But I know the inevitable will happen so, for the past few months, I've been buying Blu-ray discs from time-to-time, creating a small store of goodies ready for the day the new technology is installed in Maison LeDuc.
I still find it depressing -- the certain knowledge that the vast collection of DVDs I've amassed over the years will soon be the equivalent of punched cards, a technology on its way out. All that art, metaphorically mouldering into oblivion.
On the up side, it's fascinating to see what from the back catalogue gets translated into Blu-ray and what doesn't. Zulu, for instance, an early 1960s film of the British in the Zulu Wars, has one of the most-praised releases Blu-ray has yet seen but the film illustrating this post (I don't think I need to tell you that it's Apocalypse Now) has only just emerged in the US and still doesn't have a European release.
This strikes me as mad: Apocalypse plays to all the strengths of the new medium, with, as you can see here, extraordinary visuals and also booming sound design (remember the helicopter/ceiling fan in the opening? Or the mad Valkyries on their bombing run?).
Meanwhile, something as visually opulent as, say, Stephen Frears' masterly Dangerous Liaisons doesn't seem to be close to a Blu-ray release. I would pay a lot of money to see a high-definition close-up of Glenn Close at the end, slowly removing her make-up, a broken woman, let alone seeing all the cinematic detail on all those gorgeous frocks.
Like most technologies, Blu-ray adoption is driven by boys, hence the early emphasis on blockbuster crap movies (Lord of the Rings and Star Wars spring to mind). Let's hope we get over that phase as soon as possible.
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