Kanal 1957
directed by andrzej wajda
cinematography by jerzy lipman
this was an interesting study in what film quality brings to my viewing experience. i've been watching a bunch of beautiful criterion releases lately. their high picture quality has spoiled me, to the extent of seeing Swing Time on the big screen and feeling disappointed about the scratches and jumps where the frames had deteriorated completely.
i'd already started watching the facets release of Kanal, loving how dark it was (visually and in the plot) when i found out there was a criterion version. i felt i had to abandon the first disc and finish watching the cleaner version; better to see the work of cinematographer jerzy lipman (who also filmed Knife in the Water.)
surprisingly, i much preferred the darker film i had cast aside. and its because while the criterion showed so clearly the horrors of travelling through the sewers, the facets showed what the characters had become- more ghosts then people, appearing and disappearing in unending darkness. it was a much more moving experience.
beautiful light flares.
the quote is credited to dante, spoken by the artist in response to the horrors of the sewers.
8 comments:
first off, the stills you captured are real nice, i like the way you stacked them without borders, gives them a real nice look.
i also think alot about quality when looking at films/dvds.
you could also watch the criterion and darken your monitor. on the dvd of eraserhead, lynch has you go through a process of darkening your monitor to make it good and dark.
i personally think some of these other companies, facets included, should stay out of the dvd business, it is not just the question of dark/light so much as image and sound quality, pictures without digital artifacts and untrue colors, and cropping. kino and new yorker video tend to do the same thing, and they cheap out and make bad transfers from pal, which just looks terrible.
if you watch the big ntsc boxset of chaplin films from warner, you find the same thing with the "ghosting" (i forgot the technical term...), and they are basically unwatchable.
it is a shame because many of these films are very important, and these are the only versions available in the US.
the only way to beat it is to buy the pal copies, which i personally do not have the $ for.
dvdbeaver is good for addressing these issues though, not sure if you look at them much.
anyway, i think it is interesting that you brought this up, i keep meaning to as well.
i also agree sometimes a darker image can be more rewarding, partly why i like seventies cinema so much.
I'm so glad you've seen this film. Had you seen it before? It's one of my favorites. I first saw it about 15+ years ago on VHS. Recently I watched part of it again - facets version. I meant to do a post on it, but got too busy and I still need to finish the film. My memory of the film is its darkenss, so maybe I won't enjoy the criterion version as much either.
thanks, guys.
i really like having a black background to show off b&w stills like these. i was worried they wouldn't show up well.
i understand aom's disgust with the many, many poor quality dvds floating around. personally, i'm just happy that the films are easily available for viewing. countless films are lost forever, so if cheapo-dvds are the only way to ever experience them i'll take 'em. i just hope other companies besides criterion put up the money to restore them to their original glory. i may pay for pal one day, but i can't afford to start flying to the various cinemateques just to see a film. i don't think kino, et al are trying to make a quick buck. i think they are doing what they can within their means.
and i would never, ever have considered darkening my monitor to experience it the way i accidentally viewed it. even at david lynch's prompting. i'm too much in awe of cinematography to do that. they were two completely different films, seeing the horror versus just hearing it.
i discovered kanal in a comment on my shoah posting. both of you should do the posts you mentioned. i'd love to read about them. and then i can find some more films to see.
lynch's idea was that the monitors are set overly bright so that the image is visible in tv showrooms, or for people watching football games, and possibly computer screens are bright for similar reasons.
and they need to be brought down to the "normal" settings.
i think there is a point there.
pal players are very cheap now, about the cost of regular ones, i got mine a while back for about $100 and i think the same model is a bit less now. with computers (macs), there is a way to play both pal and ntsc but i haven't figured it out yet (i wish i could though...)
and the dvds are not so expensive if you buy them discounted on amazon france or uk, and there are people in the states that sell them for not to much.
but the problem is, you can't get them all, and many of the really good ones criterion ends up putting out.
and yes, it is hard to see many films if you don't live in new york, i can understand that problem.
I love the pictures you posted very much, and the comment you made about the darkness which suits some films. This reminds me of the news about Lars Von Trier many years ago. The news said “A year after the Cannes screening of his latest work, "The Idiots," von Trier was aghast to discover late last month that the two principals of his Copenhagen-based Zentropa production company had manipulated the final print in post -- a cardinal sin in the austere Dogma film cathedral -- and released it theatrically in a much brighter version without telling him. “
I don’t know if the version of THE IDIOTS that I saw on the wide-released video is the brighter version or the version which satisfied Von Trier. But I think it might be a brighter version, because the pictures seem to be clear.
If you like films with dark images, I strongly recommend you watch the DVD of SOMBRE (1998, Philippe Grandrieux). It is so darkly beautiful. My friend said that SOMBRE is like what Andrei Tarkovsky would have made if he had to direct a serial killer film.
its good to hear that pal discs and players are more affordable than i thought. i also looked around for information on playing pal discs on a mac and couldn't find anything either. i just can't buy every film i'm interested in watching- lots of films i seek out i wouldn't be interested in seeing a second time.
reading about lynch's and von trier's concerns brings to mind a complaint voiced by kevin brownlow when i saw his lecture. a lot of the artistry of silent films , he says, were ruined by shoddy lab work. so much of the vision of directors, cinematographers and producers was never able to be appreciated right from the get go. it seems this is a timeless problem of the medium.
Awesome images, I have this but still haven't watched it. Maybe I will give it a whirl this weekend. I'm a big fan of 'Ashes and Diamonds'.
thanks! ashes and diamonds is on the top of the dvd pile at my house.
which version of kanal will you watch?
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