A quite representative shot from Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1957 Il Grido, a film that seems to take place in a perpetual mist, not really that unlike the atmosphere in Dreyer’s otherwise very different Vampyr. Consider this a preview of a longer consideration of the film, and the label behind its excellent new DVD release (it blows the old Kino version out of the water, or the mist if you prefer): Eureka!/Masters of Cinema, one of the best reasons to own a multi-region disc player. That consideration will go up to tomorrow, as I’ve got to be out of the house most of the day. This evening I’ll be going to a release party for Warner’s Blu-ray of Woodstock. Between that, getting the Blu-ray of the Neil Young Archives Volume One earlier this week, and my extremely belated discovery of Quicksilver Messenger Service, I feel like I’m experiencing a personal Age of Aquarius revival or something.
In other Blu-ray news, I see my pal Jeffrey Wells is waxing wroth over the new Sony high-def rendering of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. He’s so adorable when he’s angry! I haven’t got the disc yet to can’t weigh in, but I feel unusually well-prepared, having just checked out a new print of the picture at Film Forum. As Matt Drudge likes to say, “Developing…”
I have it and it looks great. Also, not as hella grainy as all that–I suspect Wells is one of the tens of thousands of morons who never bothered to calibrate their fancy new TV and thus have their sharpness jacked all the way up.
Regardless, this is fucking KUBRICK. What did he expect?