(12-06-2024, 17:05)misfit napisał(a):  Wkrótce się dowiemy co jest tam nie tak...

nicwood napisał(a):When you think a label like Kino Lorber or Leonine have figured out all the ways to mess up "simple" releases, they always surprise us anew and The Zone of Interest is no different.

In short, the Leonine UHD is yet another garbage release that should be avoided!

First, the BD: I agree with the sentiment that the BD looks horrible, almost like a Turbine upscale of a bad, ancient 2K DI that's 15 years old. The film lacks detail and depth and is riddled with noise that looks like a film grain filter. Jonathan Glazer wanted to convey the exact opposite and create a direct, unfiltered portal into what's on screen. This BD achieves the exact opposite and is fatally flawed.

On first glance, the UHD looks much better and shows the film as intended. Free of noise, full of precise and fine detail just like the stream. No burned-in subs and the original English titles are retained (a novelty for Leonine). It could end right here and we'd have a good UHD but it doesn't. Leonine decided to mess with the HDR grade of the film and "improve" the originally intended "dull" look AND the brightness. What happened here is exactly what Turbine did with a recent horror film which looks drastically different after a homebrewed re-grade that wasn't director-approved. Colors were tuned to look more cinematic, richly colored and with more contrast.

To give Leonine credit, they didn't overdo it as the film never looks like one of these vivid mode HDR demos in stores and neither like a Sony Light Cannon grade. It's tasteful HDR and it doesn't ruin the film but it's not correct from an artistic POV as they've simply ignored the artistic creation by the filmmakers and imposed their opinion on how the film should look like, which is repulsive in general but even more so in a case when the original intention is perfectly fine as is. Glazer's approved master is no James CAImeron or George Lucas sauce and it doesn't require any secret improvement to make experiencing it bearable for us audiences. (Had I not known how the film is intended to look, I wouldn't have noticed anything and likely "enjoyed" the film just as much. My point stands nonetheless).

Forcing the UHD into SDR BT.2020 and BT.709 is not recommended as this makes the film significantly dimmer than the already comparatively dim original A24 master. Leonine's HDR alterations aren't present in SDR, meaning the colors look appropriately muted but at the expense of crucial nits. If I had to choose between the homebrewed HDR and forced SDR, I'd actually take the HDR as the near-darkness of the SDR layer doesn't convey that sense of a portal into the film's world nearly as much as the "improved" HDR despite its ethical issues.

Sound-wise, I suppose everything's fine. The BD has an exclusive interview (18 minutes) with Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel in addition to the making-of documentary that'll also be on the A24 release.

I hope the upcoming Eagle release has none of these problems and presents the film without forced Italian subs so that the German audience in particular finally receives a proper edition of this seminal film.