Site update
You've probably noticed the "Looking for...?" section that's been added to the sidebar. "What's the deal?" you're probably wondering. Well, basically,
Lyris pointed out to me that it was impossible to find certain important sections of my site, such as the
DVD Image Comparisons and the
DVD Transfer Hall of Fame. I can't help it - there are far too many sections in my site for me to have links to them on every page. However, I've struck something of a compromise and put what is essentially a "quick links" tab on the front page, containing URLs for the pages that I think people are most likely to be looking for.
We hope that this does not impair your enjoyment of the drama.
Lady and the Tramp: Platinum Edition
My review copy of the R1 Platinum Edition of
Lady and the Tramp arrived this morning from
Loaded 247.
The full details of how this release differs from the UK version I
reviewed earlier this month can be found in my newly updated
DVD image comparison, and will be further expounded in my review, which goes up at
DVD Times tomorrow, but for those who want the nitty-gritty right now, read on.
Basically, as previously
reported, the US release included a 1.33:1 version of the film (in addition to the 2.55:1 Cinemascope version), but unfortunately this is
not the original reframed Academy version but rather a pan and scan transfer created from the same master as the Cinemascope edition. The result is that we are denied the ability to see the version of the film that audiences who watched the film in theatres not equipped for Cinemascope in 1955 would have seen. It should also be pointed out that the transfer of the widescreen version is slightly inferior to that of the UK release, demonstrating less detail (understandable, given that NTSC has a lower resolution than PAL, and resolution is everything with a film this wide) and more compression artefacts (odd, because the bit rate is actually higher).
Still, the
good news is that the US release includes, in addition to the 5.1 remix included on the UK DVD, a Dolby Digital 3.0 track replicating the original multi-channel mix that accompanied the Cinemascope version in theatres. The mono track that would have gone with the Academy version remains absent, but since the Academy version of the film itself is nowhere to be seen either, this is perhaps not surprising.
Oh yeah, and there's an "all-new
Bella Notte music video" featuring a gentleman by the name of Steve Tyrell. This was not included on the UK version either. See what you miss out on if you don't import?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 1, Episode 7: Angel
Written by David Greenwalt; Directed by Scott Brazil
This episode continues the upward spiral that began last week, although it is hampered by some rather shoddy direction (the fight scenes are handled incredibly badly, and I'm not surprised Scott Brazil was never called back to direct another episode). It also begins the story of Angel and his gypsy curse - one of the most interesting plots of the entire series. It's just too bad that, at this stage, David Boreanaz's acting skills aren't exactly up to doing it justice.
Still, I enjoyed this episode - it strikes me as being one of the better plot-oriented Season 1 outings, and it's indicative of the fact that, after a rocky start the show is starting to improve, that I'm starting to actually look forward to "next week's" episode. Perhaps I'll start watching two per week. After all, I really don't want to have to spend nearly two years getting through Seasons 1 through 5. (I'm not going to bother with 6 and 7: as far as I'm concerned, they didn't happen.)
By the way, what's with Catholic schoolgirl Darla? I know
Buffy came first, but when she later appeared during
Angel's second and third seasons, she was a completely different (and, if you ask me, superior) character.
6/10Next time:
I Robot, You Jane. Oh dear, what was I saying about an upward spiral...?
The Double Life of Veronique
I ordered a copy of MK2's recent 2-disc R2 French release of Krzysztof Kieslowski's
La Double Vie de Véronique (
The Double Life of Veronique) from
Alapage. I haven't seen the film yet, but I really enjoyed Kieslowski's
Three Colours trilogy (in fact, I would consider
Three Colours: Blue one of may all-time favourite films), and seeing the sumptuous
screen captures at DVD Beaver sealed the deal for me.
I believe Artificial Eye will be releasing this film in the UK in April, but the French release features full English-language support, even for the extras, so I didn't see any point in holding out for a release that will probably be inferior anyway. The French version, by the way, is limited to 20,000 copies, so I decided it made sense to act sooner rather than later.
Silence of the what?
Source:
The DVD ForumsYou may remember my
earlier posts about a new "Ultimate Edition" of
The Silence of the Lambs. Well, further bad news about this release has been revealed. In addition to featuring player-generated location type and having the same normalised colour scheme as the previous MGM release, it seems some clot managed to shave off some of the opening titles.
There is a one pixelation error in the transfer, in the beginning of chapter 8 at the timecode 0:30:20. There are also some missing opening credits. First credits what are shown are:
-Brooke Smith/Diane Baker/Kasi Lemmons.
These credits are missing:
-A Strong Heart/Demme Production/Jodie Foster/Anthony Hopkins/Scott Glenn/"The Silence Of The Lambs"/Ted Levine/Anthony Heald.
Honestly, I ask you! How can you be so stupid? Many people will probably not consider this a huge problem, but personally I think it's a pretty big deal if
the film's title is missing (among other things). It just goes to show what a colossal waste of time and money this new release is, whether or not it includes interviews with Jodie Foster and Jonathan Demme.
On a side note, I listened to the commentary from the superior Criterion Collection release of the film while I was working at the library today. Great track - one of the all-time best, even if it does feature FBI chump John Douglas espousing the wonders of the death penalty.
Hex: the British Buffy
Last night I managed to catch an episode of
Cassie the Vampire Slayer... sorry,
Hex. Touted by many as "the British
Buffy", I'd come across promotional materials for this show on many occasions but had never actually seen an episode of it for myself. Recently, however, Sky Three arrived on "Free"View, bringing with it a whole cavalcade of prestigious shows, including
24,
Tru Calling... and this.
I'd taken the piss of this show on numerous occasions, laughing at its obvious plagiarism of
Buffy (hardly surprising, though, since as far as I'm aware that particularly show was rather lucrative for Sky One). And having now seen an episode, I can safely say that, yes, the
Buffy influence is strong to say the least. However, while it was, in many aspects, pretty silly (more on that later), it wasn't quite as awful as I'd anticipated.
First of all, it turned out to be a surprisingly high budget production. Judging by the overall look what I saw, I would guess that they had substantially more money to work with per episode than the
Buffy crew. (Not surprising, given that the first season seems only to have been six episodes long.) Generally speaking, I tend to find that British series (ones with serious aspirations, that is, not "crummy camerawork and shitty deinterlacing = raw and intense" stuff like
Shameless) have a more theatrical look to them than equivalent US shows, and the same applies here. There were a couple of dodgy video edits and a cringe-inducing CGI monster transformation, but nothing too out of the ordinary.
As for characters, we have Cassie, our British Buffy. Only she is, to my eyes at least, significantly more attractive than Buffy, since she looks less like a Barbie doll. Whereas Buffy fought vampires with her sassy one-liners and kung fu magic, Cassie opts for a more indirect approach. She seems to be telepathic, and is also bisexual, which (a) means she can have sex with more people and (b) means that she is "confused".
Cassie's best friend, a Kelly Osbourne lookalike who we are told every few minutes is a lesbian, lest we forget, is very incensed by the fact that Cassie swore to "give up men" and has apparently not kept good on her promise. Being bisexual, it seems, is all about choosing between men or women. It makes little difference in any event, since the episode I saw made sure that the dead lesbian cliché was kept alive and well (another
Buffy connection!) by killing off Ms. Osbourne, leaving Buffy, I mean Cassie, to return to the world of heterosexuality, making googly eyes at the man who tried to rape her during the recap at the start of the episode. But hey! I'll give the writers credit for realising what a huge cliché this was by even referencing it and, to some extent, cleverly usurping it. Kelly, you see, returns at the end of the episode as a ghost to watch her own funeral and crack jokes about it. "They're loving this," she says. "Don't be a dyke or you'll end up topping yourself." You know, I couldn't have put it better myself: that's precisely the mentality that seems to be employed whenever minority characters are introduced to TV shows. Judging by what I've read online, the ghost Kelly remains an active character in the series despite the slight setback of her death.
We also get our British Giles, but shock, horror! In
Buffy, Giles was already British, so the makers of
Hex one-up themselves again and make the character (I've no idea what his name is) an ass-kickin', hip-hoppin', be-boppin' black headmaster! Far out! Actually, in the episode I watched he didn't do any hip-hopping or be-bopping, but I'm sure he'll bust a move in a future instalment. Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture of him online, so I had to settle for a shot of LL Cool J.
So there you have it! I spent most of the hour making fun of the show, but in all honesty it wasn't that bad. It wasn't great or even particularly good, but it wasn't the cheap, shoddy copycat I was expecting. I doubt I would make a point of watching it again, though. Oh yeah, and there's no way I can take seriously a show whose tagline is "Bloody. Hell." Sorry.
Argento news
Desertrain at Dark Discussion brings the following
news on Dario Argento's upcoming work:
1. I'm preparing a series of 6 thriller-horror tv movies, and the first will be shot again in Turin.
2. I will shoot another episode for the "Masters of Horror": Americans liked "Jenifer" and I also know that RAI television will broadcast it...
3. Also for RAI I'm preparing the third chapter of the "Three Mothers Trilogy". I will start shooting in May in Rome.
Sounds like
Mater Lachrymarum is still on track to be made this year, which is reassuring after the number of false starts and stops it's had. The news that RAI is involved in this project is also potentially heartening, since they co-funded
Opera, his highest budgeted film to date (taking inflation into account).
But another
Masters of Horror project? Meh. I just hope he isn't going to get sidetracked from
Mater Lachrymarum by taking on all these additional projects.
Requiem for a Toy Story
Source:
TwitchI came across
this hilarious little number during my daily travels through the information superhighway that is the World Wide Web. Hot on the heels of
The Passion of Benny Hill and other such modified movie trailers comes
Toy Story 2: Requiem, which takes footage from
Toy Story 2 and combines it with audio from
Requiem for a Dream. The results aren't perfect (it's fairly obvious where the footage has been slowed down to make the dialogue fit the existing lip movements), but if you've seen both films, you'll probably find it funny as hell.
Take a look!
DVD debacle
Two DVDs arrived for me today:
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (R0 USA) and
Cry_Wolf (R2 UK, uncut version). I'd been expecting bad things about the latter, but recently I read a number of rather positive reviews, which piqued my interest. Frankly, I'm quite looking forward to seeing it for myself so I can make up my own mind.
Updated DVD image comparison
In the interests of furthering scientific knowledge, I rented a copy of disc 1 of the R2 UK special edition of
Panic Room. The results have now been added to my
DVD image comparison, alongside the UK bare-bones and US special edition releases.
To cut a long story short, the UK SE uses the same transfer as the bare-bones UK release and thus looks significantly better than the US SE. However, like the US SE, it still lacks the DTS track from the bare-bones versions.
Basically, if you want the best transfer
and all the extras, the UK SE is the way to go. However, if the best transfer and DTS audio is your preferred combination, go for the bare-bones UK release.
See for yourself!
The sound of Fear
The monthly mailshot from
Movie Grooves landed in my inbox today, and I noticed that they were stocking copies of several recently released Ennio Morricone compilation CDs.
One in particular, entitled, quite simply,
Fear, caught my eye, as it contains the complete and unabbridged soundtracks for three gialli -
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin,
The Cat O' Nine Tails and
Cold Eyes of Fear. As a fan of all things Morricone, especially his work in the giallo genre, I jumped at the change to add to my collection two old favourites and one that I've never heard before - all for just £19.99.
The Night Evelyn Came Out of the GFT
As I
reported back in January, Emilio P. Miraglia's loopy gothic giallo
The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave was screened at the
Glasgow Film Theatre on February 14th. I wasn't able to make it to the screening, but judging by Nick Frame's
post at DVD Trash, I didn't miss much. Rather than screening a print or at least the recent Italian DVD, it seems the GFT used one of the grubby, cropped, censored black market releases that have been floating around in the US for the last few years. I can't think of anything worse than to make a special trip to the cinema, hand over your hard-earned cash, sit down and be confronted by a sub-VHS quality image splattered across the screen.
Corpse Bride
Corpse Bride has got to be the biggest let-down I've come across in recent years. That's not to say my hopes were particularly high by the time I finally got round to seeing it - the muddled and annoyingly whimsical
trailer had already given me cause for concern, and Lyris' damning
report of the theatrical screening he attended simply added further fuel to the fire - but even so, the end result turned out to be significantly worse than I had been expecting.
It's hard to believe that many of the same people responsible for the wonderful
The Nightmare Before Christmas were behind this, although the absence of director Henry Selick should have been sufficient cause for concern. This time round, Tim Burton took on the role of director rather than simply producing the project, which should have had warning lights going off like crazy given that his last few films have all been flawed at best. Oh yeah, and it has Johnny Depp, a
live action movie star, providing the voice over for an animated character.
That, to me, is the crux of the problem. People like Johnny Depp, Emily Watson and Tim Burton's floozy, Helena Bonham Carter, all of whom speak in this movie, are not qualified for the job. People always, for some reason, think that live action movie stars and voice over artists are the same thing, and that the former can easily do the job of the latter. Not so. Doing voice overs requires a completely different set of skills, because the performer's
only tool is their voice, whereas live action actors have access to a much wider range of devices. Johnny Depp may be a great actor, but his voice is hardly his strongest attribute, and therefore, when that's all he has at his disposal, he is lost. (I'll make an exception for Christopher Lee, who has a perfectly distinctive and powerful enough voice.)
Of course, the voice acting is not the only problem, but it's one of the first things that struck me when I watched it. The story, too, is muddled, and the animation is almost as wooden as the vocal performances. And don't get me started on the character designs - they look like they were ripped out of a DreamWorks film, which, as you can probably guess, is hardly the endorsement of the millenium. What happened to the naturalistic and crooked charm of
The Nightmare Before Christmas? This might as well be CGI, it looks so bland.
4/10
Dissertation dilemma
A week tomorrow, I need to hand in my completed dissertation proposal form, a rather hefty affair spanning eight pages and requesting, among other things, that I specify a working hypothesis, questions I hope to answer, a rough structural plan, resources I'll need to access, and how the project will connect with ongoing research in the field. Simple enough, you might think. And you'd be right... if you had the slightest idea of what your dissertation was going to be about. Myself, I haven't a blinkin' clue.
Actually, that's a bit of an exaggeration. I do have some rough ideas of what I want to achieve. Specifically, I would like to build on the
essay on gender in the giallo that I handed in back in January, doing some more in-depth work beyond the rather rudimentary analysis of depictions of women in a handful of films that I did in that particular piece.
I have what I consider to be a reasonably sound working hypothesis. Basically, my theory is that most gialli are characterised by a strange dichotomy regarding gender and sexuality where on the one hand sex is exploited while on the other it (or at least unusual variants of it) are condemned. I also believe that Argento, whose films are the focus of virtually all academic work on gialli, is very much the exception to the norm with his progressive attitudes towards these issues.
I can also tell you with some certainty that, if asked in what way this project would be useful, I would reply that, since virtually all academic writing is on Argento and his films, a serious study that actually took account of the more "normal" gialli would, in many ways, constitute venturing into uncharted territory.
Hopefully I'll be able to thrash these vague ideas out in time to hand in the form next week, when, by the way, I'll be showing
Suspiria to a gaggle of gobsmacked onlookers. That should be interesting.
The sights, the scenes!
More nocturnal photographology.
I'm going to have to venture further afield with my camera. I'm beginning to wish I'd bought it earlier, since, now that we're nearing the end of February, it's no longer dark when I leave the house or come home. Damn, I'm going to have to make a special excursion to get some night-time snaps.
Suspiria and Black Sunday on the big screen
Suspiria will be screened at the Film Museum in Brussels on Friday the 10th of March at 18.15. This will be followed by a screening of Bava's Black Sunday at 22:15.
Source:
Dark Dreams
Do You Like Hitchcock?
Do You Like Hitchcock? can be summed up quite succinctly as "okay". As a light-hearted homage it's not that bad, and its occasional flashes of inspiration do hint that a talented and experienced filmmaker is behind the camera. These are few and far between, however, and while it is far from the worst thing Argento has ever done (that particular honour is reserved for Hitchcock's immediate successor, Jenifer), this sort of material is, frankly, beneath him. Many of the problems can, admittedly, be brushed aside with the proviso that it's "only a TV movie", and as such was never intended to be the next Tenebre. However, the very fact that Argento's two most recent projects have been made for television may be sufficient cause for concern in itself. Perhaps, after managing to keep his head above the water for so long, he is finally sinking into the same low budget, straight to video territory occupied by Fulci, Lenzi et al in the 1980s and 90s. All eyes, I'm sure, will be on Mater Lachrymarum, set to be his return to the big screen, and to the world of Suspiria and Inferno which he has not visited in over 25 years.
I've
reviewed the R2 French release of
Do You Like Hitchcock?, Dario Argento's (
Suspiria,
Profondo Rosso) tribute to the Master of Suspense, given a thoroughly disappointing DVD release by Studio Canal.
Do You Like Hitchcock?
Do You Like Hitchcock? (R2 France) arrived today. Big disappointment. As certain sources previously indicated, this release is non-anamorphic, and to my eyes looks like it was sourced from a crappy broadcast master. This despite the fact that the packaging lists it as "Format 1.85 - 16/9 Comp. 4/3" - brilliant false advertising there, Studio Canal!
Seriously, this barely looks any better than the
version recorded from Danish television that I've been making do with since September 2005. Indeed, the lack of burned-in Danish subtitles (it does have forced French subtitles when English audio is enabled, but they're player-generated and can therefore easily be defeated by burning a copy without them) and an announcer speaking over the opening scene are about the only things this release has in its favour over it.
Full review coming tomorrow.
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
Today, in my Film Journalism class, we watched a very enjoyable documentary called
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. This investigation into the hideous behemoth known as
Fox News didn't really reveal anything anyone with half a brain wouldn't already be aware of, but it was an interesting piece of work nonetheless. Somehow you don't appreciate just how ridiculously biased that particular network is until you've seen it set out in stone. It was particularly interesting hearing former employees recounting the backhanded behaviour going on behind the scenes (one particular reporter was fired for failing to make Ronald Reagan's birthday celebration look celebratory enough).
Okay, so it's not perfect, and it could no doubt be accused of being as biased as the organisation it sets out to attack (then again, you could argue that such methods are necessary in order to counter the damage being done by Fox). Still, I got a real kick out of it, and would recommend it to pretty much anything, regardless of their political views. Oh, and I ordered the R1 DVD from
CD WOW for a sweet £5.99.
7/10
A day at the university
I've added a new section to my FlickR page, featuring photos of today's expedition to Glasgow University.
Take a look!By the way, I've also decided to upgrade to a professional account, which, for $24.95, gives me 2 GB of upload bandwidth per month, unlimited storage, as many photosets as I want, and so on.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (R2 UK) arrived this morning from
Play.com. I enjoyed it quite a lot, although I feel it's the second weakest of the four films overall (
A Grand Day Out being the poorest, in relative terms). It was certainly very funny and nicely animated, but it didn't come close to matching
The Wrong Trousers, which, if you ask me, is about as perfect an animated short as you can get. Perhaps it's because lengthening the format to fit a feature film running time gives the impression that things are being padded out unneccessarily, or perhaps it's because a number of the elements used in this film feel as if they were lifted from
A Close Shave.
Still, this is a perfectly enjoyable movie, and I'll expand on what I like about it in my upcoming review.
8/10
Yet more sunsets
The sky was like this for less than five minutes this afternoon at around 5.30 pm. Luckily I noticed and was able to rush out and snap a few pictures. This one is probably the best of the bunch.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 1, Episode 6: The Pack
Written by Matt Kiene & Joe Reinkemeyer; Directed by Bruce Seth Green
The duo of Matt Kiene & Joe Reinkemeyer only wrote two episodes of
Buffy. The second was
Inca Mummy Girl, one of the biggest clunkers of the second season, but their first,
The Pack, is actually not too shabby. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that, when it originally aired, it was the best so far. Elements of the plot are clunky, to be sure, especially in the pre-credits teaser, but the overall concept works quite well, and Xander, for the first time, gets to be something other than the wisecracking comic relief.
Buffy's most enjoyable episodes, I've found, are often the ones where characters get to act in ways they normally wouldn't, such as Season 3's
The Wish and
Doppelgangland, where we get to meet Vampire Willow and learn that she's kinda gay.
The Pack isn't anywhere near as good as that particular pair of episodes, but it's a step up from the series of generic monster outings we've had thus far. It also features a good deal more character development than in any prior episode, and, in retrospect, hints at some of the directions in which they will go in future episodes.
By the way, am I the only one who finds it strange that, every week, Sunnydale High School seems to be populated by a completely different set of students?
7/10This time next week:
Angel. No, not the spin-off, the
Buffy episode of the same name.
Night fever
I dug my dad's old tripod out of the cupboard and decided to see if it would improve my night photographology. The results, as you can probably see, are better than my previous excursion into the darkness by leaps and bounds. You can even see the haunted castle on the hill now!
That said, this was one of several tries: they didn't all have this much detail.
It's not photographology, it's ART!
Grotty old building + grayscale = serious artisteThe above is a tried and tested formula that has been proven countless times. Steven Spielberg did it for
Schindler's List and won himself a few Oscars even though the film was crap! Robert Rodriguez tried it on
Sin City but wasn't entirely successful because the silly dear shot it digitally and forgot to add any fake grain. I, on the other hand, added plenty of fake grain. So who's the bigger artiste now, Mr. Smarty-pants?
Operation Bibliothèque
A Whiggles.com first: see my harrowing journey to work on a Sunday afternoon as if you were there yourself!
Under peril of death, I boldly took my digital camera where no digital camera has gone before: straight into the bowels of the demonic fortress known as the library at the Jordanhill campus of Strathclyde University! Included for your viewing pleasure are seven high quality photographs in full colour!
Read on at your own peril!
Sunset 2: Electric Boogaloo
Another example of an exaggerated sunset. You can probably see that one of the lampposts is squint. Ah, the things you suddenly notice when you become a digital photographologer!
A Glasgow sunset... well, not really
The majestic sunset, captured using the camera's "Dusk/Dawn" mode.
Once again, it seriously exaggerates how dark it is, but I'm very impressed with the way it looks, even if it's not even remotely representative of how the sky actually looked when I shot it.
eBay clear-out
It's time for yet another
eBay clear-out. I've got a whole host of unwanted DVDs to foist on you this time:
-
The Blair Witch Project (Region 2 UK)
-
The Collingswood Story (Region 1 USA)
-
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Region 1 USA)
-
Futurama: Season 2 (Region 2 Spain)
-
Hero: Director's Cut (Region 3 Hong Kong)
-
Labyrinth: Collector's Edition (Region 2 UK)
-
A Nightmare on Elm Street (Region 1 USA)
-
Shivers: Director's Cut (Region 1 USA)
-
Spider (Region 1 USA)
-
Suspiria: Special Edition (Region 2 Italy)
-
Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Vista Series (Region 1 USA)
-
Wizards (Region 1 USA)
Good morning, sunshine!
A warning to all digital photographologers (or any type of photographologer for that matter): don't look into the viewfinder when you point the camera directly at the sun. Luckily, I worked out that would be a bad idea before trying it, but I can imagine a poor little boy in Kentucky blinding himself trying to copy my Work of Art™.
I decided to play around with a grain filter Lyris created with Photoshop to disguise the sterile digital look. It came out quite well, I think, although I'll probably play around with the intensity until I reach a happy medium.
Le château de Whiggles
This is where I live. I'm much happier with this shot than the one I took yesterday. The lighting is better and I chose a more appropriate angle. The picture was slightly squint so I had to rotate it and crop it a bit in Photoshop, and also slightly desaturated the colours, which looked a bit garish, but otherwise it's unmanipulated.
Last light of the day
The top of the street at sunset. I had to play with the highlights and shadows in Photoshop because most of the foreground was in darkness. As it is now, though, it's a reasonably close approximation of the actual lighting conditions under which I took it. There's some grain in the foreground now as a result of the manipulation, but personally the film fan in me finds that preferable to the overly clean digital look.
Buena vista!
Hey ho! This is just me testing out FlickR's automatic blog posting function. I took this picture this morning through a closed window to see how well the camera could focus on objects behind glass. The results are a lot better than I was expecting.
If the results of the automatic blogging feature are to my liking, I'll probably do this more often in future, as a fairly straightforward way of letting people know I've added images to my gallery.
Update, 11:17: It seems to work fine, apart from the fact that the first line of the post is indented for Internet Explorer viewers. Oh well, I can't help it if Microsoft can't be bothered to make a compliant web browser. Use
Firefox or
Opera instead.
By the way, I realise that, for the past week or so, there have been some formatting errors in IE thanks to a stray "span" tag that accidentally ended up in one of my posts. I noticed the problems this morning quite by chance and, after spending an eternity hunting down the rogue tag, I apprehended the culprit and removed it. Everything should appear as intended now... well, as close as you can get in IE.
The Bloodstained Butterfly
The Bloodstained Butterfly fails to fit comfortably into either of the two general categories of giallo, since it doesn't have the extreme sex and blood required for it to be one of the trashier entries, while it also lacks the substance the characterises the best examples of the more serious affairs of the genre. Still, it makes for an interesting diversion from the usual fare and, while it's not the sort of film that inspires a 1,000 word review, it's definitely worth a look for staunch giallo fans.
I've
reviewed the R2 Spanish release of
The Bloodstained Butterfly, a rather restrained but effective 1971 giallo by Duccio Tessari, starring Helmut Berger and Giancarlo Sbragia. Manga Films' DVD features a rather unimpressive non-anamorphic transfer and provides little in the way of bonus materials.
My first day of digital photographology
My
Nikon Coolpix 4600 arrived this morning. After leaving the batteries to charge while I went out to work, I hurried back and set out snapping some pictures. Obviously, having never owned a digital camera before, I'm very much a novice about this, but I'm going to sit down and read the manual at some point over the weekend so I can work out what all the fancy features are.
I've created a
FlickR account to showcase some of my experiments. Head over there now to see hideous monsters, lampposts and aeroplane flatulence residue.
Lady and the Tramp
A review of the upcoming R1 US version of
Lady and the Tramp, due out on February 28th, has been posted at
DVD File. Most crucially, it confirms that the American version, called the "50th Anniversary Edition" (despite the fact that the film's 50th anniversary was actually back in June last year), includes both a full frame transfer of the film and a mono audio track. Of course, it remains to be seen whether whether the full frame version is actually the Academy version or just a pan & scan job, but I remain hopeful. The bottom line is that waiting for the US version seems to clearly be the best line of action.
Update, 19:18 on Friday, February 17, 2006: Judging by
this thread at UltimateDisney.com, the 4x3 version on the disc is simply a pan and scan (and noticeably distorted, too) crop of the Cinemascope version. Those mongooses at Disney strike again!
Profondo Rosso
Today, as part of the Screen Bodies component of my Film Studies course, we watched Dario Argento's
Profondo Rosso (I've been referring to it as
Deep Red all day, a title I strongly dislike), followed by a presentation on issues of victimisation and gender by myself and three others. I must say that I was actually really surprised by the class response. I would have expected it to meet with almost universal derision, since it's... shall we say
different enough from "normal" films for being confronted with it without any context to be a baffling experience indeed. Watching
Profondo Rosso without having seen any other gialli is also, in my mind, the equivalent of throwing someone who can't swim in at the deep end.
Despite my concerns, however, it met with pretty much universal appreciation. There was certainly some laughter during the first ten minutes, I suspect more because people were baffled than because there was something funny about the film, but people seemed to get into the swing of things pretty quickly. Indeed, one particular death met with rapturous applause, something I've never experienced before.
Profondo Rosso, it seems, is not as inaccessible as I first thought.
By the way, the courier tried to deliver my digital camera today. Unfortunately, everyone was out. They'll try again tomorrow, but I suspect the story will be the same (I'll be at work).
Digital Fortress
I forgot to say that, over the last few days, I've been reading Dan Brown's
Digital Fortress. I finished it a couple of evenings ago, and I have to say that I enjoyed it quite a lot more than
The Da Vinci Code. I found it riveting right from the start, and I can't remember the last time I read a book that was such a compulsive page-turner.
I still have some major problems with Dan Brown's style of writing, especially with regard to prose and his infuriating habit of finishing each chapter with a fake cliffhanger (seriously, these are only a couple of steps away from the "gotcha!" moments in the
Goosebumps books), as well as the level of
deus ex machina moments, but he definitely knows how to craft a nailbiting popcorn thriller. These books are like the equivalent of Hollywood's Summer Blockbusters: vapid and undemanding, but fun as hell when done right.
By the way, I'm well aware that the book is filled with technical, historical and geographical mistakes. They didn't really spoil the story for me - in fact, they added to its charm. In the universe of Dan Brown, it seems Spain is located somewhere in the Third World.
This week in the world of Cronenberg
Following the news that he had decided to cancel his upcoming
Painkillers project, it sounds as if David Cronenberg is now attached to direct another feature. According to
Dark Horizons:
Focus Features and BBC Films have attached David Cronenberg to direct "Eastern Promises," a $15-$20 million budget London thriller penned by Steve Knight ("Dirty Pretty Things") reports Variety.
The script digs into the seamy underside of life in the U.K. capital and focuses on a young midwife drawn into investigating the identity of a mysterious Russian girl who dies in childbirth on Christmas Eve. The nurse stumbles into danger when she discovers that the dead woman was a prostitute ensnared by a sex-trafficking gang.
Focus is taking worldwide rights on the film, Cronenberg and Knight have just started working together on the script, and the aim is to shoot the project in the Fall depending upon Cronenberg's commitment to the Bruce Wagner-scripted "Maps to the Stars".
Sounds promising, although I do wish he'd direct from one of his own scripts again some day (his last was
eXistenZ in 1999).
Blizzard in anti-gay scandal
Source:
EurogamerBlizzard Entertainment was forced to eat humble pie recently after admitting that an overzealous customer services representative had overstepped the mark in accusing a
World of Warcraft player of breaching the game's terms and conditions when she created a guild for gay, lesbian and bisexual players. Being attracted to members of the same sex, it seems, is no longer a crime.
I had no idea the world was so advanced. Progress!
Wallace & Gromit: 3 Cracking Adventures!
As many of you probably already know, my elderly grandmother was incarcerated in the nut-house after she started losing her mental faculties. What you probably don't know is that my dad recently bought her a DVD player and various lovable cartoons to watch. One of these was the recent R2 UK re-release of the three
Wallace & Gromit shorts, which now includes all the extras from the standards converted American release. Using my admirable bartering skills, I persuaded my dad to swap it for my earlier, bare-bones release (well, I don't think the old dear will be listening to audio commentaries any time soon).
Morvern Callar
In a sense, writing a review of Morvern Callar is almost a futile exercise. It's not possible to analyse the plot since, to put it bluntly, there isn't one, and the film's refusal to make any sort of statement about any of the events taking place means that it is as much of a blank canvas as its protagonist. Still, something about it speaks to me in a manner that words are inadequate to express, and I only hope that people will take my advice and give this perplexing but profoundly affecting film a look. I doubt I'll watch Morvern Callar again for some time: such is its power over me.
After a long, long time, I've finally written another review for Whiggles.com: Palm Pictures' R1 US release of
Morvern Callar, which features a decent transfer but suffers with regard to audio and extras. Check it out
here.
John K blog
John K now has a
blog! Head over now and check out some of his wacky caricatures.
More Asterix
Some more footage from the upcoming
Asterix and the Vikings movie has appeared at
YouTube in the form of the music video for a song called "Let Your Heart Decide", which will be featured on the official soundtrack. Unfortunately, the singer is Celine Dion, but you can simply turn off the sound and enjoy the impressive-looking animated clips. (It's intercut with footage of Ms. Dion busting a gut as she pounds out her warble, but at least you don't have to hear her if you don't want to.)
Apparently the film isn't scheduled for release in the US, despite the voice cast being comprised of American celebrity actors. I'm hoping it gets a UK release, but I'm doubtful.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 1, Episode 5: Never Kill a Boy on the First Date
Written by Rob Des Hotel & Dean Batali; Directed by David Semel
Surprisingly, this episode wasn't half as bad as I'd remembered. Okay, so the plot is yet another generic affair, this time using the "Buffy goes on a date and it goes wonky" framework that would be returned to on more than a couple of occasions in subsequent seasons. It's not a dreadful concept, but the date, like so many others in the world of
Buffy, is a bland, poorly-acted, personality-deprived, generic "hunk" named Owen who, thankfully, is never seen again after this episode.
It's not all bad, though. The production values are now reasonably consistent and the pacing is beginning to improve too. Also, the final scene is very good, offering us a glimpse at some much-needed character development for Giles as well as hinting at the more serious tone that the show would gradually embrace. Actually, I strongly suspect that that particular scene was written by Joss Whedon (his "style" is all over it) rather than the writers credited for this particular episode, Rob Des Hotel and Dean Batali, who, if my memory serves me correctly, struggled to achieve anything but the lowest common denominator throughout their two-season tenure on the show.
5/10Up next:
The Pack. This was the episode that finally sold me on the show when I watched Season 1 for the first time.
Disney: 2D is back?
This is by no means a certainty, but it's now being reported at two different sources:
Seward Street and... er...
Ain't It Cool News. It sounds as if John Lasseter fully intends to bring those big old animation desks out of storage and put them to use: Disney may very well be gearing up for a hand-drawn project (and I don't mean a cheapquel: Lasseter has reportedly canned those). One can only hope that this isn't all the usual speculative bullshit.
The Emilio Miraglia Killer Queen Box Set
I pre-ordered
The Emilio Miraglia Killer Queen Box Set (R0 USA) at
SendMeMovies.com. They're offering it for only $20.97 - come on, at that price, they're practically
giving it away!
The funniest video ever
Chad getting his step son Justice with the scary mazeWell, it made
me laugh.
Update, 19:09: Actually, the more I think about it, the more certain I am that this video is staged. In the event that it's real, though, I should probably point out that, ultimately, however much I might despise children, I don't personally approve of the tactics employed here and would never do such a thing myself. To me, the video is funny not because of the kid's obvious anguish (although I highly doubt that he will be traumatised for life) but because of the spasmodic fit of screen-slapping that ensues when confronted by the maze game's secret surprise.
Whiggles.com at DVD-Basen
I've just realised that my
DVD Image Comparisons are now
indexed at DVD-Basen.dk. That would probably explain why I've seen a significant increase in hits to these pages recently. Pretty cool.
The Cursed Medallion
Massimo Dallamano only made two more films after The Cursed Medallion. He was hard at work preparing the final part in the "Schoolgirls in Peril" trilogy when he was tragically killed in a car crash on November 4th 1976, and although the film was finally completed in 1978, helmed by Alberto Negrin as Enigma Rosso (Red Rings of Fear for English-speaking viewers), its reputation suggests that it suffered considerably from Dallamano's absence. A great, underrated director and a true artist among a cavalcade of hacks, his contribution to 70s Italian horror may not match that of Fulci or Argento, but his films are some of the very best produced in that period. The Cursed Medallion is a testament to his skill as a filmmaker and a storyteller.
I've
reviewed the recent R2 Italian release of
The Cursed Medallion, a surprisingly effective 1975 imitation of
The Exorcist by
What Have You Done to Solange? director Massimo Dallamano. 01 Distribution's DVD features a beautiful transfer but is lacking with regard to bonus materials.
FilmFour goes free in July
Source:
DVD Maniacs ForumThis is actually fairly old news, but I hadn't posted on it before, so what the hey. Channel 4's dedicated movie service,
FilmFour, which is currently a subscription-based service, will be coming to FreeView in July. That's right: for the price of a plastic decoder, you'll soon be able to get access to FilmFour's impressive back catalogue of titles, rare and not so rare, new and not so new, good and not so good. Combined with the likes of ABC1, Sky Three, E4 and More4 all making the leap to free-to-air in the past year, there seems less and less reason for UK-based viewers to own a subscription-based digital receiver.
Whiggles gets into digital photographology
Over the last few weeks, I've been considering the benefits of buying a digital camera. For one thing, I could use it to take pictures. For another... well, I haven't thought of any other uses for it yet, but I'm sure something will come to me. Anyway, this afternoon I decided to bite the bullet and place an order with
Pixmania for a
Nikon Coolpix 4600.
Being a clever sort, I decided that spending a little extra money would pay off in the long run, so I bought a special megapack that comes bundled with a 256 MB memory card, charger, four rechargable batteries and a carry case. These are all things I would need to get anyway, so I thought I might as well spend an extra £30 to get them with the camera rather than squander inordinately more money by picking them up separately.
Enemy of the State unrated cut in May
Source:
DVD TimesLooks like
En 
