My Two Cents
Friday, 14 August 2020 17:12

Warner makes Full Metal Jacket official for 4K, plus StudioCanal bows Breathless in Ultra HD & Arrow’s Flash Gordon 4K reviewed

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Afternoon, folks! Today’s update is a quick one, but we’ve got a couple good things for you.

First, Tim and I have completed a review of Arrow’s new Flash Gordon: Limited Edition in 4K Ultra HD. The new 20th anniversary restoration (licensed from Studio Canal) is fantastic. I’ve never seen the film looking better.

Arrow’s release is a 2 disc set with Flash Gordon in 4K on one disc and the Life After Flash documentary on the other. Studio Canal’s UK release is more elaborate and I’ll be working on a review of that over the weekend, so watch for that here at The Bits on Monday.

Meanwhile, Warner has finally made Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket official for release on 4K Ultra HD and Digital on 9/22. As was the case with 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining, the film has been remastered in 4K from the original 35mm camera negative under the supervision of Kubrick’s longtime personal assistant, Leon Vitali. The presentation will include HDR10 high dynamic range along with the existing English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. [Read on here...]

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Extras will carry over from the previous Blu-ray edition, including audio commentary by Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey and critic/screenwriter Jay Cocks, the Full Metal Jacket: Between Good and Evil featurette, and the film’s theatrical trailer. You can see the cover artwork above left and also below.

Also, we have a surprise 4K announcement from StudioCanal: They plan to release a new 60th anniversary restoration of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960 – aka À bout de souffle), a landmark of the French New Wave cinema, on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and 4K Ultra HD on November 9 in the UK. There will be 4K Limited Collector’s Edition exclusive to Amazon.co.uk that will also include a 12” vinyl original soundtrack by Martin Solal, 40-page booklet, and poster and art cards.

From the company’s press release, the film “painstakingly restored in 4K by StudioCanal with the help of the CNC, within the framework of the Selective Aid for the Digitization of Cinematographic Heritage Works. This restoration was supervised by the laboratory L’Image Retrouvée. The teams restored Breathless from the original film negatives, which were originally shot on two types of film: Gevaert Belgium and Ilford Pancromatic. Due respect was given to these two different textures of film during the restoration process, resulting in a fully realized 4K restoration which allows audiences to enjoy the film in this new definition, with full appreciation of the original artistic intentions of the Director.”

Extras on the Blu-ray and 4K will include an introduction by Colin MacCabe, an exclusive interview with Jefferson Hack, the Godard episode of Tempo, 3 featurettes (Still not… Breathless and Room 12, Hôtel de Suède), and the film’s trailer.

You can see the 4K cover artwork above left and also below...

Breathless: 4K Limited Collector's Edition

Here’s StudioCanal’s official release trailer...

And here’s a look at the cover artwork for Full Metal Jacket in 4K, as well as a couple of other recent titles on the format (all now available for pre-order on Amazon.com by clicking on the covers)...

Full Metal Jacket (4K Ultra HD) V for Vendetta (4K Ultra HD) The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection (4K Ultra HD)

That’s all for this week! Have a great weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday.

Stay tuned...

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