Notes
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
You won't believe your eyes. Here's an inside story: My housemate is a filmmaker, and he called me frantic from Fotokem (a film printing house in Burbank) to tell me that David Lynch had just left the building. Of course, I was as jealous as I'd ever been, but the more important issue was this: What was Lynch doing there? My housemate did some investigating, and once he talked to the restoring expert Lynch had just met with, he said that Lynch was putting the finishing touches on the Eraserhead DVD transfer, and that it was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen. True story.
And the actual disc makes it seem like that urban myth may actually be true: This 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is outstanding. From the booklet that comes along with the disc:
"The first step [of the restoration] was transferring a fine-grain interpositive of the film to high-definition tape, yielding a resolution of 1920x1080 at 23.976 frames per second, and a one-to-one correspondence to the original film frames, something you don't get with the standard video rate of 29.97 fps. And the amount of detail that you can see using this format is simply astonishing. Next the high-def tape was digitized to hard drives for the restoration and cleaning process. The files were digitized uncompressed to preserve as much quality and detail as possible. With these files in hand, a rigorous six-month process began, wherein the film was scrutinized frame by frame, one at a time, until all dirt, scratches, blotches, and other imperfections that weren't a part of the film, but detritus inherent to film technology, were removed. After the restoration process, the image files were ready for compression to MPEG-2 for DVD. Generally, this sort of compression is done using DigiBeta tape, which is a digital tape format, but at approximately 25% the resolution of high-definition tape. And because it is a digital format, anything transferred to it will undergo compression. To avoid this extra compression step, the MPEG-2 compression for this DVD was performed using the original high-definition files."
Needless to say, it's astonishing. Such hyperbole is not an overstatement. Everything about this transfer is excellent. There is absolutely no dirt or detectable age-related artifacts apparent, which will likely prove to be a revelation to the film's enormous cult following. Blacks are perfect and contrast terrific. This film has for so long suffered at the hands of poor video transfers that the amount of detail here is at first hard to believe. Shadow delineation is excellent, with fine textures noticeable and many shots delivering a true three-dimensional quality. There is no apparent edge enhancement nor compression artifacts detectable. Truly stunning.
Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
This 2.0 stereo mix is equally jaw-dropping, although not quite as expected. According to the included notes, the audio of the film was restored utilizing the ProTools Digital Audio Workstation, running the Waves Restoration-X plug-ins. The process removes static clicks on the original magnetic film tracks and reduces the amount of tape hiss inherent in all analog recordings. These cleaned-up elements were then processed through an Aphex 204 Aural Exciter to restore clarity and detail to the mix, and some processing was added to extend the low frequencies. "To deliver maximum fidelity, the restored track is presented uncompressed in PCM 2.0 stereo." Unfortunately, the actual track itself is recorded in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, doubtless a last-minute change to save precious bit space? While a true PCM track would likely have been better, this is s still a very well-restored soundtrack.
Also missing are any subtitle or Closed Caption options.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
The amazing extras on this Eraserhead DVD come in the form of one complete documentary that runs nearly 90 minutes. In it are new interviews with most of those involved with the film, including stories and footage of the film's inception, development, production and distribution, and a whole bunch of heretofore-unseen photos and extra goodies. Seriously amazing, and likely to prove the case that having the filmmaker involved is essential to creating a great documentary.
We also have a television calibration tool (similar to the one on The Short Films of David Lynch) that lets you tune the visuals on your tube to be exactly in tune with David's vision.
Also included is the film's original theatrical trailer, and it's a wonderful one. Presented in 2-channel Stereo, it's 45 magical seconds of oddity, unease and hallucination: Eraserhead in a nutshell.
(Be forewarned: There are still those who complain about Lynch's chapter-less DVD formatting. Like his last few DVD releases, the film is on one long chapter, so those who like to mix and match are shit out of luck.)
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