad as the new scenes, fans are not gonna accept that either, because they know that the original 229 minutes are available in very good quality.


You can debate all you want on how you to distribute the blame, but IMO it simply comes down to this: Is there available technology that would restore the new scenes so that they look (almost) as good as the rest of the movie? Until the new scenes can look as good as the rest of the movie, there are really no good options. And if those new scenes are truly beyond repair (with the current technology), that's very sad. One can only hope that the technology will come along that can properly restore it, and that all options will be exhausted and all necessary resources will be expended to do so.

RE: dj's comment above about releasing poor products to try to squeeze money out of the consumer:

It's true that in general, companies often release inferior products, and then release better and better products slowly to try to get as much money as possible out of the consumer. But I'd highly doubt that Andrea Leone is doing that intentionally with OUATIA. I think this movie is important to the Leones for family/sentimental/artistic reasons, to complete the vision of their father, to have their father's final masterpiece finally released as he intended, and not just to make a buck. Besides, I don't know how the financial stuff works, but with all the money spent by The Film Foundation and Gucci on this, how much money does the Leone family stand to make anyway? And I don't think there is any way in hell that after all the effort and money expended by Gucci, Film Foundation, Scorsese, et al., that they would ever stand for a poor product being intentionally released by the Leone family. You can call me naive, but I truly believe that the people involved in the restoration of OUATIA have the right intentions.

[dave jenkins]

I think this movie is important to the Leones for family/sentimental/artistic reasons, to complete the vision of their father, to have their father's final masterpiece finally released as he intended, and not just to make a buck.

When I look up the word naïf in the dictionary, guess whose picture I find?

[Groggy]

Whose picture matches up with curmudgeon?

[cigar joe]

 

[drinkanddestroy]

CJ, don't be so quick to give thumbs-up; even if this news is true, this may only be an Italian release.... When the news first came down about a restoration, it said the Leone family purchased the Italian rights to the film. I wondered then what that meant for us in America; and when the extended blu-ray was finally released, it was indeed only Region B.... If the Leone family is really gonna release a new and improved extended blu-ray now, I'd hope we get it here in America, too.

[cigar joe]

There are ways of getting a hold of it regardless 

[dave jenkins]

Exactamundo!

[Novecento]

If this is true (I have no reason to believe it's not true) it's great news.   

Indeed it is

CJ, don't be so quick to give thumbs-up; even if this news is true, this may only be an Italian release.... When the news first came down about a restoration, it said the Leone family purchased the Italian rights to the film. I wondered then what that meant for us in America; and when the extended blu-ray was finally released, it was indeed only Region B.... If the Leone family is really gonna release a new and improved extended blu-ray now, I'd hope we get it here in America, too.

D&D you really need to stop lamenting about region encoding issues and get yourself set-up multi-region

[drinkanddestroy]

is there a single blu-ray player I can buy and play all discs in, period, or do I have to change the region code each time I put a new disc in? I'm not all that technologically proficient and I wouldn't wanna do anything that you have to know too much; I'm afraid I'd screw that up. If it's just as simple as paying a few bucks for a region-free player and then playing all discs in it normally, I'd be happy to do that. So, advise away....

[Novecento]

On DVD players it is a software issue - hence the vast majority are able to play all discs from all regions at all times

ON BD players it is a hardware issue - hence the player has to be booted up in the region desired.