Customer Reviews

Chronos

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Probably the best transfer you'll ever see of this Imax film which was the prequel to the Director's epic 1992 film Baraka. Unlike his other two films, Ron Fricke made a conscious decision to edit this film to the musical score composed by Michael Stearns. Running at 42 mins, the film is a feast for the eyes and ears and is best viewer on larger tvs. Not only does provide an audio commentary by director, producer and composer, it also gives you a search option to take to each individual place shot for the film at the location it is shown in the film. Highly recommend this for anyone who's an owner of the director's next two films, Baraka (1992), and Samsara (2012).

The images are spectacular as mentioned in the other reviews.

However, since it was shot in 70mm, and it boasts HDTV quality why not give HDTV owners the widescreen, 16:9 viewing benefit? For some images the stretching doesn't matter, but, for instance, the SPHYNX image is annoying in a stretched format. (Widescreen format would have earned it 4 stars. More locales and less repetition of the same locales would have earned it 5 stars.)

Released in 1985, "Chronos" is a forty-minute long "visual-music journey". It is a Presentation of the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater of San Diego, California and S.E.M. Lagode, Paris, France.

"Chronos" was filmed on location at over sixty sites around the globe. Images of significant natural beauty, architectural complexity, iconic historical sculpture and various panoramic cityscapes were captured on 70mm film using mostly slow motion and time lapse cinematography.

The wordless narrative structure of the work primarily attempts to convey feelings of reverence and appreciation for the breath-taking subject matter. In addition, it also suggests states of significant anxiety experienced as a consequence of the pace and complexity of modern urban life.

Electronic music, composed and performed by Michael Stearns, is thoroughly integrated with the considered, slowly paced editing of Alton Walpole and Ron Fricke. Image and sound interpenetrate one another to suggest and convey the eloquent wordless scenario, which was conceived by both Constantine and Genevieve Nicholas.

Having begun as cinematographer for director Godfrey Reggio's film "Koyaanisqatsi", we see with "Chronos" that Ron Fricke helped to sow the visual and conceptual seeds of wordless narrative film. This medium finally bore satisfying fruit with 1992's feature length work "Baraka". "Chronos", however, remains as essential viewing.

By this passionate evidence of Mr. Fricke's ongoing struggle, we see that their is, at last, some sign of harmonious life beyond the scenario of Godfrey Reggio's dire trilogy.

I think this is excellent to watch on blu-ray because it is a wonderful one to have. Even though the high speed filming is great to watch. That makes me think of the Madonna video Ray of Light. Other than that, it is cool to watch.

I was able to play the disc on my xbox 360 add-on HD-DVD player without any problems. Some of the text of the added content was really fuzzy, but I blame it on my early model HDTV. Once I plugged the xbox 360 into a flat panel it was crystal clear to read.

I loved the added feature of showing a little globe down in the bottom corner of the screen, indicating where each scene was shot. The added commentary was also very interesting, as it's by the composer & director (and a third guy who I can't remember, I think it was the producer).

A great title to showcase HD-DVD features, I highly recommend it.

I purchased Chronos HD DVD a few weeks ago anticipating a phenomenal visual and audio experience in HD DVD. I was very disappointed when the disc would not play in my add-on XBOX 360 HD DVD player. It seems it has something to do with the disc being encoded in 1080i and the player won't play it. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any resolution anybody aware of? I will keep the disc to use in future players or if a fix is found. For now I give one star. I hope to change it to 5 stars once I see it.

I had recieved this disk as birthday gift and was all excited to watch it. I tried but it kept giving me an error code. Apparently it is not compatible with the Playstation 3 for some strange reason. If you do not have a non PS3 player I wouldn't buy it as it likely won't work.