Rebecca & Notorious Criterion Collection

[Dene]

I’ve just finished watching these, and aside from being wonderful movies, they are absolutely pristine transfers – neither could possibly look better, up there with Warner’s ‘North By Northwest’!

Has anyone seen Criterion’s ‘Eight and a Half’ yet? What’s the transfer like with this? If it’s as good as these I may invest in it next.

[Michael Brooke]

I've just watched <I>Notorious</I>, and while I agree that it's a remarkably good transfer, I wouldn't call it pristine - there's a modicum of print damage, for starters.

Two years ago, I'd probably have praised it to the skies, but the likes of <I>Citizen Kane</I> and <I>North By Northwest</I> have raised the bar in terms of my expectations of what even a several decades-old film can look like on DVD - so I'd give it a 9/10.

(Mind you, I'd probably give 9/10 to <I>Citizen Kane</I> as well - it's 99% flawless, apart from one horrible shot where over-zealous restoration has mistaken droplets of water on a window for print damage and ironed them out! The result is jarring, to say the least - and proof that digital restoration, while capable of amazing results, needs to be used with care!)