A small collection.

Having successfully added a Blu-Ray reader/burner to the HackMini I went about buying a few Blu-Ray movies, all of which I already own in standard definition DVDs. These are distinguished by exceptional cinematography, often more reminiscent of still images and come highly recommended in these new transfers based on user reviews at Amazon.com. I regard most of these as essential viewing for any photographer. These are the ones I bought:

• 2001: A Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 masterpiece remains one of the very few science fiction movies I will watch. It’s a genre I mostly detest as it’s all to easy to conjure up fantastical plots which bear no relation to reality by some asinine construct like time travel or teleportation. Poor excuses for proper writing. But Kubrick’s movie is different, not just for its startling foresights and extraordinary imagery but also for its pervasive sense of mystery. You place your own interpretation on what you see and have no need to explain it to anyone. And there is, of course, the most breathtaking cut ever in world cinema, being the moment the monkey hurls the weapon in the air to the space station in orbit. Exceptional video and sound. (Full disclosure: For the past 5 years my screensaver has been the Hal 9000 lip reading).
  

• Funny Face: Stanley Donen’s 1957 confection has Fred Astaire acting Richard Avedon and Audrey Hepburn as the ingenue fashion model. The Gershwin score completes this exercise in champagne perfection and you have not lived until the multiple fashion ‘shoot’ scenes have overpowered you, set in the most beautiful city on earth, Paris. If you are a photographer and do not have this movie …. well, sorry, you had better stick to reading gear reviews.
  

• Lawrence of Arabia: Like Kubrick, David Lean made very few movies and no bad ones. This was his best. A beautiful Peter O’Toole in his acting debut and the second greatest cut in cinematic history after Kubrick’s in 2001, the moment when T E Lawrence extinguishes the match. Maurice Jarre’s unforgettable score completes this exercise in perfection.
  

• North by Northwest: Take the all time leading man, Cary Grant, match him up with Eve Marie Saint and an evil James Mason (surely the most beautiful, sonorous voice ever, back when beautiful English still set the standard for enunciation and could still be heard on the BBC) and set them on a cross-country chase across America from the bar in New York’s Plaza Hotel to Mount Rushmore, throw in a fabulous, memorable score by Bernard Herrmann, and you have the best thriller made. The Blu-Ray transfer is exceptional.
  

• Once Upon A Time In America: Sergio Leone not only made the greatest Western (it takes an Italian!), see below, he also made this exceptional gangster movie about the Jewish Mob during prohibition. The early New York scenes at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge tell of a longing for a simpler world which never ages. James Woods, with his typical intensity, and a fine Robert DeNiro make the movie riveting, but it’s the youthful actors in the flashbacks, especially a divine Jennifer Connelly, who make the movie. Despite its vast length, almost four hours, the set design and art direction are to die for, and the movie is over before you know it. Sticking with the best of the best, Leone had Ennio Morricone write the haunting pan pipe music and Tonnino Delli Colli did the masterful cinematography.
  

• Once Upon A Time In The West: Forget third rate players like John Wayne or limited range ones like Clint Eastwood. OUATITW is a unique melding of acting (Bronson, Fonda, Robards, Cardinale), directing (Leone), cinematography (Delli Colli) and music (Morricone). The regular DVD is already very fine but the Blu-Ray adds nicely to the visuals and greatly to the sound. Listen to the steam train ‘breathing’ in that magical opening sequence. The Blu-Ray comes with not one but two versions of the movie, the 165 minute theatrical release and the 166 minute remastered one. Watch the latter.
  

• The Third Man: The finest monochrome photography, still or ciné, is to be found here. No self-respecting photographer should be without this movie and the Blu-Ray transfer is beyond words wonderful. Karras’s zither has never sounded better.
  

• To Catch A Thief: Another confection with two of the most beautiful people who have ever trodden this Earth – Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. This is the last of three movies Kelly made with Hitchcock (after ‘Dial M for Murder’ and ‘Rear Window’) before her new job as Monaco royalty and she has never been more beautiful. The setting and cinematography on the French Riviera are to die for. Once my son graduates Harvard and I have made a fortune, I’m retiring there ….
  

These all ran me $10-12 except for Funny Face which was an exhorbitant $35, remastered in Sweden for some reason. It’s OK, it’s in English.

It’s not like classics like those above come around every day. The most recent was made 20 years ago, which tells you something about the CGI-digital garbage and poor writing with which we are presented by modern movie makers. There’s lots of film grain to be seen in the above movies, and thank goodness for that.

With disk storage so inexepensive, I rip my Blu-Ray movies to disk and give the originals to the local library. Nothing beats (cataloged) random access.