Night on Earth - R1 Criterion vs. R4 Madman

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 29 Sep 2007, 10:49

Night on Earth - R1 Criterion vs. R4 Directors' Suite (Madman)

The Criterion boasts a "New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Jim Jarmusch."

The R4 is taken from Fortissimo Films' masters. Fortissimo (a Dutch company) licensed Jarmusch's entire filmography directly from Jarmusch himself (since he owns the rights to all his films). I'd imagine that all European DVDs (including Tartan's R2UKs) utilised these masters.

R1 Top, R4 Bottom

Subtitle Sample (IGNORE PQ):

Comparison:

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 29 Sep 2007, 21:44

Thanks Eva

Surprisingly based on captures I prefer the R4 which in reality is better? Captures only ever say so much. The R4 isn't much better though (the CC is a wee bit too dark, only minutely though), not enough to miss out on all the extras.

I'd never heard of Jim Jarmusch period before Broken Flowers. I had no idea how prolific he actually was. Which film is considered his best? Is Broken Flowers a good indicator on what type of director he is? I have the R3 of that (basically the same as the R1/UK R2).

I presume none have been released on HD yet?

Cheers

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 29 Sep 2007, 22:03

R4 isn't much better? It's fat better than the CC, so much more detail and more image except in the right of the frame. And the CC is probably progressive but look at the aliasing in the last cap - poor downsample.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 29 Sep 2007, 22:05

I hadn't noticed the Criterion cropping thanks but it's not enough for me to really think about.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 30 Sep 2007, 01:10

bradavon wrote:I'd never heard of Jim Jarmusch period before Broken Flowers.I had no idea how prolific he actually was. Which film is considered his best?

I wouldn't know, but here are the ones that I recommend in this order:- Mystery Train, Down By Law, Dead Man, Night on Earth, Stranger Than Paradise, Coffee & Cigarettes (C&C is hit-&-miss, but is easily worth seeing for the Steve Coogan & Alfred Molina vignette alone.).

Is Broken Flowers a good indicator on what type of director he is?

Sortof. But I'd recommend seeing at least Mystery Train, Down By Law and Night on Earth before touching Broken Flowers, as those films are a whole lot of fun. Broken Flowers is probably his least enjoyable film after Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (Ghost Dog being his most mainstream film.)

I presume none have been released on HD yet?

None AFAIK. I hope that they do though, Dead Man would look fantastic in HD for one.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 30 Sep 2007, 13:39

Thanks.

I've seen Ghost Dog. I forgot that was a Jarmusch film, it was fairly good. I don't get what all the fuss is about. I cannot remember much about it though.