HERE is a short listing of the films I wanted to own on the High Definition format. For each of these classics or novelty to be given the high-def treatment might take a further five years or even a decade, but if they looked gorgeous on their present standard incarnation - imagine how they visually deliver on HD. On the other hand, if they looked dismal on their present editions (because the master film negatives is already poor to begin with) - they could be given a new lease of visual life by subjecting them to digital remastering.
1. WIZARD OF OZ - This 1939 uber-classic has went through two DVD editions, the second of which is the superior transfer because of the film-cleaning process applied as was also done for SINGING IN THE RAIN. I would assumed that this "cleaning" might have been done in either two restoration methods: one, through restoring the original celluluid negatives more thoroughly to create a far better transfer than the initial or 1998 pressing. Two, by subjecting the original transfer through the "Lowry" restoration method whose basic idea is to create a 4,000 pixel picture (as against that of the "standard" 1080 pixels) by manipulating the picture elements through mathematical algorithms. The result for a Lowry picture is the sharpest possible print for a dated film - although this does not translate technically to a picture thats high definition per se. The first Lowry release is the new 2007 remastered James Band series.
Wizard could benefit much from a digital upgrading because its sales potential is blockbuster-guaranteed, and it exemplifies the best that the long-abandoned Technicolor film-dye process (abandoned during the late 70s, the last Technicolor printing machines having been sold to China) can muster where reds are gorgeous reds, and practically every frame is made with a postcard-prettiness. It always makes me wonder how these Americans could preserve a film like that whose age is more than 60 years old.
2. VERTIGO - This is one of the rare times that I would agree with old-time film critics that Vertigo is ALFRED HITCHCOCK ultimate masterpiece. When I watched Vertigo the first time on laserdisk on a TV with a 7-inch screen, I went through a cinematic epiphany. Here is a 1950's film that is beyond perfect. Its not just perfection because Hitchcock is a one of a kind helmer, its a classic because of the confluences of Hitchcock's directorial pinnacle, James Stewart's sympathetic portrayal, Kim Novak's amazing make-up and dual portrayal (see it to believe it) and the story whose plot does not have any narrative precedent (a fake suicide). To this day, I'm still literally hypnotized by this film, its for my standard a perpetual favorite.
But the conspicuous missing element in viewing Vertigo both in laserdisk and DVD is that in truth the original film negatives cannot be restored anymore to its original condition. If you say how can it be when its so old, the answer is far too many pictures from the Technicolor era have been superbly preserved (stored in temperature-controlled film archives and as a rule, kept in those round tins), many of which has cinematic merits far more inferior than Vertigo - but Vertigo's celluluid has just deteriorated to the point of being unsalvageable. If you owned the Vertigo DVD, you'll learned from the supplemental features that indeed the original print has been sadly neglected in the vaults, and only for a restoration contract of $1 million did a digital print was finally created. But for me, that restoration job which resulted in the 1999 release of the DVD, while not entirely a technical failure - could only come up with a "passable" product, not an excellent work. If Vertigo is evaluated through a 90-inches giant screen, the picture dismally lacks definition, meaning the black level is poor and acceptable contrast is likewise absent. What passes for black is grey (watch the opening scene where the criminal is chased through the rooftop on darkness). The whole film is murky, lamentably murky. This is truly sayang because Vertigo is mesmerizing from start to finish, and truly exquisite. I believe no matter how they've cleaned the whole thing, they could not arrest the deterioration. Its about time that Vertigo be subjected to either the Lowry method or another round of homage-induced restoration.
3. THE SOUND OF MUSIC - This 1960s perpetual musical favorite is another remastering failure or at least they could not get it right on DVD, even after three editions. The picture just lacks that solid definition, and subtly grainy. Its sayang that Sound was filmed not through Technicolor (probably it was by Deluxe) or its colour hues and tints, especially the Alpine fields, would have appeared to several viewing generations as far more gorgeous, engaging and truly classique. I owned a copy on laserdisk and its ironic that on a pan & scan edition, the image is more engaging than the DVD. The best laserdisk "cut" is that scene where the captain heard the childrens' singing while Maria and the lake is behind him. On DVD, that frame is just another passable frame.
4. FLASH GORDON - This 1980 science fiction cult monstrosity is something I remember more distinctly for its set design and out of this world wardrobes than the actors or the story. Well I'd exempt Ming The Merciless from the cardboard cast, for if there's a comic book character that got translated to the screen so effectively and exquisitely - thats Max Von Sydow as Ming. Flash as far as I can tell is mainly an Italian production, hence the unforgettable customs and set design figuratively bears that trademark Italian creativity - from industrial design to fashion flair. Think of Maserati, Gianni Versace, and the DLP projector called SIM. Flash would benefit from a high definition transfer - as a cult novelty, a comic book brought to life.
5. WORLD CUP IFFA 2006 - There is an official World Cup 2006 DVD on the market, and if you're attentive towards this universally-popular sport amidst a culture dismally ignorant and unmindful of its spell towards most other cultures, chances are you owned that Sony-produced DVD. And its a beautiful transfer, one of the best I have in my archive (for a semi-documentary) for its picture quality. Its no surprised that it would looked very exquisite, thats because it was shot on high definition cameras. Of course, that doesn't mean it assumes the sharpness and clarity of a certified high-def edition, but if you're wondering what high-definition image is - then the World Cup DVD would change your visual perspective forever. This DVD truly asks for a high-def transfer, and if such a wish comes around, you'll be sucked into the beauty and drama of world-class soccer. Glorious, truly glorious.
6. CHARLOTTE CHURCH ENCHANTMENT - This live classical concert, made when Charlotte Church was around 16 or so, therefore lusciously pubescent, has received only one DVD edition, and I feel I am the only bloke that would use it as a reference disk. But this largely overlooked, quite specialized feature is in fact qualifiably very good in its picture resolution. The main selling point is: the picture is gorgeous, having been helmed inside a British concert hall which doesn't need any foggy effects, rock-concert lighting, gimmicky props or too crowded back-up dancers. Just a straightforward operatic performance thats exquisite and elegant and formal. The second selling point is: Church has become a lady in form and for her to be zoom-shot most of the time is a hot, mesmerizing experience for any normal gentleman, the closest thing is that of seeing a supernaturally beautiful Celtic goddess who has come down to sing for me, and with rich, bountiful cleavage!
This DVD happens to be the very disk on playback when I switch to HDMI cable from that of component. One minute ago I was using component cable for the last three years and could not get gratified ever of its soft and yellowish image characteristic. On the next minute I plug in the Kimber Kable HDMI and resume Charlotte Church, and there's the digital revelation they're touting about. The HDMI visual boast that it could in fact produce a billion shades in color, and delivers the razor-sharpest picture - is CERTIFIABLE. The digital "diff'rence" is real as claimed, this time Miss Church on HDMI is literally drop-dead gorgeous.
On the event that this largely obscure DVD would have a high-def transfer, I would probably be able to sell hundreds of digital television sets as a TV salesman - by using it as my showcase disk. Its that gorgeous.
7. HELLO DOLLY - This 1969 musical is the last film to be made by the creative partnership of Stanley Donen and GENE KELLY. I guess Donen does have a part in it too, but its largely a Kelly masterpiece. What made Hello Dolly precious is the confluences of having BARBRA STREISAND as Dolly Levi - a Jewish matchmaker, Kelly as director, and the theme song which will remained a perpetual favorite for most senior folks of previous generations. Streisand is milky white and gloriously lovely in her musical numbers, the dance sequences almost cartoony - and therefore superbly-choreographed - in its inventiveness and execution, and the New York parade is incomparably glorious to behold because it truly brought a cast of thousands. That phrase "They don't make them anymore like they used to" conspicuously applies to Hello Dolly when compared with our films being made today, for one the musical film is a long-lost art-form, and Hollywood has ceased to print their film through the Technicolor process for the last 30 years. The present DVD edition is largely obscure and mastered lazily. It lacks definition and good contrast, but the saving grace is that Technicolor being what it is, has saved the DVD by imbuing it with passably vibrant colours. Why does a garbage, an execrable stinker like "Meet Joe Black" promptly merits an HD-DVD transfer whereas Hello Dolly! is leisurely forgotten? Sayang.
9. SAMSON & DELILAH - Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 biblical classic is inexplicably unavailable yet on any digital format. Even on laserdisk, this film is irritatingly rare. The last time I saw a copy for sale was eight years ago and its being sold for $80. The oldtimers remembers this adaptation with fondness because muscle-bound Victor Mature as Samson was very effective (especially as he killed 3,000 Philistines by toppling the pillars - sama-sama na tayo, mga paganong hunghang! Yaaah!) I first saw it during my 1970s childhood and though the set is largely done on gigantic matte paintings, DeMille's mastery of bringing to life biblical epics is splendid, though not as divinely splendid as Ten Commandments. I've been awaiting for nearly a decade for this film to make a DVD debut but no single statement has ever been said about it, its like this film is stored in limbo, crying out to be released amidst the darkness of the vaults.
10. LOST HORIZON - Definitely not the 1930s version which is in execrable Black & White but the long-lost, totally obliterated 1972 incarnation. (Anything thats in black & white is execrable, you keep it, I won't touch anything thats in monochrome. Except for "MARTY.") This Lost Horizon is somehow intendedly sank by its makers because they lost, no, they bleed so much financially when it was released in 1972. The loss was like that of Cleopatra's case which sank its producers financially because the film itself (Elizabeth Taylor) is unquantifiably dull and overlong. But unlike Cleopatra, Lost is really brilliant, in retrospect. The film music by BURT BACHARACH is in itself a delectable selling point, while the story is like a Twilight Zone tale done on an epic, royally-customed, scale. If Samson is in limbo, this one is in a black hole in the outermost depths of a Twilight Zone dimension. Nothing of it could be located anymore, no VHS nor any laserdisk. Any reel, 35mm copy would have been dust by now. The last time I saw it was a reel showing while spending grade school in Colegio De San Agustin in 1979.
Why is it lost? Its never because it was bad. I would assumed that the producers wanted to obliterate it like a bad memory for the simple but shortsighted reason of having lost money on it. They could have expected inordinately that it'll come out a surefire blockbuster but instead it fared poorly. Amidst a cultural season or zeitgeist when moral values are shifting to rebellion, widespread drug use, hippie-ism, agnosticism, atheism, free-sex, divorce and relativism - Lost Horizon's timing was offkey by ten or twenty years late.
But it truly deserves a digital resurrection. Most Filipinos on their forties or fifties right now, who were attuned with "English" films during the lamentable 1970s, would have a hazy memory of Lost Horizon, but still a memory of it nonetheless. They'd gladly pay good money for a high-definition copy of this undeservedly neglected musical classic.
11. STOP MAKING SENSE - This 1984 concert by the quirky, uncategorizable late 70s-80s band TALKING HEADS, is not really asking for a HD-DVD remastering because its 1987 form is as fine as it is. Many DVD afficionado & critics cited it as a commendably accomplished concert film that has the choreographic style of a documentary. It does looked that way because the band or the director shunned the usual ultrabright, fancy-colored stagings and just concentrated - so workmanlike - on the music and its performance. And David Byrne - he who partly scored the Last Emperor soundtrack along with Ryuichi Sakamoto and the band's head-man - and his team appeared to be the most hardworking band in the film. Their perspiration so copious, their acts so drivened - that it feels this is a band who doesn't care about stage wardrobes and looking larger than life but would rather appreciate Good Morning towels better. The thing that could be forgivably told about the band on this film is that nobody looks gorgeous, everyone is plain vanilla, the film stock itself is just fair, looking exactly like a 23-year old footage thats evidently from the early 80s - but clean and smooth. This is the film where Byrne performed that single chart-topping song where he is wearing that oversized suit - a true 80s iconic image.Talking Head's music is so obscure and could not register on the sounds radar of those who did not made a point to go beyond the Top 40 charts, they're best remembered by folks with more eclectic choices for music - the folks who're either emotionally retarded or hardcore nostalgists for the lamented (1980s) era of their youth.
And that my friends is my DVD wishlist. The problem now is how to find a soundly-engineered HD-DVD player that would performed much technically better than the HQV-REON equipped Toshiba X-A2.
