I felt profoundly disappointed last June when I saw a 70mm print of the much-heralded 4K restoration of North by Northwest.
The projected image at the Village East looked okay but failed to bring anything visually exceptional to the table — no “bump” over previous versions.
I’m now watching WHE’s just-released 4K Bluray of the restored NXNW and guess what? It pops! Bump city!
Plainly and emphatically stated, the 4K disc (no 1080 Bluray is included) reps an unmistakable visual upgrade — extra-vivid detail, more vibrant colors (fire-engine red cabs! bright yellow cabs! gleaming burgundy leather seats!), extraordinary wardrobe threads (the subtle plaid weave in Cary Grant’s Kilgour suit!) and organic textures (polished wood grain! chiseled adobe bricks adorning a Frank Lloyd Wright home! dusty Indiana farmland furrows) that seem a bit more pronounced and life-like…generally a feeling of film-negative newness and refreshment.
In a phrase, I’m experiencing immense eyeball pleasure. Thank you. I’ve been dreaming of this kind of upgrade for decades.
It follows that last summer’s NXNW 70mm advertising promotion was fraudulent bullshit. Two generations away from the core restoration appearance, projected film only diminishes the digital 4K refinements. 70mm projection used to really mean something, but it can’t compare with what pure digital data offers these days.
On 1.12.16 I posted about a visit to North by Northwest‘s cropduster junction. Here it is again, and with larger photos:
Daryl H. Thornhill, grandson of Roger Thornhill, has paid a visit to a hallowed place — a place where his ancestor was nearly murdered by machine-gun fire from a cropdusting biplane.
Daryl is standing at “Prairie Stop, Highway 41” — actually an area near the intersection of Garces Highway and Corcoran Road near Wasco, a suburb of Bakersfield. Right by the side of the road, in fact, and taking shots with his iPhone 6 Plus. The weather is sunny and mild. Dead calm.
A SUV appears from behind a far-off thicket of small trees. It approaches and stops about 60 or 70 feet from where Daryl Thornhill is standing. A rural-type fellow in a lumpy brown suit gets out. Thornhill and Brownsuit regard each other. Thornhill decides to walk over, break the ice.
Thornhill: Hi. (pause) Hot day.
Brownsuit: Seen worse.
Thornhill: (Beat) Have you ever seen a film called North by Northwest?
Brownsuit: Can’t say I have ’cause I haven’t.
Thornhill: Well, a couple of websites say they shot a famous scene from that film right here, right on this spot. 12168 Corcoran Road.
Brownsuit: Can’t trust what you read on the web.
Thornhill: My thought exactly. It’s flat out here, but otherwise the area bears almost no resemblance to the area in the film. No corn crops, no tilled soil, no telephone poles. The area in the film looked like rural Illinois or Indiana. This looks like….well, not classic farmland at all. Desert scrub, fruit trees. It looks more like the area outside Ravenna in Antonioni’s Red Desert.
Brownsuit: Red Desert?
Thornhill: Another movie.
Brownsuit: (Pause) Where ya from?
Thornhill: Los Angeles. Drove up last night.
Brownsuit: All that way just to come here?
Thornhill: Afraid so.
Brownsuit: (looking at something) That’s funny.
Thornhill: What?
Brownsuit: That guy’s watering fruit trees where there ain’t no fruit trees.
Thornhill: (Half-talking to himself) I don’t know why local farmers and landowners can’t respect the fact that this area is a very special place for film buffs. And for me personally. My grandfather told me stories when I was a kid. But here I am and they’ve made almost no attempt to preserve the way everything looked in 1958.
Brownsuit: The nerve.
