Anyone watching this on TCM right now? Whats with the completely awful print, full screen, and dubbing they got going on? What a complete travesty of this masterpiece....
share I just got on the board to mention the same thing. And I was taping this! SON OF A B!TCH!
First I rip your clothes off, then you rip my clothes off, then we rip Lindsey's clothes off.
I was looking forward to seeing this even though I'm so far not a fan of Godard. Looks like a pan & scan format was printed onto a 16mm film and left in someone's garage window for a few decades. Utter BUTCHERY for a channel that spends so much time promoting their love of films and the letterbox format. It's obviously available looking better than this due the existence of an anamorphic widescreen copy listed for the Criterion disc. This is the kind of thing that makes we wonder if the French are right when they keep predicting the death of cinema. We should be beyond this point of watching things looking like crap, especially on a channel like TCM.
Anyone know the best e-mail/print addresses to write to complain that we as consumers most definitely do NOT approve of this kind of thing and aren't so desperate to see movies that we'll watch them in this format? I'd like to tell TCM of my contempt towards them for doing this.
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If you're watching 'Fullscreen' DVDs, you aren't getting the whole picture.
It does look really bad.
share I just went to Turner Classic Movies.com and went to the "Suggest a movie" section and told them to show a version of Contempt that isn't complete sh!te.
First I rip your clothes off, then you rip my clothes off, then we rip Lindsey's clothes off.
from TCM's webpage listing for Contempt on TCM Imports for April 2008:
http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=194056
For years, Contempt was available in the US only in a shoddy videotape that was not only dubbed (perhaps not a major sin since parts of the film are already in English) but panned-and-scanned, all the more unacceptable since Contempt has perhaps the most famous remark ever uttered about CinemaScope with Fritz Lang's comment: "It wasn't made for people. It's only good for snakes and funerals." (Contempt was actually shot in Franscope, a French variant of CinemaScope with the same image dimensions.) But in the late 90s, the film was touched up and restored under the auspices of Martin Scorsese for a revelatory theatrical release. Now you can watch a sparkling transfer on TCM of this key work in Godard's oeuvre.
I agree...i'm watching it right now and it doesn't have the same feel at all!!!
missing the 2.35:1 widescreen, the english, french, italian and german language and looks really really degraded...luckily i have the dvd and can watch how it is suppose to be...shame on TCM to broadcast a godard film this way.
p.s. the translator's part in the film looks stupid in this dubbed version.
I just lodged a complaint at the TCM website. If anyone else wants to do the same...
1) go to:
http://www.tcm.com/support/
2) click on the 'Contact Us' link on that page right above 'Submit an email to one of our service representatives'
3) select 'Film Presentation' category and click 'Contact Us'
4) click on 'My answer is not here'
5) Type in your complaint e-mail, making sure to fill all required fields.
6) preview and finalize your comment.
Maybe if enough people complain, we can get them to air it in its correct format as they'd advertised on the TCM Imports page.
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If you're watching 'Fullscreen' DVDs, you aren't getting the whole picture.
I too was completely dissapointed with the version of "Contempt" that was aired tonight (Sun. 4/6)! I had been looking foward to seeing (& recording)
this film for over a month. I had also read the summary on the TCM web-site,
where they mentioned that for years it had been available only in a pan & scan
VHS version with terrible flaws, but now they had a new restored version in letterbox. I get the Criterion Newsletter and they have been advertising this film as a new addition, so I assumed this was why TCM was airing the film at this time; similar to showing Kino's "Battleship Potemkin" restoration within month's of it's release. I can only assume that they accidentally showed the wrong (old) print, and will be e-mailing them with my complaint. I really hate to have to complain to my favorite film channel at all, as they have done so much for the film archives,and film lovers like me. But, if they are not made aware of their "mistakes" I fear that we may only see more incompetency.
Incidentally, I have not seen much Godard, although I have "Breathless" on DVD, which is one of the reasons I was looking forward to seeing what many call one of his greatest films. Thank God that I'm aware that tonights airing was not the "real-deal" or I may have not given it another chance!!!!
Didn't watch this last night, though I want to, but here's something I found on the TCM message boards from one of the programmers who works there:
"Just a warning for people waiting to see this film tomorrow night. The master arrived today from the distributor and it's in pretty bad shape. We've been promised a better version for future airings, but for now this is the best that's available."
I don't know when they will air this again, but I'll likely rent the DVD until TCM receives a better print.
"Watch me run a 50-yard dash with my legs cut off!"
I'd rather they'd made a schedule change than show something in such an abominable version. If they hooked up a standard dvd player to their broadcasting equipment and ran the Criterion disc (I know there are multiple reasons this is probably not possible, be they technical or legal), it'd have looked at least 20 times better than the garbage they showed which seemed like a master of a bad ancient vhs tape.
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If you're watching 'Fullscreen' DVDs, you aren't getting the whole picture.
yeah I was watching it last night. I don't recall alot of the jump cuts that were in it, so i attributed them to a really awful pan and scan. The dubbing was terrible, but more than that they lost all the beauty of the language barrier. The characters inability to understand one another is precisely what makes this film so great. In th dubbed version half of Jack Palance's actions don't even make sense, and the translator/secretary repeats his lines for no reason.
share[deleted]
The Criterion is perfect, rent it right away.
shareWhat I'm most upset about is the complete and utter lack of respect shown to a film of high stature like Contempt, as well as a director of Godard's caliber and the truly disheartening thing is the mere possiblity of that being someone's very first introduction to Jean-Luc Godard and French and foreign films. Therefore, the print was absolutely horrendous, the dubbing being atrocious, that it most likely frightened newcomers and turned them so far distant to Godard that they'll never be seen again. TCM's loyal fanbase deserves to be treated with the best and for a station of TCM's caliber to showcase a first-rate film like Contempt in that poor of condition was simply inexcusable and not only downgraded to the film but extremely disrespectful to Jean-Luc Godard as an artist. Nobody deserves to have their work displayed in that kind of condition, unless that being the sole print surving today and that is most certainly not the case with Contempt.
shareYeah, the dubbing was atrocious. I have absolutely no problem reading subtitles, I love hearing French!!!
I remember watching Truffaut's Day for Night, dubbed, and hating it. That was a nightmarish experience, and I never wanna see another dubbed foreign film for as long as I live.
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