Stanley Kubrick: Warner Home Video Directors Series (2001 A Space Odyssey / A Clockwork Orange / Eyes Wide Shut unrated / Full Metal Jacket / The Shining / A Life in Pictures)
by Stanley Kubrick
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Actor: Keir Dullea, Malcolm McDowell, Matthew Modine, Nicole Kidman, Tom CruiseDirector: Stanley Kubrick
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Russian (Original Language); Vietnamese (Original Language)
Format: Anamorphic, Box set, Color, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 705 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-01-22
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 118614
Studio: WARNER HOME VIDEO
Product features:
- The new Stanley Kubrick Collection includes five of the great director's masterpieces in stunning all-new digital transfers, restored picture and new digital audio. Titles include: 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, Eye's Wide Shut. Also included is the bonus, Stanley Kubrick: A Life In Pictures. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR A
DVD Reviews of Stanley Kubrick: Warner Home Video Directors Series (2001 A Space Odyssey / A Clockwork Orange / Eyes Wide Shut unrated / Full Metal Jacket / The Shining / A Life in Pictures)
DVD Review: Ending (Maybe) the Endless Aspect-Ratio Debate
Summary: 5 Stars
There's a fair amount of misinformation about aspect-ratio (screen-shape) in these customer reviews. I oversaw numerous film restorations for a major American film studio for more than a decade, so I know this subject matter rather well.
Here are some facts concerning the aspect-ratios of Kubrick's films from "2001" on. Of these films, only "2001" was filmed in "widescereen," if we are using that term to refer to the processes known as Cinemascope, Panavision and Super 70mm, which have a screen aspect-ratio (height-to-width ratio) of 1 unit of height to 2.35 units of width (i.e., the image is more than twice as wide as it is high). This "widescreen" aspect-ratio can only be displayed in its entirety on any TV screen by placing matte bars above and below the image.
Every Kubrick film after "2001," from "Clockwork Orange" to "Eyes Wide Shut," was shot on 35mm film and was filmed "flat" (a term meaning the image was not anamorphically squeezed in the original 35mm photography and is not "widescreen" as defined above). These films were photographed filling the 1-to-1.33 35mm film frame from side-to-side and top-to-bottom, with no mattes. This 1-to-1.33 frame matches the old TV screen perfectly; but it has not been used for theatrical presentation since the 1950s.
For their theatrical presentations, Kubrick had these films matted at the top and bottom, deleting the tops and bottoms of the original image and changing the aspect-ratio from 1-to-1.33 to either 1-to-1.66 or 1-to-1.85 (making the image a bit more than 1&1/2 times wide as it is high). For Kubrick to retain absolute control of the matting of these films, the matte was most likely printed into the theatrical printing negative at the lab, and thus printed into every release print (as opposed to letting the projectionist slip a matted aperture into the projector gate, which can result in "human error").
For home video, however, Kubrick's films (post-"2001") have until now been released using the entire original 1-to-1.33 film frame (preserved on the original negative), dispensing with the theatrical matte and including the tops and bottoms of the 1.33 image, which were not visible in theaters and were not intended to be. The unmatted image thus fills the old 1.33 TV screen without having to cut off the sides to make it fit.
Some opinions: I think it's fair to assume that the matted theatrical aspect-ratio is the one for which Kubrick framed his shots; I find it impossible to believe that he thought of the later VHS/DVD release as his main priority in terms of composition. It makes a difference: for example, close-ups are closer, tighter in the matted theatrical versions than in the unmatted home video/TV versions because of the additional space at the top and bottom of the unmatted home video/TV frame.
Based on this, the new 16x9 DVD releases, by recreating a close approximation of the shape of the matted theatrical image, provide a much more accurate representation of Kubrick's compositional intentions for these films than any previous home video release. It is true that 16x9 is not precisely identical to either the 1-to-1.66 or 1-to-1.85 theatrical aspect-ratios Kubrick used after "2001," but 16x9 is much closer to his theatrical aspect-ratios than was the old 1-to-1.33 TV ratio, and it serves his compositions far better.
As for why Kubrick instructed Warner Bros. to release his post-"2001" films for TV and home video using the entire unmatted 1.33 image, I'm sure he did not foresee 16x9 televisions and was simply trying to solve the problem of the 1:1.33 TV screen. In order to be able to fill the 1.33 TV screen from top to bottom without losing any image on the sides, he made sure the entire unmatted 1.33 film frame could be used by "protecting" the tops and bottoms of the frame -- no booms, lights or set-tops visible. Thus, in the old 1.33 TV transfers, there was more image at the tops and bottoms of shots than was visible in theaters, even though the added space misrepresented Kubrick's compositional intent.
Now, in these new 16x9 transfers, Kubrick's original, wider, theatrical compositions have finally been recreated for TV. In 16x9, close-ups are the right size, empty headroom is eliminated, and we see the images the way Kubrick designed them.
I hope some of this was useful, and "Thank you!" to those in Kubrick's circle who authorized the release of these films in 16x9.
NOTE TO WARNER BROTHERS HOME VIDEO: I sure hope a 16x9 High Def DVD release of "Barry Lyndon," an indispensable expression of Kubrick's humanistic and cinematic ideas, is imminent!
More Stanley Kubrick: Warner Home Video Directors Series (2001 A Space Odyssey / A Clockwork Orange / Eyes Wide Shut unrated / Full Metal Jacket / The Shining / A Life in Pictures) reviews:
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Description of Stanley Kubrick: Warner Home Video Directors Series (2001 A Space Odyssey / A Clockwork Orange / Eyes Wide Shut unrated / Full Metal Jacket / The Shining / A Life in Pictures)
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