At the Blu-Con 2.0 conference yesterday, Academy Award-winning
filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who is also a veteran and avid cinephile, sang
the praises of the Blu-ray format because it offers viewers at home the
chance to "experience the best possible sound and picture" and see "the
film as it was meant to be seen." Movies viewed in the HD format boast a
"film-grain quality," he added.
Also, Scorsese opined that BD "will extend the life of movies", because the
clarity makes classic films look new again, and thus more attractive for
younger audiences. “Blu-ray will extend the life of movies,” Scorsese said.
"I have a daughter who's 10, and she can't tell the difference between old
films and new films." That makes him "very excited and optimistic as a
filmmaker and a film lover".
On the other hand, a poor presentation, in his opinion, detracts from the
movie-watching experience, especially for younger viewers. “There are
subtle things, like not being able to see the actor's eyes. With Blu-ray, you
don't have that problem.”
During Q&A time, Scorsese was asked which film he has most enjoyed
watching on Blu-ray. Scorsese said it was the 'The Searchers'. The
Ford/Wayne classic has long been one of Scorsese's favorites, and he
considers the BD "incredible." He said it was "something about the beauty
of the landscape and the nature of the faces — you put it on just to check
something out, and you can't take it off."
However, many other Scorsese movies are still unreleased on BD, notably
'Taxi Driver', which was supposed to have come out early this year, and
also 'Bringing Out the Dead', 'Kundun', 'The Age of Innocence', 'Cape Fear',
'The Last Temptation of Christ', 'The Color of Money', 'After Hours', 'The
King of Comedy', 'New York, New York', 'Mean Streets' and "Who's That
Knocking at My Door', as well as the documentaries 'No Direction Home',
'My Voyage in Italy' and 'A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through
American Movies'.
According to the The Hollywood Reporter, Sony
senior VP for restoration and mastering Grover Crisp said that, with his
infectious enthusiasm for Blu-ray, Scorsese "has also gotten other
directors like Michael Mann and Christopher Nolan involved" on disc
remastering and special features.
I'm likely alone in my enthusiasm for 'After Hours' (1985), one of Scorcese's lesser known gems (RottenTomatoes = 92%!). A departure from his normal dramatic fare, 'AH' is (still) a fun & quirky (if dated) comedy with a great ensemble cast. Griffin Dunne (American Werewolf in London, The Big Blue) & Rosanna Arquette are pitch-perfect. Great, memorable score by Howard Shore. I revisit it at least once a year. I've owned it on Laserdisc & dvd, but I'm not holding my breath for the BD anytime soon, or if ever at all.
Unfortunately, for most if it does not have a 25 year old actor in a leotard, explosions, sound effects sonic levels mastered louder that a 707 jet, more explosions, an entire cast and crew rendered in CGI motion capture, oh and things blowing up then nobody is interested.
After Hours is AMAZING! One of my favs as well. King of Comedy is even better in my opinion. One of the most brilliant studies of how a fans emulation can often be masked hatred and rage (Pupkin doesn't idolize Langford so much as he feels he should BE him and is entitled to the same fame and fortune). It is great to hear that Scorsese is leading the BD charge! If only my favorite, Mr. David Lynch would get excited about it!
After Hours is one of his most underrated outputs, but I wouldn't choose it to be on the docket for Blu-ray. I would much rather see Taxi Driver, Kundun, Cape Fear, and The Last Temptation of Christ before AH. I'm not sure how his previously unreleased to the BD format documentaries will fare since much of the footage is from stock and other sources. But bring on his feature films!
I also love After Hours and The King of Comedy, both so underrated, but getting less so these days which is good to see. Really I just want all of his stuff to come out on blu, even his lesser effort like Boxcar Bertha is worth a BD release...everything he does is wonderful
Not saying it's his best, but I do love After Hours (Scorsese top 3 for me). Hope to see it someday. BTW, Raging Bull, arguably his best, looks incredible on BD. Hopefully, they do right by Taxi Driver, which I caught on MGM HD a while back and which looked very good, despite DNR smearing during the dark scenes.
Hopefully this means we get the rest of Scorsese's amazing body of work on BD soon. WOW!!
And more hopefully, we get a director's cut of "Gang's of New York" with a new improved transfer
After Hours is my favorite Scorsese film!! Nice to see other fans. Personally, I really want to see Caper Fear, The Last Tempation of Christ and New York Stories (his "Life Lessons" segment is the highlight of the film).
