Pierre Etaix – The Criterion Collection #655 (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

“Pierre Etaix – The Criterion Collection #655″ is an entertaining and enjoyable French comedy shorts/film set featuring the work of filmmaker/actor Pierre Etaix.  From his early shorts to his feature films covering the 1960′s, each of the shorts and films presented in this set look fantastic thanks to its 2010 restoration by Studio 17, The Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage and the Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema, under the supervision of director Pierre Etaix.  For those who enjoy silent cinema or comedy (especially early French comedy) that is more visual than dialogue-driven, will find “Pierre Etaix – The Criterion Collection #655″ to be a set worth owning!  Highly recommended!

Image are courtesy of © 2013 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Pierre Etaix – The Criterion Collection #655

YEAR OF FILM: Rupture (1961), Happy Anniversary (1962), The Suitor (1961), Yoyo (1965), As Long As You’ve Got Your Health (1966), Feeling Good (1966), Le Grand Amour (1968), Land of Milk and Honey (1971)

DURATION: Rupture (12:44), Happy Anniversary (13:55), The Suitor (1:24:40), Yoyo (1:38:15), As Long As You’ve Got Your Health (1:08:04), Feeling Good (14:56), Le Grand Amour (1:27:27), Land of Milk and Honey (1:16:31)

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 1:33:1 aspect ratio, Black and White, Monaural in French with English Subtitles

COMPANY: Janus Films/THE CRITERION COLLECTION

RELEASE DATE: April 23, 2013

Rupture

Directed by Pierre Etaix

Written by Jean-Claude Carriere and Pierre Etaix

Happy Anniversary

Directed by Pierre Etaix

Written by Jean-Claude Carriere and Pierre Etaix

Cinematography by Pierre Levent

Music by Claude Stieremans

The Suitor

Directed by Pierre Etaix

Written by Jean-Claude Carriere and Pierre Etaix

Director of Photography: Pierre Levent

Music by Jean Pailland

Yoyo

Directed by Pierre Etaix

Written by Jean-Claude Carriere and Pierre Etaix

Produced by Paul Claudon

Music by Jean Paillaud

Cinematography by Jean Boffety

Edited by Henri Lanoe

Production Design by Raymond Gabutti, Raymond Tournon

Costume Design by Jacqueline Guyot

As Long As You’ve Got Your Health

Directed by Pierre Etaix

Written by Jean-Claude Carriere and Pierre Etaix

Produced by Paul Cladon

Music by Rene Giner, Luce Klein, Jean Paillaud

Cinematography by Jean Boffety

Edited by Henri Lanoe, Raymond Lewin, Roger Salesse, Andree Werlin, Marie-Josephe, Yoyotte

Production Design by Jacques D’Ovideo

Set Decoration by Raymond Gabutti

Feeling Good

Written and Directed by Pierre Etaix

Le Grand Amour

Directed by Pierre Etaix

Written by Jean-Claude Carriere

Produced by Paul Cladon

Music by Claude Stieremans

Cinematography by Jean Boffety

Edited by Henri Lanoe

Production Design by Daniel Louradour

Costume Design by Daniel Lourador

Land of Milk and Honey

Directed by Pierre Etaix

Written by Pierre Etaix

Produced by Paul Claudon

Music by Jose Padilla

Cinematography by Georges Lendi

Edited by Michel Lewin

Starring:

The Suitor

Franc Arnell as Stella, the Olympia Star

Pierre Etaix as Pierre, the Suitor

Laurence Ligneres as Laurence, the neighbor

Claude Massot as Pierre’s father

Denise Peronne as Pierre’s mother

Karine Vesely as Ilka, the Swedish Au-pair

Yo Yo

Pierre Etaix as Yoyo

Claudine Auger as Isolina

Philippe Dionnet as Yoyo enfant

Luce Klein as L’ecuyere

As Long As You’ve Got Your Health

Pierre Etaix as Pierre

Denise Peronne

Simon Fonder

Sabine Sun

Vera Valmont

Francoise Occipinti

Claude Massot

Dario Meschi

Emile Coryn

Roger Trapp

Feeling Good

Roger Trapp

Preston

Robert Blome

Pierre Moncorbier

Pierre Etaix

Le Grand Amour

Pierre Etaix as Pierre

Annie Fratellini as Florence

Nicole Calfan as Agnes

Alain Janey as Jacques

Ketty France as mme. Girard

Louis Maiss as Mr. Girard

Land of Milk and Honey

Pierre Etaix

Maurice Biraud

Michel Lewin

A French comedy master whose films went unseen for decades as a result of legal tangles, director-actor Pierre Etaix is a treasure the cinematic world has rediscovered and embraced with relish. His work can be placed on the spectrum of classic physical comedy with that of Jacques Tati and Jerry Lewis, but it also stands alone in its good- natured delicacy. These films, influenced by Etaix’s experiences as a circus acrobat and clown and by the silent film comedies he adored, are elegantly deadpan, but as an on-screen presence, Etaix radiates warmth. This collection includes all of his films, five features, The Suitor,Yoyo, As Long as You’ve Got Your Health, Le grand amour, and Land of Milk and Honey—most of them collaborations with the great screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière—and three shorts, Rupture, the Oscar-winning Happy Anniversary, and Feeling Good. Not one of these is anything less than a bracing and witty delight.

Filmmaker Jacques Tati has inspired many people throughout his lifetime.  And for one comedian, actor and filmmaker, Pierre Etaix, is a man who had the opportunity to work with Tati but also alongside international talent such as Robert Bresson, Nagisa Oshima, Otar Iosseliani and Jerry Lewis.

Best known for his short and feature films from the 1960′s, you would think that Pierre Etaix, an Academy Award winner, would be a well-known name to cinema fans worldwide.  But unfortunately, his films would be unavailable for decades due to a legal dispute with a distribution company.

But now Pierre Etaix’s films will be released on Blu-ray and DVD for the first time in America courtesy of the Criterion Collection.

“Pierre Etaix – The Criterion Collection #655″ comes with digitally restored short films “Rupture” (1961) about an illustrator having a difficult time at work and “Happy Anniversary” (“Heureux Anniversaire”, 1962), a short story about a wife preparing an anniversary meal for her husband but unfortunately, he is caught up in automobile and traffic situations and not sure if he can make it home in time.  The short won an Academy Award in 1963 for “Best Short Subject” and a 1964 BAFTA Award for “Best Short Film”.

The collection also includes his first feature film “The Suitor” (Le Soupirant), a film which was originally conceived as several shorts, but Etaix was told to create a feature film in which he did.

“The Suitor” features Etaix and writer Jean-Claude Carriere doing a homage to Laurel & Hardy in which a man (portrayed by Pierre Etaix) just wants to study astrology but because he lives with his parents, he is  trying to fulfill his parents wishes of finding a woman to love and marry, but finding a woman is not as easy as he is not sure what it takes to meet a woman.  While he manages to attract Laurence, a woman who lives next door, he becomes obsessed with a singer named Stella on television.

“Yo Yo” was a film created by Pierre Etaix during a difficult time in his life after his father was killed in road accident.   Inspired by Federico Fellini’s “8 1/2″, Etaix was excited about the possibility of doing something different but with slapstick. Together with Jean-Claude Carriere, the two were able to create a film that would incorporate their love of silent cinema but from its main protagonist but with sound from everyone and everything else.

The film is about a millionaire who has everything… a palace, material things, musicians, dancers but he doesn’t have love.  He often looks at a photo of a pretty woman of his past.

One day while attending the circus, he sees the woman on a white horse and we learn that the millionaire had a relationship with the woman and that she gave birth to his child named Yo Yo ten years ago.  Both she and the child were raised in the circus lifestyle but when he marries the woman and both live with him in the chateau.  For Yo Yo, to live in such luxury and a place that he loves becomes a big part of him.  Fast forward and Yo-Yo has went from acrobat to a clown.  But due to war, he is drafted into the military and when he gets out, he realizes that life has changed.

He returns to the chateau which has not been taken care of and so Yo Yo dedicates his life to working as a filmmaker and businessman to acquire wealth to keep up the place.  But while doing so, he may have run into the same situations as his father, having the wealthy and focusing so much on material things, he may have let love pass him by.

For the next film titled “Tant qu’on a la santé” (As Long As You’ve Got Your Health), unfortunately with “Yo Yo” not doing well in the box office, producer’s limited Etaix’s budget for his latest film.  Etaix has said that this film, he wished he had the budget to put certain things he wanted in the film but producers were adamant against it.  So, having to use friends as extras and previous staff to make this film happen, Pierre went to work on “As Long As You’ve Got Your Health” which is a film divided into four parts.

The first part “I – L’insomnie” revolves around a man (portrayed by Pierre Etaix) who is having a hard time sleeping, so he picks up a vampire book and starts to get spooked out by it.  While his wife is sleeping right next to him, as he reads, the audience watches the story unfold as a man tries to save a woman from Dracula.  But unknown to the man, his wife has a secret.

The second part is “Le cinématographe” and shows a man (portrayed by Pierre Etaix), who goes to the movies to enjoy a western.  But he quickly learns that watching a film in a crowded cinema can be quite difficult.  Meanwhile, during the movie break, audiences at the theater are treated by the latest in absurd commercialism.

The third part is titled “Tant qu’on a la santé” and is about how life can be very busy for people in today’s world.  From the sound of one with a jackhammer and making so much noise that it disrupts peoples lives, people trying to smile as they are stuck in traffic or have some type of problems in their life, to the fast walking crowds of people going to working or leaving work and as everyone goes to the psychiatrist to help them out with stress, they also must suffer from stress.

And the final fourth part is titled “Nous n’irons plus au bois” and is set in a countryside.  A man goes out to hunt, a couple goes to the countryside for a picnic and a farmer sets a wire fence to keep people out of his property.  But what happens when the hunter and the couple start to go through the wired fence?

For “En pleine forme” (“Feeling Good”), the short was intended to be part of “As Long As You’ve Got Your Health” but was replaced by “I – L’insomnie”.  While created in 1966, the short was seen for the first time through the 2010 restoration of Pierre Etaix’s films.  The short is about a man who goes out to the country to get away from real life and go camping.  But he’s not an outdoorsman and tries his best to go camping.  He immediately is ushered to an area of campers, but while everyone has their own campsite in an enclosed area, they live as if they are living like their real life and not enjoying nature.

With the success of “As Long As You’ve Got Your Health”, the opportunity to make a bigger film came.  And this time around, Pierre Etaix requested for a color film to be made but also with a larger budget, which the producers of the film agreed.

And so the film that Pierre would go on to make was titled “Le Grand Amour”, made in 1969 and would star Annie Fratellini (Pierre’s real-life wife and also onscreen) an actress Nicole Calfan.

The film revolves around Pierre (portrayed by Pierre Etaix), a man who is the boss of an industrial business and married to the owner’s daughter Florence (portrayed by Annie Fratellini).  Pierre begins the film talking about the woman he was friends with and how he met and married Florence.  While their relationship is strong, the gossiping women around the area start talking false gossip about Pierre, who is seen saying hello to a woman walking down the street.  When a woman tells another woman, the scene is exaggerated to the point that it makes it seem that Pierre has had an affair.  The miscommunication leads to Florence leaving him for a few hours, but not knowing why his wife would leave, his friend Jacques (portrayed by Alain Janey) tells him that he should have married a much younger woman, so these problems wouldn’t happen.

But as Pierre and Florence are able to patch things up in their marriage, a beautiful young woman named Agnes (portrayed by Nicole Calfan) has been hired to replace the longtime secretary who is leaving the company.  Immediately, Pierre begins to fantasize about her everyday and becomes so obsessed with her to the point that he starts to avoid his wife, starts to collect fallen hair left behind by Agnes and has dreams of him sleeping with her.

And now Pierre starts to wonder if he wants to stay married with Agnes or go after his secretary.

The final film featured is a documentary titled “Land of Milk and Honey” (“Pays de Cocagne”) and it’s a film that is considered by Pierre Etaix to be his most important film.  It’s also a film that destroyed his filmmaking career to the point that Etaix would not direct another film for nearly 16 years.

The documentary was shot during the summer of ’68 as his wife Annie Fratellini was a singer and wanted to take part in the Europe 1 sponsored music stage which was traveling throughout France.  For Pierre, wanting to support his wife, he figured he would shoot his travel and find something interesting during his trip.  And when he saw the advertising and the people that turned out for the Tour de France, Etaix was captivated by the many people at the event, campgrounds and at the beach.

But while traveling, he also learned that the people involved in the traveling music stage were amateurs who couldn’t sing that well, but in their head, consider themselves great singers who want to make a major career of music.  So, with so many ideas, Pierre decide to interview people from topics about the man on the moon, the power of advertising, eroticism, marriage and more.

But the film became an experimental film because he wanted to create a comedy, but since there was no script, all he could do is edit the film and make it fun.  In the process, critics and viewers thought the film was mocking society and after 10 days in the theater, the bad press led the film to be pulled out and destroying Pierre Etaix’s credibility as a filmmaker with no one in France wanting to work with the filmmaker ever again (until 1987).

VIDEO, AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

The shorts and feature films by Pierre Etaix is presented in 1080p High Definition for the very first time.  Considering that the film has not been available on video due to legal issues that prevented the distribution of Pierre Etaix’s films, audiences are getting the opportunity to seeing Pierre’s films in the best picture quality possible.

The first shorts and feature films which include “Rupture”, “Happy Anniversary”, “The Suitor”, “Yoyo”, “As Long As You’ve Got Your Health” and “Feeling Good” are presented in black and white (some acts in “As Long As You’ve Got Your Health” are presented in color or sepia).  For these earlier films, the film looks very good for its age and very clean.  I didn’t see any warping, damage or major flickering.  Picture quality was very good for these films.  Black levels were nice and deep while white and grays were well-contrast.

As for “Le Grand Amour” and “Land of Milk and Honey”, these two films look very good.  With “Le Grand Amour”, there may be one scene in which Pierre visits his wife’s family, where the film does show its age, but other than that, the color on these two films look fantastic and the film was definitely well-preserved. Also, no problems of discoloration, colors are vibrant and picture quality for the two color films look very good!

As for the monaural lossless audio, French dialogue is crystal clear, as with the music. I detected no major hissing, crackle or pops during my viewing of the film.

According to the Criterion Collection, thew new digital masters were made from 2010 restorations undertaken by Studio 17, The Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage and the Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema, under the supervision of director Pierre Etaix.

For the restorations of “Rupture”, “Happy Anniversary”, “Feeling Good” and the Suitor, the transfers were created in high-definition on a Spirit Datacine from the original 35 mm camera negatives and the sound was restored from the original track negative.  The transfer of “Yoyo” was created in high-definition on a Spirit Datacine from a wet-gate printed 35 mm duplicate negative, and the sound was restored from the optical track negative.  For “As Long as You’ve Got Your Health”, the transfer was created in high-definition on  a Spirit Datacine from the original 35 mm camera negative and a 35 mm duplicate negative and the sound was restored from the optical track negative.  The transfer of “Le Grand amour” was created in 2K restoration on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the original 35 mm camera negative and two-reels of wet-gate interpositive, and the sound was restored from the 35 mm magnetic tracks.  And for “Land of Milk and Honey”, the transfer was created in high definition on a Spirit Datacine from a 35 mm blow-up internegative made from the 16 mm reversal, while the sound was restored from the optical track negative.

Subtitles are presented in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Pierre Etaix – The Criterion Collection #655” comes with the following special features:

• Pierre Etaix Introduction – For each film presented in the ““Pierre Etaix – The Criterion Collection #655”, there is about a six-minute introduction done by Pierre Etaix.
• Pierre Etaix, un destin animé - (1:00:45) A portrait of the life and work of the director by his wife,  made in 2011.  From Pierre Etaix’ career, his friendship with Jerry Lewis and his longtime working relationship with Jean-Claude Carriere.

EXTRAS:

“Pierre Etaix – The Criterion Collection #655” comes with a slipcase and 56-page booklet with the essays “The Return of Etaix” by David Cairns.

The collection of shorts and films from The Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray release of “Pierre Etaix” is entertaining but also a glimpse of a man who lived his life as a clown but pursued filmmaking and wanted to make people laugh despite not having a massive budget like other French filmmakers.

Inspired by legendary filmmaker and famous comic actor Jacques Tati who captured audiences with his character Monsieur Hulot, Pierre Etaix used his character of Pierre (different characters on each film) and wanted to make his film comedies based on vaudeville and also incorporate silent film style comedy, with few words spoken but everything is visual and humorous.

Featuring films with unusual sound effects played during certain moments of a short or feature film, the goal by Etaix was to create entertainment visually.  As clown who used visual jokes to make people laugh, Etaix felt he could do the same on a bigger scale through cinema.

While not a big name thanks to legal issues that prevented his films from being released, the Blu-ray release of “Pierre Etaix” will entertain audiences with its comedy but also films from the ’60s that are now being released in HD for the very first time.  And for some, this is probably the first time they have seen the film since its release in theaters back in the ’60s.

“Rupture” has the comedy style of silent films in which a character tries to get work done but for each time he tries, he always ends up doing something so ridiculous that it effects his work.  In “Happy Anniversary”, the story is straightforward about a couple trying to celebrate their anniversary, but due to traffic and other circumstances, the husband (or boyfriend) must do all he can to get back home in time.

By the time you get to “The Suitor”, there are some remnants of a Buster Keaton style, as one man of a wealthy family tries to explore the world and discover if he can find a woman (who will possibly be his wife), but how is a man with no experience with women, find the woman that wants to be with him?

In “Yoyo”, the film is entertaining from its many locations to its cinematography and 1920′s dance choreography.  The storyline was not the greatest, but I found the film to be entertaining and fascinating as it deals with two men who find out late in their lives that love is more important that financial objects.

For the film “As Long As You’ve Got Your Health”, the film is quite accessible for viewers thanks to it being divided into four parts.  And each film has its own charm.  Possibly my favorite part revolves around how cinemas were packed at that time and how badly people would go to find a seat but how people could be rude during ones movie viewing.  So, this part alone should connect with today’s modern viewers.  You also get the extra short titled “Feeling Good” which was originally supposed to be the first feature of “As Long As You’ve Got Your Health”, but Etaix chose to use the vampire segments instead.

The best film in the set is “Le Grand Amour”.  Definitely a relevant film about a man’s midlife crisis and wanting to see if he can attract the opposite sex but to also have feelings towards a younger, beautiful woman.  But would this man risk his marriage for this secretary?  The acting was top notch and the production for this film was much better than Etaix’s previous films.

And the final film “Land of Milk and Honey” is truly an experimental film which included clever editing but was able to take something mundane and make it entertaining with the field of questions that relate from an era that is no longer.  The film goes to show about how much risk Etaix was willing to take but while trying to use hours of film to make a film, using that as a visual script to edit and make a comedy.  It didn’t work during that time and the film was despised by many during that time, viewers today will probably see it more audacious and experimental than being critical of French society.

The set comes with an introduction by Pierre Etaix, who discusses each of his feature films and  also a documentary put together by his wife Odile Etaix, which was also entertaining and informative.  But giving us a chance to gain some insight of Pierre Etaix’s work.

Overall, “Pierre Etaix – The Criterion Collection #655″ is an entertaining and enjoyable French comedy shorts/film set featuring the work of filmmaker/actor Pierre Etaix.  From his early shorts to his feature films covering the 1960′s, each of the shorts and films presented in this set look fantastic thanks to its 2010 restoration by Studio 17, The Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage and the Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema, under the supervision of director Pierre Etaix.  For those who enjoy silent cinema or comedy (especially early French comedy) that is more visual than dialogue-driven, will find “Pierre Etaix – The Criterion Collection #655″ to be a set worth owning!

Highly recommended!

Funny Girl (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

“Funny Girl” is an enjoyable musical, while not the great American musical to appear on film, it’s one of the most memorable musicals thanks to the performance of Barbara Streisand.  If there is a film that captures the slogan of “A Star is Born”, then “Funny Girl” is that film as it introduced the world to the amazing talent of Barbara Streisand.  And the film has never looked as brilliant as it does now on Blu-ray…. Highly recommended!

Images courtesy of © 1968, 2013 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Lincoln: Funny Girl

FILM RELEASE: 1968

DURATION: 155 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (2:3:51), English 5.1 DTS-HDMA, French, Italian, German and Spanish 5.0 Dolby Digital Language Tracks, Subtitles: English SDH, Arabic, Chinese (traditional and simplified), French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Thai and Turkish.

COMPANY: Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

RATED: G

Release Date: April 30, 2013

Directed by William Wyler

Based on the original story and play by Isobel Lennart

Screenplay by Isobel Lennart

Produced by Ray Stark

Music by Jule Styne

Cinematography by Harry Stradling Sr.

Edited by William Sands, Maury Winetrobe

Production Design by Gene Callahan

Art Direction by Robert Luthardt, Linus Aaberg

Set Decoration by William Kiernan

Starring:

Barbara Streisand as Fanny Bryce

Omar Sharif as Nick Arnstein

Kay Medford as Rose Brice

Anne Francis as Georgia JAmes

Walter Pidgeon as Florenz Ziegfeld

Lee Allen as Eddie Ryan

Mae Questel as Mrs. Strakosh

Gerald Mohr as Branca

Frank Faylen as Keeney

Mittie Lawrence as Emma

One of the most popular movie musicals ever made! FUNNY GIRL follows the early career of stage comedienne Fanny Brice, a role that earned Barbra Streisand the 1968 Oscar® for Best Actress. As the film opens, only her mother believes Fanny can make it in show business. When she gets her first break at Keeney’s Music Hall, her hilarious debut as a roller-skating chorus girl gets her hired as a comedienne. A year later Fanny is working for Florenz Ziegfeld in his famous Follies and brings the house down with an outrageous and unplanned number. Fanny becomes a star, falls in love and marries Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif), a handsome gambler whose luck doesn’t hold up. The film’s many memorable songs include “Don’t Rain On My Parade” and the Streisand classic “People.”

Fanny Brice will forever be known for her contribution as a Ziegfield girl during the early 1900′s, her work as an accomplished illustrated song model, comedian, singer, theater and film actress but possibly for creating the top-rated radio series, “The Baby Snooks Show”.

For well-known producer and Brice’s son-in-law Ray Stark, he commissioned an authorized biography of Brice using the various taped recollections she had dictated, but was not too thrilled by it.

While it cost Stark $50,000 to stop the publication of the biography titled “The Fabulous Fanny”, Stark then wanted to create a biopic but of the ten writers who wrote the screenplay, none were good enough for the producer.

But reading the screenplay, Broadway star Mary Martin recommended to Stark of possibly making a musical of Fanny Brice’s career and Isobel Lennart would begin writing the musical loosely based on the life of Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein.

But after a few troubles of finding a Jewish star to portray Brice, it was recommended that Barbara Streisand, star of the musical “Can Get It For You Wholesale” to be given the opportunity.

And by 1964, after 17 previews and revisions, the Broadway production of “Funny Girl” began.  13 years after the death of Fanny Brice, who died at the age of 59 in 1951.

By 1968, filmmaker William Wyler (“Ben Hur”, “Roman Holiday”, “The Best Years of Our Lives”) would begin working on the film adaptation of the musical.  Barbara Streisand would reprise her role as Fanny Brice and her role would earn her an Academy Award for Best Actress, shared with Katharine Hepburn for “The Lion in the Winter”.

The film would also become the box office winner of 1968 in the U.S. and the American Film Institute would rank the film in 2006 as the #16 musical of all time.

And in 2013, the all-new 4K restoration re-mastered in HD from a 4K source will be released on Blu-ray in April 2013.

“Fanny Brice” is a musical that is set after World War I and begins with Fanny Brice (portrayed by Barbara Streisand) revisiting the theatre which she once performed as a Ziegfeld girl, waiting for the release of her husband Nick Arnstein (portrayed by Omar Sharif).

The film then goes back showing us how Fanny Brice became a Ziegfeld Follies star.   For Brice, she just wants a shot at stardom and showoff her musical talent.

By taking a job on stage as a vaudeville talent, lying that she could ride on roller skates, Brice ends up winning the audience’s attention and earns the attention of Nick Arnstein, a businessman and gambler.

Arnstein manages to boost her pay and eventually Brice would become a Ziegfeld Follies star.

As Brice becomes popular, she eventually becomes closer with Nick and the two fall in love.  To the point in which Fanny chooses Nick over Ziegfeld Follies.

Nick ends up winning a fortune through poker and the both Fanny and Nick get married, buy an expensive house and have a daughter together.

But while Fanny’s career is doing quite well, Nick’s business ventures are failing.  And because of his ego as a man, he refuses any financial support from Fanny.

And Nick becomes involved with illegal business deals.  But what will happen to both Fanny Brice and Nick once he is released from prison?

VIDEO:

“Funny Girl” is presented in 1080p High Definition (2:35:1 aspect ratio).  The film received a 4K restoration from an original 4K source and is presented in HD via Blu-ray for the very first time.  The colors are absolutely beautiful and there is a fair amount of grain that can be seen throughout the film.

The detail for the film is much better than the original DVD when it comes to detail and vibrant colors.  Detail is much more apparent and where backgrounds were a bit blurry on the DVD release, now you can see details that are much more apparent.   But the biggest difference are how robust the colors are on Blu-ray.  No doubt that this is the best looking version of the film to date.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

As for the lossless audio, “Funny Girl” is presented in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and French, German and Spanish 5.0 Dolby Digital.  Dialogue and music is clear and this is probably the best we will hear of “Funny Girl”.  One may wish for a bit more music immersiveness  with the soundtrack but it stays true to the original and sounds crystal clear.

Subtitles are in English SDH, Arabic, Chinese (traditional and simplified), French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Thai and Turkish.

SPECIAL FEATURES

“Funny Girl” comes with the following special features:

• Barbara in Movieland - (10:09) A classic featurette from 1969 about how Charlie Peterson’s train station was used for the filming of “Funny Girl” and behind-the-scenes footage from the film but also how Peterson was also given a role for the film by director William Wyler.
• This is Streisand - (5:34) An old 1968 featurette introducing musical star Barbara Streisand and her film debut for “Funny Girl”.

As a fan of silent films and early cinema, especially early radio, I was first introduced to Fanny Brice through the radio program “The Baby Snooks Show”.

As a frequent follower of old time radio, discovering Fanny Brice led me to the loose adaptation of her life in “Funny Girl” but also was the film that helped introduce me to Barbara Streisand, as my only knowledge of the actress was through “The Way We Were” and “Lentl”.

But there is no doubt that I can see the attraction to Streisand as an actress.  From her incredible voice and sassy-ness, similar to the character she plays, she is a natural talent born for the stage and in the case of “Funny Girl”, while considered a loose adaptation, possibly the latest Fanny Brice would have been thrilled to see about the character portrayal.

I agree with film critic Pauline Kael who wrote about Streisand, “There’s hardly a star in American movies today, and if we’ve got so used to the absence of stars in that we no longer think about it much, we’ve also lost on of the great pleasures of moviegoing: watching incandescent people up there, more intense and dazzling than people we ordinarily encounter in life, and far more charming that the extraordinary people we encounter, because the ones up on screen are objects of pure contemplation-like athletes all wound up in the stress of competition – and we don’t have to undergo the frenzy or the risks of being involved with them.”

The musical of “Funny Girl” is supported by fans, especially for its music with songs such as “People” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade” sung by the character of Brice and “You Are Woman” by the characters of Nick Arnstein and Fanny Brice.  But it was also a positive film about one woman with confidence that she has the talent to make it big, even if those around her, thought of her as not so beautiful or judgmental.  Yes, both Streisand and even Brice had an identifiable nose, so what?  Hollywood musicals have been to ingrained with the idea that a woman must have the look of a super starlet in order to drive box office sales, but Streisand, who is beautiful but also talented, goes to show how she can sparkle and dazzle the audience with her acting and outstanding voice.

And because of her delivery, she makes the dialogue seem natural.    And I can see why many film critics went crazy for this film and for Barbara Streisand, she was a rarity then and even now, you don’t see actresses who have that much talent and still entertain audiences and filling up seats decades later.

And while the film is slightly positive for both Fanny Brice and Nick Arnstein, the film is entertainment and while taken care of by Brice’s son-in-law and popular Hollywood producer Ray Stark, I do feel it’s important for people to know that the film is primarily non-fiction with a few facts of the actual Brice and Arnstein mixed in to the overall story.

For one, Fanny Brice was not a struggling singer, she came from a well-off family.  Baby Snooks was not created during her time at Ziegfeld and possibly the two major factual omissions to the film was that in real life, Arnstein was married to another woman before marrying Fanny and that he was busted by authorities twice.  And unlike the film, Brice had two children that she took care of, while Arnstein disappeared from their lives temporarily.

While the divorce was mutual, the facts are that the real Fanny Brice did all she could for her family and even spent a lot of money in order to defend Arnstein.  While their relationship on the film seemed problematic due to his illegal business dealings, the fact is that things were not as simple as it was in the film.

Granted, I’m sure it was difficult for Ray Stark and that is why there were so many writers taking a chance on this storyline, hoping one would appease him.   For Stark, his mother-in-law did not want her biography being published with the audio dictations that were done.   And while the musical and the film came years after her death, Arnstein was still alive when the musical was made.

I suppose that in order to appease both sides, to create something entertaining and a musical was more appealing to audiences and the fact that the musical had done so well, it’s confirmation that people loved the melodramatic aspect of the storyline, the music and of course, the performance by Barbara Streisand, who brought that excitement from the stage to the big screen.

And here we are in 2013 with a restoration of the film in 4K.  The film looks fantastic and better than any video incarnation released so far.  The film manages to capture the colors, the details and even backgrounds or people in the background are seen with much clarity than the previous DVD release.  And the lossless soundtrack is in HD!  And you also get two classic short special features included with this release as well.

Overall, “Funny Girl” is an enjoyable musical, while not the great American musical to appear on film, it’s one of the most memorable musicals thanks to the performance of Barbara Streisand.  If there is a film that captures the slogan of “A Star is Born”, then “Funny Girl” is that film as it introduced the world to the amazing talent of Barbara Streisand.  And the film has never looked as brilliant as it does now on Blu-ray…. Highly recommended!

 

Lincoln: 4-Disc Combo Pack (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

“Lincoln” is a fascinating, compelling film featuring fantastic cinematography, production and costume design but also magnificent performances by Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and many others.  A Blu-ray release featuring great picture quality and lossless audio, “Lincoln: 4-Disc Combo Pack” is highly recommended!

Images courtesy of © 2013 DreamWorks II Distribution Co. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Lincoln: 4-Disc Combo Pack

FILM RELEASE: 2012

DURATION: 150 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (2:40:1), English 7.1 DTS-HDMA, English DVS 2.0 Dolby Digital, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital Language Tracks, Subtitles: English SDH, French and Spanish

COMPANY: Dreamworks Pictures/Touchstone Home Entertainment

RATED: PG-13 (For an Intense Scene of War violence, Some Images of Carnage and Brief Strong Language)

Release Date: March 26, 2013

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Screenplay by Tony Kushner

Based on the book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg

Executive Producer: Jonathan King, Daniel Lupi, Jeff Skoll

Co-Producer: Kristie Macosko, Adam Somner

Music by John Williams

Cinematography by Janusz Kaminski

Edited by Michael Kahn

Casting by Avy Kaufman

Production Design by Rick Carter

Art Direction by Curt Beech, David Crank, Leslie McDonald

Set Decoration by Jim Erickson, Charles Maloy, Peter T. Frank

Costume Design by Joanna Johnston

Starring:

Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln

Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln

David Strathairn as William Seward

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Lincoln

James Spader as W.N. Bilbo

Hal Holbrook as Preston Blair

Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens

John Hawkes as Robert Latham

Jackie Earle Haley as Alexander Stephens

Bruce McGill as Edwin Stanton

Tim Blake Nelson as Richard Schell

Joseph Cross as John Hay

Jared Harris as Ulysses S. Grant

Gulliver McGrath as Tad Lincoln

Inspired by the true-life events confronting Abraham Lincoln and his monumental moral and political challenge to amend the United States Constitution to permanently abolish slavery, “LINCOLN” is a rich and compelling historical and human drama that has been hailed as one of the best film of the year. In-depth bonus features on the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack takes viewers behind-the-scenes of director Spielberg’s life-long fascination with Lincoln and the 12 years it took to bring the story of one of history’s and mankind’s greatest triumphs to the screen.

As a young child, Steven Spielberg was captivated when he saw the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Decades later, the filmmaker would direct and produce the historical drama film “Lincoln” that is based on Doris Kearn Goodwin’s biography “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” focusing on the final four months of Abram Lincoln’s life and focusing on his efforts to have the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the United States House of Representatives. in January 1865.

Filmed in the Fall of 2011 and released theatrically int the Fall of 2012, “Lincoln” has received critical acclaim worldwide, earning seven Golden Globe nominations, twelve Academy Award nominations and grossing over $263 million at the box office, making “Lincoln” a financial success.

The film would feature an all-star cast including Daniel Day-Lewis (“There Will Be Blood”, “Gangs of New York”, “The Last of the Mohicans”), Sally Field (“Forrest Gump”, “Mrs. Doubtfire”, “Brothers & Sisters”), David Strathairn (“The Bourne Ultimatum”, “L.A. Confidential”, “Good Night” and “Good Luck”), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Inception”, “Looper”, “(500) Days of Summer”), James Spader (“Boston Legal”, “Stargate”, “Secretary”), Hal Holbrook (“Wall Street”, Men of Honor”, “Into the Wild”), Tommy Lee Jones (“No Country for Old Men”, “Men in Black” films, “The Fugitive”), John Hawkes (“American Gangster, “Identity”, “The Sessions”) and many more.

And now “Lincoln” was released on Blu-ray and DVD, including a 4-Disc Combo Pack which includes the Blu-ray (2), DVD and Digital Copy in March 2013.

“Lincoln” is set during the time of the Civial War in 1865.  The 1863 Emancipation Proclamation which guaranteed slaves  in ten states that were in rebellion, enslaved by the Confederate to be free.  The worry was that with the Civil War coming to an end, the Proclamation would be discarded by the courts and slavery would continue.

So, President Abraham Lincoln (portrayed by Daniel-Day Lewis) felt it was imperative to pass the 13th Amendment by the end of January in order to ensure that all freed slaves, would not be re-enslaved.  Throughout all states, slavery will be abolished.

As the first Republican Party President, the problem that Abraham Lincoln faced was that the Radical Republicans feared the amendment will be defeated.  Republicans near the border states wanted to end the war and that was their priority and with more than a dozen votes needed for the 13th Amendment to pass, Lincoln and other fellow Republicans need to have the support of their own party but also Democrats.

But with time becoming a major challenge, Lincoln’s fellow Republicans try to urge the President that he wait until Congress is heavily represented by Republicans but Lincoln felt that with the war ending, the 13th Amendment must be voted now and that slavery is settled and the southern states are readmitted into the Union.

So, with the help and backing of Republican Party founder Preston Blair (portrayed by Hal Holbrook), who has the influence to win over the Republican conservatives in the western and border states, men are sent to help win them over.  Meanwhile, Lincoln and his Secretary of State William Seward (portrayed by David Strathaim) work on securing the Democratic votes but also to win over Radical Republicans such as Thaddeus Stevens (portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones), leader of the Radical Republican faction.

Meanwhile, Lincoln must deal with a wife Mary Todd (portrayed by Sally Field) who has rampant headaches, unstable and is haunted by the death of their sons Eddie (tuberculosis) and Willie (typhoid fever).  Mary also worried for their surviving sons Robert (portrayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Tad (portrayed for Gulliver McGrath), specifically their oldest Robert, who is tired of his parents putting him through law school (under Mary Todd’s direction as she wanted her son to be safe) as he desperately wants to serve in the military.

VIDEO:

“Lincoln” is presented in 1080p High Definition (2:40:1 aspect ratio).  With one of the most well-known cinematographers such as Janusz Kaminski (“Saving Private Ryan”, “Schindler’s List”, “Minority Report”, “Catch Me If You Can”) working on the film, one can expect nothing but the best in terms of cinematography, capturing the characters in fantastic lighting situations.    And once again, Kaminski’s cinematography is fantastic!  Featuring incredible detail and like era, using natural color to enhance the overall feeling of the film, skin tones are natural, the film features great contrast with outdoor scenes featuring a variety of colors, from a normal day to a cool, cold night where Abraham Lincoln and soldiers ride their horses through dead bodies during the war.  Black levels are nice and deep, Joanna Johnston’s costume design and Rick Carter’s production design of capturing authenticity is also captured amazingly on camera courtesy of Kaminski.

“Lincoln” looks fantastic on Blu-ray!

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

As for the audio, “Lincoln” is presented in English 7.1 DTS-HDMA, Envlish DVS 2.0 Dolby Digital, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital.  I was very impressed with the lossless soundtrack.  It’s one thing to expect crystal clear dialogue with wonderful music from legendary composer John Williams (“Star Wars” films, “Harry Potter” films, “Indiana Jones” films) but the amount of ambiance captured through the surrounds is wonderful.  With the constant chattering during the political debates, there is also use of LFE during certain scenes.  But even sounds of storms, sounds of wood upon wood, may it be a closure of a room, wheel making contact on the floor, good use of rear surround channels.  But it’s the dialogue and the ambiance along with Williams’ music that sounds incredible.

Subtitles are in English SDH, French and Spanish.

SPECIAL FEATURES

“Lincoln” comes with the following special features:

• The Journey to Lincoln - (9:24) Featuring interviews with Steven Spielberg, producer Kathleen Kennedy and the cast about being part of the film and the creation of it.
• A Historic Tapestry: Richmond, Virginia - (4:00) Filmmaker Steven Spielberg and crew talk about being able to film at historic structures to recreate the feel of Washington, D.C. and Virginia during the Civil War era in Richmond, Virginia.
• In the Company of Character – (10:23) A featurette about the casting of the talent to play various characters and working with Daniel Day-Lewis.  Each cast member talks about their involvement in the film and meeting the other talents and how they immersed themselves and prepared for this film.
• Crafting the Past – (10:43) A special feature about costume and production design.  Production designer Rick Carter talks and costume designer Joanna Johnston about capturing the detail of the era and trying to make everything in the film look authentic.
• Living with Lincoln – (27:04) A special feature about a period biopic and the contribution to make this film feel like it was taking place in the past.  Capturing the look and feel but also through the performances.
• In Lincoln’s Footsteps – (16:35) A featurette about the editing of the film and how it was important to have the long periods instead of constant cuts.  Discussing the visual perspective of the film and the audio.

EXTRAS:

“Lincoln” comes with two Blu-rays (one for the feature film and the other for special features), a DVD and Digital Copy version of the film.  Also, a slipcover case is included.

When I was younger, my grandfather, an immigrant from the Philippines would always use Abraham Lincoln as an example for us and why people are fortunate today to be able to have a good education, strive for a good education because of what Lincoln was give people of color a chance of freedom in the United States.

He would always talk about the Emancipation Proclamation and I as I grew older, like every child taught in school about what Lincoln did to free the slaves, it was an important order from Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.

Only until I became an adult, would you realize that there was much more to the story than the simple “Lincoln freed the slaves!” that we have been taught.  Along with the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, it wasn’t until the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 which abolished slavery, that the amendment was monumental.

But it wasn’t easy.  With so much focus of Lincoln on his assassination by John Wilkes Booth, I really didn’t know too much about Abraham Lincoln’s life until I saw the biographical silent film “Abraham Lincoln” (1930) directed by D.W. Griffith.  While this film focused on Lincoln’s earlier life as a storekeeper and rail-splitter and his earlier romance with Ann Rutledge and later being engaged to Mary Todd and the Lincoln-Douglas debates about the extension of slavery, there really hasn’t been anything showcasing the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment.

I can understand why.  It’s not an easy subject for one to craft and make it entertaining for general audiences,   People know how the amendment was historic, but would one want to watch it as a film?

That’s where filmmaker Steven Spielberg comes in and the fact that he is directing the film, the answer is yes.  If Spielberg can make this film entertaining, it’s definitely worth giving a try.

Joining him are top people in the industry, from composer John Williams, director of photography Janusz Kaminski, production designer Rick Carter and costume design by Joanna Johnston, and many others involved with the film, you know you have a great team.

And what Spielberg is quite effective was building a storyline with showcasing how difficult of a time it was for President Lincoln.  While the Emancipation Proclamation helped give slaves a chance for freedom during the Civil War, if the war was to end, they would not be free any longer, and not too many were in favor of abolishing slavery, except President Lincoln and a few members of the US House of Representatives.  With wonderful production and costume design to keep the authenticity of the film and the amazing performances by actor Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathaim, Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon Levitt to name a few, you can’t help but be amazed with how wonderful this film looks, but also how powerful the film is thanks to its outstanding talent.

Daniel Day-Lewis captures the look of Abraham Lincoln, Sally Field who gained weight for the role was also able to play the unstable Mary Todd and of course other performers throughout the film, made the film feel authentic and real.

The film is smart, compelling but also a message about freedom and equality. Also, it’s a subject that not many people are familiar with and you learn that freedom did not come easy but also how President Lincoln took a risk that could have had him impeached.  But he was dedicated, persistent and also made others around him persistent, but most importantly have them put their faith in him to make it happen.  A lot was at stake for some people who voted for the amendment, some who were threatened but yet knowing what was right and debating within, whether or not to be loyal to their political party or to side with Abraham Lincoln in giving freedom to the slaves.

As for the 4-Disc Combo Pack of “Lincoln”, you get the Blu-ray release (two featuring the feature film, the other with special features), a DVD version of the film and a Digital Copy.  Picture quality along with lossless audio is magnificent, special features are good but I wished they were slightly longer.  It would have been nice to have an audio commentary or even other special features on Abraham Lincoln. But that is me being picky!  For the most part, “Lincoln” is a wonderful Blu-ray release and a film that is powerful and another cinematic masterpiece for Steven Spielberg.

Overall, “Lincoln” is a fascinating, compelling film featuring fantastic cinematography, production and costume design but also  a magnificent performances by Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and many others.  Highly recommended!

 

Pawn (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

“Pawn” is a film that is an exciting crime drama that could have been bloody and serious, but sometimes you don’t need to be that banal or violent and try to give something different, yet enjoyable for the audience.  While not the best robbery film made, nor the worst, “Pawn” is an indie crime drama that features an all-star cast and for the most part is enjoyable and a solid directorial debut for cameraman turned filmmaker David A. Armstrong.

Images courtesy of © 2013 Starz, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Pawn

FILM RELEASE: 2013

DURATION: 88 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 2:40:1 Aspect Ratio, English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

COMPANY: Anchor Bay Entertainment

RATED: R (for Violence, Language and Brief Drug Content)

Release Date: April 23, 2013

Directed by David A. Armstrong

Written by Jay Anthony White

Producer: Michael Becker, Michael Chiklis, Brad Luff, Jeff Most

Co-Producer: Shari Lane Bowles, Re’Shaun Frear, Andrew Hunt, Leigh Scott

Executive Producer: Jonathan Bennett, Jeff Bozz, Pambela Burrus, Cameron Denny, Cynthia Guidry, Lainee Guidry, Jeff Rice

Associate Producer: Joshua P. Dease

Music by Jacob Yoffee

Cinematography by Keith Dunkerly

Edited by Jordan Goldman

Casting by Shannon Makhanian

Production Design by Russell M. Jaeger

Art Direction by Carl Hoagland

Set Decoration by Susan Barrett

Costume Design by Tiffany Welt

Starring:

Ray Liotta as Man in the Suit

Nikki Reed as Amanda

Forest Whitaker as Will

Marton Csokas as Lt. Barnes

Sean Faris as Nick

Jessica Szohr as Bonnie

Michael Chiklis as Derrick

Stephen Lang as Charlie

Paul Jude Letersky as Sniper

Common as Jeff Porter

Academy Award- winner Forest Whitaker and Golden Globe- winner Michael Chiklis reunite for the first time since “The Shield” for the most gripping crime thriller of the year: An all-night diner. A cop walks in on a robbery in progress. But what happens next – and what happened just before – will change everything you think you know. Now the building is surrounded. There are fingers on every trigger. And one very intense hostage situation is about to take some extremely shocking twists. Common, Stephen Lang, Nikki Reed, Jessica Szohr and Ray Liotta co-star in this shotgun blast of a drama about last chances, double-crosses and a deadly game of dirty deals where anyone can be a PAWN.

David A. Armstrong is usually known for working behind-the-scenes as a cameraman for the “Saw” films but this time, the cinematographer becomes a director for the film “Pawn” written by Jay Anthony White (“Project 313″).

The independent film features an all-star cast which include Forest Whitaker (“Platoon”, “The Last King of Scotland”, “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai”), Ray Liotta (“Goodfellas”, “Smokin’ Aces”, “Hannibal”), Michael Chiklis (“The Commish”, “The Shield”, “Fantastic Four” films), Nikki Reed (“Twilight” films, “Chain Letter”), Martin Csokas (“Lord of the Rings” films, “XXX”), Sean Faris (“Never Back Down”, “Freerunner”), Jessica Szohr (“Gossip Girl”, “Piranha”), Stephen Lang (“Avatar”, “Conan the Barbarian”, “The Men Who Star at Goats”) and Common (“Wanted”, “Smokin’ Aces”, “Terminator Salvation”).

“Pawn” revolves is set in a diner owned by Charlie (portrayed by Stephen Lang) which is being robbed by British gunmen led by Derrick (portrayed by Michael Chiklis).  From each character inside the diner, we get to learn about their backstory.

For Nick (portrayed by Sean Faris), he has been released from prison for grand theft auto and is picked up by his pregnant wife Amanda (portrayed by Nikki Reed).  The first thing that Nick has to do is get his life back in order as he has a child coming and so he wants to meet with his brother Patrick (portrayed by Jordan Belfi).  So, he goes to the local diner where his friend Bonnie (portrayed by Jessica Szohr) works.  After his meeting with Patrick, Nick was in the bathroom when the restaurant was being held up and we see him calling the police.

Meanwhile, we watch as a police officer named Will (portrayed by Forest Whitaker), is a local who occasionally visits Charlie’s diner.  Unbeknown to Will, the gunmen are hiding in the restaurant, waiting for the officer to make his move.  Suspecting that something bad is going on, we see Will going into the bathroom and making a call to Lt. Barnes (portrayed by Marton Csokas).  It is revealed that Will’s intention was to get a harddrive with incriminating information on crooked police officers in the city.  But when he hears Nick, Will finds out that the place has been held up by gunmen and Nick probably heard his entire conversation with Lt. Barnes. So, as Will tries to kill Nick, the leader of the gunmen, Derrick shoots and kills Will, while Nick who was shot, suffers from a flesh wound.

As the gunmen try to steal the money from Charlie’s safe, they find out it’s on a timed safe and so the gunmen decide to stay and wait until the safe can be opened.  Meanwhile, the police have surrounded the building and leading the standoff is officer Jeff Porter (portrayed by Common) who gets into an argument with Lt. Barnes, who tries to make decisions without talking with Porter.  When Porter is able to negotiate for a hostage release, Nick is told to bring the lady out but to come back or else his friend Bonnie would be killed.  But by going out, Nick’s identity is revealed and Lt. Barnes makes an assumption that Nick is working with the gunmen and their sole goal was to get the harddrive.

So, in retaliation, Lt. Barnes has a man (portrayed by Ray Liotta), pretend he’s a police officer and pick up Nick’s pregnant wife Amanda and take her to an undisclosed place.  When he has Amanda call the diner through a private line, he has Nick speak to his wife and then gives him 30 minutes to get the harddrive or else, his wife will be killed.  It is then revealed that Nick’s brother Patrick is also in law enforcement and is working to bust corrupt police officers.

With time running out and big decisions needing to be made, who will make the first move…Nick, the swat team or the gunmen?

VIDEO:

“Pawn” is presented in 1080p high Definition (2:40:1 aspect ratio).    The majority of the film takes place in a diner and while picture quality is good and details are also good during close-ups, aside from detail of clothing textures, the scenes definitely look a bit on warm side.  But for the most part, picture quality in HD is very good and cinematographer Keith Dunkerley (“Paranormal Activity 3″, “Matchstick Men”) did a good job on focusing more on character reactions, closeups and capturing the emotions of the characters.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Pawn” is presented in English Dolby TrueHD 5.1.  While the film is primarily dialogue driven, there are some scenes which showcase gunshots and sirens and are better utilized through the surround channels.  But for the most part, “Pawn” is a dialogue-driven film and is primarily front and center-channel driven. The lossless soundtrack was good but not immersive as most of the film focuses more on dialogue.

Subtitles are in English and Spanish.

SPECIAL FEATURES

“Pawn” comes with the following special features:

• Pawn: Behind the Scenes  - (23:08) Interviews with the cast of “Pawn” and discussions about their character and working on with the other star talents in the film.

EXTRAS:

“Pawn” comes with both the Blu-ray and DVD version of the film.

Usually when it comes to films with a large cast and involves a holdup, I realize there have been quite a few of those storylines on television.

From the 2007 TV series “The Nine” about how a group of people are dealing with life after being held hostage inside a bank and also being accused of assisting the gunmen, to the 2008 film fragments which starred Forest Whitaker about a group of individuals who were in a diner having a normal day until a gunman came inside and started shooting people for no reason before killing himself and how others dealt with the post-traumatic stress.

While there have been TV series and films about holdups, fortunately with David A. Armstrong and Jay Anthony White’s “Pawn”, what appears to be a normal hold up of a diner turns out to be two crimes being committed at the same time.

One features three gunmen trying to steal money from the safe, while another group of bad police officers who are trying to steal a harddrive from the safe with incriminating evidence of corrupt police officers.

And your protagonist is not some John McClane “Die Hard” bad ass but a young man named Nick who just got out of prison after serving time for stealing cars.  Now trying to be a father and not committing any more crimes and following the path on the right side of the law.

But Nick ends up becoming the point contact between the police and the gunmen and not knowing exactly what the details are of these gunmen, the corrupted police officers think these gunmen are going after the harddrive and thus, they think Nick, a convicted felon is working with the gunmen, so the corrupted police officers kidnap his pregnant wife.

Suffice to say, the film has several twist and turns and while not a high budget film and shot primarily inside a diner, the film makes up with a large number of talent.  Immediately looking at the cast list, you see names such as Ray Liotta (as always the mysterious character on the wrong side of the law), Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, Michael Chiklis (who spent years playing the good guy, now a British bank robber), hip hop artist Common, Stephen Lang, Nikki Reed, Jessica Szohr and many more.

So, the film is practically an exciting, enjoyable popcorn action drama that doesn’t become too violent, nor does it try to do too much. It keeps things simple with a few twists along the way.  If I had any problems with the film was its use of talent.  For those expecting to see a lot of Forest Whitaker, unfortunately, you’re not going to see much of him.

There are also some plot holes in which I felt there was something building up for the character of Porter (portrayed by Common) and possibly a confrontation with Lt. Barnes.  The ending is played out a bit too safely for me, but it was appropriate and I think audiences will be happy with the overall film.

As for the Blu-ray release, for an indie film, there is good detail when it comes to clothing textures and close-ups.  While picture quality is good, the lossless soundtrack is primarily dialogue-driven with a few moments of gunshots and ambiance coming through the surround channels.  And you get one “making of” special feature.  Also, as an extra, you also get both the Blu-ray release and a DVD version of the film.

Overall, “Pawn” is a film that is an exciting crime drama that could have been bloody and serious, but sometimes you don’t need to be that banal or violent and try to give something different, yet enjoyable for the audience.  While not the best robbery film made, nor the worst, “Pawn” is an indie crime drama that features an all-star cast and for the most part is enjoyable and a solid directorial debut for cameraman turned filmmaker David A. Armstrong.

Not Suitable for Children (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

“Not Suitable for Children” is an enjoyable independent film from Australia that takes the “best friends try to have a child together” storyline, but with a male protagonist wanting to have a child.  While predictable and straightforward, “Not Suitable for Children” is a fun and enjoyable film worth checking out!

Images courtesy of © 2012 Matterson Productions Pty, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Not Suitable for Children

FILM RELEASE: 2012

DURATION: 96 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 16:9 Widescreen, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0, Subtitles: English

COMPANY: Well Go USA Entertainment

RATED: R (For Sexual Content, Nudity, Language and Brief Drug Use)

Release Date: April 16, 2013

Directed by Peter Templeman

Story by Michael Lucas, Peter Templeman

Screenplay by Michael Lucas

Produced by Jodi Matterson

Executive Producer: Gary Hamilton, Bruna Papandrea, Darren Ashton

Line Producer: Barbara Gibbs

Music by Matteo Zingales

Cinematography by Lachlan Milne

Edited by Matthew Walker

Casting by Nikki Barrett

Production Design by Elizabeth Mary Moore

Art Direction by Amanda Sallybanks

Costume Design by Gypsy Taylor

Starring:

Ryan Kwanten as Jonah

Sarah Snook as Stevie

Ryan Corr as Gus

Bojana Novakovic as Ava

Susan Prior as  Marcie

Lewis Fitz -Gerald as Dr. McKenzie

Kathryn Beck as Becky Kincaid

Belinda Bromilow as Claire

Everybody loves Jonah (Ryan Kwanten) – especially the ladies. He’s young, hot, sharing a cool house with his best friends Gus (Ryan Corr) and Stevie (Sarah Snook), and throwing parties that rock AND keep the bills paid.

Then: that awkward moment when your random one-night-stand asks, is that a lump?

Boom. Jonah’s got testicular cancer. His life isn’t at risk, but the impending treatment will leave him completely infertile. Jonah realizes, to everyone’s shock: he wants to be a dad. His attempts at the sperm bank are a failure. His only choice is natural conception. Within the next four weeks. He’s gotta procreate before it’s too late.

What follows is a rousing (get it?) parade of ex-girlfriends, mistaken match-ups, surrogate slip-ups and a whole lot of Baby Daddy Drama. Poor Jonah may be out of options – until he starts listening to his friends AND his heart, and realizes that a perfect candidate might be closer than anyone would think.

From Australian TV director Peter Templeman (“Lockie Leonard”, “Bogan Pride”, “Marx and Venus”) and writer Michael Lewis (“Offspring”) comes the Australian romantic comedy “Not Suitable for Children”.

Released in theaters in Australia in July 2012, the film stars Ryan Kwanten (“True Blood”, “Summerland”, “Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord”), Sarah Snook (“Crystal Jam”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Sisters of War”) and Ryan Corr (“Where the Wild things Are”, “Silversun”, “Packed to the Rafters”).

The film is about three friends who live with each other and have a party business, as they coordinate big parties with DJ’s and everything is going well for the three, until Jonah (portrayed by Ryan Kwanten) finds out that he has testicular cancer.

While Jonah can beat the cancer by removing a testicle, problem is that he will not be able to have children ever again.  But having children is what Jonah really wants and with several days before he goes into surgery, he tries to contact his ex-girlfriends, girls he had dated or even strangers to have his child.  Stevie (portrayed by Sarah Snook) tries to get her lesbian friends who want children, to find out how big a part that Jonah wants to have in their lives.  Meanwhile his business partner Gus (portrayed by Ryan Corr) knows that Jonah is going through a hard time.

Meanwhile, Jonah’s success of convincing girlfriends or other girls to have his child is not going well at all but knowing how badly she had wanted children and the fact that Jonah wants children badly, Stevie decides to help Jonah by engaging in sexual activity in order to get pregnant.  But this is more of a mutual agreement to help each other out and one should not expect anything more from each other.

Right after their first time, the two continuall have sex and while keeping their sexual liaison a secret, what happens when this mutual agreement becomes more than what they expected?

VIDEO:

“Not Suitable for Children” is presented in 1080p High Definition and presented in 2:35:1.  Picture quality is good, but there are times where the picture looks a bit soft.  But for the most part, the film looks natural and picture quality is well-saturated.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

As for the audio, “Not Suitable for Children” is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby Digital Stereo.  The film is primarily dialogue driven with a lot of music.  Surround channels are not used all that much throughout the film but primarily during crowd sequences but for a film such as this, the lossless soundtrack is appropriate.

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES

“Not Suitable For Children” comes with the following special features:

• Interviews with Cast and Crew - (58:11) Individual interviews with Peter Templeman (director), Ryan Kwanten (Jonah), Ryan Corr (Gus) and Sarah Snook (Stevie).
• Behind the Scenes - (14:23) Interviews with Peter Templeman (director), Ryan Kwanten (Jonah), Ryan Corr (Gus) and Sarah Snook (Stevie) about their characters, working together and more.
• Trailer – (2:23) The theatrical trailer for “Not Suitable for Children”.

There have been a good number of comedies that took on the best friends looking to raise a child together.  From the 2010, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston film “The Switch” to 2011′s Jennifer Westfeldt film “Friends with Kids” and in 2012, we have the Australian romantic comedy “Not Suitable for Children”.

Where the wanting to have kids shown on films are usually the female protagonist, “Not Suitable for Children” goes a different route and gives us a single man who wants to have a child, because he will no longer be able to have children after treatment for testicular cancer.

For the character of Jonah (portrayed by “True Blood” actor Ryan Kwanten), his life changes when he is told by his doctor that he has cancer and although treatable, they need to remove a testicle.  Because he is in his 20′s, a party guy (who runs parties for a living), he feels that life has dealt him a severe blow of not having any possibility to have children ever.

While his two good friends and business partners, Stevie (portrayed by Sarah Snook) and Gus (portrayed by Ryan Corr) try to give him moral support, they try their best to make him feel positive about his life.

So, he contacts his ex-girlfriend and women he has dated and trying to find a woman he can get pregnant, so he can raise a child.  Of course, no woman is not going to take him up on the deal, but his best friend Stevie tries to give him encouraging advice of possibly helping out a lesbian couple, which also doesn’t work out.

Being a very good friend of Jonah for so long, Stevie realizes that she wants to have a kid before she turns 40 and so she tries to have a mutual deal that would help both her and Jonah at the same time.  But of course, after continued sex in order to get Stevie pregnant, both start to realize that their may be some feelings that the two have for each other.

While the film is charming and fun, it’s also straightforward and banal.  It is predictable and there are not many surprises with this independent film.

As for the Blu-ray release, picture quality is good but a little soft at times, the soundtrack features a good amount of music, so dialogue, music are crystal clear while the surround also takes advantage of the more crowd environments and overall party ambiance.  And you get two special features plus a trailer.

Overall, “Not Suitable for Children” is an enjoyable independent film from Australia that takes the “best friends try to have a child together” storyline, but with a male protagonist wanting to have a child.  While predictable and straightforward, “Not Suitable for Children” is a fun and enjoyable film worth checking out!

Mikunopolis in Los Angeles [Happy to Meet You I'm Hatsune Miku] (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

For me, the whole concept of virtual idols and also the Vocaloid Software has been quite intriguing for me and I have followed the development of virtual idols for many years now and to see how popular Hatsune Miku has become and how the character has been marketed, especially via videogames, Figma figures, nendoroids, clothing, food… Hatsune Miku is no doubt a phenomenon.  In my many years of covering Japanese entertainment, I have never seen anything like this before.  And it’s pretty fascinating and also exciting to see this happening.   “Mikunopolis in Los Angeles [Happy to Meet You I'm Hatsune Miku] is a wonderful Blu-ray concert release for Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid fans.  Recommended!

Images courtesy of © SEGA/Crypton Future Media, Inc., Mikunopolis 2011. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Mikunopolis in Los Angeles [Happy to Meet You I'm Hatsune Miku]

YEAR OF CONCERT: 2011

DURATION: 98 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, Linear PCM Stereo, Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Subtitles are in English or Romaji

COMPANY: Aniplex

RATED: Not Rated

Release Date: April 16, 2013

Featuring the voices of:

Hatsune Miku (Vocals)

Kagamine Rin (Vocals)

Kagamine Len (Vocals)

Megurine Luka (Vocals)

The 39s (The Thanks)

June Abe (keyboard)

Akitoshi Kuroda (Guitar)

Shingo Tanaka (Bass)

Shin Orita (Drums)

39s Strings

On July 2nd, 2011, the internationally known Vocaloid Hatsune Miku performed at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. This marks her very first concert here in the U.S. With 3D imaging created by SEGA and supervised by Crypton Future Media, the LA show was jam packed with songs and dance numbers by Hatsune Miku and the whole vocaloid team! Featuring the Los Angeles concert in its entirety, this Blu-Ray is contains live performances, your favorite songs from your favorite Vocaloids and more!

Hatsune Miku  (who’s name means “First sound of the future”) is possibly the biggest virtual idol to come from Japan.

A national phenomenon in Japan, Miku is a blue-haired digital female avatar and the most popular of the Vocaloid Character Series software originally created by Crypton Future Media and using Yamaha’s Vocaloid 2 engine. The innovative software enables users to create synthesized vocal tracks using Hatsune Miku’s vocals by simply typing in lyrics or inputting a melody. Crypton’s Vocaloid program uses vocals that are derived from pre-programmed samples of the voices of many popular actors/singers.

And then those who had the software started making their own songs using Hatsune Miku and then came figurines, books, arcade games, video games, apparel, food and sure enough, many Hatsune Miku music soundtracks (plus the many international Miku (and friends) cosplay at anime conventions worldwide.

In July 2011,  Miku performed live in Los Angeles at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles and appeared on stage as a 3D hologram, backed by her live band called the “39s members”.

In promotion for the performance, Toyota did a national commercial plus social media to promote Miku driving a Toyota care but also promoting the concert which was very successful and received major press coverage which fascinated people because thousands turned out for an live concert event for an animated character.

The 98 minute concert featured songs performed by Hatsune Miku and other Vocaloid characters Megurine Luka, Kagamine Rin and Len .  The event also featured popular otaku host, Danny Choo.

And now the concert will be released on Blu-ray+CD courtesy of Aniplex Inc.

“Mikunopolis in Los Angeles [Happy to Meet You I'm Hatsune Miku] Track Listing:

1. Project Diva Desu. [Live]    3:01    t.Komine (うたたP) Feat. 初音ミク
2. ワールドイズマイン (World is Mine) [Live]    2:58    supercell Feat. 初音ミク
3. えれくとりっく・えんじぇぅ (Electric Angel) [Live]    3:26    ヤスオP Feat. 初音ミク
4. 恋スルVOC@LOID [Live]   (Voc@loid in Love)  3:17    OSTER project Feat. 初音ミク
5. クローバー・クラブ [Live]  (Clover Club)   3:04    ゆうゆ Feat. 初音ミク
6. ぽっぴっぽー [Live]    (Poppippo) 3:01    ラマーズP Feat. 初音ミク
7. ロミオとシンデレラ [Live]  (Romeo and Cinderella)  3:20    doriko Feat. 初音ミク
8. 裏表ラバーズ [Live]  (Uraomote Lovers) 2:34    wowaka (現実逃避P) Feat. 初音ミク
9. パズル [Live]  (Puzzle)  1:42    クワガタP Feat. 初音ミク
10. VOiCE [Live]    0:41    ラヴリーP Feat. 初音ミク
11. 1/6 -out of the gravity- [Live]    2:21    ぼーかりおどP Feat. 初音ミク
12. moon [Live]    3:13    iroha (sasaki) Feat. 初音ミク
13. 初音ミクの消失 [Live] (The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku)    2:20    cosMo@暴走P Feat. 初音ミク
14. 右肩の蝶 [Live]  (The Butterfly on My Right Shoulder)  3:38    のりぴー Feat. 初音ミク
15. 炉心融解 [Live] (Roshin Yokai)   3:57    iroha (sasaki) Feat. 鏡音リン
16. Just Be Friends [Live]  (Just Be Friends)  3:14    Dixie Flatline Feat. 巡音ルカ
17. ワールズエンド・ダンスホール [Live]  (World’s End Dancehall)   3:43    wowaka (現実逃避P) Feat. 初音ミク, 巡音ルカ
18. from Y to Y [Live]    3:08    ジミーサムP Feat. 初音ミク
19. サイハテ [Live]  (The Furthest Reaches)  2:41    小林オニキス Feat. 初音ミク
20. ファインダー (DSLR remix-re:edit) [Live]  (Finder)  3:39    livetune Feat. 初音ミク
21. SPiCa [Live]    4:13    とくP Feat. 初音ミク
22. 愛言葉 [Live]  (Aikotoba)   3:13    DECO*27 Feat. 初音ミク
23. StargazeR [Live]    4:00    骨盤P Feat. 初音ミク
24. ハジメテノオト [Live] (The First Sound)    3:32    malo Feat. 初音ミク

VIDEO:

“Mikunopolis in Los Angeles [Happy to Meet You I'm Hatsune Miku]” is presented in 1080p High Definition.  For the most part, picture quality when it comes to showcasing the band members and the audience looks very good in HD.  Even a distant shot of showcasing Hatsune Miku and others, looked very good in HD.  But when it comes to closeups of the actual projection, that is where things get a bit blurrier.  But that is to be expected.  If anything, the editing for the concert was well-done, so shots don’t focus on a certain character, band member or audience member for too long.

I didn’t notice any banding or compression artifact issues during my viewing of the Blu-ray, but the picture quality of “Mikunopolis in Los Angeles [Happy to Meet You I'm Hatsune Miku]” was very good!

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Mikunopolis in Los Angeles [Happy to Meet You I'm Hatsune Miku]“ is presented in Japanese Linear PCM Stereo 2.0 and Dolby TrueHD 5.1.  My preferences were more for the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 for the dynamic range.  Also, good use of the surround channels for the audience and overall ambiance.  But if you are a Miku fan, those with the gear to take advantage of the concert in lossless will enjoy the overall soundtrack.

The Blu-ray comes with both English subtitles (via English translation) and Romaji.  It’s important to note that for tracks 8-11, there are no English subtitles in order to keep the creators intention in mind for the medley portion.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Mikunopolis in Los Angeles [Happy to Meet You I'm Hatsune Miku]” comes with the following special features:

• The Making of MIKUNOPOLIS – (3:54) A photo and video clip of Miku and staff arriving to Los Angeles for their performance at Nokia Theatre.
• Opening Act – (13:14) Featuring the opening act with Danny Choo and the Danceroids (and two dance performances by them).

EXTRAS:

“Mikunopolis in Los Angeles [Happy to Meet You I'm Hatsune Miku]” comes with the Blu-ray, CD soundtrack (featuring the same live concert tracks featured on the Blu-ray concert disc), deluxe digipak, PET clear case and a 2-sided poster.

I happened to be in Los Angeles during the day of “Mikunopolis in Los Angeles” and I know that the excitement for the concert could be felt, especially the number of Vocaloid cosplayers in the area.

But prior to this concert, I was telling my staff of how important this concert was in the United States.

Go back more nearly 15-years ago, during my review for an anime OVA series titled “Macross Plus”, the series featured a virtual idol named Sharon Apple, which many would watch her perform live.

I wrote about how one of these days, we will probably see virtual idols and purchasing CD’s from them.  And a year later, it didn’t take long as the cyber idol Kyoko Date released her first single and I was so happy to purchase the single when it was first released.  The concept of using CG to have these characters dance, sing and even perhaps have them featured on a Japanese music show, I felt that technology was giving us a chance to go further in exploring those possibilities.

While virtual idols would continue to be featured on photo books and magazines, the exploration of virtual idol in music would not take place again until a decade later with “Space Channel 5″ creator Tetsuya Mizoguchi and record producer Kenji Tamai working on a virtual band known as The Genki Rockets.

While the goal in the past was to strive for realism, it wasn’t until Yamaha Corporation created the Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3 synthesizing technology using the humanoid persona created by Crypton Future Media.  People were creating their own music and music videos and posting on the popular Japanese video sharing website Niconico .  Also a video sharing website that cater to otaku taste in anime, computer games and pop music.

And immediately, people all over the world began experimenting with the voice samples of Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Len, Megurine Luka for their music, while others started to enjoy the look of the Vocaloid characters and began cosplaying as them at conventions.

But then merchandising for Vocaloid’s exploded.  From video games to nendoroids and action figures, many fans wanted anything related Vocaloid merchandise.  And in 2012-2013, the Vocaloid especially the Hatsune Miku name doesn’t seem to be heading south as Family Mart (a convenience store in Japan) began selling Hatsune Miku food items, t-shirts, action figures.  Suffice to say, people can’t get enough of Hatsune Miku and her Vocaloid friends!

And here we are in April 2013 with the first Hatsune Miku concert Blu-ray release in America.  Featuring her concert at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles from July 2, 2011

The concert features 3D imaging created by SEGA and supervised by Crypton Future Media, the concert was Hatsune Miku’s first in America and performing with a live band.

First, lets discuss the music.  For those who love idol pop will be entertained by Hatsune Miku’s music.  From her supercell hit “World is Mine”, her vegetarian cute pop song “Clover Club” and upbeat vegetarian juice song “Poppippo”.  Or the super quick wowaka track “Uramote Lovers” or even quicker “The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku”, Vocaloid fans get to enjoy the Kagamine Rin/Len track “Roshin Yukai” and Megurine Luka, Dixie Flatline track “Just Be Friends”.  Plus a duet with Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka for “World’s End Dancehall”.

Featuring a total of 24 songs, fans will surely enjoy the excitement of the concert.

Will it appeal to Japanese music fans?  While the music of Hatsune Miku and music using the vocaloid is popular among  many fans worldwide, it’s a style that may or many not appeal to people.  Because the software uses the Vocaloid software, the software enables users to synthesize singing by typing in the lyrics and melody.  And the software uses technology with specially recorded samples digitally manipulated for each song.  Also, the songs are idol J-Pop, and if you like that, then chances are you will enjoy the music from this concert.

As for Blu-ray enthusiasts wanting to know how the picture quality and lossless audio is.  For picture quality, there were a good amount of cameras recording from direct center, above the audience, towards the audience, towards the Vocaloids and a camera aimed at each of the members of the band.

Picture quality was very good when focusing on the audience and also from the characters from a distance.  You can see the two projector lights from behind a black screen (which does show reflections of the audience at times) but while the 3D imaging looks very good, it only becomes a bit problematic when it focuses too close on the 3D characters because you can tell it’s a projection and it’s not crisp and clear.

But for the most part, editing is well-done, not dizzying and the lighting was also done very well.

The lossless audio is very good with a good amount of crowd ambiance filling the surround channels nicely.  While you do get a LPCM stereo lossless track, I opted for the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack for the better dynamic range.

As for special features, you do get two special features.  One featuring Miku arriving to Los Angeles and the other is Danny Choo and the Vocaloid dancers.  The Aniplex Blu-ray release also comes with a live concert CD, digipak case and a 2-sided poster.

I just can’t help but be fascinated with the progress of virtual idol technology.  For me, the whole concept of virtual idols and also the Vocaloid Software has been quite intriguing for me and I have followed the development of virtual idols for many years now and to see how popular Hatsune Miku has become and how the character has been marketed, especially via videogames, Figma figures, nendoroids, clothing, food… Hatsune Miku is no doubt a phenomenon.  In my many years of covering Japanese entertainment, I have never seen anything like this before.  And it’s pretty fascinating and also exciting to see this happening.

Especially seeing Toyota do a national commercial for Hatsune Miku and a virtual idol concert with thousands of people in the audience in America screaming and singing along to the songs… That’s pretty awesome!

Overall, “Mikunopolis in Los Angeles [Happy to Meet You I'm Hatsune Miku] is a wonderful Blu-ray concert release for Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid fans.  Recommended!

Little Fugitive (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

“Little Fugitive” is one of those magical classics that you simply love because it captured American innocence.  It captured the real actions of people at Coney Island and it also caught a glimpse of that Coney Island magic that no longer exists.  But it’s also a wonderful American independent film that was inspiring to filmmakers because it showed how one can create a film, with not much money but yet have an impact on viewers all over the world. Delightful, entertaining and wonderful, Morris Engel’s “Little Fugitive” is highly recommended!

Images courtesy of © 1953 Little Fugitive Productions Co. ©1981 Morris Engel. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Little Fugitive

FILM RELEASE: 1953

DURATION: 80 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 1:33:1 aspect ratio, LPCM 2.0 Mono

COMPANY: Kino Classics/Kino Lorber

RATED: NR

Release Date: March 26, 2013

Directed by Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin

Written by Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin

Screenplay by Ray AShley

Produced by Ray Ashley, Morris Engel

Music by Eddy Lawrence Manson

Cinematography by Morris Engel

Edited by Ruth Orkin, Lester Troobe

Starring:

Richard Brewster as Lennie

Winifred Cushing as Mother

Jay Williams as Pony Ride Man

Will Lee as Photographer

Charlie Moss as Harry

Tommy DeCanio as Charley

Richie Andrusco as Joey

Widely regarded as one of the most influential and enjoyable films of the American independent cinema, Little Fugitive is an utterly charming fable that poetically captures the joys and wonders of childhood. When a seven-year-old boy (Richie Andrusco) is tricked into believing he killed his older brother, he gathers his meager possessions and flees to New York’s nether wonderland: Coney Island. Upon and beneath the crowded boardwalk, Joey experiences a day and night filled with adventures and mysteries, resulting in a film that is refreshingly spontaneous and thoroughly delightful. ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE – BEST STORY (Original Screenplay)

For photographer Morris Engel, covering life was his job.  As a combat photographer during World War II and an active Photo League member, he and his girlfriend at the time, fellow professional photographer Ruth Orkin (best known for her photo “American Girl in Italy”) and colleague, writer Raymond Abrashkin (who would go on to co-create/write the popular sci-fi series “Danny Dunn”), decided to create their own film titled “Little Fugitive”.

Created for only $30,000 with normal people as actors and shot on location in New York and a custom-made concealed strap-on 35 mm camera in Coney Island, “Little Fugitive” was created and would receive critical acclaim.  And the creation of his own camera for filming would inspire other filmmakers to create their own cameras.

Even legendary French New Wave filmmaker Francois Truffaut has credited “Little Fugitive” as an inspiration to his 1959 masterpiece “The 400 Blows” and saying, “Our New Wave would never have come into being if it hadn’t been for the young American Morris Engel, who showed us the way to independent production with this fine movie.”

Considered as one of the most successful American independent films, “Little fugitive” would receive an Academy Award nomination for “Best Writing, Motion Picture Story” and a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

In 1997, “Little Fugitive” was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

In 2008, Kino released the Morris Engel box set which included his films “Little Fugitive”, “Lovers and Lollipops” and “Weddings and Babies”.  And on March 2013, “Little Fugitive” received a Blu-ray release with the film mastered in HD from a 35 mm print preserved by the Museum of Modern Art with support from The Film Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and the Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation.

“Little Fugitive” revolves around a seven-year-old boy named Joey (portrayed by Richie Andrusco).  All Joey wants is to be around his older brother Lennie (portrayed by Richard Brewster) and show that he’s old enough to take part in the games with the neighborhood kids.

Because Lennie is celebrating his birthday, he plans to go out with his friends to Coney Island.  But when he gets home, his mother receives bad news that their grandmother is not doing well.  So, his mother (portrayed by Winifred Cushing) needs to leave for the day to visit her mother, while Lennie is reminded that he is the man of the house, since their father had died, and he must watch over Joey.

This upsets Lennie, because he really wanted to celebrate his birthday at Coney Island and wants to leave Joey behind, but his mother tells him that they will go to Coney Island some other time.  But he must watch over Joey as she has to leave for a day.  As for Joey, he teases his older brother that he can’t go without him.

When Lennie tells his friends that they are not going to Coney Island because he has to watch over Joey, the kids come up with a joke.  To use a rifle and have Joey shoot the rifle and make him think that he killed his brother Lennie, and so Joey would go back home, while Lennie and the guys can go to Coney Island.

While the plan was a success, for young Joey, he now thinks he is a fugitive from the law because he killed his brother and decides to go to Coney Island alone.  Missing his older brother and sad for what he thinks he had done, Joey tries to survive in Coney Island whichever way he can.

VIDEO:

“Little Fugitive” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:33:1 aspect ratio) and in black and white.  It’s important to remember that “Little Fugitive” is a low budget film that was made was a custom-made 35 mm camera that had its own issues during filming.

Having owned the previous DVD release from Kino, the main differences you will see is more detail and better contrast of whites and grays with better black levels.  While the original print has not been cleaned up of its white specks, I’m not sure if the original print was even possible to have been cleaned of its imperfections but still, the picture quality is an improvement over its DVD counterpart.  The film is mastered in HD from a 35 mm print preserved by the Museum of Modern Art with support from The Film Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and the Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation.

For the most part, picture quality is very good, much better detail on the Blu-ray release as one would expect.  The DVD also had some color fluctuations and was slightly darker but picture quality is definitely improved in this Blu-ray release.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Little Fugitive”is presented in LPCM 2.0 mono.  It’s important to note that the film was shot and dialogue added later.  Dialogue and music is clear.  There is no noticeable hiss or pops during my viewing of the film.  There are no English subtitles.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Little Fugitive” features the following special features:

• Audio Commentary by Morris Engel - An insightful audio commentary by Morris Engel discussing the making of the film.
• Morris Engel: The Independent – (28:38) Featuring a 2008 documentary by Mary Engel about her father.  Featuring his life and professional career with video of her father.
• Ruth Orkin: Frames of Life – (18:19) A 1995 documentary featuring the work of Ruth Orkin and audio featuring Ruth discussing her work.
• Theatrical Trailer – (1:52) The original theatrical trailer for “Little Fugitive”.
• Image Gallery – Featuring 16 images of promotional artwork to movie stills.

When I was a teenager, I used to watch “Little Fugitive” on cable television. Having searched for the film, after forgetting the title, by the time I would rediscover “Little Fugitive”, I was already in my 30′s.

With a big interest in French Nouvelle Vague and the work of Francois Truffaut, during my research one day about American independent films, I would discover a quote from Truffaut about a film titled “Little Fugitive” and how the film inspired him to create his independent masterpiece “The 400 Blows”.

Suffice to say, I was overjoyed to find out that the little boy who was in Coney Island turned out to be “Little Fugitive” and it has been one of my favorite releases from Kino and now this wonderful film has been released on Blu-ray.

I absolutely loved “Little Fugitive” as it not only captured the innocence of a child, but also the adventure through Coney Island, capturing on camera, the excitement of the area of that time.

While Coney Island has been marred through controversy and many discussions of revitalizing the area, while its heyday was before the 1940′s, “Little Fugitive” would still capture the amusement park in its glory before going through significant changes in the ’60s.

But the charm of the film is not just about capturing the heyday, but seeing Coney Island through the eyes of a seven-year-old boy.    Yes, the film had a script and was carefully planned out, but its the ability to capture this natural feeling of a boy just enjoying his time at Coney Island and not acting as if he was in a film.

The film was also inspiring because filmmaker and cinematographer Morris Engel utilized a concealed 35 mm camera.  I’ve seen concealed cameras used in French and Italian films but to see it employed in an American independent film and many people from Coney Island not knowing they are in the film, I thought that was pretty amazing, especially how he captured young actor Richie Andrusco, who seemed to have forgotten about the camera and just being a normal boy, the character of Joey now becoming real to viewer as the experiences were natural and felt real.

But this was guerrilla filmmaking on a budget and it’s amazing to see how much was captured and done for $35,000.  Watching it now, you can’t help but be impressed.

As for the Blu-ray release, the special features are the same as the previous DVD.  So, there is nothing new added.  But with that being said, I know with this Blu-ray release, many fans will be introduced to Morris Engel’s work for the first time through “Little Fugitive”.

The audio commentary with Morris Engel was recorded before his death in 2005 and the commentary is just full of interesting facts.  From how it was to work with the young Richie Andrusco and how he captured his personality for Joey with no need for direction, how the rifle scene was actually using a real rifle and Morris was terrified of filming that scene, how the drowning scene was real (and an explanation of why it was cut out of the TV version) and how Lennie’s line “You’re laying on my pants” was censored by the state of Ohio and much more.

The documentary “Morris Engel: The Independent” is also impressive as we see Engel reuniting with his young star Richie Andrusco many decades later, we see Engel’s career featured to celebrate his career, but also to celebrate his life years after his death.   The same can be said for “Ruth Orkin: Frames of Life” which showcases the career of Ruth Orkin in a smaller 18 minute featurette.

As mentioned earlier, the Blu-ray does feature much better contrast and detail over its DVD counterpart.

Overall, “Little Fugitive” is one of those magical classics that you simply love because it captured American innocence.  It captured the real actions of people at Coney Island and it also caught a glimpse of that Coney Island magic that no longer exists.  But it’s also a wonderful American independent film that was inspiring to filmmakers because it showed how one can create a film, with not much money but yet have an impact on viewers all over the world.

Delightful, entertaining and wonderful, Morris Engel’s “Little Fugitive” is highly recommended!

A Monster in Paris (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

“A Monster in Paris” is another enjoyable animated film for the family by Bibo Bergeron (“Shark Tale”).  A film that showcases beautiful environments but also wonderful music.  Recommended!

Image courtesy of © 2013 Europacorp. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: A Monster in Paris (Un monstre à Paris)

YEAR: 2011

DURATION: 87 Minutes

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (1:78:1 aspect ratio), English DTS-HD MA 5.1, Subtitles: English

COMPANY: Shout! Factory

RATED: PG (Some Action Violence Involving Gun Play and Mild rude humor)

Release Date:  April 16, 2013

Directed by Bibo Bergeron

Written by Bibo Bergeron

Screenplay by Stephane Kazandjian

Producer: Luc Besson

Executive Producer: Nadia Khamlichi, Adrian Plitowski, Gilles Waterkeyn

Line Producer: Olivier Bizet, Andre Clavel

Associate Producer: Remi Burah

Music by Mathieu Chedid

Edited by Pascal Cheve, Nicolas Stretta

Production Design by Francois Moret

Featuring the Voices of:

Mathieu Chedid as  Francoeur

Vanessa Paradis as  Lucille

Gad Elmaleh as Raoul

Francois Cluzet as Le prefet Maynott

Ludivine Sagnier as Maud

Julie Ferrier as Madame Carlotta

Bruno Salomone as Albert

Sebastien Desjours as Emile

Paris, 1910. Panic sweeps the city as floodwaters rise and a monster is on the loose!

Meanwhile a wacky inventor, his camera-crazy best friend, and a madcap monkey are on a mission to protect the beast, Franc, as he holds a rare and special talent. With the help of the beautiful but feisty singer Lucille, the team harbors the monster to keep him from the ghastly wannabe Mayor, Commissioner Maynott, who has a plan to capture Franc and reveal him to be nothing more than a monstrous danger to the people of Paris.

From Bibo Bergeron, the director of Shark Tale, and starring Adam Goldberg, Jay Harrington, Bob Balaban, Sean Lennon, Vanessa Paradis, Danny Huston and Catherine O’Hara, A Monster In Paris is presented in stunning 3D for a spectacularly fun experience for the whole family.

In European animation, Bibo Bergeron is well-known for his directorial work in “Shark Tale”, his work for films such as “Bee Movie”, “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas”, “Flushed Away” and the TV series “Caillou”, “Babar” and “Woofy”.

In 2011, Bergeron and writer Stephane Kazandjian (“Modern Love”, “Scalp”, “Apres”) began working on the French CGI and 3D animated feature “Un monstre a Paris” (“A Monster in Paris”) which received critical acclaim for its music and performances by its lead talent.

The film would star Mathieu Chedid (“Tell No One”, “Arsene Lupin”), singer and actress Vanessa Paradis (“Girl on the Bridge”, “Cafe de Flore”, “Heartbreaker”), Gad Elmaleh (“The Adventures of Tintin”, “Midnight in Paris”, “The Valet”),  Francois Cluzet (“The Intouchables”, “Tell No One”, “Little White Lies”), Ludivine Sagnier (“Swimming Pool”, “The Devil’s Double”, “Mesrine: Public Enemy #1″) and Julie Ferrier (“Heartbreaker”, “Micmacs”, “Mr. Bean’s Holiday”).

And now the film will be released in the U.S. as a Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copy combo-pack in April 2013 courtesy of Shout! Factory.

“A Monser in Paris” is set in Paris 2010 and begins with a shy projectionist named Emile who loves film but also likes his co-worker Maud, but is unable to tell her how he feels.  Emile hangs out with inventor and delivery driver Raoul, who go to pickup a new belt for a projector.

Meanwhile, we are introduced to Lucille (portrayed by Vanessa Paradis), a childhood friend of Raoul, who is a cabaret singer at the club L’Oiseau Rare.  A successful singer at the club, her aunt Carlotta wants her to be with the wealthy police commissioner Maynott.

As Raoul and Emile make a delivery run to the Botanical Gardens, the Professor is not in but his assistant, a monkey named Charles is seen guarding the location.  As the two browse through the laboratory, they begin messing around with the experiments include the “Atomize-a-Tune” and it gives Charles the voice of an opera singer for a temporary time.  Another “Super Fertilizer” is used to grow a sunflower seed into a giant sunflower, but it grows so fast that it begins to knock both Raoul and Emilie down.

With things getting out of hand, the “Atomitize-a -Tune” and “Super Fertilizer” gets mixed together and an explosion takes place.  While both men and Charles escape, Emile who was filming with his new camera, feels he recorded a creature.  Sure enough, the creature begins to be featured in the local newspapers.

Seeing how people fear the creature, the police commissioner tries to use this fear to his advantage in increasing his chances of being elected for the upcoming mayoral elections.

With Lucille needing a new musician for her show, she comes into contact with the monstrous creature outside the alleyway and faints.  When she awakes, she sees the creature but hears him singing a song and has a beautiful voice.  Immediately, Lucille befriends the creature and learns he is not dangerous.  She gives him the name of “Francoeur” and it is revealed that the creature was originally a flea that got caught in the laboratory explosion which Raoul and Emile caused.  But Lucille is determined in trying to Francoeur’s voice heard and tries to find a way to disguise him and have him take part in her next performance.

Meanwhile, both Raoul and Emile are caught by authorities for the laboratory explosion, but instead of going to prison, because these two are responsible for creating the creature, police commissioner Maynott tries to find a way to use the two in order to capture the creature.

VIDEO:

“A Monster in Paris” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:85:1 aspect ratio).  First let’s take a look at the 3D version of “A Monster in Paris”.  The film is pretty much one of those depth-based 3D animated films that proves to be much more effective towards the latter half via the action scenes of the film.  It’s not the best use of 3D for an animated film, but I suppose this goes to show a difference between a heavily invested Disney/Pixar or Dreamworks Animation 3D film would benefit from a larger budget.  For the most part, the 3D is OK.

As for the picture quality of the Blu-ray release, the film has a European style that is evident in British animated films, but for “A Monster in Paris”, its strength is within its environments but also I like the French character design for its character models.  People should not expect the same type of animation as one would see on the more expensive, big budget animated films but by no means will I downgrade a film because of it.  I feel that “A Monster in Paris” is a beautiful looking film that shows that other countries can create beautiful animated films without the huge bankroll.  But also the film is in the capable hands of Bibo Bergeron (“Shark Tale”) which is a plus!

Picture quality does feature a lot of detail, some scenes are vibrant and for the most part, the film looks very good in HD!

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“A Monster in Paris” is presented in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1.   While dialogue is crystal clear featuring Adam Goldberg, Jay Harrington, Bob Balaban, Danny Huston and Catherine O’Hara.  Possibly what stands out in this lossless soundtrack are the music performances by Vanessa Paradis and Sean Lennon.

The music is absolutely beautiful in this film and sounds incredible via lossless.  While the movie does utilize surround activity, especially moreso during the latter half of the film, its the environment that comes more to play in surround usage.  But for the most part, dialogue and music is crystal clear!

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“A Monster in Paris” comes with trailer.

EXTRAS:

“A Monster in Paris” comes with both the Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copy. Also, a slipcover case is included.

“A Monster in Paris” is an entertaining animated family film that I enjoy for its beautiful and well-detailed Paris environment, enjoyable character design but also for its music.

Of course, “A Monster in Paris” didn’t have the luxury of a having a huge budget of a Disney/Pixar or Dreamworks animated film, and one shouldn’t compare animated film from other countries with these big-budget films but still enjoy the animation and overall film.  The film is beautiful and its storyline is full of humor and fun.

For younger children, the sight of a flea-like monster may scare some younger children and as my son had commented, “too many kissing scenes” for kids.  But other than that, its PG rating is mostly for a scene involving a gun being shot by the film’s antagonist and mild rude humor.

The film is in essence about three characters.  Raoul (voiced by Adam Goldberg) is a delivery man who has his own business but wants to make himself look successful (when he’s really not) and wants to look very good in front of Lucille, an old childhood friend.

Lucille (voiced by Vanessa Paradis) loves singing but the Le Prefet Maynott (voiced by Danny Huston) is more interested in wooing her and wanting to marry her.  And her boss, Madame Carlotta (voiced by Catherine O’Hara), encourages it.  But she has no interest in the man.  But now that she has spotted the talented Francoeur (voiced by Mathieu Chedid), a flea monster, she wants to help him and perform alongside with him, as he makes her performances much more vibrant.

And Emile (voiced by Jay Harrington) is a projectionist who goes around with Raoul for his deliveries but he’s a young man wanting to confess his love to Maud (voiced by Madeline Zima).

As for the Blu-ray release, the film is colorful and vibrant in HD.  The Blu-ray 3D is good for its use of depth but not the best in terms of animated films in 3D.  The lossless audio is also very good as the action sequences utilizes the surround channels quite well.  But the film’s music performance is fantastic and Vanessa Paradis and Sean Lennon do a wonderful job.  It’s only lowpoint for this release is you would expect animated films to have a ton of special features, not the case for this Blu-ray release.

One should not expect spectacular Disney/Pixar or Dreamworks Animation or a similar style with a magnificent budget to work with “A Monster in Paris”, but one can expect very good animation and a fun family animated film for the entire family.

Overall, “A Monster in Paris” is a fun family animated film worth recommending!

A Man Escaped – The Criterion Collection #650 (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

“A Man Escaped” is a film that showcases Robert Bresson’s wonderful direction but it’s also a Blu-ray release and its special features that Robert Bresson fans and cineaste will surely enjoy for it.  These are the type of Criterion Collection releases I love…great film and special features that thoroughly examines the work of the filmmaker.  “A Man Escaped” is highly recommended!

Image are courtesy of © 2013 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: A Man Escaped – The Criterion Collection #650

YEAR OF FILM: 1956

DURATION: 101 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 1:33:1 aspect ratio, Black and White, French Monaural with English Subtitles

COMPANY: Janus Films/THE CRITERION COLLECTION

RELEASE DATE: March 26, 2013

Directed by Robert Bresson

Scenario and Dialogue by Robert Bresson

Memoir by Andre Devigny

Producer: Alain Poire, Jean Thuillier

Cinematography by Leonce-Henri Burel

Edited by Raymond Lamy

Production Design by Pierre Charbonnier

Art Direction by Pierre Carbonnier

Starring:

Francois Leterrier as Le Lieutenant Fontaine

Charles Le Clainche as Francois Jost

Maruice Beerblock as Blanchet

Roland Monod as Le pasteur Deleyris

Jacques Ertaud as Orsini

Jean Paul Delhumeau as Hebrard

Roger Treherne as Terry

With the simplest of concepts and sparest of techniques, Robert Bresson (Au hasard Balthazar) made one of the most suspenseful jailbreak films of all time in A Man Escaped. Based on the memoirs of an imprisoned French resistance leader, this unbelievably taut and methodical marvel follows the fictional Fontaine’s single-minded pursuit of freedom, detailing the planning and carrying out of his escape with gripping precision. But Bresson’s film is not merely process-minded—it’s a work of intense spirituality and humanity.

Robert Bresson, a legendary French filmmaker known for cinematic maserpieces such as “Pickpocket”, “Diary of a Country Priest” and his most popular film “Au Hasard Balthazar”.

But Bresson was also known for his film “A Man Escaped” (“Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut”), which was based on the memoirs of Andre Devigny, a prisoner of war that was held at Fort Montluc by the Nazi’s during World War II and escaped on his day of execution.

The film would earn Bresson a “Best Director” award at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival but also a Palme d’Or nomination.

And now “A Man Escaped” will be released by The Criterion Collection on Blu-ray and DVD on March 2013.

“A Man Escaped” begins with a camera shot at a plaque commemorating the 7,000 men who died at the hands of the Nazi’s at Montluc prison.

We are introduced to Fontaine (portrayed by Francois Leterrier), a member of the French Resistance who tries to escape the prison via car.  The Nazi’s capture him during a vehicle stop and Fontaine is punished and beaten for trying to escape.

While incarcerated, Fontaine is able to communicate with a person next door via morse code.  Meanwhile, using string and a sack, he is able to speak and get items to three Frenchman who are exercising near his prison cell.  The men help Fontaine deliver messages outside of the cell but also bring him items he can use.

As Fontaine is moved into cell 107 on the top floor of the prison, he begins to inspect his cell and realizes that the boards are made of low quality wood.  With the spoon that he uses to eat, he begins to use the spoon to chip away at the wood and is able to remove the boards from the prison cell door and able to roam around the hallway where he can meet with other prisoners.

But while incarcerated, each day we can hear the Nazi’s kill someone from the prison and it all comes down to one’s usefulness at the prison.  We are also introduced to other prisoners such as Orsini (portrayed by Jacques Ertaud), who also tries to attempt an escape from prison but because his rope has no hooks, he is caught, punished and beaten by the Nazis.

But despite the fate of those who try to escape, the information they pass in hopes for someone to escape the prison becomes important.

Fontaine knows he must thoroughly plan his escape from Montluc prison but he is placed with a young man.  But can this young man be trusted or is he working for the Nazi’s?

 

VIDEO:

“A Man Escaped” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:33:1 aspect ratio). The film features wonderful contrast and is well-detailed. Whites and grays are well-contrast, black levels are also much better. I saw no damage or major flickering, banding, if anything, the film looks magnificent on Blu-ray!

According to the Criterion Collection, this high-definition digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the original 35 mm camera negative at Eclaire Laboratories in Epinay-sur-Seine, France. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Image System’s Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain and noise reduction.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“A Man Escaped” is presented in French LPCM 1.0. Dialogue is clear and subtitles are easy to read. I detected no pops, crackles or terrible hiss during my viewing of the film.

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

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“A Man Escaped – The Criterion Collection #650” comes with the following special features:

• Bresson Without a Trace – (1:07:31) From a 1965 television program of “Cineastes de notre temps” in which the Bresson gives his first on-camera interview.  (Note: Do not watch this unless you have seen his previous films as the featurette does contain spoilers.)
• The Road to Bresson - (56:22) A 1984 documentary featuring interviews with filmmakers Louis Malle, Paul schrader and Andrei Tarkovsky. Featuring the filmmakers who also try to get an interview with Bresson who is promoting his film “L’Argent” at the Cannes Film Festival.
• The Essence of Forms - (45:56) A Documentary from 2010 win which collaborators and admirers of Bresson’s including actor Francois Leterrier and director Buruno Dumont, share their thoughts about the director and his work.
• Functions of Film Sound – (19:48) A visual essay on the use of sound in “A Man Escaped” by film scholars David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson.
• Trailers – (3:10) The theatrical trailer for “A Man Escaped”.

EXTRAS:

“A Man Escaped – The Criterion Collection #650” comes with an 20-page booklet with the following essay “Quintessential Bresson” by Tony Pipolo.

Robert Bresson, a legendary filmmaker who may have not made too many films within the last 40-years of his life, but each of his films are respected by filmmakers because of his constant search of getting the shot he needs.

A style that is not for patient producers, Bresson is known to have a seen redone and shot many dozens of times until he felt he got the shot he needed.  As many filmmakers would say about Bresson’s style, he comes to a shot not knowing what he wants, but through repetition he eventually is in search for a shot that can be used.

He was a man that was dedicated in refining the precision of his own cinema style, stayed away from professional actors, abolishing psychology and suffice to say, those who understood his work, looked at Robert Bresson as a genius, while those who didn’t, find his work maddening or incomprehensible.

While Bresson’s style is not a style that not many people could read about or hear about, it is because he shunned the public life and wanted to be known for his work and not about him, as a person.

Known for his masterpiece “Au hasard Balthazar” and his work for”Les dames du bois de Boulogne”,  “Diary of a Country Priest”, “Pickpocket” and”Mouchette”, the Criterion Collection gives viewers a chance to know Robert Bresson the filmmaker through the Blu-ray release of  “A Man Escaped”.

While I recommend films such as “Au hasard Balthazar”, “Pickpocket” and “Diary of a Country Priest” to see the varying styles of Robert Bresson as a filmmaker, I must say that the release of “A Man Escaped” is important for the fact that it’s a film that shows his technique of simple concepts but techniques that are not easily replicated.

This is also a release that features Bressons’ first on-camera interview in “Bresson: Without a Trace” from 1965, the wonderful documentary “The Road to Bresson” in which legendary filmmakers such as Louis Malle, Andrei Tarkovsky, Paul Schrader and others discuss the brilliance of Bresson but also seeing those who just don’t get his work (as seen in the “L’argent”press conference at the Cannes Film Festival).

But Criterion Collection goes even further by including “The Essence of Forms” featuring those who have collaborated with Robert Bresson but also “Functions of Film Sound” in which film scholars David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson discuss Bresson’s work and the use of sound in “A Man Escaped” with efficacy.

But for his film “A Man Escaped”, description on paper or this review makes everything seem so simple.  In fact, that is a word that is often used with Robert Bresson’s films is “simple”, but yet not easily replicated.  Remember, Bresson is a filmmaker who will keep filming do-overs as many times as he wants to get the right shot. His films have gone over schedule, gone over budget and he has even bankrupt a few producers because he has a style that requires patience.

For this prison film, a French Resistance leader has been imprisoned by the Nazi’s and as life is futile for those incarcerated and just counting the days when they will be executed, the protagonist Fontaine is using his contacts throughout prison to find out details of what he can do to escape. Using anything that he has access to, may it be a spoon, blankets or shreddings to be used for rope, the film is exciting because you want to see this man escape.  We know it’s based on a true story based on the memoir of Andre Devigny, but we must see things visually to fully understand.

Bresson captures Fontaine’s urgency, his sadness, his fears and displays it on camera.  Bresson’s skill as a filmmaker is not to be obtrusive but also having the audience be part of the film through tension, suspense and emotion, not just visually but also through its carefully planned use of audio.

This is fantastic cinema and in his talented list within his oeuvre, while he has many films that can be labeled as a masterpiece, “A Man Escape” is wonderful, but it’s the overall experience through this Blu-ray release that makes it worthwhile for the cineaste.

The Criterion Collection’s presentation on Blu-ray is fantastic.  Wonderful detail and contrast with picture and audio quality that looks unblemished and for a film that is nearly 60-years-old, fantastic.  But of all the Robert Bresson releases from the Criterion Collection, it is this release that gives Bresson fans a chance to truly know the filmmaker.

Overall, “A Man Escaped” is a film that showcases Robert Bresson’s wonderful direction but it’s also a Blu-ray release and its special features that Robert Bresson fans and cineaste will surely enjoy for it.  These are the type of Criterion Collection releases I love…great film and special features that thoroughly examines the work of the filmmaker.  “A Man Escaped” is highly recommended!

 

Monsieur Verdoux – The Criterion Collection #652 (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

“Monsieur Verdoux” is another magnificent Charlie Chaplin Blu-ray release but is also a film that is deserving of its recognition as a true Charlie Chaplin cinematic masterpiece. Highly recommended!

Image are courtesy of © 2013 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Monsieur Verdoux – The Criterion Collection #652

YEAR OF FILM: 1947

DURATION: 124 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 1:33:1 aspect ratio, Black and White, Monaural

COMPANY: Janus Films/THE CRITERION COLLECTION

RELEASE DATE: March 26, 2013

Directed by Charles Chaplin

Original Story by Charles Chaplin

Based on an Idea by Orson Welles

Produced by Charles Chaplin

Music by Charles Chaplin

Cinematography by Roland Totheroh

Edited by Willard Nico

Art Direction by John Beckman

Starring:

Charles Chaplin as Henri Verdoux, Varnay, Bonheur, Floray

Mady Correll as Mona, his wife

Allison Roddan as Peter, their son

Robert Lewis as Maurice Bottello

Audrey Betz as Martha Bottello

Martha Raye as Annabella Bonheur

Ada May as Annette, her maid

Isobel Elsom as Marie Grosnay

Marjorie Bennett as the Maid

Helene Heigh as Yvonne, Marie’s friend

Margaret Hoffman as Lydia Floray

Marilyn Nash as The Girl

Irving Bacon as Pierre Couvais

Edwin Mills as Jean Couvais

Virginia Brissac as Carlotta Couvais

Almira Sessions as Lena Couvais

Eula Morgan as Phoebe Couvais

Bernard Nedell as Prefect of Police

Charles Evans as Detective Morrow

William Frawley as Jean La Salle

Charlie Chaplin plays shockingly against type in his most controversial film, a brilliant and bleak black comedy about money, marriage, and murder. Chaplin is a twentieth-century Bluebeard, an enigmatic family man who goes to extreme lengths to support his wife and child, attempting to bump off a series of wealthy widows (including one played by the indefatigable Martha Raye, in a hilarious performance). This deeply philosophical and wildly entertaining film is a work of true sophistication, both for the moral questions it dares to ask and the way it deconstructs its megastar’s loveable on-screen persona.

He is an icon.

Charlie Chaplin, the British comedian known for winning legions of fans through his character, “The Tramp” and one of the most important figures in cinema history.

While Charlie Chaplin will forever be a legend known for wonderful film such as “City Lights”, “The Gold Rush”, “Modern Times” and “The Great Dictator” to name a few.  His life reads like a rags-to-riches story as a child born into poverty and hardship and would become a performer at a young age and eventually become scouted by the film industry and making his first appearance in film in 1914 for Keystone Studios.

The actor would eventually move on to do work for studios such as Essanay, Mutual and First National corporations and would become one of the most successful men in the world by 1918.  And in 1919, in order to gain complete control of his films, Chaplin along with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith would create the American film studio known as United Artist.

And as Charlie Chaplin would survive the transition from silent to talkie in the 1930′s. It’s the 1940′s that would prove to be detrimental for Charlie Chaplin.  It began with an actress named Joan Barry accusing Chaplin that she was pregnant with his baby.  Because Chaplin has had several divorces, media portrayed him as a womanizer.

While working on his latest film “Monsieur Verdoux”, because he would not renounce his British citizenship and was speaking favorably to open a Second Front to help the Soviets and support Soviet-American friendship groups.  Because he socialized with Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht and also attended functions of Soviet diplomats in the U.S., he was accused of being communist and branded a threat to national security. Federal authorities would use the Joan Barry case to bring up Chaplin on four indictments which include interfering with Barry’s arrest and violating the Mann Act for transportation of women across state lines for sexual purposes.

While Chaplin was acquitted, unfortunately, because of the negative publicity, the federal government successfully achieved what they wanted, to hurt Chaplin’s career.

More negative publicity would affect Charlie Chaplin when he married his 18-year-old protegee Oona O’Neill (Chaplin was 54 at the time), the daughter of Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Eugene O’Neill and writer Agnes Boulton.  And because he would not consent to her marriage to Chaplin, despite their close relationship, O’Neill ended his relationship with his daughter.

And while Chaplin was happy to be married to Oona and continued to work on his new film “Monsieur Verdoux” (which he started in 1942), a film which came from an idea from Orson Welles about a  bluebeard/French serial killer named Henri Landru.  While Chaplin tried to sway American sentiment that he was not a communist and even had a major publicist try to promote his new film and also to prepare audiences for a non-Tramp role, unfortunately, his reputation was already tarnished.

He was booed at the premiere, people wanted to boycott his film and Charlie Chaplin who was known to earn $5 million for his films, would only make $300,000+ in the box office and became a commercial flop.  But in other countries, the film was a success.

But the damage was done and Chaplin’s American career would never be the same ever again.  By his next film “Limelight”, when he went to screen the film in London, while returning back home with his family, the Attorney General revoked Chaplin’s re-entry permit. But because Chaplin and his films were warmly received, he would make Switzerland his new home.

While the film was not looked at positively back in the 1940′s, as decades have past, many would recognize “Monsieur Verdoux” as Charlie Chaplin’s first major talkie film that was a true masterpiece.  Even in Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography, he wrote “Monsieur Verdoux is the cleverest and most brilliant film I have yet made”.

And now, “Monsieur Verdoux” will be released on Blu-ray and DVD by The Criterion Collection in March 2013.

“Monsieur Verdoux” is a black comedy in which Charlie Chaplin plays the role of Monsieur Verdoux.  We watch as he invests money from a widow (that he just killed) into the stock market.  Meanwhile, we watch as a family tries desperately to get in touch with Thelma, a woman who had married Monsieur Verdoux and has taken all her money out and sold her business for him.

Worried about Thelma, they go to talk with authorities and as they look into this case, they realized that there are other middle-aged women who are missing or people have not heard from.   They suspect that this man who married Thelma is a mystery man who is a bluebeard, a man who marries women and kills them for their money.

We then see how Monsieur Verdoux, also going by the names Varnay, Bonheur and Floray, has married several widows and uses a job as a fake pretense to having to travel all the time.  He tells each person he has married that he is on a business trip, when the truth is that he is trying to win over each of these women and getting them to take their money out of the bank, in which he can murder them right after and take their money and reinvest it into the stock market, a plan which he uses to help his disabled wife Mona (portrayed by Mady Correll) and his son Peter (portrayed by Allison Roddan).

While visiting with Mona, she tells him that she would rather have the life of living in a one room than having him travel all the time for business. But Verdoux tells her that he will never ever have her live that kind of life again.

Meanwhile, while walking home, he runs into a girl (portrayed by Marilyn Nash), a woman that he feels he can sweet talk but finds out that she is broke and just got out of prison.  He treats her with normalcy and even feeds her and gives her advice which she eventually becomes grateful to him for his help.

But as he is able to keep his wives on a routine, so none of them will see him with another woman, what happens when two of his wives break their normal routine.  And also what happens when Monsieur Verdoux is affected during the Wall Street Crash of 1929?

Will Verdoux be caught by the authorities?  And what can drive a man to commit these crimes?

VIDEO:

“Monsieur Verdoux” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:33:1 aspect ratio). The film features wonderful contrast and is well-detailed. Whites and grays are well-contrast, black levels are also much better.  I saw no damage or major flickering, banding, if anything, the film looks magnificent on Blu-ray!

According to the Criterion Collection, this high-definition digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the original 35 mm camera negative at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy.  Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Image System’s Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, noise reduction and jitter.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Monsieur Verdoux” is presented in English LPCM 1.0. Dialogue is clear and subtitles are easy to read. I detected no pops, crackles or terrible hiss during my viewing of the film.

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

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Monsieur Verdoux – The Criterion Collection #652” comes with the following special features:

• Chaplin Today – Monsieur Verdoux – (27:01) Directed by Bernard Eisenschitz, featuring observations by filmmaker Claude Chabrol and actor Normany Lloyd about the troubling times of Charlie Chaplin and the brilliance of the film “Monsieur Verdoux”.
• Charlie Chaplin and the American Press - (24:54) Kate Guyonvarch, Director of the Charlie Chaplin Company, Roy Export and Charles Maland, author of “Chaplin and American Culture” review the coverage of Chaplin the American press.
• Marilyn Nash - (8:05) A 1997 audio interview with images by Charlie Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance with Marilyn Nash (who starred as “The Girl” in “Monsieur Verdoux”).
• Radio Ads – (6:15) Featuring a total of eight radio ads:  “A Modern French Bluebeard”, “This Merchant of Death”, “A Warning”, “For Women Without A Sense of Humor”, “Lady, Can You Take a Dare?”, “The Top Picture of the Year”, “The Suave, Sinister Lady-Killer” and “Remember – It’s a Comedy”.
• Trailers – (8:38) Three trailers for “Monsieur Verdoux” from France, Germany and the United States.

EXTRAS:

“Monsieur Verdoux – The Criterion Collection #652” comes with an 38-page booklet with the following essays: “Sympathy for the Devil” by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, the article that Charlie Chaplin wrote for the “Continental Daily Mail” titled “My New Film” and Andre Bazin’s “The Myth of Monsieur Verdoux” from Bazin’s film “What is Cinema? Vol II”.

It’s hard to use the word sympathetic when it comes to a character that is a mass murderer.  Nor should one sympathize for one that is amoral for the crimes they have committed.

But what Charlie Chaplin was able to create was a character that is intelligent, witty but its the idea in his head that what he has done is miniscule to what countries have done in war.  Where one man kills, he is a murder.  When a nation kills, they are seen as not.

This is an interesting juxtaposition from Chaplin’s last film “The Great Dictator” in which the threat of Hitler was scaring the masses, Chaplin used his famous personality to preach for a kinder world where people rise above their hate, greed and brutality.

But by 1947, he had been branded guilty by the mass media and U.S. government for his political beliefs and because of his personal life.  Two years before “Monsieur Verdoux” was released in theaters, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II and while images of the devastation was suppressed by American media at the time, because Chaplin was a person who traveled the world and had conversations with many of the affluent people in business and also military, he had a chance to know about war, the effects of war and was tired of war.

But as he seeked to form a working bond between American and Soviets, it would backfire on him as he would be branded a communist.  Anyone who dare side with him, would also be branded a communist and unfortunately, many people in the entertainment industry were automatically judged to be communist but Chaplin would be remembered not just as a silent film star icon but also an actor persecuted by the U.S. Govt. and never allowed to come home until 1972, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offered Chaplin an Honorary Award and would be Chaplin’s first time in the U.S. after 20-years since his re-entry to the U.S. was revoked.  And a standing ovation that would last 12-minutes, the longest in Academy’s history.  Chaplin would also be awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975.

So, as we look back at “Monsieur Verdoux” and many see this film as a masterpiece, you can’t help but feel a bittersweet attitude towards the film.  Primarily because how poorly the film was received because of his treatment by the U.S. government but also the large amount of negative press that he received.

Chaplin tried his best to defend the film.   A film that cost him two million dollars and took seven years to make.  But it was his drive to tell a story about how a poor French clerk who lost his job due to the Depression looked at wooing wealthy women, marrying them and murdering them as a way to support the wife and child that he does love.  In his mind, that contemporary civilization is making mass murderers of us all.

While the film is a comedy, Chaplin knew the state of how things were in America and the world at the time.  After a major World War, these were serious times in which he felt he could use his personality for good and at 58, there was no need for the tramp as he could not play the popular character all his life.  But it was his opportunity to create pity for all humanity as he would say, “in the drastic circumstances of present-day living”.

Charlie Chaplin in “Monsieur Verdoux” is wonderful.  His ability to play a character that is calm, collected but able to pursue multiple women by using his charm and trying to find anyway he can to get their money.

Meanwhile, as much as he has been able to travel and marry or have relationships with many married women in his life, some he manages to kill, some he doesn’t (because he doesn’t know how to get them to give him access to the money), we are introduced to another character, a girl (portrayed by Marilyn Nash) who has been released from prison and receives inspiration from the one man who tries to help her and most of all, listen to her…Monsieur Verdoux.  Her character has become an important and pivotal character towards the end of the film but it’s the planning of the characters in the film that make “Monsieur Verdoux” a fascinating film and at times a comedy.

Most of the comedy is derived from the scenes featuring comedian Martha Raye as Annabella Bonheur, a wisecracking, blunt and yet wealthy woman with a laugh of a hyena.  But in addition to Bonheur, we have appearances by William Frawley (best known as Fred Mertz in the sitcom “I Love Lucy”) and Fritz Leiber, Sr.

But the work and performance of Charlie Chaplin is incredible.  If anyone was able to get away from his well-known “Tramp” role, we as audiences of today, recognize that Chaplin was successful.  Unfortunately, because of the release of the film during his worse time of his personal life, the film would not receive the recognition then, as it does now.

So, we go back to the question of whether a film about an amoral mass murderer should be regarded as wonderful cinema, especially among the many masterpieces in his oeuvre.  I have to say yes.  We  sympathize with Verdoux, but we know that as much as his amoral perspective is only justifiable to him but not to the masses, it’s because Verdoux was a man who knew he did wrong but he was the product of society and that he will not be the only one with that mindset.

But as a society who believes one man who kills any is a murder, what of a country that kills many more for the sake of war or business.  Is he any different?

As for the Criterion Collection Blu-ray release, the film delivers the most beautiful version of this film to date.  The special features are also important in introducing people to what Charlie Chaplin was enduring in his personal life and his career at the time but also featuring interviews with people who knew him.

Overall, “Monsieur Verdoux” is another magnificent Charlie Chaplin Blu-ray release but is also a film that is deserving of its recognition as a true Charlie Chaplin cinematic masterpiece. Highly recommended!

 

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