Devan Scott
14.7K posts
@SadHillDevan
Vancouver-based DOP/Director/Colourist | Host of @filmformally. Adjunct Prof @FilmUBC | Faculty @emilycarru https://t.co/VLiDpSwrsd https://t.co/7cJ51PZfXR
So long as folks are making the jump.... (If I don't follow you on there, feel free to respond to this with your info, mutuals!)
It’s publication day! Now available: the world’s first book dedicated to the 2015 film Steve Jobs, featuring eight (8) writers breaking the film down, piece by piece, to appreciate the work as greater than the sum of its parts. Link in bio!
Criterion, how have you managed to do this to Eyes Wide Shut? This should have been a definitive 4K release — a reference-grade presentation of one of Kubrick’s most precise, most controlled, most intentional films. Instead, what you’ve put out feels like a compromise dressed up as prestige: a substandard home-video version that flattens the image into something lifeless, electronic, and fundamentally wrong. A 10-bit, Dolby Vision minimal-enhancement, TV-version approach to a film that demands cinema-grade 12-bit full 4:2:2 treatment, this is not “good enough.” It isn’t even close. Compared to the DCP, the disc looks drained of depth — the texture, the nuance, the delicacy of shadow and colour separation are gone. The atmosphere that is the storytelling in this film has been thinned out until it feels generic. That isn’t “a different look.” That’s damage. And the most infuriating part is what this disrespects: the work. Larry Smith’s cinematography and grading choices weren’t accidental decoration — they’re the film’s bloodstream. Every subtle tonal decision, every controlled shift in warmth and cold, every balance between glamour and dread was crafted to serve Kubrick’s intent. When you blunt that, you don’t just change the picture — you change the film. I worked on this film. I know what it’s meant to be. And I’m appalled at how casually this release treats that legacy — not just Kubrick’s, but everyone who carried this to the finish line: Larry Smith DoP, Jan Harlan Producer, Joe Dunton cameras and the Deluxe lab teams, the entire chain of authorship. This isn’t “Criterion being Criterion.” This is the physical-media market slipping into a depressing new normal where “4K” becomes a badge, not a promise. And it’s the same rot everywhere: compromised masters, missing premium audio, releases pushed out that feel like the minimum viable product rather than a definitive archival edition. If physical media is supposed to be the last refuge of quality and permanence, why are we accepting versions that are visibly and audibly second-rate? Eyes Wide Shut is not a casual catalogue title. It’s a landmark. A final statement. A defining piece of cinema. If you’re going to put that “C” on the box, then act like it means something. Because right now, Criterion, this is not preservation. It’s vandalism. @Criterion @warnerbros @mdbmhk #EyesWideShut @Dolby @BrightSideHT @LegalBeagleOK @RalphAVSreviews
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) dir. Stanley Kubrick Top: Old Blu-ray Bottom: New Criterion
10 years ago today, Steve Jobs (2015) was released. This year, I am launching a book: a work of 8 writers, analyzing it piece by piece, to appreciate the film as greater than the sum of its parts. Sign up is now open to find out when you can own a copy of STEVE JOBS MONOGRAPH.
I had a wonderful time talking with @SadHillDevan about the @ArrowFilmsVideo 4K restorations of the Dollars Trilogy: youtu.be/aktMh3le0ag?si…
