The Circus (Chaplin. 1928) Park Circus 2010 masters

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Robert Wheeler
Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:59 am

The Circus (Chaplin. 1928) Park Circus 2010 masters

#1 Post by Robert Wheeler » Wed Nov 17, 2010 9:58 am

Park Circus have released Charlie Chaplin's 'The Circus' on dual DVD and Blu-ray.

I have a simple question. Does this release use new masters by MK2, or do I need to reserve space in my bin to put it with the last 2003 DVD release and its shocking 'restoration' that noise reduced Chaplin's arms, legs and any other moving elements out of the image?

The 2003 DVD is without doubt, the worst DVD release of any film I have seen ever.

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MichaelB
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Re: The Circus (Chaplin. 1928) Park Circus 2010 masters

#2 Post by MichaelB » Thu Nov 18, 2010 9:37 am

Robert Wheeler wrote:The 2003 DVD is without doubt, the worst DVD release of any film I have seen ever.
I can only assume from that that you've never seen World Video's Ashes of Time.

I found my copy the other day and briefly thought about chucking it in the bin, but it's so abysmal on every single level that I thought I'd keep it as a kind of warped trophy of something or other.

By contrast, I don't recall anything especially untoward about The Circus, although I did admittedly only watch it on a 12" Powerbook.

Robert Wheeler
Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:59 am

Re: The Circus (Chaplin. 1928) Park Circus 2010 masters

#3 Post by Robert Wheeler » Thu Nov 18, 2010 11:33 am

The old MK2 'The Circus' master had an insane level of poorly administered noise reduction applied to it, under the guise of a "digital restoration". As a result, most details and moving items, such as arms, legs, whole heads and facial features are utterly obliterated on a regular basis. If you watch the scene of Chaplin on the tightrope with the monkeys, his hands and his balancing pole frequently disappear, along with his face. I would much rather they had just dumped a straight transfer of the original print and not tried any mastering at all. It was by far the worst example of a generally over processed series of masters.

Park Circus have told me that their release features all new masters, so we will see what they are like.

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