Brief Encounter – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #76 (as part of the “David Lean Directs Noel Coward” DVD Box Set) (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

An endearing romance classic about a doomed love affair.  “Brief Encounter” is filmmaker David Lean’s film adaptation of Noel Coward’s play “Still Life” and their final collaboration together.  Featuring great performances by Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, “Brief Encounter” is indeed the highlight of the “David Lean Directs Noel Coward” DVD Box Set!

Image courtesy of © A Noel Coward – Cineguild Production 1945. © 2012 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Brief Encounter – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #76 (as part of the David Lean Directs Noel Coward DVD Box Set)

FILM RELEASE DATE: 1945

DURATION: 86 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Black and White, Monaural , 1:37:1 Aspect Ratio

COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection

RELEASED: March 27, 2012

Based on the play “Still Life” by Noel Coward

Directed by David Lean

Produced by Noel Coward

Cinematography by Robert Krasker

Edited by Jack Harris

Art Direction by Lawrence P. Williams

Starring:

Celia Johnson as Laura Jesson

Trevor Howard as Dr. Alec Harvey

Stanley Holloway as Albert Godby

Joyce Carey as Myrtle Bagot

Cyril Raymond as Fred Jesson

Everley Gregg as Dolly Messiter

Marjorie Mars as Mary Norton

Margaret Barton as Beryl Walters, tea room assistant

From Noël Coward’s play Still Life, legendary filmmaker David Lean deftly explores the thrill, pain, and tenderness of an illicit romance in the dour, gray Britain of 1945. From a chance meeting on a train platform, a middle-aged married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a suburban housewife (Celia Johnson) enter into a quietly passionate, ultimately doomed love affair, set to a swirling Rachmaninoff score.

For four straight years, filmmaker and David Lean have had a wonderful collaboration in British cinema.  In celebration of this unique collaboration, the Criterion Collection will be releasing the four films that they have worked together on: “In Which We Serve” (1942), “This Happy Breed” (1944), “Blithe Spirit” (1945) and “Brief Encounter” (1945).

For their final collaboration, “Brief Encounter” would be a major accomplishment for both men as it would win the “Grand Prize” at the 1945 Cannes Film Festival.  The film would also earn Celia Johnson an Academy Award nomination for “Best Actress” in 1947.

Needless to say, this film would bring recognition to David Lean’s work as he would go on to work on two Charles Dickens film adaptations afterward and continue to work on many award winning films in the future (such as “Hobson’s Choice”, “Summertime”, “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Doctor Zhivago”, “A Passage to India” to name a few) and cement his status as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

As for English playwright Sir Noel Coward, he would go on to continuing what he had done all along.  Working on a plays, musicals, cabaret shows, theater and eventually returning to film  with hits such as “Around the World in 80 Days”, “Our Man in Havana”, “Bunny Lake is Missing” and the “Italian Job”.

Both men would benefit from working together and boosting their careers.

“Brief Encounter” is a film adaptation of “Still Life” by Sir Noel Coward and directed by David Lean.  The film was originally released on DVD courtesy of the Criterion Collection back in 2000 but has been re-released on Blu-ray and DVD utilizing a new high definition transfer from the BFI National Archive’s 2008 restoration.

The film revolves around a suburban housewife named Laura Jesson (played by Celia Johnson, “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”, “I Believe in You”, “Play for Today”) who says goodbye to a man in a tea house who leaves by train, as the two are having a conversation, Laura is interrupted by an old friend and for some reason, we see the anguish in her face.  A sense of desperation as she returns home with such sadness.  We see Laura return to her husband but it is then she tells us her story.  She is a woman who has had an affair with another man.

We learn from Laura that she was an ordinary woman, with an ordinary life.  Happily married with two children, she goes on with her daily life riding the train into town and checking out a book to read at a local store, going to lunch with friends and enjoying a picture.

While she goes to the tea house at the train station, while waiting for a train one evening, some grit gets into her eyes.  That is when she meets Dr. Alec Harvey (played by Trevor Howard, “Ghandi”, “To Catch a Spy”, “Battle of Britain”) who helps remove the grit from her eye.

It started off quite innocently as the two would see each other while she was on her way to some engagement and Alec, a general practitioner going to his work at the hospital.  But one day, while she is eating alone at a restaurant, Alec joins her (since the restaurant was full of people and had no open seats).  The two have a great discussion and we learn that Alec is happily married with children.  Laura showing her kindness for helping her with removing the grit in her eye, the two go to catch an event at the Palladium.

But the two start to realize they enjoy each other’s company.  They would meet with each other, while she would lie and call her husband that she was out with a girlfriend.  But both start to realize that they are falling in love with each other and know what they are doing are wrong but their hearts tell them not to deny their love and spend time with each other in secret.  But for Laura, emotionally it is so difficult because she is married with children and knows it is wrong.  But to make things worse, her female friends start to see her having lunch with another man, making Laura feel guilty and stressed that they are talking about her being with another man.

Both know that they can’t keep this fling hidden but now is the time that they must decide whether or not to follow their hearts and stay in love with each other or to say goodbye and go on with their own lives.

 

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Brief Encounter” was previously released on DVD back in 2000 by the Criterion Collection.  But this transfer is brand new as it is the new high-definition digital transfer of the BFI National Archive’s 2008 restoration.  With that being said, because this film has been restored, if you want the best version of this film to date, you definitely want to pick up the Blu-ray release of the “David Lean Directs Noel Coward” box set.

As for the DVD, “Brief Encounter” is featured in black and white (1:37:1 aspect ratio) and for a film that was created back in 1946, this 66-year-old film looks absolutely fantastic on DVD.  Compared to the 2000 DVD edition, the restoration has a good amount of grain which is intact, back then, quite a bit of DNR was used but the grain is noticeable.  The contrast is wonderful.  Black levels are nice and deep, whites/grays are vibrant and clear but I can only imagine how much sharper and pronounced the quality is in HD via Blu-ray. Also, there is less flickering in this DVD version compared to the 2000 DVD release.

It helps that the cinematography and the shots and camera positioning was well-done and captured the various mood of Laura.  May it be her making a phone call to Alec or running through the rain, cinematographer Robert Krasker (“Romeo and Juliet”, “Alexander the Great”, “The Running Man”) did a wonderful job in capturing the emotion of this film.

As for the picture quality, according to Criterion, the picture has been slightly windowboxed (for the DVD version) to ensure the maximum image is visible on all monitors.  The new restoration was created in 4K resolution on Spirit Datacine at Cineimage, London, from the best surviving duplicate safety negatives.  Pixel Farm’s PFClean was used for flicker correction.

As for the audio, the audio is presented in Monaural and dialogue is Dolby Digital 1.0 and the Rachmaninoff score  is center channel driven.

According to the Criterion Collection, the monaural soundtrack was restored from a sound print made from the original nitrate track negative.  Click, thumps, hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD.  Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.

English subtitles are presented in English SDH.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Brief Encounter” comes with the following special features:

• Audio Commentary – Featuring the original 2000 Criterion Collection audio commentary by film historian Bruce Elder who discusses the film and also the career of David Lean, Joyce Carey, Celia Johnson and Stanley Holloway.  Also, the adaptation of “Still Life” to cinema.  There is one section and this relates to Elder talking about a scene with Dr. Alec Harvey and his colleague which I totally agree with him and how that scene was a bit abrupt to the film.  Interesting enough, how this abruptness was an inspiration for director Billy Wilder for his film “The Apartment”.   But for the most part, an informative commentary track.
• Barry Day - (16:14) Featuring an October 2011 interview with Barry Day, author of “Coward on Film: The Cinema of Noel Coward” discussing “Brief Encounter”.
• A Profile of “Brief Encounter” – (24:14) A short documentary produced in London in 200 for Carlton International Media featuring interviews with screenwriter/producer Ronald Neame, actress Margaret Barlon and actress Celia Johnson’s daughter Kate Fleming and more.
• “David Lean: A Self Portrait” – (57:56) Featuring the 1971 documentary “David Lean: A Self Portrait” by Thomas Craven featuring an extensive interview with Lean about his work and approach to filmmaking.
• Theatrical Trailer – (3:01) The original theatrical trailer.

EXTRAS:

• 46-Page booklet - ”David Lean Directs Noel Coward” comes with a 46-page booklet with essays for each film.  For the “Brief Encounter” portion, the essays are all brand new.  Included are “Riskiest Thing I Ever Did” (Notes on “Brief Encounter” by Kevin Brownlow.

An endearing romance classic about a doomed love affair.  “Brief Encounter” is filmmaker David Lean’s film adaptation of Noel Coward’s play “Still Life” and their final collaboration together.

It’s quite interesting to watch a film such as “Brief Encounter” because we see extra-marital affairs in film as common place in cinema.  But we don’t really see a film that focuses on the actual affair and how one deals with it emotionally.  In this case, through the eyes of Laura Jesson as she takes the viewer from the beginning of the relationship and seeing how it matured, to talking about the female friends that she has and just the emotional turmoil she goes through of knowing she has a family but knowing that she loves Alec so much.

Both know they love each other but they have significant others and children and they are behaving inappropriately that it starts to take its toll on her.  For Alec, he could care less…he’s very much in love with Laura but for Laura, it’s the lying and hiding that starts to break her each and every day.  She knows its wrong but her heart continues to tell her to go for love and she is torn between her conflicting emotions.

It’s also important to emphasize that back in the mid-1940′s, extra-marital affairs was not as significant as they are today.  Sure, divorce rate is high now, extra-marital affairs seem to be commonplace in cinema and people tend to go for personal happiness while family was emphasized heavily during that time.   But Laura’s life was mundane and like many housewives, a common routine of taking care of the husband and children and it was a repetition of the same things over and over again.  She was an ordinary woman that did not expect this to happen to her.

We definitely get two different perspectives of the wife and her obligation to family with Noel Coward’s “Brief Encounter” and “Easy Virtue”.  Both female leads are torn with what they should do with their situation as married wives but with Laura, there is nothing to gain by pursuing personal happiness.  For Laura, it is a different time, a different era and she has more to lose.

Both Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard provide a fantastic performance.  I enjoyed the cinematography and the use of “Piano Concerto no. 2″ by Sergei Rachmaninoff (played by Eileen Joyce) throughout the film.

As mentioned earlier, if you want the best version of “Brief Encounter” or any of the David Lean/Noel Coward films, I highly recommend going with the Blu-ray version of this set.  Otherwise, if you are only interested in DVD, this set is simply worth owning.

The biggest question asked is if one owns the original 2000 Criterion Collection release of “Brief Encounter” and they plan to purchase this 2012 box set, “Should they get rid of their original 2000 Criterion Collection DVD release?”.  Coming from the collector’s perspective, it depends.  The 2000 DVD release featured a two-page insert and an essay written by British Film critic Adrian Turner and the special features had the restoration demo and color bars.

Otherwise, that’s about it.  If those features are important to you, then keep it.  The audio commentary by film historian Bruce Elder from the 2000 DVD release is included in the 2012 release and you get more special features and a much better HD transfer with this newer release.

Overall, “Brief Encounter” is an enjoyable film that keeps things simple.  No need to stretch the film past its 86 minutes and despite one scene that the historian Bruce Eder points out in the commentary, for the most part this film is very well done.  A romantic film showing us how love can happen unexpectedly but how love can easily be lost.  “Brief Encounter” is definitely worth watching.

 

Letter Never Sent – The Criterion Collection #601 (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

A visual masterpiece!  Mikhail Kalatozov’s “Letter Never Sent” looks incredible on Blu-ray!  Cineastes who are wanting more Russian cinema in their collection, this film is highly recommended!

Image courtesy of ©1959 Mosfilm. 2012 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Letter Never Sent – The Criterion Collection #601 (Neotpravlennoye pismo)

MOVIE RELEASE: 1959

DURATION: 96 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: B&W, 1:33:1 Aspect Ratio, Monaural in Russian with English Subtitles

COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection

RELEASE DATE: March 20, 2012

Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov

Written by Grigori Koltunov, Viktori Rozov

Story and Screenplay by Valeri Osipov

Music by Nikolai Kryukov

Cinematography by Sergei Urusevsky

Editing by N. Anikina

Production Design by David Vinitsky

Costume Design by Leonid Naumov

Starring:

Tatyana Samojlova as Tanya

Yevgeni Urbansky as Sergei

Innokenti Smoktunovsky as Sabinine

Vasili Livanov as Andrei

Galina Kozhakina as Vera

The great Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov, known for his virtuosic, emotionally gripping films, perhaps never made a more visually astonishing one than Letter Never Sent. This absorbing tale of exploration and survival concerns the four members of a geological expedition, who are stranded in the bleak and unforgiving Siberian wilderness while on a mission to find diamonds. Luxuriating in wide-angle beauty and featuring one daring shot after another (the brilliant cinematography is by Kalatozov’s frequent collaborator Sergei Urusevsky), Letter Never Sent is a fascinating piece of cinematic history and a universal adventure of the highest order.

Visually astonishing!  It’s the words that I can easily describe the 1960 film “Neotpravlennoye pismo” (Letter Never Sent) directed by Soviet filmmaker Mikhail Kalatozov.

Known for directing the 1957 film “The Cranes are Flying” and the 1964 film “I Am Cuba”, “Letter Never Sent” would reunite the filmmaker with “Cranes” actress Tatyama Samjlova who had become of the most talented and sought out actress of the time in Europe.

And while “Letter Never Sent” is not as popular or as critically favored as Kalatozov’s other two films, the film is best remembered for its surreal and visually stunning cinematography by Sergei Urusevsky.

“Letter Never Sent” is a film about four geologists who are sent into an uninhabited area on an expedition to find diamonds.

The leader Sabinine (played by Innokenti Smoktunovsky) is joined by Tanya (played by Tatyana Samojlova), her boyfriend Andrei (played by Vasili Livanov) and Sergei (played by Yevgeni Urbansky).

Their mission is to find diamonds which the Russian government is hoping they find to help with the economy but also for them to establish a new city.

For Sabinine, this is a mission that has not been successful for other geologists, but working on a theory, the group travel to the unforgiving Siberian wilderness.

Sabinine is often seen writing a letter to his wife Vera (played by Galina Kozhakina).  Because everything was so sudden, he didn’t have a chance to say goodbye and he still has a letter which he has not sent to her, but he uses the letter to document his experience in search of the diamonds.

We watch as the group spend months and months digging and studying rocks for diamonds.  As Tanya and Andrei are often seen as playful towards each other, Sergei is having a hard time dealing with it as he loves Tanya, but she picked Andrei over him. But he also has an unsent letter that he written for Tanya but never gave to her.

As the expedition is leading to no diamonds, the geologists are starting to think there are none.  But Sabinine reminds them of their job and they must continue!

And sure enough, in the middle of nowhere, Sabinine finds diamonds in an area that they were digging and the whole team celebrates.  The group can only think about the prosperity it would bring to their country and how they would be looked as heroes when they return.

And as they give the Russian government good news via radio and the group provide markers and a map to find the area where the diamonds were found, the group decide to call it a day and get some sleep.

Unfortunately, by the time they wake up, nature has revolted as the wilderness has caught fire all around them.    The group fears all the hard work will be naught but to make things worse, the radio to communicate with the government has stopped transmitting and now the expedition has become a mission of survival.

And with conditions worsening around the area, will these four geologists survive the entire ordeal?

VIDEO:

“Letter Never Sent” is presented in black and white (1080p High Definition).  I have to admit while watching this film, I was floored by how gorgeous this picture looks considering it was made back in 1959.  There were no blemishes, the detail was strong, no blurring, no problems whatsoever.  I have to go and say that the picture quality is fantastic as close ups show skin pores and grime on the characters faces, contrast levels are wonderful as whites and greys are well-defined, black levels are deep.  I was very impressed!

According to the Criterion Collection, this new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a new 35 mm print.  Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Image Systems’ DVNR was used for small dirt, grain and noise reduction.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Letter Never Sent” is presented in LPCM Monaural Russian with English subtitles.  The dialogue and the music by Nikolai Kryukov is crystal clear and hear no hiss or any audio problems during my viewing.

According to the Criterion Collection, the original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from a 35 mm optical soundtrack positive.  Clicks, thumps, hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD.  Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Letter Never Sent – The Criterion Collection #601″ on Blu-ray comes with no special features.

EXTRAS:

“Letter Never Sent – The Criterion Collection #601″ comes with a 20-page booklet with the essay “Refining Fire” by Dina Iordanova, professor of film studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

You often hear about collaborations between a director and their cinematographer and how closely in sync they are in working together on many films.   From Jean-Luc Godard and Raoul Coutard to Wong Kar Wai and Christopher Doyle, these collaborations have often led to the efficacy of a film.

And the same can be said with director Mikhail Kalatozov and cinematographer Sergei Urusevsky.  These two men work brilliantly together and although they have worked on three films, the three films “The Cranes Are Flying” (1957), “Letter Never Sent” (1959) and “I Am Cuba” (1964) are films that the three are best known for.

With “Letter Never Sent”, it was not as highly regarded by film critics when compared to their masterpiece “The Cranes are Flying” but just watching this film, it’s hard to deny it because it is visually stunning.

It’s important to note that when it came to Russian cinema, most people were familiar with films by Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Vsevolod Pudovkin but by 1957 with “The Cranes are Flying” winning the P’alme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the film resonated strongly with cineaste all over the planet and more and more people became interested in Russian cinema.

Also, the fact that both Kalatozov and Urusevsky didn’t create traditional Russian films, they did things their own way and these films created by the two men were part of the “thawing” of Society society.

Josephone Woll wrote in her book “Cranes Are Flying”, “Within weeks of Stalin’s demise, writers openly rebuffed bureaucratic interference in the arts and defend their right to the individual expression.  But in the rigid hierarchy of the Soviet Union, such a radical change of direction required an official imprimatur”.

And this artistic expression by both men would have an influence on filmmakers Andrei Tarkobsky and Francis Ford Coppola (and his film “Apocalypse Now”).  While Kalatozov’s Stalinist ideology of the time is quite evident.

First, a discussion of the visual aspect of this film.   The film looked amazing, haunting and also incredibly risky.

From the occasional close-ups to capture emotional reactions, the vignette shots of the characters or branches to the quick camera shots as characters can be running, while the camera follows each and every step was fascinating and beautiful. Also, to add the clever editing of N. Anikina of fire consuming the video while the geologists are digging for diamonds to Sabinine thinking of his dear Vera.  For this type of film, you can say it has quite a few moments of romantic situations, some utilizing clever editing which was pretty significant at that time.

You can see the characters being surrounded by trees and branches on fire, embers falling by the many all around them.  The characters having to dive underwater so they do not come in contact with the branches.  In today’s films, these scenes would all be in CGI, but back then, to achieve realism, the talent were put into risky situations.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the fear that we see in the faces of the characters was genuine fear.  While I’m sure the fire was controlled, having falling embers on fire all around you, suffice to say, it’s risky filmmaking that fortunately no talent were seriously injured.

But overall, the cinematography is just amazing to look at.

As for the ideology, that portion of the film also intrigued me as everyone was excited about the expedition in the name of the Soviet government and wanting to initiate synergy into the industrial revolution by finding these diamonds.  Although this film is about four geologist, it is more of a film about four people trying to attain something incredible for their government.   The characters talk about pride for their country.

Sure diamonds came from South Africa, but why would Russians want to do that.  It’s the refusal of capitalism that you see in this film, these individuals are working together for the betterment of Russian society and its government is right.

In fact, these individuals are not interested in taking diamonds back home with them or pocketing it for their own individual desires.  There was none of that.  These people wanted one thing and that was to accomplish a dream of the Soviet people celebrating the riches of what they found and jump starting their country’s economy and industrial progress.

As for the Blu-ray release, this film looks absolutely magnificent in HD.  It looks as if the original print was not even touched because the detail and the quality of the film looks fantastic!   The lossless monaural track is crystal clear when it comes to dialogue, Nikolai Kryukov’s evocative score was amazing and English subtitles were easy to read.  No problems with video or audio at all.  If anything, Criterion Collection has done a remarkable job in making this film look nearly pristine!

If there was one thing that I wished this Blu-ray release had, it would be special features as “Letter Never Sent” comes with none (which is usually never the case for a release from The Criterion Collection). Although, you do get a Criterion Collection 20-page booklet.  Also, it’s important to note that because of the lack of special features, The Criterion Collection usually releases these films at a lower price point for Blu-ray and DVD.

Overall, “Letter Never Sent” is a straightforward, easy to follow film.  In fact, I would say this is one of Kalatozov’s most accessible film out on video.

While the storyline may not be as memorable compared to Mikhail Kalatozov’s “The Cranes are Falling” or even “I Am Cuba”, “Letter Never Sent” is a visual masterpiece that should not be ignored.  Especially when Sergei Urusevsky’s cinematography looks incredible on Blu-ray!  Definitely recommended!

 

The War Room – The Criterion Collection #602 (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

From filmmaker Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker is the 1993 political documentary “The War Room” which documents how Bill Clinton’s campaign team overcame a variety of obstacles and challenges and would make Bill Clinton the 42nd President of the United States.  Captivating, entertaining and highly recommended!  The Criterion Collection Blu-ray and DVD release also contains the follow-up 2008 film, “The Return to the War Room” and more!

Image courtesy of ©1993 Pennebaker Associates. 2012 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: The War Room – The Criterion Collection #602

MOVIE RELEASE: 1993

DURATION: 96 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Color, 1:33:1 Aspect Ratio, 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Surround, Subtitles: English SDH

COMPANY: The Criterion Collection

RELEASE DATE: March 20, 2012

Directed by Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker

Produced by R. J. Cutler, Wendy Ettinger, Frazer Pennebaker

Executive Producer: Wendy Ettinger, Frazer Pettinger

Cinematography by Nick Doob, D.A. Pennebaker

Edited by Chris Hegedus, Erez Laufer, D.A. Pennebaker

Starring:

James Carville

George Stephanopoulos

Heather Beckel

Paul Begala

Bob Boorstin

Michael Donnilon

Jeff Eller

Stanley Greenberg

Mandy Grunwald

Harold Ickes

Mickey Kantor

Mary Matalin

Mitchell Schwartz

Dave Anderson

Collier Andress

Barry Bognato

Saul Benjamin

Eric Berman

John Bickerstaff

Regina Blakely

Liz Bowyer

Susan Brophy

Jerry Brown

Mike Brown

Jay S. Burton

George Bush

Bill Cashen

Bill Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Chelsea Clinton

Betty Currie

Jacqueline Davis

Sam Donaldson

Bob Duffy

Joe Elcock

John Emerson

Rahm Emanuel

Patricia Enright

Karen Ewing

Liz Fine

Gennifer Flowers

Jeff Forbes

Jodi Franklin

Chris Gallagher Jr.

TIpper Gore

Al Gore

Melissa Green

Paul Tsongas

Dee Dee Myers

Nancy McFadden

Meeghan Prunty

Ros Perot

Lynne Russell

Dan Sakura

Kim Tilley

Betsy Wright

Debby Wilhite

The 1992 presidential election was a triumph not only for Bill Clinton but also for the new breed of strategists who guided him to the White House—and changed the face of politics in the process. For this thrilling, behind-closed-doors account of that campaign, renowned cinema verité filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker captured the brainstorming and bull sessions of Clinton’s crack team of consultants—especially James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, who became media stars in their own right as they injected a savvy, youthful spirit and spontaneity into the process of campaigning. Fleet-footed and entertaining, The War Room is a vivid document of a political moment whose truths (“It’s the economy, stupid!”) still ring in our ears.

When it comes to documentaries, D. A. Pennebaker’s name is legendary.

For music, Pennebaker’s work on the 1967 Bob Dylan’s documentary “Dont Look Back” became a landmark in film and rock history and is regarded as one of the best documentaries of all time.

Pennebaker is also know for his music documentary work fon “Monterey Pop” (1967), “Alice Cooper” (1970), “Jimi Plays Monterey” (1986), “101″ (1989) to name a few.

But as Pennebaker is known for his music documentaries, he’s also known for his political documentaries.  Pennebaker was the editor for the 1960 documentary “Primary” featuring John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey for the United States Democratic Party nomination for the President of the United States.

He and filmmaker Chris Hegedus (“Startup.com”, “Down from the Mountain”, “Jimi Plays Monterey”) would repeat the success of “Primary” by creating a documentary in 1993 titled “The War Room” about Bill Clinton’s campaign for President of the United States during the 1992 presidential election.

While the film has been released on DVD in 1998 and in 2004, “The War Room” receives its Criterion Collection treatment in 2012 by a Blu-ray and DVD release which includes the 1993 film but also the inclusion of the 2008 documentary “Return of the War Room” revisiting many of the people that were featured in the 1993 documentary plus many special features including a panel hosted by the William J. Clinton Foundation, interview with strategist Stanley Greenberg on the evolution of polling plus a featurette with the filmmakers as they discuss the challenges of filming “The War Room”.

The film marks the third Criterion Collection release featuring D. A. Pennebaker (“Monterey Pop”, “Jimi Plays Monterey & Shake! Otis at Monterey”) and the second for Chris Hegedus (“Jimi Plays Monterey & Shake! Otis at Monterey”).  The Blu-ray and DVD will be released in March 2012.

“The War Room” is a documentary that takes place during Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign.

While the coverage of Bill Clinton was limited by the Bill Clinton campaign, both Hegedus and Pennebaker were able to film Communications Director George Stephanopoulos and Lead Strategist James Carville.

And what was supposed to be the film crew focusing on the Clinton campaign in New Hampshire for the state’s Democratic primary, became much bigger as the film crew was able to document the Primary but also the strategy that took place at the Clinton Campaign Headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas and how the campaign team were able to revitalize Bill Clinton’s campaign despite the challenges by Paul Tsongas, the Gennifer Flowers scandal, the Bush campaign (especially since James Carville’s girlfriend, Mary Matalin was Bush’s deputy campaign manager) and also Ross Perot’s campaign.

“The War Room” gives perfect insight to the mindset of the campaign that would lead to Bill Clinton’s presidential victory in 1992.

Also included on this Criterion Collection Blu-ray release is the 2008 follow-up titled “Return of the War Room” which revisits everyone who had worked with Bill Clinton during the campaign, including those who worked with on George Bush and Ross Perot’s campaign.  From their memories of the campaign, their feelings of the Monica Lewinsky incident, James Carvile and Mary Matalin’s relationship then and now, how the Internet has changed the campaign scene now compared to how things were done back in 1993 and more!

VIDEO:

“The War Room” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:33:1 aspect ratio).  It’s important to remind everyone that this is a documentary that utilizes archived footage and footage that came from different sources.  Also, the film was shot with a limited budget.   With that being said, this is the best looking version of “The War Room” yet.  In HD, the colors look much natural, not faded nor does it look aged. In fact, I didn’t notice any dirt or debris, any major problems with the footage, the film look absolutely clean.

Although, “Return of the War Room” is a bit different in the fact that video from the “War Room” does feature a few specks, but it’s important to note that “Return of the War Room” is not treated as a double feature but more like a special feature.

According to the Criterion Collection, the film was approved by filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker and produced by Frazer Pennebaker.  This new HD digital transfer was created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from the original 16 mm camera negative.  Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI’s DRS, while Image Systems’ Phoenix was used for grain, noise reduction, jitter and flicker.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“The War Room” is presented in 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Surround. The dialogue is crystal clear and I heard no hissing, crackles or any audio problems during my viewing.

According to the Criterion Collection, the soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the original 35 mm magnetic audio tracks.  Clicks, thumps, hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“The War Room – The Criterion Collection #602″ on Blu-ray comes with the following special features:

• William J. Clinton Foundation Panel – (25:51) A 2011 Panel discussion hosted by the William J. Clinton Foundation celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Clinton presidency.  Featuring James Carville, Clinton adviser Vernon Jordan, journalist Ron Brownstein and surprise guest Bill Clinton.
• Return of the War Room - (1:25:41) A 2008 documentary by Hegedus and Pennebaker in which advisers James Carville, George Stephanopoulos, Paul Begala, and others reflect on the effect that the Clinton war room had on the way campaigns are run.
• Making the War Room – (41:28) Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker and producers R.J. Cutler and Wendy Ettinger talk about the making of “The War Room”.
• Frazer Pennebaker – (8:58) Producer Frazer Pennebaker discusses the making of the film and what he liked about the documentary.
• Doob – (6:23) Camera operator Nick Doob talks about shooting the film, the challenges, scenes with George Stephanopoulos and more.
• Stanley Greenberg – (10:47) Interview with strategist Stanley Greenberg on the evolution of polling and how it can affect a campaign.
• Trailer – (2:01) The theatrical trailer for “The War Room”.

EXTRAS:

“The War Room – The Criterion Collection #602″ comes with an 16-page booklet with the essay “Being There” by Louis Menand.

When President George Bush made his promise to American and said “Read my lips. No new taxes!”, it was a broken promise that was reverberated over and over in the media and television commercials.  There was no doubt that this would provide Democrats fodder for the November election.

And for those who followed the election, it was one of the most intriguing political confrontations ever seen in American history.  A campaign in which the Republicans and the Democrats have flipped and flopped in various polls, a campaign that had its share of intriguing circumstances and yet, no matter how much mudslinging there was against Governor Arkansas Bill Clinton, he was the underdog early in the campaign that would later emerge victorious in the 1992 President Election.

Many have wondered how his campaign staff pulled it off.  People got to see how it was done courtesy of the documentary “The War Room” by Chris Hegedus and legendary documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker.

And if there is one thing that I fans of Pennebaker can depend on, it’s that D.A. Penneger has a wonderful eye when it comes to creating documentaries and he knows how to make an impact with the public.  He has done it many times in his career and the list of impressive documentaries within his oeuvre is amazing.

Having watched “The War Room” many years ago and watching it again today, it still surprises me how they managed to pull it off.  To get so much access within the campaign staff and earn their trust to film them in their most challenging of moments.  There was no doubt that both Pennebaker and filmmaker Chris Hegedus really took a risk by covering a campaign for then Arkansas governor Bill Clinton.

Why a risk?  There were other Democratic nominees that were doing well in the polls and for Bill Clinton, he was a man that was scrutinized.  When model and actress Gennifer Flowers came out in the media and alleged that she and Bill Clinton had a sexual relationship, for most people, that would doom one’s campaign.  He took another blow when it was leaked that he protested against the Vietnam War in Oxford and also used the influence of a U.S. Senator, which he was employed as an aide, to avoid being drafted.  Once again, there were mounting points of negativity surrounding Bill Clinton but yet he never wavered and his staff and American people supported him.

Rarely do you see this synergy continue with a political candidate that has been knocked down so many times, but he and his staff came out swinging and Pennebaker and Hegedus captured it all on camera.

Similar to what Pennebaker was involved in back in the ’60s with John F. Kennedy as an editor on “Primary”, he and Chris Hegedus was able to capture the campaign of Bill Clinton on camera.

Because the Bush camp was unwilling to let any film crew document them on camera and Ross Perot had not officially announced that he would be running, the only person that would be willing to allow coverage was the Clinton campaign.  While coverage of Bill Clinton would be limited, Hegedus and Pennebaker and a few others in the film crew were given the greenlight to film the campaign, especially of lead strategist James Carville and campaign communications director George Stephanopoulos.

And for the filmmakers, this documentary would show viewers the behind-the-scenes of an actual presidential campaign, the strategy involved, the respond of campaign members to their opponents tactics plus the wide range of emotions that were involved in the campaign.

But for many people who do follow campaigns and who have watched this film, what Carville, Stephanopoulos and the staff were able to accomplish, was like the underdogs beating the favorite team and winning a championship.  With political campaigns, we only see so much through the media but “The War Room” was able to show how the campaign took advantage of President’s Bush’s “No New Taxes” broken promise, how they were able to use television as a way to make Clinton this charismatic leader, while George Bush was looking at his watch.  The campaign was thorough with their research, thorough in trying to make a negative into a positive but most of all, to bring Bill Clinton to the people and let them see how he is and that he generally cares about them.

It’s important to note that as much as the staff were important in making things happen for Bill Clinton, we also get to learn more through the follow-up film “Return to the War Room” and learn how Bill Clinton during the campaign was a big inspiration to the group.  From him showing his leadership and never wavering.  No matter how bad things looked, he persevered and wanted to take it directly to the people and see how he’s the real deal.  This was a problem with the Bush campaign and as Mary Matalin explained in the follow-up film, he was a surprise to the Republican campaign.

So, while “The War Room” shows the viewers how things were behind-the-scenes and almost like a chess game, it was a battle of opposing strategy and taking advantages of opportunities, the follow-up was just as entertaining because we got to learn more about the couple who were working on opposing sides (James Carville working for Clinton, Mary Matalin working for Bush) and learning how they dealt with each other during the campaign and the feelings they had towards one another.  We also learn about the dirty work of politics, how one reacted after the Impeachment trial, how some felt about the overall campaign and how campaigns have changed since Barack Obama won the Presidency and the use of social media.

“The War Room” is a magnificent release from the Criterion Collection and I as continue to wish for more Pennebaker documentaries to be released on Blu-ray and DVD, I’m quite pleased of how much better of a release this one was compared to the 1999 and 2004 DVD release, not just in picture and audio quality but the amount of special features included.  The fact that the follow-up film “Return to the War Room” was included was a big plus for me but the conversation featurette between Hegedus, Pennebaker, Cutler and Ettinger was also a pleasant addition.  And you also get a few more special features included with this release.

Overall, “The War Room” is a wonderful Blu-ray release from the Criterion Collection.  I have always been intrigued by this film for its political strategy but also as an educational film for me while I was growing up.  During that time, I was also studying the campaign and although I was a young adult that was not an erudite when it came to politics, the film was inspirational to the point that I wanted to work on a political campaign, be part of the staff in planning strategies and just working in politics.   What I saw on the film, those were the people I wanted to be surrounded with at the time.  Political strategists, people who wanted to make a big difference by getting their candidate elected.

“The War Room” was an intriguing film that it was one of the factors that led me to work as an intern for a California Senator a few months after the release of the film.  After my internship, I was recruited as a paid staff member for a Congressional and Lt. Governor campaign and it was an intriguing, learning experience.

Overall, “The War Room” is a wonderful political documentary and while I can say it’s easy to recommend to those who are interested in politics and have an interested in political campaigns, just the mention of politics may turn people off and if that is the case, then this film may not be for you.  It’s a film documenting Bill Clinton’s campaign and the strategy and planning that went on behind the scenes.  It’s not for everyone, but for those who are interested in political campaigns and are wondering how this presidential campaign overcame major obstacles and eventually making Bill Clinton the 42nd President of the United States, then you will find this film captivating, entertaining and worth owning.

“The War Room” is definitely recommended!

 

Three Outlaw Samurai – The Criterion Collection #596 (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

The filmmaking debut of legendary director Hideo Gosha and a fantastic samurai film with plenty of swordfighting action and an enjoyable storyline that makes this Criterion Collection Blu-ray worth watching and also worth owning!  Definitely recommended!

Image courtesy of ©1964 Shochiku Co., Ltd. 2012 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Three Outlaw Samurai – The Criterion Collection #596

MOVIE RELEASE: 1964

DURATION: 93 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: B&W, 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio, Monaural Japanese with English subtitles

COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection

RELEASE DATE: February 14, 2012

Directed by Hideo Gosha

Written by Keiichi Abe, Hideo Gosha, Eizaburo Shiba

Associate Producer: Gin’ichi Kishimoto, Tetsuro Tanba

Music by Toshiaki Tsushima

Cinematography by Tadashi Sakai

Art Direction by Junichi Ozumi

Starring:

Tetsuro Tanba as Sakon Shiba

Isamu Nagato as Kyojuro Sakura

Mikijiro Hira as Einosuke Kikyo

Miyuki Kuwano as Aya

Yoshiko Kayama as Oyasu

Kyoko Aoi as Omitsu

Kamatari Fujiwara as Jinbe

Tatsuya Ishiguro as Uzaemon Matsushita

Jun Tatara as Yasugoro

Toshie Kimura as Oine

Yoko Mihara as Omaki

This first feature by the legendary Hideo Gosha is among the most beloved chanbara (sword-fighting) films. An origin-story offshoot of a Japanese television phenomenon of the same name, Three Outlaw Samurai is a classic in its own right. A wandering, seen-it-all ronin (Tetsuro Tamba) becomes entangled in the dangerous business of two other samurai (Isamu Nagato and Mikijiro Hira), hired to execute a band of peasants who have kidnapped the daughter of a corrupt magistrate. With remarkable storytelling economy and thrilling action scenes, this is an expertly mounted tale of revenge and loyalty.

When it comes to Japanese cinema during the ’50s and ’60s, there were many samurai films produced but with “Sambiki no Samurai” (Three Outlaw Samurai), it was a national sensation on television.

Airing on Japan’s Fuji TV from 1963 through 1969, the drama series achieved a high rating  of 42%.  In Japan, anything over 25% is fantastic and not only did the studio Shochiku have a hot series, the three actors Tetsuro Tanba, Isamu Nagato and Mikijiro Hira became the most popular actors because of the TV series.

And with the success of the first season, Shochiku decided to create a jidaigeki film based on the characters of the TV series and “Sambiki no Samurai” (Three Outlaw Samurai) and give Hideo Gosha the opportunity to direct his first film.

And in 1964, “Three Outlaw Samurai” was released in theaters and would become a classic samurai film in Japan which would later inspire a manga series and TV sequels that would air on TV Asahi last from 1987 through 1995 (featuring newer characters) and a final “goodbye” drama series which aired from Oct.-Dec. 1999 which would feature the return of original actor, Tetsuro Tanba.

And now, “Three Outlaw Samurai” makes its first Blu-ray and DVD appearance in North America courtesy of the Criterion Collection.

The film is the second Gosha film to be released by the Criterion Collection, the first release on DVD was Gosha’s second film (and his most popular film in the west), “Sword of the Beast” (1965).

“Three Outlaw Samurai” begins with a wandering ronin (samurai without a master) named Sakon Shiba (played by Tetsuro Tamba) who is looking for a place to sleep. He sees someone running from the mill, which he discovers a golden hair pin on the ground.  When he goes into the mill, he finds three peasants tying up a young woman and look as if they are going to kill him.

Sakon is not afraid of these three peasants with swords (especially since he knows they can not fight) but finds out that the woman they have captive is the daughter of the magistrate.

The peasant farmers have been pleading with the magistrate to listen to them as they are suffering.  They want to be heard but no one is listening.  So, they feel their only resort is to kidnap his daughter in hopes that he will listen.

Feeling bad for the farmers, Sakon decides to help them out.

Meanwhile, as word gets to the magistrate (played by Hisashi Igawa) that his daughter has been kidnapped, he and a few of his soldiers head towards the mill to rescue her. While the magistrate has an excellent samurai swordsman named Einosuke Kikyo (played by Mikijiro Hira) that probably could do the job, Kikyo has no intention of wasting his talents on killing peasants.

So, the magistrate and his soldiers try to rescue his daughter but is embarrassed by the ronin Sakon who manhandles the soldiers.  And the magistrate who refuses to listen to the peasants decides that he needs to fight them by using other means, so higher-ups do not find out that he and his men have failed in rescuing his daughter from a band of peasants.

The magistrate resorts to releasing ronin that are being held captive in a jail cell, three criminals and a nonchalant swordsman named Kyojuro Sakura (played by Isamu Nagato).  All are given releases only if they kill the samurai named Sakon who is aiding the peasants, and to ensure that happens, the magistrate has Kikyo lead them to the mill.

While walking towards the mill, a peasant farmer tries to run behind Sakura and in self-defense, Sakura slashes the man.  He finds out that the man he killed was not a samurai but a peasant farmer and this begins to stay within Sakura’s conscience.

Sakon sees samurai coming towards the mill and immediately shows off his excellent swordsmanship by killing one of them.  Sakura then prepares to fight him, but Sakon asks him why he would try to kill poor peasants who just want to be heard.  When Sakura as Kinkyo if what Sakon is saying is true, Kinkyo confirms it.

Immediately, Sakura stops fighting and tells everyone that he is joining Sakon to help the peasants.  And once again, the magistrate loses.

With the poor peasants now having two ronin’s defending them, the magistrate is beginning to worry, especially since his lord will be arriving in several days. The embarrassment of not being able to stop the peasants and their revolt, let alone two ronin’s is too much to bear.

So, the magistrate escalates things by hiring a dozen poor ronin’s who will do anything for money.  Because the peasants have his daughter, they will fight back by kidnapping and threatening to kill a peasant’s daughter.

Meanwhile, one of the female workers of the magistrate asks Kikyo to defend the peasants from the corrupted magistrate.  But will he?

As the Magistrate will do anything to get his daughter back, what punishment does he have in store for the peasants and the ronin’s that are assisting them?

VIDEO:

“Three Outlaw Samurai” is presented in black and white (2:35:1 aspect ratio).  This 1964 film looks absolutely fantastic on Blu-ray.  Not only is there a good amount of grain, there is also a good amount of detail.  May it be the dirty floors of the mill or its wooden surroundings.

Closeups of the character show the sweat, grime and dirt on their faces, contrast is excellent, black levels are deep and white and gray levels are also very good.  I don’t think I’ve seen any sort of video problems or damage while watching this film, maybe a few instances of softness but other than that, this film looks fantastic.  No banding, no artifacts, no problems that stuck out.

According to the Criterion Collection, the new high-definition transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35 mm  print struck from the original negative.  Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Omage Systems DVNR was used for a small dirt, grain and noise reduction.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Three Outlaw Samurai” is presented in Japanese monaural LPCM 1.0.    The dialogue is clear and I heard no hissing, crackles or any audio problems during my viewing.

According to the Criterion Collection, the monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from a 35 mm optical soundtrack print.  Clicks, thumps, hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD.  Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Three Outlaw Samurai – The Criterion Collection #596″ on Blu-ray comes with a trailer.

EXTRAS:

“Three Outlaw Samurai – The Criterion Collection #596″ comes with an 18-page booklet with the essay “The Disloyal Bunch” by New York Magazine writer Bilge Ebiri.

Having watched many jidageki/chambara films and dramas from Japan, this was my first time watching Hideo Gosha’s “Three Outlaw Samurai”.  And I absolutely loved it!

Sure, there is a banality when it comes to ronin who come into help the poor from evil bandits or warlords, but what I enjoyed about this film was its enjoyable story, its characters and also its swordfighting action!

For one, you have your calm, cool and collected samurai Sakon Shiba (starring legendary actor Tetsuro Tanba) and then you have someone different with Isamu Nagato’s Kyojuro Sakura, a man who can fight but also a man with a conscience.  A man who helps bring humor to the film because of his demeanor.  And then you have the playboy swordsman Einosuke Kikyo (played by Mikijiro Hira), doesn’t want to sully his sword with the blood with peasants but yet has no qualms about having sexual encounters with a local prostitute.

While the film is quite simple when compared to Akira Kurosawa’s jidaigeki films, bare in mind that “Three Outlaw Samurai” is Hideo Gosha’s filmmaking debut.  He obviously had magnificent company with three amazing actors who were extremely popular from the TV show, the benefit of having good writers, cinematographer and a crew.  May it be the swordfight choreography, the actors performances to its sociopolitical storyline, it’s a fantastic debut for Hideo Gosha and an important film that would help ignite a career with many fantastic films in his oeuvre.

As for the Blu-ray release, “Three Outlaw Samurai” looks fantastic on Blu!  Wonderful contrast, picture quality looked amazing with no blemishes or problematic scenes.   If anything, I wish there were more special features outside of the included trailer.  I suppose that I have been spoiled by Criterion Collection releases that I tend to expect a lot in terms of special feature content but it does explain why the price is cheaper compared to other Criterion Blu-ray and DVD’s.

Overall, if you are in the mood for a wonderful samurai film that isn’t too deep, easily accessible and has a lot of swordfighting action, definitely give “Three Outlaw Samurai” a a chance.  Definitely recommended!

 

World on a Wire – The Criterion Collection #598 (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

“World on a Wire” is a must-buy Rainer Werner Fassbinder DVD release from the Criterion Collection! No need for big budget special effects, this 1973 TV film relied on structure, character development, wonderful cinematography and clever editing and in the end, Fassbinder was successful.  “World on a Wire” is highly recommended!

Image courtesy of © Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation. 2012 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: World on a Wire – The Criterion Collection #598

FILM RELEASE DATE: 1973

DURATION: 212 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Color, 1:33:1 Aspect Ratio, Monaural in German with English Subtitles

COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection

RELEASED: February 21, 2012

Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Based on the novel “Simulacron-3″ by Daniel F. Galouye

Written by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Fritz Muller-Scherz

Produced by Peter Marthesheimer, Alexander Wesemann

Music by Gottfried Hungsberg

Cinematography by Michael Ballhaus, Ulrich Prinz

Edited by Ursula Elles, Marie Anne Gerhardt

Production Design by Horst Giese, Walter Koch, Kurt Raab

Costume Design by Gabriele Pillon

Starring:

Klaus Lowitsch as Fred Stiller

Barbara Valentin as Gloria Fromm

Mascha Rabben as Eva Vollmer

Karl Heinz Vosgerau as Herbert Siskins

Wolfgang Schenck as Franz Hahn

Gunter Lamprecht as Fritz Walfang

Ulli Lommel as Rupp, Journalist

Adrian Hoven as Professor Henry Vollmer

Ivan Desny as Gunther Lause

Joachim Hansen as Hans Edelkern

Kurt Raab as Mark Holm

Margit Carstensen as Maya Schmidt-Gentner

Ingrid Caven as Uschi, secretary

Gottfried John as Einstein

Rudolf Lenz as Hartmann

Rainer Hauer as Inspector Lehner

World on a Wire is a gloriously paranoid, boundlessly inventive take on the future from German wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder. With dashes of Stanley Kubrick, Kurt Vonnegut, and Philip K. Dick, Fassbinder tells the noir-spiked tale of reluctant hero Fred Stiller (Klaus Löwitsch), a cybernetics engineer who uncovers a massive corporate conspiracy. At risk? (Virtual) reality as we know it. Originally made for German television, this recently rediscovered, three-and-a-half-hour labyrinth is a satiric and surreal look at the world of tomorrow from one of cinema’s kinkiest geniuses.

In 1973, auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder (“Ali: Fear Eats the Soul”, “Lili Marleen”, “The Marriage of Maria Braun”, “Why Does Herr R. Run Amok”) created his first sci-fi film “Welt am Draht” (World on a Wire) which aired on German television.

A common practice at the time for German filmmakers was to have a theatrical production which was then shown on television at a later time.  But for Fassbinder, he created several films for television due to him wanting his work to gain popularity in Germany and the fact that there were not as many places to view cinema in Germany at that time.

The film was broken down to two parts and was an adaptation of Daniel F. Galouye’s novel “Simulacron-3″.

“World on a Wire” featured a screenplay adaptation co-written by Fritz Muller-Scherz (“Fiorile”, “Belle’s Paradise”), cinematography by Michael Ballhaus (“The Departed”, “Goodfellas”, “Gangs of New York”, “Dracula”) and Ulrich Prinz (“Martha”, “Fear of Fear”) and music by Gottfried Hunsberg (“La Paloma”, “Shadow of Angels”).

The film would star Klaus Lowitsch (“The Marriage of Maria Braun”, “Cross of Iron”, “Das Urteil”) as the main protagonist, Fred Stiller.  The film would star actress Barbara Valentin (“Ali: Fear Eats the Soul”, “Martha”), Karl Heinz Vosgerau (“The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum”, “Knife in the Back”), Wolfgang Schenk (“Martha”, “Effi Briest”) and Gunter Lamprecht (“Berlin Alexanderplatz”, “The Harmonists”, “Das Boot”, “The Marriage of Maria Braun”).

While the film was enjoyed by those who watched it in Germany when it first aired or those who were able to find it digitally, the film was unlike Fassbinder’s other films in the fact that it was a sci-fi film but it was also a television film that had been forgotten for decades, due to the fact that it was not featured on VHS or DVD.  Also, it was a film that Fassbinder himself, never really discussed much about when he was alive.

But the “World on a Wire” has been a film that received a cult following and fans acknowledge the fact that the film predates virtual reality and technology before there were films such as “The Matrix”, “Avatar” and “Blade Runner”.  In 1999, a loosely-based American adaptation of “Simulacron-3″ was created and was titled “The Thirteenth Floor”.

While “World on a Wired” was screened at a film festival in 1992 as a 10-year anniversary film retrospective for the late Fassbinder, the film would receive a  complete restoration in 2010 for the 60th Berlin International Film Festival and various theaters around the world.

And now the film makes its Blu-ray and DVD debut in North America courtesy of the Criterion Collection.

“World on a Wire” takes place at a cybernetics institute known as IKZ (“Institut für Kybernetik und Zukunftsforschung”), and are known for creating a virtual reality simulation program on a supercomputer that has created an artificial world with around 9,000 “identity units” (that resemble human beings) who are unaware that they are virtual beings, nor are they aware that the world they live in is a simulacron.

But one day, the technical director, Professor Henry Vollmer (played by Adrian Hoven) has discovered something shocking.  A secret that has made him agitated and also making him appear “crazy” or “mentally unstable”.

While losing it at a meeting with IKZ execs, he manages to tell IKZ security adviser, Gunther Lause (played by Ivan Desny) about his secret discovery and next thing you know, he goes crazy and moments later, he is found dead by Lause.

At a party, Lause meets with Fred Stiller (played by Klaus Lowitsch), the successor to Professor Vollmer.  As the two discuss about a great discovery made by Vollmer, as Lause was about to tell him what Vollmer found, a woman distracts Stiller and when Stiller turns around, Lause is gone.

This rattles Stiller, and when he goes back to discuss this with others at IKZ, no one knows what he is talking about.  He tells them about meeting with the security adviser Gunther Lause, but is told that there is no Lause working for them and another man is security adviser.  Because no one has recollection of Gunther Lause, he begins his own investigation. Also, the local press, including a journalist named Rupp (played by Ulli Lommel) is doing his research on IKZ and what they are trying to accomplish with this new virtual technology.

Meanwhile, an identity unit in the simulacron has attempted suicide and the unit is later deleted by Stiller’s colleague Fritz Walfang (played by Gunter Lamprecht).   Stiller wants to know what is going on and so he uses the virtual technology to allow himself to go into the simulacron and encounter a unit named Einstein (the only unit in the simulation who is aware that the world he lives in is not real).

Einstein tries to plead with Stiller to take him into his world, but Stiller tells him that it’s impossible.

But as more and more people  that Stiller comes in contact with, begin to disappear, he also begins to show signs of agitation and those around him think he’s starting to lose it.

One day, while having lunch with Walfang, something unusual takes place and Stiller finds out that Einstein from the simulacron has found a way to transfer his body with Walfang who has visited the simulacron.   This is supposed to be impossible but Einstein tells him that perhaps the world that Stiller lives in, is not real.  While Einstein is from a simulacron created by those of another simulacron, the next level up would be the real world.

And the more that Stiller begins to think about this, and all the unexplained disappearances and situations that have happen thus far, he wonders to himself, “What if Einstein is telling the truth?”.   What if the world that he lives in is also a simulacron and he is not a real human being, he is just a “unit”.

And slowly, this thought begins to make Stiller slip into insanity as he believes his world and everything around him is not truly real.

And because of his behavior, he is suspected of murdering those who have been killed or have disappeared.  And now, Stiller must find the contact unit who can connect with his world to the real world, before he is captured or killed.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“World on a Wire” makes its debut on Blu-ray and DVD and it’s important for me to note that if you want the best version of this film, purchase the Blu-ray version.

With that being said, “World on a Wire” is presented in 1:33:1 aspect ratio and the film was shot via 16mm. According to the Criterion Collection, “World on a Wire” was supervised by director of photography Michael Ballhaus, this new digital transfer was created on an ARRISCAN film scanner in 2K resolution from the original 16 mm A/B reversal rolls; color correction was done on a Discreet Lustre system.  Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and scratches were removed using MTI’s DRS.

There was a lot of experimental filmmaking in order to achieve the look and feel of technology but also something different visually.  According to cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, there were time when they held a bunsen burner underneath the camera in order to get a certain effect.

The film presentation does have a high level of grain (mixed with noise) and while another company had released the film with DNR (Digital Noise Reduction), it’s rather subjective to the viewer of whether or not they prefer it.  I haven’t seen the Blu-ray version but for this DVD version of the film, the film does have a lot of grain but didn’t notice any major problems such as intense blurring, softness, artifacting, etc.  I did notice a bit of saturation of a scene during the second half of the film for an indoor sequence.  But it’s a short sequence that didn’t ruin my viewing of the film.

While the film does look its age due to the clothing of the time period, it’s rather an interesting film because it deals with a topic that still has relevance in today’s modern society and our view towards virtual reality and technology.  We have had big production films take on the subject, may it be “The Matrix” or even “Avatar”, but what I enjoyed about this film is how Fassbinder and Ballhaus were able to effectively use the surroundings and clever camera techniques and movements to delve into the character’s psyche.

I was pretty impressed by what was accomplished in 1973 and how the film was edited.  It was a bit jarring and surreal, but I enjoyed the cinematography for this film.

As for the audio, audio is presented in monaural German with English subtitles.  Dialogue was clear and heard no problems with audio whatsoever.

According to the Criterion Collection, the monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16 mm magnetic perforated reels.  Analog artifacts like clicks, crackle and noise-floor were removed at CinePostproduction Bavaria Bild und Ton, Geiselgasteig, Germany, using a digital audio workstation.  Additional restoration was done by the Criterion Collection, where clicks, thumps, hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD and crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“World on a Wire – The Criterion Collection #598″ comes with the following special features:

DISC 1:

• Interview  – (34:12) Featuring a 2011 interview with German-film scholar Gerd Germunden who talks about Fassbinder, “World on a Wire” and how it is a lost-film, themes and structure of the film and more.
  
• Trailer – (1:35) The trailer for “World on a Wire” (restored version).

DISC 2:

• Fassbinder’s “World on a Wire”: Looking Ahead to Today - (50:38) Featuring the 2010 documentary by Juliane Lorenz and interviews with cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, co-screenwriter Fritz Muller-Scherz, actor Karl-Heinz Vosgerau (who plays the role of Herbert Siskins) and learning of what took place behind-the-scenes in the making of “World on a Wire”.
  

EXTRAS:

• 18-Page booklet – Featuring an 18-page booklet with “The Halls of Mirrors” essay by film critic Ed Halter.

In the west, when one thinks about television films, most never equate these films to quality cinema.  They are films that are great for popcorn entertainment, never too deep, often contrived and kitschy.

But in Germany, television gave new German filmmakers a chance to show off their creativity but also a way to generate buzz about their films to a larger audience.

It’s been written that Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a filmmaker who never sought to become an auteur, if anything, he wanted to be a popular filmmaker and wanted his work to be well-known to larger audience.  And while this film is classified as a sci-fi film and has your elements of the suave protagonist, beautiful women and even a few action-scenes, what separates this film from kitschy television films is that this is also a cerebral film.

Of course, with computers and technology and having had big-budget films on virtual worlds featured in films such as “The Matrix” and “Avatar” and also a plethora of video games, back in 1973, these stories were imaginative.

Supercomputer?  Aside from major corporations, computers were not in consumer’s homes at this time.  Virtual reality, could you imagine for those not exposed to computer technology trying to fathom virtual worlds?  It may have seemed farfetched but when you watch this film today, it’s quite amazing of how this film explores simulation but also exploration into sophism and philosophic aspects of the human mind but also scientific research.

So, when you think of teleplays or television films, they typically resonate around experiences that people are accustomed to or have read in their newspapers.  May it be love, courtroom dramas, police dramas, crime, etc.  And yet this film which predates “The Matrix” and “Avatar” was made in 1973 for television.

Suffice to say, it aired on primetime television and did well in the ratings.  But it was one of Fassbinder’s films that was never released on video until its restoration in 2010.  Watching this film today, one can easily be in awe of what Fassbinder was able to create and bring to a televised audience.  Also, be in awe that this auteur created a science fiction film.

While I do praise the film for its storyline and for its clever editing and beautiful cinematography considering the budget that Fassbinder had in creating this televised film, the film is not perfect.  Sure,  the acting is good but definitely not great. The film is slow-paced but this is a film meant to take in slowly and watch as the character of Stiller begins to make his discovery and we see how his world is literally turned upside down.  He knows he is not a real human and that the world that he lives in is a simulcron.  But anyone who is close to figuring out the truth will be eliminated or deleted.

And while watching “World on a Wire”, I was just amazed by what was pulled off in 1973.  While cineaste are familiar with Fassbinder films such as  “The Marriage of Maria Braun”, “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul”, “Veronika Voss” or his wonderful TV mini-series “Berlin Alexanderplatz” and be entranced by how his films were written, how his films were shot and structured, even for a television film, Fassbinder was able to integrate that into “World on a Wire”.

From utilizing special effects through clever editing and just capturing a world where there is conspiracy, a world written around simulation, one man’s regression (and showcasing his evolving psyche) when he finds out the truth of his world, not only did I find “World on a Wire” to be a smart, classy and artistic film, I absolutely enjoyed it.

I loved the use of reflections, the eery music and even characters that seem unusual at times, it was as if we had a mixture of James Bond meets surrealism meets futuristic veracity.

While I have not seen the Blu-ray version of “World on a Wire”, I am confident that the Blu-ray version is the one to get, and the colors and detail would probably be much more pronounced than the DVD version.  While there is considerable amount of grain and noise, picture quality for the film is good and it’s monaural lossless soundtrack is clear and understandable.  Subtitles were easy to read and the DVD comes with a wonderful documentary plus an in-depth interview with scholar Gerd Germunden.

Overall, “World on a Wire” is a pretty good Fassbinder film.  While I am biased towards many of his other cinema work and enjoyed “Berlin Alexanderplatz”, I am quite amazed by how well-structured this television film was, especially how smart and enjoyable it turned out.

You just don’t come across television films like this as it is a rarity and when you do, you just want more of it!   I would imagine that the release of “World on a Wire” would make Fassbinder fans quite happy.  Also, the potential of discovery of more wonderful television films by Fassbinder and other German filmmakers, who knows what other exciting films have yet to be found and introduced to the public.

But on it’s own, “World on a Wire” is a must-buy Rainer Werner Fassbinder DVD release from the Criterion Collection.  No need for big budget special effects, this 1973 TV film relied on structure, character development, wonderful cinematography and clever editing and in the end, Fassbinder was successful.

“World on a Wire” is highly recommended!

 

Tiny Furniture – The Criterion Collection #597 (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

Lena Dunham’s award-winning independent film”Tiny Furniture” will be Criterion Collection’s first inclusion of mumblecore to their collection.  A slice of life type of film that is enjoyable but equally frustrating.  Nevertheless, showing promise for the filmmaking career of Lena Dunham.

Image courtesy of © 2010 IFC in Theatres, LLC. 2012 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Tiny Furniture – The Criterion Collection #597

MOVIE RELEASE: 2010

DURATION: 99 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Color, 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio, 5.1 Surround

COMPANY: IFC Films/The Criterion Collection

RELEASE DATE: February4, 2012

Written and Directed by Lena Dunham

Produced by Kyle Martin, Alicia Van Couvering

Co-Produced by Alice Wang

Music by Teddy Blanks

Cinematography by Jody Lee Lopes

Edited by Lance Edmands

Art Direction by Jade Healy, Chris Trujillo

Starring:

Lena Dunham as Aura

Laurie Simmons as Siri

Grace Dunham as Nadine

Jemima Kirke as Charlotte

Alex Karpovsky as Jed

David Call as Keith

Merritt Wever as Frankie

Amy Seimetz as Ashlynn

Lena Dunham got her start making YouTube videos, but she emerged as a major talent thanks to the breakthrough success of this exceptionally sharp comedy, which garnered the twenty-four-year-old writer-director-actor comparisons to the likes of Woody Allen. Dunham plays Aura, a recent college graduate who returns to New York and moves back in with her mother and sister (played by the filmmaker’s real-life mother and sister). Though Aura is gripped by stasis and confusion about her future, Dunham locates endless sources of refreshing humor in her plight. As painfully confessional as it is amusing, Tiny Furniture is an authentic, incisive portrait of a young woman at a crossroads.

Mumblecore.  The definition of mumblecore is an “American independent film movement that arose at the turn of the 21st century”.

And I have watched a few of these low-budget independent films and while there have been good films and many bad, it has always been debated of whether these films should be held with a high regard.  Similar to what John Cassavetes was able to accomplish in in his career with his theater group and creating indie films that eventually had impact on filmmakers and are appreciated today.  Creating cinema with a micro-budget.  Can it be considered as cinema?

With the cost of DSLR’s and the popularity of these low-budget films on YouTube and other video streaming sites, I have read threads on various cinema sites if mumblecore should ever be featured on the Criterion Collection?

Even I had taken part in instigating such a discussion with a graphic I have made of Jay and Mark Duplas’ “Baghead” with a fake Criterion Cover.  But my intention was not to say that “Baghead” should be a Criterion Collection film but it was for people to acknowledge that with today’s technology, people are making movies may it be on high end equipment or affordable equipment on Canon 7D or an iPhone 4S.

We have seen American low budget films appear on the Criterion Collection before.  Sure, they may have been created decades ago but why not mumblecore?  And I’m sure there are cineaste who may be shaking their head about any mention of mumblecore being included in the Criterion Collection but in Feb. 2012, the Criterion Collection will include Lena Dunham’s “Tiny Furniture”.

Daughter of artist and photographer Laurie Simmons, Lena Dunham’s 2010 film was created on a low-budget of $50,000, premiered at South by Southwest and it won “Best Narrative Feature”.  The film was picked up by IFC films, given a theatrical release and not only has it made more than its money back, it also won “Best First Screenplay” at the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards.

While the film does share many aspects to mumblecore in terms of being shot on a low-budget, using Lena’s mother and sister as major characters in the film and also starring herself as the main protagonist, Dunham doesn’t really consider this film to be mumblecore because it was written on a “tight script” that the actors were faithful to.

But if there is one thing that many critics have noticed with “Tiny Furniture” is its ode to Woody Allen and Dunham’s appreciation for the filmmaker.

To describe “Tiny Furniture”, it’s a film that probably is best experienced than explained because just writing about it, may not seem flattering at all.  In fact, it may seem like an average day of a college graduate trying to find out what to do with her life.

Lena Dunham plays the character of Aura, a liberal arts student with a film studies degree who just graduated and returns back to her home to see her family and decide on her future.

Lena is a student who is unsure about herself, about life in general, about what she wants to do for a living and just wants to live life day-by-day.  She likes making YouTube videos and feels confident about her body which is ridiculed via comments on YouTube for her being overweight and doesn’t mind walking around the house in her underwear.

Aura’s mother Siri (played by Dunham’s real mother, Laurie Simmons) is a photographer of tiny furniture, while her sister Nadine (played by Grace Dunham) is the opposite of Aura and the two are often bickering at each other.  Although, Laurie looks at Nadine much more positively because of her intelligence and her achievements.  For Nadine, she is often disgusted by her sister’s lifestyle, especially how she posts videos of herself on YouTube which she thinks is her way of Aura craving attention.

One day, Aura discovers her mother’s diary and starts to see a side of her mother that she never knew.  Learning how her successful mother also had uncertainties about life when she was younger.

Having had a failed relationship back in college and not knowing what to do, she takes a job as a hostess at a restaurant (a job in which she keeps coming late), she befriends a YouTube star named Jed (played by Alex Karpovsky).

Jed is an absolute stranger that Aura knows nothing about but because her mom and sister are going away for a little while, she allows Jed to stay at her home for a shortwhile.  Meanwhile at work, she starts to fancy the chef named Keith (played by David Call) who tends to flirt with her.

Keith constantly talks about his on-and-off relationship with his girlfriend and for Aura, having a Jed stay at her place and now striking a friendship with Keith, she wonders if she has a chance with either of them.

Her best friend is Charlotte, a free spirit that loves to have fun and listens to Aura when she complains about life.

“Tiny Furniture” is a film about a young woman who is in the crossroad of her life, wondering what she will do next after graduating college.  Take on odd jobs?  Work for the money?  Or pursue a passion towards filmmaking?

VIDEO:

“Tiny Furniture” is presented in 1080p High Definition (2:35:1 Aspect Ratio).  For a low-budget film, Dunham worked with cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes and both decided to use the prosumer Canon 7D DSLR.  The film was shot via 1080p High Definition, ISO 200 was used for the exterior and 400 ISO for interior nights while night exteriors were shot at ISO 600-2000 and shot in 24fps.

According to an article featured on the Filmmaker Magazine blog, Lipes learned the limitations of the DSLR while using prime lenses but converted the camera’s h.264 files to Apple Pro Res and edited on Final Cut Pro and from there on, Technicolor would create an up-res the Pro Res Quicktime to a 10-bit uncompressed 4:2:2 Quicktime and record it to HDcam SR.  Color correcting the HDcam SR to HDcam SR using a Davinci 2K Plus system.  And the master was used for exhibition, while Quicktime was used for electronic distribution.

The film was shot digitally while not having that digital-look that people stray away from. The colors are actually very good and goes to show how spending the extra money on having Technicolor doing the color correcting makes a pretty big difference from the original digital recording.  I didn’t notice any high level noise during the night shots or any compression and for the most part, I was pretty content with the overall look of the film.

While Criterion does say it was shot with a Canon 5D (the 5D Mark II is a better camera), it was actually shot with a 7D according to Lipes in the Filmmaker interview.  According to the Criterion collection, the final color-corrected DPX files were output to rec. 709 high-definition color space for BD and DVD release.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Tiny Furniture” is presented in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1.    Dialogue is crisp and clear, the music sounds great and according to the Criterion Collection, the film was master at 24-bit from the original digital audio master files using Pro Tools HD.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Tiny Furniture  – The Criterion Collection #597″ on Blu-ray comes with the following special features:

• Nora Ephron and Lena Dunham  - (30:29) Nora Ephron and Lena Dunham talk about “Tiny Furniture” and discuss cinema, Woody Allen and shooting on a low budget.
• Paul Schrader on Dunham – (7:41) film critic Paul Schrader talkes about mumblecore and the people who hate on “Tiny Furniture” and what he enjoyed about the film.
• Introduction to Creative Nonfiction – (8:14) An introduction by Lena Dunham of the making of “Creative Nonfiction” and what she learned from that first experience.
• Creative Nonfiction – (58:26) Lena Dunham’s first feature shot when she was a film student at Oberlin College.
• Short Films – Featuring four short films by Lena Dunham:

- Pressure – (2006, 4:00) Three students and friends talk about having an orgasm in the school library.

- Open the Door – (2007, 4:54) – An improvised short film about a girl trying to have her mother say something on an intercom.

- Hooker on Campus – (2007, 4:47) A girl goes on college campus and tries to solicit herself for sex.

- The Fountain – (2007, 6:01)  A girl uses the campus fountain to wash herself and brush her teeth but is confronted by police.

• Trailer – The original theatrical trailer for “Tiny Furniture”.

EXTRAS:

“Tiny Furniture  – The Criterion Collection #597″ comes with a 5-fold essay “Out There” by Phillip Logan.

Everyone has their start before making a major movie.  Some are lucky to transition from film school to making a big budget film but many start out with an independent film and hopes it gets bought by a company for theatrical distribution and video.

Call her film a mumblecore film or a very good low-budget film or perhaps even lucky.  The fact that “Tiny Furniture” has made it into the Criterion Collection is quite amazing and surprising!

“Tiny Furniture” is a film which I enjoyed for its quirkiness and while it is a slice-of-life film, I know many people like Aura who have graduated from college and are unsure about their lives during these tough economic times.

While the character of Aura may seem a bit unusual and awkward, may it be letting a stranger live with her while her family is away for a week or having sex with a guy inside a pipe, while watching this film, I appreciated Dunham’s witty style of acting but as far as the character goes, I was disturbed by her choices that she makes in her life.

Lena Dunham talked about how her passion for Woody Allen made her feel inspired in making “Tiny Furniture” but with Woody Allen films, there is a sense where the characters come full circle with the decisions they have made.  For the main protagonist of Aura, while we do get witty banter, we are not entirely sure where her character is headed and the film’s focus on “uncertainty”.    Woody Allen characters accept their choices, good or bad.  In the case of “Tiny Furniture”, while there positive aspects that are learned from the film between mother and daughter, we are unsure what is wrong with Aura? Everyone has fears about life after college but for Aura, she has a way of thinking about her decisions (or lack of thinking).

And as mentioned, I’ve know people like Aura, who walk on the beat of their own drum, wanting to experience things no matter what people say.  It’s just their way of living, no matter how frustrating it may be to others. And those people frustrate me in reality, so to watch a film of a character that frustrates me by her choices, while watching the film…all that went through my mind is, I hope there is some sort of resolution to her character, may it be happy or sad.

And as far as being a viewer, I’m sure there are some who will laugh at her misery.  May it be her wearing her tight spanx to a guy she likes telling her how she sweats so much on the bed.    I was not laughing, I was more on the side of…I hope something good happens to her because her lack of ambition was becoming a bit depressing.

Still, I do like the fact that this film kept things real.  And the fact that she was able to get her mother and sister to be part of her film, the chemistry between the three is realistic and I enjoyed their constant banter.

As for the Blu-ray release, I felt that it was interesting to have this exclusive interview between Dunham and Nora Ephron discussing filmmaking and women making films.  Also, seeing film critic Paul Schrader defending the film from the haters and you also have four Dunham shorts and Dunham’s first feature “Creative Nonfiction”.

Overall, I’m sure that “Tiny Furniture” will be hotly debated on whether or not this film should have been included in the Criterion Collection but for modern independent filmmakers and those who create mumblecore films, the inclusion of “Tiny Furniture” is quite significant.

For me, it’s great to see another female filmmaker featured in the collection featured but at the same time, would love to see more films from female filmmakers such as Chantal Akerman (who did receive Criterion’s Eclipse treatment), Maya Deren, Alice Guy-Blaché, Leni Riefenstahl, Jane Campion and Sofia Coppola be given the Criterion Collection treatment as well.

“Tiny Furniture” is an amazing step forward for the career of Lena Dunham.  While I found the film to be good, I will say that I was surprised that it did receive the Criterion Collection recognition, but by saying that, I do look forward to seeing how her career progresses from the success and recognition from “Tiny Furniture” and that her next feature film is even better.

 

Belle de Jour – The Criterion Collection #593 (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

“Belle de Jour” is just one of the cinema masterpiece in Luis Buñuel’s oeuvre, but it’s a magnificent film that showcased feminine sexuality in a way not seen in cinema at that moment of time.  For those who love surrealism in cinema, especially coming from Luis Buñuel, they will find “Belle de Jour” to be a wonderful experience.  For the cineaste, this film is recommended

Image courtesy of © 1967 Paris Film Production.  2012 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Belle de Jour – The Criterion Collection #593

FILM RELEASE DATE: 1967

DURATION: 100 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Color, French Monaural with English Subtitles

COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection

RELEASED: January 17, 2012

Directed by Luis Bunuel

Based on the novel by Joseph Kessel

Adaptation and Dialogue by Luis Bunuel and Jean-Claude Carriere

Produced by Raymond Hakim, Robert Hakim

Cinematography by Sacha Vierny

Edited by Louisette Hautecoeur

Production Design by Robert Clavel

Set Decoration by Robert Clavel

Costume Design by Helene Nourry

Starring:

Catherine Deneuve as Severine Serizy/Belle de Jour

Jean Sorel as Pierre Serizy

Michel Piccoli as Henri Husson

Genevieve Page as Madame Anais

Pierre Clementi as Marcel

Francoise Fabian as Charlotte

Macha Meril as Renee

Muni as Pallas

Maria Latour as Mathilde

Catherine Deneuve’s porcelain perfection hides a cracked interior in one of the actress’s most iconic roles: Séverine, a Paris housewife who begins secretly spending her after­noon hours working in a bordello. This surreal and erotic late-sixties daydream from provocateur for the ages Luis Buñuel is an examination of desire and fetishistic pleasure (its characters’ and its viewers’), as well as a gently absurdist take on contemporary social mores and class divisions. Fantasy and reality commingle in this burst of cinematic transgression, which was one of Buñuel’s biggest hits.

Luis Buñuel, is often referred to as a filmmaker who is a master of surrealism.  A filmmaker who is known for his dark humor and one who works best when given that creative freedom.

With a several films in his magnificent oeuvre, Buñuel is known for films such as “Viridiana”, “Phantom of Liberty”, “That Obscure Object of Desire”, “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie”, “The Exterminating Angel” to name a few.

But in 1967, Buñuel would direct a French film “Belle de Jour” (which translated to “daylight beauty”) starring popular French actress “Catherine Deneuve”, who had won the hearts of audiences with the Jacques Demy film “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” in 1964 and the Roman Polanski film “Repulsion” in 1965.

For this “Belle de Jour”, Buñuel (along with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere) would create a film that was very different from the 1928 novel by Joseph Kessel and for those who have worked with him and know of his work, he typically creates films that are far from the screenplay and often injects surrealism, so in this case… What is real and what is fantasy? That is for the viewer to interpret.

The film begins with Séverine Serizy (played by Catherine Deneuve) and her husband, a doctor named Pierre (played by Jean Sorel) riding a carriage and she talks to him in a cold manner.  Immediately he has his riders stop the carriage and orders them to drag her out into the middle of nowhere, ties her up and has her hanging from a tree.  He removes her bra straps.  He orders his men to flog her and immediately tells one of his men to have his way with his wife.

But it’s all a dream and although Pierre doesn’t know what the complete dream is all about, he knows that she keeps having these dreams of her in the carriage.  The truth is that Séverine is a masochist and she wants to be fulfilled sexually but is not sure how to communicate it with her clean cut and very kind husband.

While the two go on vacation, they meet with their friends, including a free spirit named Monsieur Husson (played by Michael Piccoli) who makes Séverine feel uncomfortable because he keeps looking at her. As she and her female friend go on a ride, the two start discussing prostitution and how one of the women from their tennis club is known to have a double life.

The matter of prostitution stays in her mind and for some reason, she is bothered by it and asks her husband if he has done anything with prostitutes and what the experience is like.  He tells her that his experience with them was in the past and explains a bit about it.  She is disgusted and no longer wants to hear anymore from him.

One day, while going to play some tennis, she sees Husson once again and he tries to kiss her on the neck which she refuses.  He then mentions the name of a high-class brothel and immediately, she starts having ideas of working at the brothel.

We are then given a few images through various short scenes of Séverine when she was younger.  From a bearded man trying to kiss her when she was a young girl, to not accepting communion in church and more.

As Séverine decides to go into the hostel, she meets with Madame Anais (played by Genevieve Page) and she tells the Madame that she can work only on the afternoon between 2-5 p.m. Madame Anais gives her the name “Belle de jour” (because she only works afternoons) and immediately, Séverine begins her career pleasuring wealthy men.

She eventually becomes entangled with Marcel (played by Pierre Clementi), a young gangster who is able to give her all the thrills and excitement that she has fantasized.  But when he becomes too demanding and becomes jealous of her marriage to Pierre, Séverine’s life becomes complicated to the point where she now wants to quit the brothel.

Which leads Séverine on a downward spiral…or not?  Because of the film’s ambiguities, which scenes from the film are reality and which are just fantasy?

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Branded to Kill” is presented in 1:66:1 aspect ratio, color and audio is presented in French monaural with English subtitles. It’s important to note that with the 2011 release of “Belle de Jour”, for those wanting the best picture and audio quality, you may want to opt for the Blu-ray because it is in HD.

For those who owned the old 2002 DVD release, the Criterion Collection 2011 DVD release is so much better than the original in terms of picture quality and content.  While the Blu-ray release will definitely feature sharper and vibrant colors, the DVD still looks good when compared to the old 2002 DVD release.  If anything, the picture quality looks fantastic for a film that is 45-years-old.  Colors look very good but most importantly, there is no enhancement of DNR, and for the most part, picture quality looks very good.  There is one scene that shows its age (as it did in the original 2002 Miramax DVD release) when Séverine is with Marcel and there is major nose.  But that scene is fairly short.  If anything, this is the best that “Belle de Jour” has looked on DVD.

According to the Criterion Collection, the new high-definition transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35 mm interpositive. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Image System’s DVNR was used for small dirt, grain and noise reduction.

As for the monaural soundtrack, the new release was remastered at 24-bit from a 35 mm print. Clicks, thumps, hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.

Audio-wise, dialogue was clear and I detected no problems or crackle. Doing tests of the old 2002 Miramax DVD release and the 2011 DVD release, there is a slight distinction of clarity in audio but for the most part, the difference is more apparent in the video.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Belle de Jour – The Criterion Collection #593″ comes with the following special features:

• Audio Commentary – Featuring a wonderful and insightful audio commentary by Princeton professor Michael Wood, author of BFI Films Classics Book “Belle de Jour”.
  
• That Obscure Source of Desire – (18:08) A 2011 interview with activist Susie Bright (author of “Big Sex, Little Death”) and UC Berkeley professor Linda Williams (author of “Screening Sex”) discuss Belle de jour and the representation of feminine sexuality, themes of masochism and more.
  
• Jean-Claude Carriere - (10:22) A 2011 interview with “Belle de jour” screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere on how he and Luis Buñuel came up with the screenplay.
  
• Cinema – (7:16) An excerpt from “Cinema”, which aired on Dec. 23, 1966 featuring interviews with Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Claude Carriere.
  
• Trailer – The original theatrical trailer (2:41), the original U.S. trailer (1:47) and the U.S. re-release trailer (1:07).
  

EXTRAS:

• 32-Page booklet – Featuring a new essay titled “Tough Love” by Melissa Anderson and “Buñuel on Belle de jour” (an exerpt from “Objects of Desire: Conversations with Luis Buñuel”. by Jose de la Colina and Tomas Perez Turrent.

Luis Buñuel’s exotic masterpiece receives the Criterion Collection treatment and what a wonderful release it turned out to be!

Before discussing the film, what made “Belle de Jour” a film that attracted my attention was the fact that Luis Buñuel directed it.  For anyone who has seen any of his wonderful films and have gravitated towards his work because of its surrealism, for me…I’m literally grinning while watching his films because he does not follow traditional filmmaking, nor does he want to compartmentalized a storyline and make it simple for the viewer.   His films are notable because he does what he wants and while many question his choices of “why?”, his answer is typically “why not?” and if one had a different viewpoint of his filmmaking, he would answer with a “if you directed the film with what you want to see…then go for it!”.

He’s a filmmaker and a creative artist, and like an artist such as Salvador Dali, you view his films and enjoy it for what it is.  There are too many critics who find Buñuel’s work so maddening because it’s not clear-cut but why should his work be banal?  That is what I love about Buñuel films and make me slightly biased towards a more positive viewpoint because his films are non-traditional and quite enjoyable.

Which leads us to “Belle de Jour”.  Sure, this is not the clearcut storyline that Joseph Kessel wrote in his 1928 novel about a woman named Séverine Sérizy who was molested at a young age and lives a double life of being a normal housewife and becoming a prostitute for a few hours in order to fulfill her sexual desires.

In the film adaptation, Buñuel does keep the theme, we are aware that Séverine Sérizy was molested and because of that, she has harbored sexual feelings of masochism that she is too afraid to ask her husband to do to her.  But while Kessel’s book is quite straightforward of one woman pursuing that lifestyle and living a life of unhappily ever after, Buñuel shows us reality and shows us fantasy and at the end, both reality and fantasy come together as one.

One must remember that in 1967, this film was rather shocking to many people.  For one, unlike today where one can psychoanalyze a person who has been molested and growing up to have some major issues, back then, it was an issue that was rarely discussed.  And also, rarely do you find a film that focuses on a protagonist who has masochistic desires.

The film begins with Séverine Sérizy being led out to a car by her husband Pierre and is tied up, her bra removed and is whipped and is kissed by another man.  A fantasy.

But then there are many other fantasies with Séverine going under the table with Monsieur Husson and while the table is shaking, her husband and friend are carrying on with a conversation. To being with a man who is interested in possibly using an insect and using it for some sexual pleasure to another man who has an unusual sexual desire by having Séverine in a coffin and even a scene where she is kissed by her madame.

And each fantasy, we see her sexual desire escalating and also introducing things that may be a bit bizarre but she she enjoys it until things become dangerous. And the way it is presented by Luis Buñuel is not clear-cut like the book but done with a great touch of surrealism with amazing efficacy.

And of course, Catherine Deneuve is absolutely wonderful in her performance.  Bringing this calm but also sexually dangerous side to her character which was quite intriguing as she has considered herself as an introverted person, so to see her playing this role, I was quite amazed the first time I watched it and if you enjoyed this film, you definitely want to watch her next collaboration with Luis Buñuel in “Tristana” (and equally entertaining is reading “The Private Diaries of Catherine Deneauve” which she wrote about her daily experience on working on that film).

What I enjoyed about this Criterion Collection is how this film has meant a lot people and also for Luis Buñuel, to see how people have interpreted his film from the insightful audio commentary by Princeton professor Michael Wood and the focus on the feminine sexuality and impact of the film as discussed by activist Susie Bright and UC Berkeley professor Linda Williams.  And also, the addition of the 2011 interview with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere and also the classic interviews with him and Catherine Deneuve made this release much more entertaining than the 2002 Miramax DVD release.

If anything, it is quite wonderful to finally see this film receiving the Criterion Collection treatment and while I am reviewing the DVD, if you have a Blu-ray player, I definitely recommend going for the HD version as it is the best version out there of this film with wonderful picture quality.  Otherwise if you don’t own a Blu-ray player, this 2011 DVD release is still very good, much clearer, sharper than the 2002 DVD release and it looks fantastic for a 45-year-old film.

Overall, “Belle de Jour” is just one of the cinema masterpiece in Luis Buñuel’s oeuvre, but it’s a magnificent film that showcased feminine sexuality in a way not seen in cinema at that moment of time.  For those who love surrealism in cinema, especially coming from Luis Buñuel, they will find “Belle de Jour” to be a wonderful experience.

For the cineaste, this film is recommended!

 

The Moment of Truth – The Criterion Collection #595 (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

“The Moment of Truth” may not be as controversial as Francesco Rosi’s previous or even later films but it does show how far he was able to go when given that creative freedom and in the case of this film, that is to capture every detail of bullfighting.  It’s definitely not a film for those who are compassionate about the treatment of animals or are bothered by violence towards an animal, but for those who look at bullfighting as a cultural tradition and artform and for those who want to watch a film from one of Italy’s legendary postwar neorealist filmmakers – Francesco Rosi, “The Moment of Truth” is worth recommending!

Image courtesy of © 1964 Intramoviews Srl. 2012 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: The Moment of Truth – The Criterion Collection #595 (Il momento della verità)

MOVIE RELEASE: 1965

DURATION: 107 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Color, Italian with English Subtitles, Monaural, 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio

COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection

RELEASE DATE: January 24, 2012

Directed by Francesco Rosi

Story by Pedro Beltran, Ricardo Munoz Suay, Pere Portabella, Francesco Rosi

Screenplay by Pedro Beltran, Ricardo Munoz Suay, Pere Portabella

Music by Piero Piccioni

Cinematography by Pasqualino De Santis, Gianni Di Venanzo, Aiace Parolin

Edited by Mario Serandrei

Starring:

Miguel Mateo “Miguelin” as Miguel Romero “Miguelin”

Jose Gomez Seillano as Don Jose, the Agent

Pedro Basauri “Pedrucho” as Himself, the Maestro

Linda Christian as Linda, American Woman

The Moment of Truth (Il momento della verità), from director Francesco Rosi, is a visceral plunge into the life of a famous torero—played by real-life bullfighting legend Miguel Mateo, known as Miguelín. Charting his rise and fall with a single-minded focus on the bloody business at hand, the film is at once gritty and operatic, placing the viewer right in the thick of the ring’s action, as close to death as possible. Like all of the great Italian truth seeker’s films, this is not just an electrifying drama but also a profound and moving inquiry into a violent world—and it’s perhaps the greatest bullfighting movie ever made.

When it comes to daring films, one of the filmmakers to emerge from post-neorealist Italian cinema and literally shake the film industry was Francesco Rosi.

Rosi was known to take on corruption in his films and in 1962, his film “Salvatore Giuliano” would earn him the “Silver Bear for Best Director” at the 12 Berlin International Festival and would continue to pursue controversial topics and subjects throughout his career, including his 1972 film “The Mattei Affair” which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

And through his brave and bold filmmaking, in 2008, the Italian filmmaker was honored in 2008 with an Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement.

But while Rosi is known for taking on mafia and government corruption films, in 1965, Rosi wanted to capture something new and different and that was to create a film around bullfighting.  A film known as “Il momento della verità” (The Moment of Truth).

Inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s book, “Death in the Afternoon”, about the ceremonial and traditions of Spanish bullfighting including the fear and courage of the toreador, Rosi wanted to capture this in film.  So, after receiving the go-ahead, Rosi headed to Spain in which he would meet a young man named Miguel Mateo, who would be the lead actor in the film but also would become a real-life bullfighting legend.

Rosi and two members of his film crew documented actual bullfighting, a tradition in Spain (and other countries) in which a matador/toreador (or torero) use a variety of moves that they learned from training and  is considered an art form as they use a variety of maneuvers around a live bull.  Because the torero is in close range, they can easily be gored or trampled to death.

During the event, the torero would use a morillo to stab the bulls neck and show which side is actually injured, before leading to the final moment with the bull, the torero lunges a sword into the bull (a movement known as “estocada”) and one strike can kill the bull.  Once the bull is down, the crowd runs down to the bull and typically they celebrate the toredor’s win.

The other event shown is when a large crowd gathers inside the arena and a young bull is unleashed at them and many run around trying to avoid being gored (some trying to grab and hold the bulls horns).

The film would be one of the first major films to capture live bullfighting on camera and incorporated to a film.  And while the film was well-received back in the mid ’60s, the film has been out of circulation for a long time, until now.

The Criterion Collection will be releasing the “The Moment of Truth” on Blu-ray and DVD, the third Rosi film to be included in the Criterion Collection after his 1962 film “Salvatore Giuliano” and his 1963 film “Hands over the City”.

“The Moment of Truth” begins with funeral procession and then transitions to a bullfight ceremony and everyone enjoying the festivities.  Among those enjoying the festivities is Miguel Mateo, a young man who is tired of living in the country and tilling the farm area with his father.  He wants to make good money, so he decides to move to the city and see what kind of job he is able to get.

Immediately, Miguel learns that getting a job is not easy and learns from other guys that the best way is to go through middleman.  But working this way, Miguel learns that he is no different in a position when he was living in the country.  All work, no life, nothing to show for all the hard work.

One night, while going out with a few guy friends to a bar, he finds out that a torero is training people on how to become a toreador.  While Miguel doesn’t have much money, he figures that perhaps by training hard, he can become a toreador and make a lot of money.  And sure enough, through hard training, he becomes well recognized.

In fact, he becomes so good that he catches the eye of a professional toreador manager and is signed to a lucrative contract and now, Miguel Maeo “Miguelin” becomes a big attraction to these bullfighting events.  And as he manages to kill bull after bull, he has a long tour in front of him and one day, he is nearly gored and trampled.  But he manages to survive another day.

But the life of being a toreador starts to get the best of him as he becomes exhausted, especially as Miguelin is being wakened by nightmares that if he does not stop what he’s doing, he will someday die.

His manager tries to tell him that it’s a fear that all toreadors face but was that nightmare just a part of fear or was the nightmare a sign that he must stop immediately?

VIDEO:

“The Moment of Truth” is presented in 1080p High Definition (2:35:1 aspect ratio).  It’s important to note that the film was shot in a variety of ways.  For one, footage comes from the many live bullfighting events in which Rossi and his cameramen would document these major events, the other is footage from actual parts of the film.  Capturing the countryside, a party that Miguelin attends, etc.

With that being said, picture quality tends to vary as the theatrical portions hold up quite well, while those shot in the bullfighting arena does show its age, shows quite a bit of noise but at times, there is quite a bit of detail, from the blood running through the bull after it is stabbed, to the dripping blood coming out of the bull’s mouth or neck and later when the bull’s neck is slit and blood flows all over the ground.

For the most part, picture quality for this film is good in the fact that this film showed no flickering, no major film damage, discoloration or excessive aging of the film elements.

According to the Criterion Collection, the new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35 mm interpositive.  Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Image Systems’ DVNR was used for small dirt, grain and noise reduction.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“The Moment of Truth” is presented in Italian monaural. The dialogue is clear through the center channel and you can hear the crowd screaming in support of the toreador.  I didn’t hear any hissing, crackling or any negative issues with the audio soundtrack for this film.

According to the Criterion Collection, the original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the 35 mm optical soundtrack negative.  Clicks, thumps, hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD.  Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.

Subtitles are presented in English SDH.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“The Moment of Truth – The Criterion Collection #595″ on Blu-ray comes with the following special feature:

• Francesco Rosi - (13:52) An exclusive interview with director Francesco Rosi from 2004. Rosi explains of how he was inspired by Hemingway’s book, filming the bullfighting sequences and discovering Miguel Mateo but also how Mateo was actually injured during an actual bullfight scene that is in the film.

EXTRAS:

“The Moment of Truth – The Criterion Collection #595″ comes with an 20-page booklet featuring image stills from the film and the essay “The Blood of Beasts” by Peter Matthews.

“The Moment of Truth” is one of those hybrid films that is half documentary and the other half is an actual film.  And while the film about one man’s escape from poverty to take on a cultural tradition that is highly dangerous for the money may contain a similar banality of a innercity youth trying to make a name for himself as a boxer, filmmaker Francesco Rossi does not want to recreate the risk, he and his crew film wanted to capture what takes place at bullfighting down to the most ultimate, including gruesome details as much as possible.

Already known for his post-neorealist work in Italy, Francesco Rosi does continue to capture the neorealism by showcasing a young man wanting to escape poverty by moving to the big city and to learn that things are not as great as he expected it to be.  Until he finds out that toreador’s can make great money and is willing to take on the bull, as long as he gets paid.

But Miguel starts to learn through his training and then his newfound career is that it’s one thing to make a lot of money, but day in and day out, chances of him not surviving a clash with a bull can happen.  And just like a bull, who is cheered and then forgotten, so are the toreadors.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition to see the human and the animal.  Both being caught up in a longstanding cultural tradition to entertain the masses, but in the end…is it all worth it?

And while many in America may not know the full details of what transpires during a bullfight, suffice to say, “The Moment of Truth” is a film that captures the cultural event with enough detail  that even one of Rossi’s main crew members was sickened by it.

I think that Ernest Hemingway best explained bullfighting as “anything capable of arousing passion in its favor will surely raise as much passion against it.”

I was pretty amazed myself of how much detail and footage of the actual bullfight was incorporated in the film.  Every bloody moment of it but I can see how that footage helped enhance the character of Miguel.  The viewer needed to see his progression as a toreador and to make it authentic, it worked well for Rosi to cast a real-life torero.

And Rosi knew the danger that his talent would be in as he would have to feature footage after footage of him taking on a bull and in today’s films, there is no way an actor will be risking their life onscreen.  In the case of “The Moment of Truth”, there is a scene where Miguel Mateo was gored and injured, bloodied in all…suffice to say, this film could have turned out tragic realistically as the main star was injured.

But it’s because we see Miguel Mateo being pitted against the bull, no re-enactment, no special effects, it’s the real deal and Francesco Rossi and his crew of cinematographers were there to capture it all, as it’s not just a film, the actor is also risking his life in this film.

While the film does featuring the rags to riches storyline in the beginning of the film and also Rosi manages to squeeze in some screentime for the first Bond girl, American actress Linda Christian, the scenes that people will remember the most of this film are the actual arena footage.  From Miguel to other toreadors taking on the bulls, or to see a crowd of people running around the arena trying to dodge a bull that runs astray, gorging anything that it comes into contact with and see people injured.

It sure seems barbaric, especially if you are a person that cares about animals, but this is a long-standing cultural event that has continued since the 1700′s and possibly even before that.  Man vs. animal but what was more of sports entertainment, it’s now become tradition in Spain, Portugal, southern France and other countries.

There is no denying that Miguel Mateo and his elegance of swinging the red drape around the bull, close up to the point where he puts his arm to the bulls face with grace and a bull responding by rushing after him.  And to hear the audience react with applause or gasp, for me…I can see how many can be entertained by it.

But because the many scenes of the actual killing of various bulls and watching blood flow through the back, to see them so energetic and suddenly collapse or seeing the bull’s throat slit with blood pouring out of it, once again, this film is not for the squeamish.

As for the Criterion Collection Blu-ray release of “The Moment of Truth”, while I have never watched the film before in any previous format, because of the HD treatment and Criterion Collection’s dedication to quality releases, I have no doubt in my mind that this is probably the best version of this film to be released on video thus far.   It may not contain the plethora of special features that one is accustomed to seeing in a Criterion Collection release but nevertheless, it’s a film that is worth watching.   One can only hope that Francesco Rosi’s other two films in the Criterion Collection (“Salvatore Giulliani” and “Hands Over the City”) will also receive the HD treatment but for the cineaste, “The Moment of Truth” is a film worth watching.

Overall, “The Moment of Truth” may not be as controversial as Francesco Rosi’s previous or even later films but it does show how far he was able to go when given that creative freedom and in the case of this film, that is to capture every detail of bullfighting.  It’s definitely not a film for those who are compassionate about the treatment of animals or are bothered by violence towards an animal, but for those who look at bullfighting as a cultural tradition and artform and for those who want to watch a film from one of Italy’s legendary postwar neorealist filmmakers – Francesco Rosi, “The Moment of Truth” is worth recommending!

 

Branded to Kill – The Criterion Collection #38 (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

Unique and brilliant, Seijun Suzuki’s masterpiece… “Branded to Kill” is a film that was ahead of its time, misunderstood but now highly appreciated.  This 2011 DVD release improves upon the original 1999 DVD in picture quality clarity and detail but also comes with wonderful special features as well!  “Branded to Kill” (2011) is another highly recommended Criterion Collection release!

Image courtesy of © 1967 Nikkatsu Corporation. 2011 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Branded to Kill – The Criterion Collection #38 (Koroshi no Rakuin)

FILM RELEASE DATE: 1967

DURATION: 91 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Black and White, Monaural in Japanese with English Subtitles, 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio

COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection

RELEASED: December 13, 2011

Directed by Seijun Suzuki

Written by Hachiro Guryu, Takeo Kimura, Chusei Sone, Atsushi Yamatoya

Produced by Kaneo Iwai, Takiko Mizunoe

Music by Naozumi Yamamoto

Cinematography by Kazue Nagatsuka

Edited by Matsuo Tanji

Art Direction by Sukezo Kawahara

Starring:

Jo Shishido as Goro Hanada

Koji Nanbara as No. 1

Isao Tamagawa as Michiko Yabuhara

Anne Mari as Misako Nakajo

Mariko Ogawa as Mami Hanada

Hiroshi Minami as Gihei Kasuga

When Japanese New Wave bad boy Seijun Suzuki delivered this brutal, hilarious, and visually inspired masterpiece to the executives at his studio, he was promptly fired. Branded to Kill tells the ecstatically bent story of a yakuza assassin with a fetish for sniffing steamed rice (the chipmunk-cheeked superstar Joe Shishido) who botches a job and ends up a target himself. This is Suzuki at his most extreme—the flabbergasting pinnacle of his sixties pop-art aesthetic.

“Branded to Kill”, Seijun Suzuki’s masterpiece but also a film that led to the filmmaker’s firing.

While we are graced with films with visual style, humor and coolness by Beat Takeshi, Takashi Miike, Kazuaki Kiriya to name a few… Seijun Suzuki was part of the Nikkatsu company that churned two movies a week and had to work with a low budget, be creative and churn out a film within 25 days. Needless to say, executives didn’t understand Suzuki’s style, they criticized him, they talked down to him but what they didn’t know was that his style was not being rebellious, it was his style.

Perhaps Suzuki’s style was too surreal because what Nikkatsu wanted was traditional Japanese films that they were used to making.  Seijun Suzuki who created 40 B-movies for the company between 1956 and 1967 was anything but traditional, not necessarily a rebel but he created films that he wanted to make,each film being different and now respected as films that were ahead of its time.

Prior to releasing his final film, “Branded to Kill”, for Nikkatsu, they were growing tired by his inability to create traditional films that the executives were used too.  But by the end of “Branded to Kill”,  the executives of the company had enough of Suzuki’s style of filmmaking. While he never complained, he was fired from his job.  And Suzuki was not a man to let the studio run all over him.  In fact, he successfully sued the company for wrongful dismissal but in Japanese business tradition, if you sue an entertainment company, you will be blacklisted (which still goes on today in Japan) and in this case, Suzuki was blacklisted for ten years.

In Japan, because he stood up to the big entertainment company, he became a counterculture icon and his films were shown at midnight screenings to a packed audience.

In America, many cinema fans appreciated Suzuki’s work because of its visual, surreal style that was not as common to see in Japanese gangster films.

And while his two better known films, “Tokyo Drifter” and “Branded to Kill” have been released in America on LD and DVD from the Criterion Collection, in Dec. 2011, the Criterion Collection released both of Seijun Suzuki’s films “Tokyo Drifter” and “Branded to Kill” on Blu-ray and DVD which features improved video quality plus a new interview with Seijun Suzuki done exclusively by the Criterion Collection in 2011.

“Branded to Kill” is a film about an assassin named Goro Hanada (played by Jo Shishido), better known as assassin No. 3 in rank.

Whenever someone needs to be killed, these assassins are called in.  But if they mess up a job, they immediately will become a target.  And there are some who are concerned by their rankings.  You want to be No. 1, you have to kill No. 1.  Problem is… no one really knows who No. 1 is.

Goro is calm, cool and collected and excellent with a gun. But he also has an unusual fetish of sniffing rice before he can engage in sex with his wife Mami Hanada (played by Mariko Ogawa), a woman who appears to be having sex with his friend Michihiko (played by Isao Tamagawa) and a woman that Goro only sees as a plaything.

But this is the underworld, a life of making money through killing people and for Goro, this is the life that he has lived and has no problems on taking a job.

One day after successfully killing a list of people, he is contacted by a mysterious woman named Misako Nakajo (played by Anne Mari).  She is attractive, sexy but shows no emotion and immediately, Goro is sexually attracted to her.  But she knows something about him, and that makes him wonder about her.

Misako asks for him to assassinate a man that she is with but he only has a three second window and he would be paid quite nicely.

But Goro’s sniping skills is disturbed by a butterfly and he ends up killing an innocent woman, while Misako ends up shooting the man but not killing him.

When Misako and Goro encounter each other, she tells him that because of his mistake, he will be killed.  And it is revealed that Misako maybe an assassin herself and also has an unusual fetish of butterflies in her room and also a fetish of using poisonous needles which she has killed several of her birds with.  And when he tries to threaten to kill her, she pulls out her poisonous needles and tells him that she knows he won’t kill her because he wants to ravage her.  And she plays mind games with Goro, making him think that he can engage in sex with her but also teasing him that if he does, he will die.

Meanwhile, Goro’s wife hates Misako with a passion and is angered that her husband has found a new “plaything”.

But it doesn’t take long for Goro to know that No. 1 will be responsible in killing him and from there on, No. 1 starts to use psychological tactics to make Goro uneasy.  Torturing him by teasing and even putting a movie of a nude Misako bounded and being threatened by flames.

Goro knows there are assassins after him, including No. 1 who tries to wear him down.

But in unusual fashion, No. 1 goes straight to Goro’s home and doesn’t kill him immediately.  In fact, No. 1 stays with him in his apartment using psychological tactics to make sure that Goro knows not to pull anything while he’s there.  Even when they are sleeping, Goro feels uneasy as No. 1 sleeps with his eyes open.

But as No. 1 tries to use these tactics to instill fear in Goro, Goro who is slowly losing it realizes, if he kills No. 1, he will then become No. 1.

Who will emerge victorious and become the #1 killer?

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Branded to Kill” is presented in 2:35:1 aspect ratio, black and white and audio is presented in monaural. It’s important to note that with the 2011 release, the release signifies the HD release of “Branded to Kill” on Blu-ray and for those wanting the best picture and audio quality, the Blu-ray is the version to buy.

But many may wonder if they owned the older 1999 DVD release and don’t own a Blu-ray player, should they upgrade to the 2011 DVD release? I can tell you right now that the 2011 version takes advantage of newer remastering technology. The contrast is much better, whites and grays are well-contrast while black levels are nice and deep. The picture quality is so much better than the older DVD but if you can, I highly recommend going for the Blu-ray release as you will get more detail and clarity.

According to the Criterion Collection, the new high-definition transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a fine-grain master positive. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Image System’s DVNR was used for small dirt, grain and noise reduction.

As for the monaural soundtrack, the new release was remastered at 24-bit from the original soundtrack print. Clicks, thumps, hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.

Audio-wise, dialogue was clear and I detected no problems or crackle. Doing tests of the 1999 DVD release and the 2011 DVD release, there is a slight distinction of clarity in audio but for the most part, the difference is more apparent in the video.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Branded to Kill”, the 2011 DVD release comes with the following special features:

• Seijun Suzuki and Masami Kuzuu – (12:10) A 2011 Criterion Collection interview with director Seijun Suzuki and assistant director Masami Kuzuu discussing “Branded to Kill”.
  
• Joe Shishido - (11:01) An interview with main actor Joe Shishido conducted in July 2011 by the Criterion Collection.
  
• Seijun Suzuki – (14:07) An interview with director Seijun Suzuki recorded during a retrospective of his work by the Japan Foundation and the Los Angeles Film Forum at the Nuart Theatere in Los Angeles in March 1997.
  
• Trailer – (3:09) The original theatrical trailer for “Tokyo Drifter”.
  

EXTRAS:

• 20-Page booklet – Featuring a new essay titled “Reductio Ad Absurdum: Suzuki Seijun’s Branded to Kill” by film critic Tony Rayns.

This is the film that defied Nikkatsu and led to Seijun Suzuki’s termination with the studio.  But it’s also the film that can be considered Seijun Suzuki’s greatest masterpiece!

While “Branded to Kill” could have been the typical banal yakuza film and be the “King of the Mountain” type of story of individual assassins try to reach the #1 position in killer rating, that would have made a fine traditional Japanese gangster film.  But for those who are familiar with Seijun Suzuki’s work, Suzuki is not your traditional filmmaker.  Many look at his work as surreal filmmaking, even though Suzuki never thought of it that way.  It was just his style, of being creative and not wanting his films to be just like any other film.  And in this case, making each film different and doing the best he can no matter how much Nikkatsu would cut from his budget or force him to shoot in black and white as a sort of punishment for not following their rules.

From the opening scene, we are treated with the usual stoic man, full of bravado, suave and cool with his Rayban sunglasses and excellent shooting, but its the characters that literally make things surreal.

From when you are reminded of Goro’s fetish with sniffing rice, the film would then become a showcase of kinky sex and surreal violence. Goro Hanada is a killer, an assassin who will take on the best paying assignments and typically succeeds.  During his offtime, he can always find his wife fully nude, and whether he’s having sex with her in various positions or slapping her around, this is the character that Suzuki focuses on.

What about the other characters such as Misako, the emotionless and beautiful killer who also has a fetish with her poisonous needles as we see her dead birds penetrated with needles or her love for butterflies.  Or even No. 1, the #1 ranked assassin who uses psychological tactics to the point where he confronts Goro at his home and even stays with him, including making sure they go to the bathroom a certain way… together.

With intriguing editing, compositions and creative camera angles, Suzuki is able to merge commercial mainstream filmmaking with avant garde style.  Making a gangster film artistic and despite the film being a violent film, especially for 1967 audiences, he manages to pull off one hell of a perverse, surreal, violent but yet fantastic film that is unlike other gangster films, especially films coming from Nikkatsu.

I have watched “Branded to Kill” countless times before including Suzuki’s film “Tokyo Drifter”, as these two films were ahead of its time.  If people can respect the David Lynch, Takashi Miike and the Quentin Tarentino style of films today, they will love Seijun Suzuki’s films.  This is a man who worked for a studio that made things as difficult as possible for him to be successful but because he and his crew were good at adapting to their economic situations, they used creative styles of storytelling, filming, costume and set design in order to achieve success in their mind, even if the studio execs felt Suzuki’s films were “incomprehensible”.

As for this latest 2011 release on Blu-ray and DVD, personally…the point of this new release is the Blu-ray!  Criterion Collection has done a magnificent job of remastering this film in HD but since I’m reviewing the DVD version, I’m confident to say that this film is still worth it (especially if you don’t own a Blu-ray player) as the DVD looks great, especially compared to the old Criterion Collection 1999 DVD which lacks the color, detail and clarity.  This DVD’s picture quality is much better than the original DVD and you get more special features as well!

Overall, “Branded to Kill” is a unique, brilliant masterpiece from Seijun Suzuki and a Criterion Collection release that is highly recommended!

 

Tokyo Drifter – The Criterion Collection #39 (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

Stylish, cool and all-out entertaining!  Seijun Suzuki’s classic gangster film “Tokyo Drifter” is magnificent!  And for those who owned the original 1999 DVD, the Criterion Collection’s 2011 release of “Tokyo Drifter” is a major improvement in picture quality and special features.  Definitely recommended!

Image courtesy of © 1966 Nikkatsu Corporation. 2011 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Tokyo Drifter – The Criterion Collection #39 (Tokyo Nagaremono)

FILM RELEASE DATE: 1966

DURATION: 82 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Color, Monaural in Japanese with English Subtitles, 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio

COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection

RELEASED: December 13, 2011

Directed by Seijun Suzuki

Written by Kohan Kawauchi

Produced by Tetsuro Nakagawa

Music by Hajime Kaburagi

Cinematography by Shigeyoshi Mine

Edited by Shinya Inoue

Production Design by Takeo Kimura

Starring:

Tetsuya Watari as Tetsuya “Phoenix Tetsu” Hondo

Chieko Matsubara as Chiharu

Hideaki Nitani as Kenji Aizawa

Ryuji Kita as Kurata

Tsuyoshi Yoshida as Keeichi

Eimei Esumi as Otsuka

Tamio Kawaji as Tatsuzo, the Viper

Eiji Go as Tanaka

Tochiko Hamakawa as Mutsuko

Isao Tamagawa as Umetani

Michi Hino as Yoshii

Shuntaro Tamamura as Koyanagai

In this jazzy gangster film, reformed killer Tetsu’s attempt to go straight is thwarted when his former cohorts call him back to Tokyo to help battle a rival gang. Director Seijun Suzuki’s onslaught of stylized violence and trippy colors is equal parts Russ Meyer, Samuel Fuller, and Nagisa Oshima—an anything-goes, in-your-face rampage. Tokyo Drifter is a delirious highlight of the brilliantly excessive Japanese cinema of the sixties.

In Japan, what kind of film would ever feature a stoic, cool tough former gangster that can whistle or sing a song while guns are pointed at him?

The answer is “Tokyo Drifter”, the 1966 film directed by Seijun Suzuki who has earned a worldwide following of cinema fans due to his experimental visual style, humor and nihilistic coolness that his style of films were ahead of its time.

While we are graced with films with visual style, humor and coolness by Beat Takeshi, Takashi Miike, Kazuaki Kiriya to name a few… Seijun Suzuki was part of the Nikkatsu company that churned two movies a week and had to work with a low budget, be creative and churn out a film within 25 days.  Needless to say, executives didn’t understand Suzuki’s style, they criticized him, they talked down to him but what they didn’t know was that his style was not being rebellious, it was his style.

You can call his style “surreal” but what Nikkatsu wanted was traditional-style filmmaking, Seijun Suzuki who created 40 B-movies for the company between 1956 and 1967 and he was anything but traditional.

After “Tokyo Drifter”, he created two movies including his masterpiece “Branded to Kill” and the company had enough of Suzuki’s style of filmmaking.  While he never complained, he was fired from his job and successfully sued the company for wrongful dismissal but in Japanese business tradition, if you sue an entertainment company, you will be blacklisted (which still goes on today in Japan) and in this case, Suzuki was blacklisted for ten years.

In Japan, because he stood up to the big entertainment company, he became a counterculture icon and his films were shown at midnight screenings to a packed audience.

In America, many cinema fans appreciated Suzuki’s work because of its visual, surreal style that was not as common to see in Japanese gangster films.

And while “Tokyo Drifter” and “Branded to Kill” have been released in America on LD and DVD from the Criterion Collection, in Dec. 2011, the Criterion Collection released both of Seijun Suzuki’s films “Tokyo Drifter” and “Branded to Kill” on Blu-ray and DVD which features improved video quality plus new interviews conducted by the Criterion Collection in 2011.

As for “Tokyo Drifter”, the film was to be made to propel the career of pop star Tetsuya Watari (who sang the theme song “Tokyo Nagarerumono”) and according to Suzuki, he only had 28-days to shoot the film including editing and post-production. Because Nikkatsu was growing tired of Suzuki’s bizarre visual style, they cut the film’s budget in hoping that it would make things much more simpler for the filmmaker.  But instead, it pushed Suzuki and art director Takeo Kimura to look for creative ways to making the film look cool.

For the intro, he wanted to experiment with expired film and because they were shooting on a low-budget, in order to be creative using a single set, they used a variety of colors.  And also, Suzuki wanted to stray away from the typical yakuza film by giving the main protagonist warmer colors instead of wearing the typical black suit.

Suffice to say, once again, upon completion, Nikkatsu executives were not pleased.  They felt that the film did not promote Tetsuya Watari and that the film was “incomprehensible” and he was ordered to reshoot the ending.

Needless to say, the film was ahead of its time and it introduced many cinema fans of his work and also creating demand for his older Nikkatsu films.

“Tokyo Drifter” is a film that revolves around Tetsuya “Phoenix Tetsu” Hondo, a former yakuza member who has gone straight along with his boss Kurata (played by Ryuji Kita).  Out of loyalty, Tetsu has done everything that his boss has told him and not to get involved in any fights that would cause harm.

In the beginning of the film, he is assaulted by a gang led by rival boss Otsuka (played by Hideaki Esumi), who do all they can to recruit Tetsu into their organization by beating on him but Tetsu continues to remain loyal to Kurata.  For Otsuka, Tetsu has become the major thorn on his side in winning the war against his rival Kurata and thus, it is important to get Tetsu to join their gang or eliminate him.

As Tetsu tries to live the straight-life and doing business legit for his boss and also maintain a relationship with a singer named Chiharu (played by Chieko Matsubara), Otsuka wants to inflict revenge on his rival Kurata by taking over a building that they are leasing from a businessman named Yoshii (played by Michio Hino).

Kurata intends to buy the building but instead, Otsuka organizes a sham meeting with Yoshii, who is leaving to meet with Kurata.

Yoshii finds out that Otsuka has lied and wants him to sign documents saying that Otsuka has bought the building and thus Kurata must make payments to Otsuka.  Yoshii refuses but when he is beaten and threatened to be killed, Yoshii has no choice but to sign.

When Tetsu catches word that Yoshii has sold Otsuka the building, Tetsu knows something is awry and goes to confront Otsuka.  But when he arrives, Otsuka has shot Yoshii to death and when Tetsu tries to get at them, he falls into a hidden pit and is unconscious,  Otsuka and his gang use the Yoshii deal and Tetsu capture as leverage against Kurata.

And as Otsuka tries to blackmail Kurata, in the process, Kurata tries to shoot at one of Otsuka’s gang members but instead, shoots his girlfriend to death.  Now Otsuka threatens to call the police, but Tetsu manages to escape from the pit and rescue his boss from harm.

Showing loyalty to his boss, Tetsu tells him that he will take the fall for the woman’s death and to stop causing problems for his boss, he will become a drifter and leave immediately.

As Tetsu leaves his former life behind, including his girlfriend Chiharu, Tetsu is unaware that Otsuka’s gang is on his tail and are planning to eliminate him.

Will the Tetsu, the “Tokyo Drifter” survive against the rival gang?

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Tokyo Drifter” is presented in 2:35:1 aspect ratio, color and audio is presented in monaural.  It’s important to note that with the 2011 release, the release signifies the HD release of “Tokyo Drifter” on Blu-ray and for those wanting the best picture and audio quality, the Blu-ray is the version to buy.

But many may wonder if they owned the older 1999 DVD release and don’t own a Blu-ray player, should they upgrade to the 2011 DVD release?  I can tell you right now that the 2011 version takes advantage of newer technology.  Colors and detail are more apparent than the older DVD and you also get newer special features.  The picture quality is so much better but if you can, I highly recommend going for the Blu-ray release as you will get more vibrant colors and better picture quality.

According to the Criterion Collection, the new high-definition transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35 mm low-contrast print.  Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Image System’s DVNR was used for small dirt, grain and noise reduction.

As for the monaural soundtrack, the new release was remastered at 24-bit from the original soundtrack print.  Clicks, thumps, hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD.  Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.

Audio-wise, dialogue was clear and I detected no problems or crackle.  Doing tests of the 1999 DVD release and the 2011 DVD release, there is a slight distinction of clarity in audio but for the most part, the difference is more apparent in the video.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Tokyo Drifter”, the 2011 DVD release comes with the following special features:

• Seijun Suzuki and Masami Kuzuu – (12:12) A 2011 Criterion Collection interview with director Seijun Suzuki and assistant director Masami Kuzuu discussing “Tokyo Drifter”.
  
• 1997 Interview - (20:12) The following interview with Seijun Suzuki recorded during a retrospective from 1997 courtesy of the Japan Foundation and the Los Angeles Film Forum.
• Trailer – (2:47) The original theatrical trailer for “Tokyo Drifter”.
  

EXTRAS:

• 16-Page booklet – Featuring a new essay titled “Catch My Drift” by writer Howard Hampton.

Visually stylish and cool, “Tokyo Drifter” was an avante garde film that was ahead of its time!

Each time I have watched “Tokyo Drifter”, it’s one of those films that I never grown tired of watching.  When I was younger, I used to equate “Tokyo Drifter” almost like a James Bond film.  Stylish in presentation, suave protagonist that is always calm, cool, collected and great with a gun and isn’t afraid in getting into a brawl.

Granted, the film is a yakuza story after all, but what I enjoyed about this film is its presentation that is so awkward and sometimes unusual, but in a very cool way!

For example, the introduction of the film is shown in black and white.  But the contrast of the black and white is done in a way that looks nothing like your typical B&W film and then he spots a toy gun in red, how often do you see a gangster film with this type of artistic presentation.  Never.

Another scene features an accidental shooting as one of Otsuka’s gang member’s girlfriend is shot and killed.  Typically, you would see the girl shot, perhaps a closeup of the face and then the character falling to the ground.  For Suzuki, we get a shot from high above.  She gets up, feels the shot, rips the top of her dress up, falls and dies and then we get a close up shot as we see the blood flowing down the top of her breast.

Another shot features Tetsu walking through a snowy path with his light blue suit, on white snow but on the right is a red mailbox.    There are several of these artistic shots that I absolutely love looking at.

And then you have the action, from the perfectly posed Tetsu shooting off his gun at an enemy to a scene where the enemy thinks they got him down, but then he starts singing or whistling his “Tokyo Nagaremono” song and eventually escapes death.

This is your bonafide anti-hero and while he looks like a normal guy, it’s how he’s characterized.  Cool, focused and no matter if he gets shot, hit and falls on the ground multiple times…his suit is still pristine and he’s still singing before kicking some ass!

Even the other characters have their own distinction.  Otsuka is shown primarily with the camera focused on his sunglasses, his henchman Tatsuzo, known as the Viper, is often seen with his silencer, Keiichi the loner is seen with his forest green jacket and Umetani, a friend of Kurata is seen with his suit and leather gloves.

And the set design, while the same set is used, Suzuki and his art director went for creative lighting in order to continue to give this impressive visual style despite the studio cutting their budget in hopes that Suzuki would not be so creative and kept to traditional filmmaking.

So, suffice to say, I love this film!  From the first time I watched it to so many multiple viewings leading up to this 2011 release, I’m so thrilled that the Criterion Collection has chose to give the film the HD treatment.

Granted, I’m not reviewing the Blu-ray release, but since I owned the original release and now reviewing this 2011 release, I can tell the difference in quality as this 2011 DVD looks very good and I can only think that the Blu-ray is so much better!  The vibrant colors, the clarity and detail…I’m impressed of how this film looks compared to the original DVD release.

And also you get special features which is a major bonus!

Overall, “Tokyo Drifter” is a film that is worth the purchase, mainly for those who love classic Japanese cinema, especially the gangster films.  But in this case, it’s not your typical banal yakuza film, it’s stylish, visually creative and surreal and it’s a wonderful film from filmmaker Seijun Suzuki.  And for those who thought the old DVD release from Criterion Collection was not that great in picture quality, well…you’re going to love how this film looks with this latest release on DVD, especially on Blu-ray!

“Tokyo Drifter” is definitely recommended!

 

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