Cinema

DVDs I bought or received in the month of June

• Black Book (R0 UK, DVD)
• Brotherhood of the Wolf (R0 France, HD DVD)
• Lost in Translation (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Mulholland Drive (R0 France, HD DVD)
• The Odessa File (R2 UK, DVD)
• Problem Child Triple (R2 UK, DVD)
• The Rock (R0 France, Blu-ray)
• The Skeleton Key (R0 USA, HD DVD)

Not a bad month as far as the quantity of HD content is concerned, although the quality has been rather mixed, to say the least.

The Odessa File

Frederick Forsythe is probably best known, as a novelist, for The Day of the Jackal, which somehow manages to combine a painstaking level of attention to detail with an extremely gripping plot, resulting in the book being compulsive page-turner despite is extremely clinical style. The Odessa File, written a year later, retains The Day of the Jackal’s attention to detail, but for the most part of a more conventionally structured suspense thriller, focusing on an intrepid hero rather than a ruthless killer, and unfortunately suffering from a series of plot contrivances that The Day of the Jackal was able to avoid. Both books were, within the space of a few years, turned into films produced by John Woolf and written by Kenneth Ross, although this is where the crew similarities end.

In 1963, Hamburg journalist Peter Miller (Jon Voight) inherits the diary of a suicide victim who was formerly a prisoner at Riga concentration camp during the Second World War. The diary implicates the camp’s ruthless Commandant, Eduard Roschmann (Maximilian Schell), in a series of barbaric war crimes, and Miller decides to set about tracking the man down himself and bringing him to justice. Unfortunately, he finds himself up against something of a brick wall, given the German public’s apathy towards digging up this shameful past, as well as the high level of infiltration into the civil services by former Nazis, who naturally have a vested interest in preventing their old identities from being uncovered.

The film is largely a faithful adaptation of its source material, but it deviates in a few respects, some of which actually end up weakening it. The part of Miller’s stripper girlfriend Sigi (Mary Tamm), for example, is beefed up, but this only really amounts to more screen time for her rather than her actually affecting the narrative in any way. Likewise, a few plot elements are compressed to save time, while the subplot of a planned Egyptian offensive against Israel, involving the unleashing chemicals over its major cities, is relegated to a brief mention at the beginning and end. In effect, they might as well not have bothered including it at all - surprising, given that it was what gave the novel so much of its urgency. More damagingly, though, the film makes it clear almost from the get-go why Miller is so driven to track down Roschmann. In the novel, his motive is concealed among Forsythe’s trademark screeds of painstakingly detailed descriptions, and as such doesn’t draw attention to itself, but, in the film, this issue is lingered on to the extent that the audience will surely put two and two together immediately. The film’s depiction of the atrocities committed by the Nazis is also greatly toned down from the material in the novel, which probably explains the rather tame PG certificate.

Highlight below to reveal spoiler text:

As with The Day of the Jackal, the film adaptation constitutes a step down from its source. Unfortunately, the film, while engaging enough, is also not of the same standard as Fred Zinnemann’s The Day of the Jackal, which succeeded in adapting the novel’s clinical, detached narrative style to the screen. Ronald Neame’s The Odessa File is, like the book on which it is based, a more conventional affair and thus fails to distinguish itself from the crowd of war and post-war movie thrillers made at around the same time.

Overall, a 7/10 for the film. I don’t tend to give numerical ratings to books, but if I did, The Odessa File would probably be an 8/10.

DVD image comparison: Problem Child

I slept for eleven and a half hours last night. Clearly, I must have been rather tired: I tend to find that I ideally need about nine hours’ sleep per night, but since I started working, I’ve been tending to get less than seven (I need to get up at 7 AM, and, try as I might, I normally don’t get to sleep until after midnight). Needless to say, I’m now decidedly refreshed, so I’ve made good use of my new-found vigour and put together a new DVD image comparison, featuring the R1 USA and R2 UK editions of the undisputed masterpiece known as Problem Child. Be sure to check it out if you’re considering adding a copy of this treasured classic to your film library.

So many promises to fulfill

Source: Mobius Home Video Forum

I must confess that I haven’t been particularly enamoured by David Cronenberg’s recent output. Spider, while technically as well-made as anything else the man has put his name on, left me rather cold, and even the acclaimed A History of Violence never really clicked for me. As such, I’ve been hoping for a long time that he would eventually go back to the body horror theme for which he made a name for himself prior to the beginning of this decade, and had hoped to see him eventually tackle Painkillers, which sounded like the return to his old stomping ground I’d been hoping for. With Painkillers seemingly as good as cancelled, though, I’ve set my sights on Eastern Promises, which seems set to continue Cronenberg’s leaning towards more mundane and realistic thriller territory. The cast - Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinéad Cusack - looks excellent, the usual team is in place… and the trailer, recently made available online, looks pretty decent. Given that I’m more of a Videodrome man than a Spider man, I can’t say I’m overly confident that I’ll enjoy it, but it looks sufficiently interesting for me to at least give it a look.

Y’all like HD clowns, doncha?

Source: High-Def Digest

When Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects was released on Blu-ray last year, it was a pretty safe bet that its predecessor, the inferior but still enjoyable House of 1000 Corpses would be hot on its heels. Lions Gate has finally announced it with a release date of September 18th, more than a year later. Sporting a 1080p AVC transfer, PCM 7.1 (!!!) and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX audio, plus all of the extras from the standard definition release, this is another definite upgrade for me, even if only for the opening pre-credits sequence. Yes, I think it’s that funny. “Fuck yo’ mama! Fuck yo’ sister! Fuck yo’ grandma! … And most of all, fuck you!” Delightful!

High definition geology

The French Blu-ray release of The Rock (or Rock, as it is simply titled in France) reached me today. As previously reported, it is indeed encoded for all regions (A, B, C), so I had no trouble playing it in my Japanese Playstation 3. It also includes all of the extras from the Criterion Collection release, barring the audio commentary - a shame, because it was a good one. I suspect that the commentary may be presented when this film eventually surfaces on Blu-ray in the US, given that the two Pirates of the Caribbean titles also had their commentaries dropped for their European releases, but were present on the American editions.

Anyway, you probably want to know about what really counts: the image quality. Well, the good news is that it’s a pretty nice-looking disc. I nearly had a heart attack when the opening Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Productions logo appeared, as it was so ill-defined that it looked like standard definition, but things picked up immediately after that. I suspect that the master used here is the same one from which Criterion sourced their standard definition transfer, which is a good thing in my book, because it is pleasingly unmangled, with only some light temporal noise reduction artefacts visible on occasions… and edge enhancement. Yes, the halos around high contrast edges are quite noticeable at times (look at the soldiers’ hats in the opening credits sequence, or the massive glow around Nicolas Cage as he stands against the sunset after Sean Connery leaves at the end), and, as with the Criterion, the footage during the opening and closing credits, plus any shot with location type, appears to have been taken from a softer source than the rest of the film.

Basically, this is a low- to mid-range 8/10 transfer in my book. Whereas the Criterion is in the upper echelon of standard definition DVDs, the master doesn’t quite cut the mustard as a contender against the best that the HD arena has to offer.

Argento online

Long overdue, Dario Argento will finally get an official web site, as of July 7th 2007. As you can probably gather from the URL, www.darioargento.it will be an Italian language resource, and it’s unclear exactly what the content will comprise. In the meantime, the definitive Argento resource on the web is Dark Dreams, and, for English speakers at least, this is likely to remain the case even when the official site has been launched. I really hope it will give us some new material on Mother of Tears - like a high quality copy of the trailer.

HD DVD review: The Skeleton Key

Universal’s HD DVD for The Skeleton Key constitutes a definite improvement on the standard definition release in terms of audio-visual quality, although it’s still far from the upper echelons of the format’s capability. Unless you enjoyed the film a great deal, or habitually rebuy all your standard definition titles in standard definition, there’s not a great deal here to justify shelling out for the same film twice, but if you don’t already own the DVD, this HD DVD is a fine place to start.

The Bayou goes high definition in The Skeleton Key, released on HD DVD by Universal with all of the content from the standard definition release intact. Descend into the swamps at DVD Times…

Arrivederci Thailand, Ciao

It would appear that Thailand is the first country in which an English-friendly version of Michele Soavi’s (Dellamorte Dellamore) 2006 return to the big screen, Arrivederci Amore, Caio, has been released. Available at eThaiCD for a mere $11.50 US (and free shipping), it features Italian and Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, and English and Thai subtitles. Bonus features are limited to a trailer and photo gallery, but at that price, who’s complaining? No word yet on how the image quality measures up, but I’ve placed an order for it anyway. I wasn’t all that impressed with Soavi’s recent TV movie, Uno Bianca, and this new film seems to be along similar lines to it, but, given the excellence of Dellamorte Dellamore, and the high quality Stagefright, The Church and The Sect, I’m not about to pass on this talented director before seeing his latest effort. Hopefully this will arrive in time for my birthday.

Credit for this discovery goes to Benjamin C at DVD Maniacs.

I also ordered a copy of the R2 UK release of the 1974 adaptation of Frederick Forsythe’s The Odessa File, another steal - £4.99 at Play. I’m currently reading the original novel, and, while it’s not on the same level as The Day of the Jackal (and I have a feeling the same will be true of the film, despite sharing the same producer, John Woolf, and screenwriter, Kenneth Ross), it’s an incredibly gripping affair. I only have 50 pages or thereabouts to go, so I’m fairly sure I’ll have finished reading it before the DVD arrives - and a good thing too, as I don’t want my interpretation of the book to be clouded by the film adaptation.

Beauteous Blu-ray

High-Def Digest is reporting that Sleeping Beauty is to see the light of day on Blu-ray in 2008, according to a press release from Disney. No specific release date of specifications have been given as of yet, but this is excellent news indeed, because there has been a complete dearth of 2D animation in high definition so far (the three Looney Tunes titles included with The Adventures of Robin Hood HD DVD being the only high-def cartoons I own). Sleeping Beauty isn’t my favourite Disney feature by a long shot, but I’m going to take what I can get at this stage. Let’s just hope that the likes of Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Lady and the Tramp and Lilo & Stitch (my personal preferences) aren’t too far off.

High definition is rockin’!

I was really looking forward to the release of The Rock on Blu-ray - not because it’s one of my favourite films (I certainly like it, don’t get me wrong, but it’s no classic), but because Criterion’s standard definition DVD was one of the best ever released, so I was eager to see how it would stack up in high definition. Unfortunately, Disney’s US wing recently indefinitely postponed both it and Pixar’s Cars, which were, let’s face it, two of my main reasons for ending my HD DVD exclusivity. Luckily, France has come to the rescue once again: both The Rock and Crimson Tide, another Jerry Bruckheimer explosionfest culled by Disney in the US, are currently available in the land of baguettes and fine wine, and I’ve ordered my copy of the former from Fnac. It’s also coming out in the UK on July 2nd, but, as you probably know by now, I’m not the sort of person who likes to wait. In any event, I want to be sure it arrives before my birthday (July 4th).

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the French release has been confirmed as region-free and with removable subtitles. Apparently it’s also “a little grainy”, which, in conjunction with a BD50 and an AVC encode, would seem to bode well as far as image quality is concerned. It also seems to have all of the extras from the European special edition, which, by my reckoning, means everything that was included on the Criterion - unless the poster is referring to a different continental special edition that I’m not aware of.

Oh yeah, and I’ve also pre-ordered the French HD DVD release of Hannibal, due out from Universal on August 1st, from Amazon.

Anchor Bay goes Blu

Source: High-Def Digest

Well, colour me surprised, excited and disappointed in equal measure? Starz Home Entertainment, the DVD company formerly known as Anchor Bay, have added their name to the still-small list of independents producing high definition content. The good news? We may soon get to see Dawn of the Dead (the original, not the remake), Halloween, The Evil Dead et al in HD. The bad news? They have tossed their hat exclusively into the Blu-ray ring (I was sure they would go with HD DVD, if anything), and their only announced release so far is the first season of Masters of Horror. Oh, and MGM is handling the distribution, which, given their track record with their own titles so far, is slightly worrying.

I must say I never thought the first Dario Argento title to get an HD release would be Jenifer. That’s just… wrong. Still, looking on the bright side, I’m now hopeful that those HD-mastered special editions of Tenebre and Phenomena will eventually emerge, on both DVD and Blu-ray. That’s what I’m hoping at any rate. Those, coupled with an HD DVD of Suspiria from The Weinstein Company, would put me in HD heaven. It’s just too bad so many of the other Argento films are owned by the HD-phobic Blue Underground.

HD DVD review: Mulholland Drive

Mulholland Drive arrives on HD DVD in a predictably no-frills package from Studio Canal, who seem to view high definition content and bonus features as an either-or situation. While the transfer is in many respects very strong, it is let down by overzealous noise reduction, and the audio pitch problem is yet another silly error that could easily have been avoided. A US release has been rumoured at some point in the next year, so it may be worth waiting to see if Universal is able to provide a better package.

The UK release may have been delayed indefinitely, but those on the mainland are already enjoying Mulholland Drive in high definition! I’ve reviewed the French HD DVD release of David Lynch’s quintessential fever dream.

DVD review: Pan’s Labyrinth: Platinum Series

New Line have served Pan’s Labyrinth extremely well in terms of audio and bonus content, but as is usually the case the lacklustre image quality lets the side down.

I’ve reviewed the R1 Platinum Series edition of Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo Del Toro’s critically acclaimed and award-winning dark fairytale. New Line’s 2-disc set, features excellent audio and an impressive array of extras.

Review copy courtesy of CD-WOW.

Have some cake

My birthday is looming on the horizon - just over three weeks away, in fact, and I’ve set about deciding what sort of goodies I want. It’s been quite hard this year: somewhat unusually for me, there were no major purchases that I wanted to make (having already bought my new computer only recently). Eventually, I decided that DVDs never let me down when it comes to birthday fun, so I decided to order Seasons 6 and 7 of The Simpsons from DVD Pacific. Personally, I think that the last truly great season of that show was Season 5, but I was watching some episodes from Seasons 6 through 8 (or thereabouts) on Channel 4 recently, and came to the conclusion that there was still much to enjoy, even if the slide into mediocrity had already started. You may remember that, in 2005, I ended up with a review copy of the viciously mangled UK release of Season 6, which I promptly passed on to the first person that would take it off my hands, but I’m fairly confident that the US version won’t be affected by such heinous vandalism… and if it is, well, at least it won’t be a nasty NTSC to PAL standards conversion.

My only regret is that the Region 1 release of Season 6 is only available in that hideous plastic Homer head variant, with the mail-in replacement scheme for a standard cardboard version not being open to those outside North America (schadenfreudes).

Not letting the high definition side down, I also ordered Crank on Blu-ray and Black Snake Moan on HD DVD. I know next to nothing about either of these films, but surprises can be fun, if they turn out to be pleasant ones, and in any event, Crank sounds like it could be the new Shitty Movie™. If nothing else it should, as a digital-to-digital transfer, serve as useful demo material (we’re getting a bit sick of dragging out Corpse Bride every time).

Oh, and because I like a challenge while I’m whiling away the days (I’ve booked a week’s holiday from work to coincide with my birthday), I decided to also order my first new Lego set since Christmas 2005: the recently released Café Corner. With 2,056 pieces and a recommended age bracket of 16 and over, this should hopefully occupy me for a good few hours while offering something slightly different from my collection of medieval castles and pirate ships. If nothing else, it should offer a bit of fun.

Mother of all picture galleries

A lavish gallery of promotional stills for Dario Argento’s upcoming Mother of Tears has appeared online at Italian movie site Occhi Sul Cinema. There are potentially some major spoilers, but if you don’t mind about that sort of thing, then it provides a rather interesting insight into just what we can expect from the final part in the Three Mothers trilogy. Obviously, as photographs taken on the set, these shots haven’t gone through the digital grading process to which the final film will be subjected, but I sincerely hope that we get more in the way of primary colours than what has been seen so far. I’m also slightly wary that the gore seems to adhere to the “squirt as much blood as we can” philosophy of Jenifer, Pelts and Non Ho Sonno rather than the more imaginative, lyrical violence of Suspiria and Inferno, but I will of course reserve judgement until I see the finished film.

If nothing else, it looks set to be an audacious and explosive finale. Will it be anything like the first two instalments in the trilogy? Probably not - we are, after all, talking about a gap of almost 30 years - but at least it looks as if we’ll be getting something more daring than Argento’s last few efforts (both film and TV).

By the way, a couple of shots from this gallery were removed shortly after being uploaded, but Dark Discussion member SilverSurfer had the foresight to save them, so they are now available here.

Update, June 16th, 2007 08:21 PM: The gallery appears to have been taken down, but some low resolution versions have been saved at GoreZone (scroll down to find them).

Germany to the rescue

Source: Area-HD

This time last year, I was planning on being Blu-ray exclusive. Less than a month later, I was HD DVD exclusive. As someone who is now format neutral, I don’t have to worry about whether a title is released on HD DVD, Blu-ray or both, because, unless a Blu-ray title comes out with region coding in a non-Region A territory only, I’m guaranteed to be able to play it. If you’re currently HD DVD only, though, you’ll be pleased to know that some films that are Blu-ray exclusives in the US - Underworld (extended cut), Silent Hill, Fantastic Four, Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Apocalypse - are coming to HD DVD in Germany courtesy of Concorde.

The Blu-ray release of Resident Evil: Apocalypse is basically good enough for it not to be worth double-dipping, but the Blu-ray Silent Hill could use some improvement in the compression department (it’s a stellar disc in every other respect, though), and Fantastic Four on Blu-ray is not only a weak film but one saddled with an equally weak transfer. This is good news from a diversity standpoint if nothing else, and I will more than likely be picking up Underworld (due out on August 31st) and Resident Evil (which currently has no release date) when they become available. Lyris is making rumblings about double-dipping on Silent Hill, although we’re both suspicious that we may end up trading compression artefacts for filtering and/or noise reduction. Watch this space.

You win some, you lose some

I got home today today to find that the HD DVDs of Mulholland Drive and Brotherhood of the Wolf had both arrived from Amazon.fr, and I’m happy to report that Mulholland Drive looks really nice. It’s not the most amazing transfer you’ll ever see, but it seems to basically be faithful to the look of the film, which is slightly diffuse. I did notice some signs of noise reduction in some of the later scenes, which is odd, because the earlier scenes that I looked at appeared to be unaffected. I’ll give the transfer a more thorough appraisal when I actually sit down to watch it from beginning to end, which I’ll be doing prior to putting together a review for DVD Times. For now, I’m just glad to have one of my five favourite films in high definition, with a transfer that isn’t a complete embarrassment.

That complete embarrassment would be Brotherhood of the Wolf, whose transfer is so weak that I don’t know why Studio Canal even bothered releasing it in HD (oh right, to make money - of course). Detail is weak, and heavy ringing is constantly in evidence: take a look at Lyris’ post for some shots of the mediocrity. If American Psycho is the worst-looking Blu-ray disc I own, then Brotherhood of the Wolf is definitely my worst-looking HD DVD. Then again, I don’t own Traffic, so perhaps I should be thankful for small mercies. Needless to say, if I’m not sufficiently impressed by the film itself, I’ll be offloading the HD DVD post-haste.

BU Stendhal specs announced

Fangoria has got the scoop on Blue Underground’s upcoming release of Dario Argento’s The Stendhal Syndrome, due for release on September 25th. This 2-disc special edition will feature the following specifications and extras:

Disc 1:
- 119 minute uncut version
- 16x9-enhanced 1.66:1 transfer
- 6.1 Dolby DTS-ES English audio track
- 5.1 Dolby Surround EX English audio track
- 2.0 Dolby Surround Italian audio track
- Original Theatrical Trailer

Disc 2:
- “Director: Dario Argento” featurette
- “Inspiration: Psychological Consultant Graziella Magherini” featurette
- “Special Effects: Sergio Stivaletti” featurette
- “Assistant Director: Luigi Cozzi” featurette
- “Production Designer: Massimo Antonello Geleng” featurette

Sounds like it’s going to be a great set, although I’m a little confused as to why Blue Underground would bother remixing the horrendous English dub into 6.1 rather than the vastly superior Italian version (and I’m a little concerned that no mention is made of subtitles - such things are not guaranteed with Bill Lustig at the helm, even when non-English audio is included). It’s also a shame Alan Jones seemingly didn’t get a chance to record that interview with Asia Argento for the disc that he was trying to put together at Cannes.

On the same day, Blue Underground will also be re-releasing The Cat O’ Nine Tails, Opera and Suspiria. As with their earlier releases of Deep Red and Inferno, these will simply be the old Anchor Bay DVDs repackaged. Opera will be the single-disc release, while Suspiria will be a 2-disc set, presumably replicating the first two discs of the Anchor Bay 3-disc limited edition, sans soundtrack CD.

This information discovered by R.J. MacReady at Dark Discussion.

Mater Lacrimarum in the flesh!

The trailer for Dario Argento’s upcoming Mother of Tears/The Third Mother has been running in Italian cinemas in front of Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof (his half of Grindhouse, which was split into two films for its European release), and one thoughtful viewer had the presence of mind to camcord it, the results of which are now available on YouTube. Bearing in mind that this is just a very brief trailer, and that the image and audio quality are both quite poor, it’s very exciting to see these tantalising glimpses of the film.

The musical accompaniment, which I’m guessing is an excerpt from Claudio Simonetti’s score for the final film due to the presence of the words “Mater Lacrimarum” in the choral accompaniment, reminds me very much of Jerry Goldsmith’s work on the Omen trilogy (and I consider this a very good thing, because I think they are among the finest movie scores ever created), while the presence on the traditional Satanic imagery (in particular the goat’s head with a pentagram on its brow) suggest a distinctly different tone from the more fairytale-oriented Suspiria and Inferno. This is all good, from my perspective: while I hope Mother of Tears includes many of the elements that we know and love from the first two films in the trilogy, it’s also nice to see Argento experimenting with new ideas. October 31st (and whenever the film becomes available to those of us outside Italy) can’t come soon enough.

Thanks go to Mariana at Dark Discussion for uploading the video to YouTube.