Magnolia R2?

[chris21]

Just watched Magnolia and thought it was brilliant!!

One thing though. In the final scene has anybody else had problems hearing the dialogue? The "Save Me" song seems to drown the dialogue out, and in the final scene of a three hour film this is a nightmare!:(

I have worked out what was said by turning on the subtitles, but I don't fancy doing this every time I watch it.

Anybody else had this with the region 2?

[Just Call Me Wanda]

I too thought the film was brilliant but I'm afraid I didn't have the same problems you're experiencing.

Were you listening on 2-channel stereo/Dolby Pro Logic/DD 5.1???

[SqueakyG]

Magnolia is one of my favourite films. I also can hardly hear the dialogue in the last scene, and I have to switch on the subtitles. My first thought was that it must be an artistic choice rather than a fault with the sound. But am I wrong? Is the dialogue in the last scene SUPPOSED to be heard clearly? Just Call Me Wanda now has me worried.

I only have the ability to hear the film in stereo (with headphones), or mono (on my portable TV speaker). But listening with stereo headphones to both the 2.0 mix and the 5.1 mix, the dialogue in the last scene is barely audible and is drowned out by the Aimee Mann song.

Artistic choice by Paul Thomas Anderson... or disc fault?

[Narshty]

Fear not - it's entirely intentional and the same occurs on my R1 totally-Anderson supervised and approved version. I also remember this from the cinema screening I saw.

[Just Call Me Wanda]

I've just checked and the scene in question is muted slightly. I knew (for some reason) that that was intentional so didn't think I'd experienced a problem. ;)

[DrX]

I woulda thought it was obvious man.

Personal, sincere words drowned out by the sound of a song for the purposes of rebuking any apparent cynicism generated by the notion of a "happy ending".

:)

[John Nelson]

It's not what the Claudia character is saying (or is being said to her) that's important, it's the way her facial expression changes

and the way she smiles for the first time in the whole film

-- J.

[gZa]

Originally posted by chris21
Just watched Magnolia and thought it was brilliant!!

One thing though. In the final scene has anybody else had problems hearing the dialogue? The "Save Me" song seems to drown the dialogue out, and in the final scene of a three hour film this is a nightmare!:(

I have worked out what was said by turning on the subtitles, but I don't fancy doing this every time I watch it.

Anybody else had this with the region 2? Some people had problems listening to the opening 'music' montage as well...but like people have said - it's meant to be like this (so it's not a region specific thing)
It sounded fine in the cinema but I can kind understand peoples problems at home as you ideally need a good 5.1 setup with a wide front sound stage to represent it fairly. I just turned up my center speaker a notch - that did the trick.

[tj_director]

the Dolby 2.0 is meant to be better than the 5.1 .

I find the dialogue is clearer when watching through 2.0 :)

[gz5ztg]

I am worried, my version of Magnolia is the single disc version. The picture quality is terrible, the brightness seems to flicker rythymically, as though between the keyframes.

It is so bad it detracts from the film. I am now worried that it is my player (a Wharfedale M5, late serial number). I also have a Goodfellas DVD which looks terrible.

The thing is that most of my other DVDs seem fine, Jaws, Princess Bride SE, Contact etc. the picture is brilliant.

Do you think that my player just has problems with very compressed films? Both Magnolia and Goodfellas are long films.

I am considering returning the player and just paying a bit extra for something like a toshiba sd120e.

Any thoughts?

[Woz]

The brightness flickering can be caused by Macrovision. You're not running your player thru the video are you?

[gz5ztg]

No I am not playing it through the video, just scart straight into my TV. Is there a way to disable this macrovision on the wharfedale m5?

I might have to return it if not.

[gz5ztg]

Got rid of my crappy wharfedale and got a pioneer dv444.

Amazing! my magnolia disc likes fine now! Get what you pay for I suppose.