Henry & June (1990/Umbrella Entertainment/PAL Regions 2 & 4/DVD Import)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C-
Film: C
PLEASE NOTE: This DVD set can only be operated
on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Two/2 and Four/4
PAL format software and can be ordered from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment at the website address provided at the end of the review.
Philip
Kaufmann is a filmmaker with more successes than failures, even if some of his
best films (The Right Stuff) did not
have the commercial success they deserved, but he hit a point where he tried
more personal films and the results were mixed.
Following the somewhat overrated Unbearable
Lightness Of Being (1988) was Henry
& June, a 1990 release that became the first NC-17 picture. That new rating was supposed to be the
successor to the long dead and abused X-rating, but along with Showgirls, the rating never panned out
and most films receiving it did not stay with their viewers.
The film
tries to unwrap the secret story of what happened between two key writers in
literature when they met, what sexual secrets they would hold and how it
inspired their classic writing. Fred
Ward is Henry Miller, Maria de Medeiros is Anais Nin and Uma Thurman is June
Miller. Nin had an affair with both and
they were not the only ones around acting exploratory. However, despite good casting, nice
production design, Paris
locations and costumes, the film is oddly forgettable and it seems only fans of
the writer’s books tend to like it.
Anything
sexy here is limited, though I give Kaufman credit for keeping the year 1931 as
1931 without adding sensationalism that did not fit the time or place, but when
all was said and done, it did not stay with me then or now and it is not a film
that is discussed much today. Richard E.
Grant, Kevin Spacey and Gary Oldman also show up, but they cannot add much
either. It may be a curio worth seeing
once, but just don’t expect much.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is from what looks like an older video
master, as does the menu design for this disc (note how old the filmographies
are). This is not quite what Director of
Photography Philippe Rousselot (The
Brave One) would want his film to look like and the Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo mix here is more compressed than it should be, even though this was
originally a Dolby analog A-type theatrical sound release; their oldest system. Any surrounds here are very weak. Extras include notes on the cast and
filmmakers, Production Notes and Theatrical Trailer.
As noted
above, you can order this PAL DVD import exclusively from Umbrella at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
