How do you know what the director intended - I’m curious, without extensive study on each particular film ? Do videophiles do that ?
I’m a hardcore movie buff. I have been watching classic films for the last two decades from US , Japan , Russia ,France and almost all European countries and of course from India , from 1940s onwards. So I guess that makes me little bit qualified to talk on this topic.
While watching Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver back in 2002 on an imported British Film institute DVD I noticed , during the last 10 minutes the color getting quite desaturated and grainy. Of course I thought my dvd was faulty.
Forward to 2012 I got a Blu Ray disc and again , same issue.
So then I started researching on the film , reading essays by film theorists and academics - nobody mentioned anything on this aspect.
Just few days back I stumbled upon an old interview with Scorsese where finally I found a reference to this - which stated that owing to severe violence in that last 10 minutes (compared to seventies era) , studio was compelling Scorsese to cut that entire footage.
Scorsese apparently was so angry he wanted to shoot the executive and had a gun ready.
Finally a compromise was reached where Scorsese agreed to desaturate that sequence to minimise the effect of blood, and bypassed censor.
My point - it is definitely not easy to know director’s intent. Especially for non-mainstream art and classic films made between1950- 1980 (the classic period ).
Second point - it doesn’t matter two hoots if the film is good, what exactly the tone is (unless it’s totally off- which doesn’t happen ).
A Citizen Kane or a Rashomon or a Cries and Whispers
doesn’t need a 8k latest technology color , tone accurate display , complying to standards to make it a more enjoyable experience.
Tagging
@sachinchavan 15865 too as he is a cinephile as well , so his views would also be worthwhile.