Sunday, July 10, 2005

Subtitles & Matte Paintings

I kinda went el-cheapo when I got my Kurosawa DVDs and only now am I regretting it. I watched Seven Samurai the other day. The film print was fine but the subtitles nearly drove me mad. Periodic spelling mistakes, cryptic translations and a crippling lag between the spoken dialog and its appropriate subtitle. If the Criterion DVDs weren't $50 a pop I would have picked them up. But instead I picked up cheap copies off Ebay. In fairness though, Seven Samurai's subtitles weren't nearly as bad as those on the Lord of the Wu Tang DVD I got at Wal-Mart for $4.

I watched The Thing again recently. Picked up the newest DVD version which had an interesting documentary about the flick. Some amazing stuff about the Albert Whitlock matte paintings used in the movie. One of the things I hate about the new digital era of film making is that great stuff like Whitlock's work gets lost. I hate CGI for the most part. Film techniques peaked for me with Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

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