7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
It is 1850 in the beautiful, perfectly-kept town of Wismar. Jonathan Harker is about to leave on a long journey over the Carpathian Mountains to finalize real estate arrangements with a wealthy nobleman. His wife, Lucy, begs him not to go and is troubled by a strong premonition of danger. Despite her warnings, Jonathan arrives four weeks later at a large, gloomy castle. Out of the mist appears a pale, wraith-like figure with a shaven head and deep-sunken eyes who identifies himself as Count Dracula. The events that transpire slowly convince Harker that he is in the presence of a vampyre. What he doesn't know is the magnitude of danger he, his wife and his town are about to experience.
Starring: Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz, Roland Topor, Walter LadengastForeign | 100% |
Horror | 58% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
German: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht" a.k.a. "Nosferatu the Vampyre" (1979) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of the British Film Institute. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; audio commentary with Werner Herzog and Norman Hill; on-set documentary; and a collection of archival photographs, production photographs and stills from the film. The release also arrives with a 16-page illustrated booklet with a new essay by Laurie Johnson, full film credits and on set photographs. In English or German, with optional English subtitles for the German-language version of the film. Region-B "locked".
Mine...
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of the British Film Institute.
The following text appears inside the booklet provide with this Blu-ray release:
"The English and German versions of the film were scanned at 2K, using a combination of original negative and best available print materials, by Alpha-Omega Digital GmbH in Germany. Digital remastering was undertaken by the BFI at Deluxe Soho, and approved by Werner Herzog Film GmbH.
Scanning supervisor: Thomas Bakels (Alpha-Omega Digital GmbH)
Colorist: Steve Bearman (Deluxe Soho)
Remastering: Tom Barrett (Deluxe Soho)
Thanks to: Lucki Stipetic (Werner Herzog Film GmbH), Mark Bonnici and Graham Jones (Deluxe Soho)."
Please note that the screencaptures included with this review appear in the following order:
1. Screencaptures #1-23: English-language version
2. Screencaptures #25-33: German-language version.
BFI's Blu-ray release of Nosferatu the Vampyre uses as a foundation the same 2K restoration of the film which StudioCanal accessed when they prepared their Blu-ray release of the film for the German market. As the quoted credits above confirm, the restoration was completed at Alpha-Omega Digital GmbH and supervised by Mr. Thomas Bakels, who was also responsible for the terrific restoration and reconstruction of director Ernst Lubitsch's The Loves of Pharaoh. However, the basic characteristics of the two releases are not identical.
BFI's technical presentation of Nosferatu the Vampyre is unquestionably superior. Indeed, the high-definition transfer isn't plagued by the problematic denoising corrections that are visible on the German release and as a result the entire film now has a very strong and very pleasing organic look. There are different contrast and clarity fluctuations -- compare screencaptures #3, 8, and 10 -- but all of these fluctuations are inherited. To be perfectly clear, they are part of the film's image design/cinematography. (Some minor fluctuations also exist where different materials were used during the restoration). Rather predictably, grain looks very natural and image depth is excellent (see screencapture #2). Because of the manner in which the film was shot -- light is used in a variety of unique ways to create and sustain a very specific atmosphere -- some viewers may not be able to immediately spot the improvements, but during the daylight footage the difference is very obvious (compare screencapture #18 with screencapture #17 from our review of the German release
and see how the digital smearing from the German release is replaced by fine organic grain resulting in substantially better image depth). Colors are stable, well saturated and always natural. There are no serious transition or stability issues. Lastly, I noticed a couple of tiny specks, but there are absolutely no large debris, cuts, torn frames, stains, or warps to report in this review. All in all, this is a very strong and very convincing organic presentation of Nosferatu the Vampyre which is guaranteed to please fans of the film and Werner Herzog's work. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There are three standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0 (for the English-language version), German LPCM 1.0 and German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (for the German-language version). There are optional English subtitles for the German-language version. There are no optional English SDH subtitles for the English-language version of the film.
The lossless English track serves the film the exceptionally well. The choir, in particular, sounds far better, but the trumpets and French horns also sound richer (listen to the long solos around 00.24.03 - 00.27.10). The dialog is clean and easy to follow, but there are small dynamic fluctuations throughout the film that are part of its unique sound design. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or distortions to report in this review.
The lossless German mono track is slightly better balanced that the English mono track, but the discrepancy is very small. The dialog is equally crisp, clean, and easy to follow.
I am enormously pleased with BFI's Blu-ray release of Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre. While it uses as a foundation the same excellent 2K restoration of the film that was completed at Alpha-Omega Digital GmbH in Germany, it looks drastically better than StudioCanal's release. There is a simple reason why -- it is free of the problematic digital corrections that were applied to the German release. BFI's Blu-ray release also comes with a strong lossless English track. Well done! VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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