Oh, disappointment. In a Criterion DVD, of all things!

[Fire Walk With Me]

Amerigo very kindly let us know about barnesandnoble.com's half-off sale on Criterion DVD and Blu-Ray. I grabbed up a copy of Wings of Desire, it being one of my favorites, not having known they had an edition, and my other copy having been lent out--permanently :)

Well........it's director-approved, but the director wanted the soundtrack and source music to be in the surround channels for some reason. Listening out of the stereo outputs of the player, has lots of dialogue and very little music.

I'm not going to be investing in a surround system because rear and center speakers must be phase-coherent to not destroy the experience...in other words, I'd have to buy three more of the same speakers I use for stereo. Not an option.

Oh, shame on you, Wim Wenders, for giving us so very much, and then damaging it in the process. It's like meeting an old friend after many, many years, and as the catching-up progresses, you realize they're quoting Rush Limbaugh over and over and over....to me, a musician and sound semi-pro for the last 25+ years, it's that bad of an imbalance. Man...any Tangerine Dream fans know the same experience with Edgar Froese going over all of his solo titles with cheesy flowing chords, obscuring the originals entirely in a wash of cheese. Cheese, I say.

Too much cheese in the world. Too bad to see something beautiful become something less than it once was. Someday I may perhaps rip it to hard disc, and align the old stereo soundtrack if at all possible...

You may find this semi-rant to be laughable. To you I say, "Rush Limbaugh".

[REP]

1. Yeah, I know. Criteron Director's cut of Brazil is ... interesting, but not as good a movie

I feel your pain.

On edit: at least it's not the Love Conquers All edit :puke:

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Oh... What did they do to it?

I'm just amazed at this...I thought that they could do no wrong. However, in WOD, it may be solely the director's supervision/final edit decisions and not Criterion's.

In the same manner, many recording and mastering engineers hate doing "LOUD" CDs, but the artists/producers often demand it, and it's work, so.... :shrug: