Blue Velvet (1986/DEG/MGM Blu-ray)/The
Conversation (1974/Paramount/Lionsgate Blu-ray)/Cul-De-Sac (1966/Criterion Blu-ray)/Trespass (2011/Millennium Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B/B/C+/B Extras: B+/B+/B-/C- Main Programs: B/A-/B-/C+
Films
have become so bad that even otherwise rational, smart people will get angry
telling you that all of one type of film is the same, like thrillers, not
having seen any really good ones. Here
are four wide-ranging examples that break that stereotype.
David Lynch’s
Blue Velvet (1986) is a great
example of one of two kinds of thrillers that audiences find difficulty
relating to, being that the film is thematically complex and has more deep
symbolism and meaning than it may first appear.
The tale of the darkest possible side of suburban America shows that
this fantasy idea of the country in post-WWII mode is alive like a zombie into
the mid-1980s, but its dark side hides an underground world of sex, violence,
perversion and the ugly legacy of the past glossed-over that is about to figure
prominently in the life of a new generation (including Kyle MacLachlan and
Laura Dern) in ways they never expected.
He
discovers a beautiful woman (Isabella Rossellini taking one of the biggest
risks of her career) who is interesting, unusual and turns out to be involved
with some sick characters including an ultraviolent maniac (Dennis Hopper in
one of the darkest comeback performances in cinema history) who lives mentally
between a sick work of sexual violence and hit music of the early 1960s. Then it gets worse and of course, darker.
Much
imitated since, it remains one of Lynch’s strongest films and 25 years later,
as relevant as ever. For DVD a few years
ago, he approved a new HD transfer of the film that delighted him and this new
Blu-ray has that transfer of one of the few hits of the short-lived DEG
studio. This new edition has all the
previous extras (save Lynch’s celebration of the new DVD) of that DVD including
a Theatrical Trailer, 2 TV spots, A Few Outtakes, Vignettes, Mysteries Of Love documentary, a
90-second-long clip of Siskel & Ebert debating the film and over 50 minutes
of newly found Lost Footage that is so good, a few key scenes left in makes the
film even more powerful. See the film
again, then that new section and see if you agree.
Francis
Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974)
is the other great example of a complex thriller, but this is in trying to
figure out the mystery of what is going on and that has to do with murder. One of my favorite Coppola films, Gene
Hackman is Harry Caul, the best wire-tapper in the business, but the tables are
about to be turned on him when he intercepts audio that makes him wonder what
he just heard. Is democracy being
subverted? Is someone about to be
assassinated? How is the CIA
involved? Is something much uglier about
to happen?
With
limited information, he starts to slowly investigate, but the more he does, the
more trouble he finds and the more obsessed he gets. He made this film at the same time as Godfather II and I think it is actually
the better film in what turned out to be his peak year as a filmmaker. The script (which he wrote) is exceptional,
the sound design innovative and the result a masterwork worthy of its few predecessors,
including Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966)
and one most thrillers have still not caught up to, though Brian De Palma did
with Blow Out (1981, reviewed from
Criterion elsewhere on this site) and Tony Scott’s Enemy Of The State (1998) with Will Smith cast Hackman opposite him
as a very similar character.
Extras
include two feature length audio commentary tracks (one with Coppola, another
with sound designer/editor Walter Murch), Close-up
On The Conversation featurette, archive on-set interviews with Hackman and
five new extras: new on-camera Coppola and composer David Shire interviews,
Harry Caul’s San Francisco featurette showing the locales then and now,
archival screen tests, archival Coppola audio dictating the original script and
discussion with Coppola about his early short film exercise No
Cigar.
Roman
Polanski’s Cul-De-Sac (1966) is an
early thriller by yet another director capable of work on the level of Lynch
and Coppola, trying something different with some great actors and often
succeeding in making an interesting film.
Donald Plesence and Francoise are a couple living in isolation until two
gangsters (Lionel Stander and Jack MacGowran) invade their area and ruin their
lives in all kinds of ways. From there,
it becomes a psychological and sometimes physical battle between the parties
and more invasionary forces through the film.
The subtle powers of stress are as important as the explicit ones and
though there are a few minor missteps, I like the film and it is worth
rediscovering or seeing if you never saw it before. It is one of Polanski’s better films in his
early prime as a filmmaker and look for Jacqueline Bisset later in the film.
Extras
include Criterion’s illustrated, informative booklet with technical information
and David Thompson’s High Tides essay, while the disc adds a 1967 Polanski TV
interview, Theatrical Trailers and 2003 documentary about the film called Two Gangsters & An Island with
Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski and the great Director of Photography Gilbert
Taylor interviewed.
Finally, Joel
Schumacher’s Trespass (2011) may not
be his best thriller, but this one shows that even with a somewhat formulaic
script, a superior combination of a cast and director working on a higher level
than usual can make the familiar interesting to watch. Nicolas Cage (8MM) and Nicole Kidman (Batman
Forever) are a married couple with a daughter who are doing well, or
seemingly so, when they are suddenly invaded by a group of masked people
looking for money. Despite telling their
daughter not to go to a party, she has gone anyhow, but these people are
serious.
You can
imagine what happens next, but Schumacher does it with such energy and intent
(trying for a more commercial film than some of his recent projects) that it is
more watchable than you might expect, even though it is not great. Still, it is not the typical boring thriller
we have seen far too many of in recent years and is worth a look if you are
interested. Cam Gigandet and Ben
Mendelsohn lead the rest of the well-cast actors. Extras include previews and brief Trespass: Inside The Thriller
featurette.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 AVC @ 27 MBPS digital High Definition image transfer on Velvet is that Lynch-approved master,
though we don’t know how much he would approve it now. Despite some minor detail issues, the film is
stylized a certain way and the Blu-ray can handle that for the most part. Director of Photography Frederick Elmes
(1988’s Permanent Record and other
Lynch films) delivers one of the great scope films of the 1980s, shot in the
underrated J-D-C Scope format and this Blu-ray looks better the larger the
screen you play it back on, has fine color range and some great demo
shots. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High
Definition image transfer on Trespass
is a good use of scope, but no where newly as engaging, but is one of the
better looking releases of a new film on Blu-ray this year and Director of
Photography Andrzej Bartkowiak (Prince
Of The City, The Verdict and
Schumacher’s enduring Falling Down)
does a fine job just the same and you also get some great shots here too.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer Conversation is another film that has some gritty camerawork (Bill
Butler and Haskell Wexler both lensed it) is as impressive as it may ever look,
though the original film was issued in dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor
prints that are very valuable today.
This has some great shots that remind us of that, but this is not always
that kind of print or presentation.
Still, it is effective with some expected grain, but a solid presentation
overall.
The 1080p
black and white 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Cul-De-Sac also has some grain, but
Director of Photography Gilbert Taylor delivers some amazing work here (he was
great in monochrome and color) and this transfer comes from a 35mm composite
fine grain master positive print which was then cleaned up further to deliver
these fine results. The PCM 1.0 Mono mix
comes from a 35mm print (optical) and is also remastered as best it could be
resulting in a combination as faithful to the film as could be expected. Polanski approved this release.
The other
three Blu-rays have DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless audio mixes that are
all very effective and impressive in their own ways. Trespass
is a brand-new film so it is expected to have a good multi-channel mix and this
one is pretty consistent. Velvet was an analog A-type Dolby
theatrical release and the sound has been nicely upgraded to sound as good as
it could, with the dialogue showing its age the most, but the hit records and
Angelo Badalamenti’s score really benefit even more than on the DVD where this
soundmaster likely debuted. Though The Conversation was originally a
monophonic release (a version of that track is also here), Murch did an amazing
job upgrading his complex sound design for multi-channel presentation and you
would now think this was at least a stereo release back in the day. Instead, it adds a new dimension to the film
form the men who created what we now know as a 5.1 mix.
- Nicholas Sheffo