I was distracted yesterday, to say the least. And then I saw Amelia, which I’m not supposed to get into for a couple of days. And then I came home and watched the North by Northwest Bluray, which looks like a mint-condition celluloid print and not some digital recreation, which feels right. It’s “film” and not some razor-sharp, spiffily tweaked upgrade, all glistening and heightened to a fare-thee-well. It’s like watching it on opening day (8.6.59) at the Radio City Music Hall, dead center in the twelfth row.

Some of the shots and scenes seem a tiny bit darker than expected. Eva Marie Saint‘s face looks a bit washed out and lacks sufficient detail here and there (like the base she’s wearing is too light and she’s wearing too much of it). And there’s an overall sense of the color having been slightly pushed. But I love that you can now see a distinct criss-crossy pattern in Cary Grant‘s medium gray suit, and for the first time I noticed the wood grain that frames the phone booth that Saint is speaking inside of (i.e., conversing with Martin Landau) during the Union Station scene in Chicago.

There are tons of other observations, but the mover (a friendly Russian guy named Steve) will be here in 40 minutes and there’s still more to do. I’ve been up and packing stuff since 5:30 am. Back into it sometime around noon.