[REL] Laura, les ombres de l'été (1979)

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starfish21
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Re: [REL] Laura, les ombres de l'été (1979) [New quality rip

Post by starfish21 »   1 likes

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sorry about the earlier pics,i cant see a way to remove them
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emuler
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Re: [REL] Laura, les ombres de l'été (1979) [New quality rip

Post by emuler »   0 likes

In your earlier post, click the edit button (top right), then delete what you want to.
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loverboy
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Re: [REL] Laura, les ombres de l'été (1979) [New quality rip

Post by loverboy »   85 likes

This guy has put a lot of effort into this release including hand-made English subs so I'm leaving the release notes entirely unedited.
If you think you’ve seen LAURA before…you haven’t!

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NOTE: anyone looking for some kind of turn-on is going to be disappointed – there are no sex scenes (just a bit of above-the-waist kissing) and the nudity is in director/photographer David Hamilton’s customary tableaux style, which is anything but erotic, where women are posed or arranged amongs architecture or furnishings no matter what they’re supposed to be doing (hardly surprising given his background as a coffee table book photographer). Erotic? Nup. I’d call it a drowsy sort of sensuality: am I the only person here that’s interested in Hamilton for his actual PHOTOGRAPHY?? It’s particularly grating for me to see that the only DVD releases of his films have been crummy transfers direct from VHS, which have been circulating on the Net for years in .avi and .mpg form (including the one previously on this site). The whole point of his films is his trademark visuals – certainly not the script or the acting – so what’s the point making poor dupes from videotape? Well, because there are poor dupes who’ll buy them thinking that they’re going to get a T&A feature.

Anyway, an improvement of LAURA is long overdue, so here is my rip from my 2005 LTJ Edition DVD from France. There were no English subtitles on the disc, so I had to make my own based on the dubbed version that’s floating about online. I say ‘based on’. The dubbed translation was hideous. I’m so glad to have buried it with this new translation – may the old one never be heard again!!

Comparison screenshots of the ‘other version’ and this upgrade are below.

So what does this version have? Well, if you’ve only seen the foreign-release version, as have most people, then watching this upgrade will be like seeing LAURA for the first time:

(1) vastly improved widescreen image without the absurd cropping right, left, top, and bottom found on the VHS release.

(2) the original French audio and not the clunky dubbing, which also included ridiculous voice-overs and off-screen expository dialogue (in the style of thought balloons, because we are obviously too stoopid to guess what characters might be thinking, or figure out the plot, which could be written on a napkin). The problem with dubbing is that it gives people licence to have characters saying whatever they want them to say, without regard for the original material.

(3) as far as I can tell, this is the original domestic cut of the film –the English release had footage shuffled about for no reason other than someone thought they could probably ‘improve’ it by moving scenes around and changing music cues (a common complaint among foreign films release back in the bad old days of home video). It even ends differently!

Now, the running time: The DVD is 86 minutes. The VHS is 90 minutes. The IMDB lists the running time as 95 mins.
So, firstly: one short scene has been added to the English VHS which is not present in the domestic DVD – this is when Sarah visits Paul and they discuss old times and Paul brings up the subject of having Laura pose for a statue. The studio obviously didn’t feel this bit of exposition was necessary for the original release; I’ve included it in the download as an isolated .avi.
Secondly: the IMBD is not the be-all end-all of film information. I’ve found too many mistakes on the site to take it as The Definitive Source. However, since practically every other film-related site on the net *does* take the IMDB as its primary source, its mistakes get propagated everywhere in cyberspace until they become universally recognised as facts.
End result: people scrabbling about for some 95-minute “uncut” version of LAURA. Inasmuch as the French are highly unlikely to cut their own film, I believe this DVD is as ‘uncut’ as they come. I’ve looked for original reviews upon time of the film’s release and can’t find any theatrical running time to prove otherwise. In any case, digital transfer scanning doesn’t provide the same fps as 35mm projection, so there’s always going to be a slight discrepancy in running time when these things make it to home video. And then there’s the difference between VHS framerate and DVD framerate. And then there’s the speedup difference between PAL and NTSC. And then there’s the moments that have been that have been made artificially longer by padding inserts/cutaways to accommodate the aforementioned dumb voiceovers. You can see how easily five minutes can disappear.

Finally: Don’t be suckered by the Feb 2010 DVD release of LAURA by “Jef Films”. The guy’s a bootlegger. By putting up a “future release date” people get fooled into thinking they’re buying something legit. You’d think Amazon would have cottoned on to these guys by now, wouldn’t you?

Oh, that’s right, the plot.

“It’s a David Hamilton movie”.

That should do it.

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AVI File Details
========================================
File Name .......................................: Laura CG.avi
File Size (in bytes) ............................: 1,391,517,696 bytes
Runtime .........................................: 1:26:12
Video Info
Video Codec .....................................: DivX 5.x/6.x
Frame Size ......................................: 640x384 (AR: 1.667)
FPS .............................................: 25.000
Video Bitrate ...................................: 2015 kb/s
Bits per Pixel ..................................: 0.328 bpp
Compatibillity...................................: [B-VOP], [], [], []
Audio Info
Audio Codec .....................................: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Sample Rate .....................................: 48000 Hz
Audio Bitrate ...................................: 128 kb/s [2 channel(s)] CBR
No. of audio streams ............................: 1
Heartfelt thanks to badge at CG for the effort made with this release.
The files have been left alone other than filename editing to make EM searching easier.
My thanks to a bit of 'muscle' helping share here, namely FLL & emuler.

Extra scene........fullscreen English language version.
Like this post to see ed2k links  [15.42 Mb]

Widescreen original French audio rip.
Like this post to see ed2k links  [1.30 Gb]

Matching English subtitles.
Like this post to see ed2k links  [20.9 Kb]

Enjoy!
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emuler
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Re: [REL] Laura, les ombres de l'été (1979) [New quality rip

Post by emuler »   0 likes

Nice upgrade, lb. :thumbsup I suppose this is as good as it gets, unless by some miracle they show it on HDTV or release it on BluRay. Then it might get a professional facelift.

Now if only someone could go back in time and remove that blasted soft filter from the camera lens. :think :icon_biggrin2
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ptguardian
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Re: [REL] Laura, les ombres de l'été (1979) [New quality rip

Post by ptguardian »   0 likes

emuler wrote: Now if only someone could go back in time and remove that blasted soft filter from the camera lens. :think :icon_biggrin2
that would be nice if they could

:)
Explodo
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Re: [REL] Laura, les ombres de l'été (1979) [New quality rip

Post by Explodo »   0 likes

Does anybody still have the Laura 1979 FR Audio DVDRip.srt subtitle file? I haven't had any luck.

edit: got it, thx all!
Ed
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Re: [REL] Laura, les ombres de l'été (1979) [New quality rip

Post by Ed »   14 likes

loverboy wrote: Widescreen original French audio rip.
Like this post to see ed2k links  [1.30 Gb]
Anyone mind sharing this for a bit? Been trying to grab it for a few weeks and have yet to see a full source. Thanks in advance! :bigups
FLL
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Re: [REL] Laura, les ombres de l'été (1979) [New quality rip

Post by FLL »   0 likes

Reshared.
Ed
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Re: [REL] Laura, les ombres de l'été (1979) [New quality rip

Post by Ed »   0 likes

Thanks a ton guys. Quality is miles ahead of the German vhs rip! :thumbsup
tomcruise
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Re: [REL] Laura, les ombres de l'été (1979) [New quality rip

Post by tomcruise »   0 likes

Hi sorry I'm a novice, I saw this film a few years back (the terrible rip version) and would quite like to see this version. How do you download from emule (what server should I choose?) because I pasted in the ed2k link and it's not finding any sources or anything.
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