Pavilion of Women
Picture: B Sound: A- Extras: D Film: B+
Have
you ever stumbled across money on accident that you did not realize you
had? I am sure we have all put on that
winter coat after a few months of sitting in the closet and found some loose
change. Well, this is similar to the
kind of excitement after watching a brilliant film like Pavilion of Women. Partly, because the film received so little
attention and was never promoted very well, and then to turn out to be such a
magnificent film. The other is because
with Willem Dafoe you never know what kind of performance he might turn
in. While he always does a great job, in
one film he could be Jesus Christ, while in the other, he might be a closet gay
detective looking for two men called The Boondock Saints.
The
story is both simple and complex when you think about it. Dafoe plays a priest sent to China before
the Revolution. He meets a woman who is
searching for a woman for her husband to be with because she feels that he
needs more. This is unheard of in our
culture, but back in this time a concubine was quite common. She is not really ‘in love’ with her husband
anymore and as Dafoe becomes more of a regular in their village he teaches just
as much as he learns in return about life.
Then the Revolution breaks out and amidst the turmoil a certain
restricted love tries to exist, but will it last? That is for you to find out.
Pavilion of Women is a very non-Hollywood film in certain aspects. In fact it is more like a Foreign film in
that it never babies the audience and lets us make up our own minds. Plus the ending favors realism rather than
romanticism. Nothing is pushed onto the
viewer as well.
When
it comes to Universal’s DVD releases they are among some of the best for the
format. In the case of this film it is
very average and even though the colors are very bold and saturated dark scenes
tend to get blurred, but nothing too major!
The film was shot flat at 1.85:1 and is anamorphically enhanced for this
DVD release. Scope would have been a
better choice perhaps for this film given the landscapes and such, but due to
some of the interiors it was probably easier to work in the 16X9 ratio instead. Not everyone can do interiors in scope like
Kurosawa (i.e. Red Beard).
One
smart decision that Universal did was release this film in both Dolby Digital
5.1 and DTS 5.1 and both are quite excellent with the DTS giving more punch and
power as well as low end and high-end dynamics as usual. Most of the film is dialogue driven, but
towards that latter half the surround kick in as planes fly over and the
soundtrack picks up a bit. The film was
never recorded for DTS, but the DVD gets it anyway, which is always a bonus.
There are no ‘special’ features so to speak on this
disc, but the film in and of itself is worthy of seeing if not owning. The decent picture quality and superb audio
quality for a film of this caliber is special to those who want a nicely
rendered soundtrack. The type of sound
design here is similar to that on Universal’s Ultimate Edition of Meet Joe
Black, with exceptional music fidelity in the soundtrack, a good sound
engagement when needed, and the spatial continuity when being heavy on
dialogue.
Pavilion of Women is certainly a film that has everything going for it, but a strong
promoter. Universal had a good film on
their hands, but failed to deliver the goods.
Because of this the film went virtually undetected to DVD/video awaiting
discovery. Word of mouth though will
eventually get this film out and about, but how long will that take? Probably as long as it will take for Martin
Scorsese to get a Best Director Oscar.
- Nate Goss
