'Elephant Man' French Import - High-Def Digest Review

[jed]

Kenneth's review of the the French HD DVD release of 'The Elephant Man' is up. He loves the film itself, but alas, this Studio Canal edition falls short -- at least compared to the most recent stateside standard-def release (from Paramount), which boasts both better audio and a better supplements package. On the bright side, the French HD DVD does have a solid HD video transfer. But given the high exchange rate, that alone is something of a tough sell.

Full review here:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/elephantman_fr.html

[casper77]

I kind of disagree with him a bit, just because it did not support the remaster audio presented in the DVD, is getting a lower score. That was odd. The audio was presented on this HD DVD as it was intended when filmed. Although I am a fan of 5.1 or 7.1, back then we did not have those specs so in my opinion if sounded as it was intended then why not the higher score?

[Ken Brown]

Originally Posted by casper77

I kind of disagree with him a bit, just because it did not support the remaster audio presented in the DVD, is getting a lower score. That was odd. The audio was presented on this HD DVD as it was intended when filmed. Although I am a fan of 5.1 or 7.1, back then we did not have those specs so in my opinion if sounded as it was intended then why not the higher score?

You make a valid point, and believe me I struggled with the rating. In the end, it's only because Lynch supervised a full 5.1 mix -- thus making it the director's updated and intended version in my mind.

Thanks for commenting!

[Blurry]

Originally Posted by Ken Brown

You make a valid point, and believe me I struggled with the rating. In the end, it's only because Lynch supervised a full 5.1 mix -- thus making it the director's updated and intended version in my mind.

Thanks for commenting!

Kenneth, great review of the movie itself and PQ. As far as the audio track goes, it is quite possible that Canal+ did not have access to the new David Lynch supervised 5.1 track and I think they did a great job with what they did have - so perhaps I feel the rating there was a bit harsh.

Thanks once again for a great review!

[casper77]

your welcome and thanks for getting your hands on imports, these reviews are inportant since they help other to make purchase decisions easy. Also I don't know but if you can get your hands on the German import of the movie "renassaince" it will be great. I already have it and to me it looks fantastic but I would like the opinion of others. thanks

[irascian]

I think it's right that Studio Canal be berated for their poor 'vanilla' HD-DVDs. I've bought several titles from the UK and Europe and find it extremely disappointing that they haven't bothered to copy a single extra, even when their issues of the same version on DVD are crammed full.

The only possible explanation is that they intend to double-dip (just look at how they treble-dipped with "La Haine" on standard DVD).

[Josh Z]

Of more concern than the lack of 5.1 remixing is the audio pitch issue that has affected most of Studio Canal's early titles. Elephant Man is certainly among those affected.

[casper77]

Originally Posted by Josh Z

Of more concern than the lack of 5.1 remixing is the audio pitch issue that has affected most of Studio Canal's early titles. Elephant Man is certainly among those affected.

It was no noted by the reviwer of such problem. I have a copy of Total Recall and it plays without any problem.

[glocks out]

This is definitely a title I want to get.

[Peter Galbavy]

The reviewer has to call it as they see it. The reason I read reviews are many-fold, but one of them is to see if a particular title is worth the money/effort. If the issuer can't be bothered to spend the extra money to acquire the license to bundle newer "offifical" audio tracks then this should be highlighted. We can then choose.

This is often the case with many titles in the UK where SD DVDs ship with a crappy DD5.1 mix when other editions have DTS tracks. I have a number of Australian PAL titles (Sin City, Event Horizon spring to mind) where the same packaged title in the UK does not have the DTS track. This is just insulting to consumers.

So, I think the rating on this title was spot on.

[dkny75]

The pitch issue isn't something that would prevent the movie from playing. IMO it's not distracting at all in Total Recall but is very noticable in First Blood.

[Blurry]

Originally Posted by dkny75

The pitch issue isn't something that would prevent the movie from playing. IMO it's not distracting at all in Total Recall but is very noticable in First Blood.

I didn't notice at all the first time I watched "Total Recall", and I had watched the DVD version many times as well. In fact, I thought it sounded pretty good.

After later hearing about the pitch problem I went back and double checked. I was able to detect a few scenes, especially near the beginning of the movie, where it was noticable when actually looking for it (but I think most people would have to be looking for it). But for the vast majority of the movie it was not noticable at all.

[Brad1963]

I got the U.K. release of The Elephant Man today from Amazon. I'm assuming it will be the same as the French version.

[REDBULL74]

I bought this last week from XPLOITED and watched it this afternoon. Simply put this is one of Lynch's great films and deserves a place in any film buffs collection. The PQ is really strong and the visual style of Lynch's vision really shines on this .

Highly recommended disc and who knows if it will ever see the light of day on ??

Peace all

[GamerGuyX]

I refuse to buy any movie with an audio pitch problem.