It's just a bare-bones site now - I'll be fiddling around with the layout and whatnot over time, but right now it's just sort of a placeholder. I think the new Ten Past Midnight will end up being something like the old blog I used to run - movie reviews, film discussion, visual essays, etc. Sort of just film talk in general.
But for this first post, I just wanted to point out how amazingly beautiful the new (2012) Criterion Collection restoration of Harold and Maude is.
And before I say anything else, keep in mind that although Criterion had access the original negative, it was badly scratched. It just makes this restoration all the more breathtaking.
I've posted two stills below of the exact same frame from the opening credit sequence: as you can see quite clearly, the difference is night and day. The opening credit sequence, because of its use of optical titles over the image (which, of course, introduces a generation of quality loss) always looked particularly bad. The old transfer (from the DVD released in 2000) is a mess. The print that was used is riddled with speckles, dirt, and film damage. I suspect it's probably just the same transfer that was used for the laserdisc release, ported over to DVD.
Besides the issues with the print, the old transfer also suffers from being horribly misframed. Comparing the two stills, it's obvious that the left side of the frame is really cropped in the old transfer - take a look at how much of Harold's head is missing! Contrast and black levels are totally muddy in the old transfer, and often obscure fine details; for example, we can't even see - as we can in the restoration - the paper pinned to Harold's suit above his left breast pocket.
Old Transfer (2000)
New Restoration (2012)
So, enough with the details. The point is, this is a beautiful restoration of this picture. I've seen this movie a million times, but the first time I saw the restoration, it was a revelation. It almost felt like I was watching it again for the first time. Colors that were buried in the old piss-poor transfer popped off the screen in the restoration. And with the correct framing - and thus the original composition - restored, scenes like the one above just... felt better. The bottom line is: it was a better film experience. I only wish that all films could receive this kind of treatment.
I've also posted a video below featuring a side-by-side comparison of the two transfers:
