Showing posts with label blu-ray review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blu-ray review. Show all posts

23 March 2015

Blu-ray Review - The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)

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Genre:
Fantasy, Musical
Distributor:
StudioCanal UK
BD Release Date:
23rd March 2015 (UK)
Rating: U
Director:
Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Cast:
Moira Shearer, Robert Rounseville, Ludmilla Tchérinam
Buy:Tales Of Hoffmann - Special Edition * Digitally Restored [Blu-ray] [1951]

Michael Powell and his cohort Emeric Pressburger were cinematic painters; every shot in their best films has the texture and skill of the master artists. The Tales of Hoffmann comes at a transitional period for Powell and Pressburger, as they were forced into make a couple films they didn’t want to make. It’s also the last one that really has the same splendour their many wonderful films of the ‘40s had, they would make a few more films but the magic just wasn’t there.

The Tales of Hoffmann plays out as this surrealistic proto-psychedelic phantasmagoria opera. It’s based on the opera, The Tales of Hoffmann, which itself is based on the stories of the real E. T. A. Hoffmann. The film is indeed an opera and I have to admit for the majority of the running time, I had the subtitles to clarify what was being sung in case I missed a key plot point. It’s an early example of an anthology film; it’s 3 stories are fantastical in nature, all of which have their own title card.

The stories are all as strange as the psychedelic madness of the set and costume design. The first story is about a robot woman! It ends with one quite fittingly, about a woman who is forced to sign so much it kills her. It’s pure gothic storytelling with liberal amounts of fantasy, it’s no wonder horror maestro George A. Romero has said numerous times it was the film that made him want to make films. It’s all bookended by a drunken Hoffman telling the stories in a tavern.

The real wonder of the film is the work by cinematographer Christopher Challis, along with production design by Hein Heckroth, and art direction from Arthur Lawson. Powell and Pressburger had been making steps towards a film that had visuals that matched operatic music before like their masterwork The Red Shoes, but it comes into full formation here. The design work is almost reminiscent of German expressionism but in colour, each story even has it’s own colour palette. The imaginative design work is simply mind boggling at times, as Thelma Schoonmaker points out in the interview on the disc, it looks like made wigs out of celluloid.

When it came out in 1951 the world wasn’t ready for a film with such imagination on show. Over the years it’s stature has grown and it’s influence can be seen from the aforementioned work of Romero, to the fantasy of Terry Gilliam, to the use of red in Martin Scorsese’s films, to the operatic violence of Brian De Palma. We have to thank Martin Scorsese spearheading the restoration process on this, along with many other key works of Powell and Pressburger. I’ve seen a handful of the new restorations of their work and they are simply breathtakingly gorgeous, every single one.

★★★★
Ian Schultz


9 March 2015

Blu-ray Review - Leviathan (2014)

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Genre:
Drama
Distributor:
Artificial Eye
Rating: 15
Director:
Andrey Zvyagintsev
Cast:
Elena Lyadova, Vladimir Vdovichenkov, Aleksey Serebryakov
Release: 9th March 2015
Buy: Leviathan [Blu-ray]

Leviathan is the film Vladimir Putin and his cronies don’t want you to see. It was however funded partly by money from the Russian ministry of culture, and it’s leader Vladimir Medinsky has admitted openly he dislikes the film. He claims it’s not a real depiction of Russian life and the director is more interested in “fame, red carpets and statuettes".

There are numerous reasons why the Russian government would have disdain for the film. First and foremost it depicts the Russian government as corrupt beyond repair in a Kafkaesque comedy of corruption. One of the biggest criticisms of the film by Medinsky is that the Russian coastal villagers are depicted as “swearing vodka-swigging humans” and given the story of the government stealing the home of the main character Koyla (Aleksey Serebryakov), it’s certainly believable he might be a bit “sweary” and might be drinking more than his fair share of Russia’s biggest export.

The themes of the film are as heavyweight as you might expect from the Russians, they are not known for their lightweight entertainment after all. The title of course comes from the Bible, and is the name of a giant sea monster in the Old Testament, obviously in this context the monster is the oppressive government. It’s also a loose retelling of the book of Job which some cineastes might know also inspired the Coen Brothers A Serious Man.

Andrey Zvyagintsev has made one of the most relentlessly bleak films to come out in a long time. However, despite the bleakness is also has an extremely dark sense of humour, the circumstances as so bleak it becomes absurd in the way Franz Kafka is very funny. Mikhail Krichman shot the film and some of the imagery is truly haunting, Zvyagintsev claims Krichman learned his craft from reading American Cinematographer. Aleksei Serebryakov as the lead Koyla gives one of the most heartbreaking performances in years, despite being at times rather unsympathetic. The arc he goes though is a perfect blend of biblical doom with aspects of the struggle Josef K goes through in The Trial.

It might not be a lightweight watch, and it’s a lengthy one at 2 hours and 20 minutes, but it’s a feat of work that should be seen. It’s an important film that depicts the issues that face the normal people of Russia under the tyrant that is Vladimir Putin. It has an ambition that is extremely rare in world cinema today, alongside a willing to tackle some deep questions. It should certainly be congratulated for that.


★★★★
Ian Schultz

Blu-ray Review - Devo - Hardcore Live! (2015)

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Genre:
Concert documentary
Distributor:
Wienerworld
Rating:Exempt
Director:
Keirda Bahruth
Release: 2nd March 2015
BuyDevo -Hardcore Live! [Blu-ray]

Hardcore Live! is the first proper concert film by pioneering “New Wave” band Devo. There has been a handful of Devo concerts on DVD but never really a concert film in the tradition of a Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense, despite an appearance in the cult classic Urgh! a Music War. It received a small theatrical run Stateside but has just come out on Blu-Ray/DVD over here.

The set up is a back to basics approach to Devo, founding member Bob 2 (Bob Casale) sadly passed away in early 2014 and the surviving members decided in tribute to do a short tour of the US playing the early “Hardcore” songs, and for the most part ignoring their later songs. They also mostly use vintage analogue equipment to replicate the original sound. The “Hardcore” recordings were also reissued in 2013 after being out of print for a long time too much acclaim from fans and critics.

Devo, to anyone who has been lucky enough to witness them live (I’ve seen them twice), will know that they are much more intense on stage than on their records. Lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh stares out everyone in the hall, and for a band that for the most part is made up of men in their 60s, they out play any young band in pure intensity. The first part of this concert however is a deliberately subdued performance of them going through early songs sitting on chairs making jokes in-between the songs pretending they are still stuck in their in basement in mid 70s. Devo opens with the futuristic “Mechanical Man” and plow through tracks like “Auto Modown” and “I Been Refused”.

The show ups the pace when they change into their early blue boiler suits (not the later, more well known yellow suits) and play their mutated version of The Rolling Stones’ enduring classic “Satisfaction”. They just completely burn the house down like every time they perform, they play some stuff off their first album like “Uncontrollable Urge” and Devolution rallying call “Jocko Homo”. They also play obscurities like “Fountain of Filth” and they finally do a touching encore featuring Bob 2’s son on bass of “Clock Out”, a song they last played live in 1977.

The concert is interspersed with interviews with the remaining members talking about the early days, Bob 2, their philosophy etc. It also includes interviews with Toni Basil (of “Mickey” fame), and with the great V. Vale, founder of Re/Search publications and early punk zine Search & Destroy, who has been a Devo fan since the very beginning. It brings some interesting commentary to the proceedings for a band who were sometimes completely misunderstood by critics.

The final product is a superbly entertaining concert film, that is moving and more exciting than most. It’s directed by Keirda Bahruth, who is mostly known for television work, but did also direct the documentary on musician Bob Forrest. The footage is extremely well shot, my only criticism is it could’ve used some colour correction near the end to give it a more seamless colour palette. The disc includes a feature to just play the concert without the interviews and alternative opening along with a short scene showing the creation of Mark’s mutant guitar.



★★★★
Ian Schultz

5 March 2015

Blu-ray Review - The imitation Game (2014)

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Genre:
Thriller
Distributor:
Studio Canal
Rating: 12
Director:
Morten Tyldum
Cast:
Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley,  Mark Strong, Matthew Goode
Release: 9th March 2015
Buy:The Imitation Game [Blu-ray]

The Imitation Game, as everyone probably knows at this point, is about Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) who was one of the radical figures in the creation of what we now know as the computer. He was also homosexual, and was convicted by the police as a result. Due to being forced to undertake chemical castration, he later committed suicide. The film was an early front runner for the Academy Awards and ended up being triumphant in the adapted screenplay category.

In The Imitation Game, Benedict Cumberbatch has never been better; he perfectly captures a driven man who has ideas too large for his time. He also manages to capture the paranoia Turing suffers after the war, specifically in the scenes where he is interrogated, which eventually leads to his downfall. Keira Knightley plays Joan Clarke who was one of the code breakers but had to operate in secret because of the sexism of the time. The rest of the cast is full of solid British actors like Mark Strong and Matthew Goode.

The production design is top notch by Maria Djurkovic who also did Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (which also shared some of the same cast). Both have an attention to period detail that is sorely lacking in many films. Oscar Faura shot it and he has been doing beautiful work for a long with films like The Orphanage and The Machinist and this no exception. Finally the director Morten Tyldum solidly puts it all together, even if at times it seems as though it’s begging for an Academy Award.

The film works on many levels; it’s firstly a nail-biting thriller that is gripping from the moment it starts to it’s sad climax, but it also works as a solid war film that shows the behind the scenes of what really won the war. Not only that, but it also works as a depiction of a time when being yourself could lead to prison, or in the case of Turing, even worse. The film is actually surprisingly funny throughout which is surprising given the subject matter, but Turing's interactions with high officials and his team of code breakers are laugh out loud funny as times. The Imitation Game is one of the better British films to be released in 2014, in a year where there were a surprising amount of British films up for the major awards in the US.

The Blu-ray release includes 3 features including 2 on the true history of the story, and finally the more standard making of.


★★★★

Ian Schultz