Chicago In A Ray Of Blu

I re-watched Chicago on Blu-ray over the weekend and was both delighted and saddened.

After all the negative buzz about some studios filtering out grain from recent Blu-ray releases, I was delighted that Chicago appears to retain every bit of high-frequency information from the film. On my 92-inch screen, I felt like I was peering into the emulsion. It was rich; it was alive with detail.

The DVD from 2003 was barely watchable, I thought, with loads of compression nasties, high-frequency smearing, the works. In fact, I haven't seen the DVD in years, until I popped it in to do an A-B comparison with the Blu-ray.

The "light bulb wall" finale completely falls apart, visually, on standard def disc. Mosquito noise? We're talking a swarm. On Blu-ray, it takes one's breath away. Every light bulb is rock solid. Another favorite sequence is Rene Zellweger's solo. She's in a stunning white dress, floating in black with mirrors appearing at all sides. A wonderful sheen of living, breathing film grain dances over her figure.

This is an example of a film finely represented on HD, IMHO.

The audio quality and sound mix were exquisite, but that's for another post, along with my raves about the direction, music, performances, choreography, etc.

You see, my delight turned to sadness after re-reading film historian and preservationist Robert A. Harris' 2007 review of the Chicago Blu-ray. His parting request for Miramax to release Gangs of New York has been answered, but the promise of what could have been seems to have died along with all those cheatin' guys in Chicago...

I'd like to think the Chicago Blu-ray wasn't released by Miramax; rather, it beat the rap and escaped grain execution with the help of Billy Flynn.