Ganja & Hess (1973/Kino Classics Blu-ray)/Shame
(2011/Fox Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture: B-/B
& C Sound: B-/B & B- Extras: B/C+ Films: B+/B-
Severe
addiction is an issue you rarely see tackled in filmmaking of any kind. It is not easy and can be a very ugly affair,
but once in a while, a film tries to take it on and the following films are
both successes in doing so and especially because they are able to deal
honestly with human sexuality.
This is
the third time we have covered Bill Gunn’s brilliant, highly underrated Ganja & Hess (1973), this time in
an unexpected HD restoration issued on Blu-ray from Kino Classics. Out previous coverage of what is one of the
greatest vampire films ever made and then some, is in the following DVD
editions from All Day Entertainment and its owner/film art advocated David
Kalat:
Complete
Edition DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4351/Ganja+&+Hess+%E2%80%93+The+C
Earlier
DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/108/Ganja+&+Hess+(All+Day+Entertainmen
To
explain again, Duane Jones of Romero’s original Night Of The Living Dead (1968, see our import Blu-ray coverage
elsewhere on this site) is Dr. Hess, a man who has a strange problem. He is immortal, he cannot kill himself and he
is a blood-hungry vampire. The film
begins with ominous singing and sound design set to a statue montage, then we
move to the oppressive world of the gospel church, whose salvation will only be
ironic and failed. Other characters will
slowly be introduced.
As we see
things from everyone’s point of view, there is an overreaching sense of being
trapped in a supernatural world of doom, but the flesh, blood, violence and
physicality of mortality is as palpable as anything and this is all taking
place with upper class types. However,
as is the tradition of Stoker’s Dracula,
any power and wealth (including that of the church) is rotting. Dr. Hess is an archeologist who has
discovered a lost African civilization, but one that might have been purposely
buried as it may be a connection to the evil he now as to face.
Why this
still has not found the audience Romero’s original Night Of The Living Dead and Hooper’s original Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974, also on Blu-ray a few times on this
site) have is amazing. Maybe it is
because it was almost a lost film, has an all African American cast (including
Mabel King as the disturbing head of the lost civilization, knowing a dark
secret that could claim us all in a really good performance that will surprise
those who know her from the hit TV sitcom What’s Happening) and its distributor
cut it up and dumped it. That move
actually killed them as a company in the short and long run, but this film
still survives and endures.
I will
let you find out more about the film by reading the other reviews or really,
getting this disc (or DVD if you must) and seeing it for yourself. I always get something new out of the film,
including how complex and smart it is.
This time, I started to make the complex visual connection between it
and Carl Theodore Dreyer’s Vampyr
(1932), another horror classic that is underrated and at least somewhat as
lost. The film was important enough to
fix and save all over again in HD this time, but Ganja & Hess ultimately is in its uncut form, still far ahead
of its time, ahead of the Black New Wave and both African American filmmakers
and Horror genre filmmakers are far behind catching up with it nearly 40 years
later and counting. If you have never
seen it, consider it a must see film.
Extras
repeat the later DVD including script and essay documents accessible though
BD-ROM (vs. the DVD-ROM of the previous DVD), plus a Photo Gallery, 29 minutes
long The
Blood Of The Thing featurette from the 1998 DVD and a terrific feature
length audio commentary track (hear it only after seeing the film) with Producer
Chiz Schultz, Director of Photography James Hinton, Composer Sam Waymon and
Ganja herself, Marlene Clark.
The other
film is Director Steve McQueen’s Shame
(2011) with Michael Fassbinder as a man who loves sex so much, that it rules
his life, he is addicted to it and when he is not having all kinds of sex with
women in any situation he can find, he is watching it on line, in print, on
video and as a voyeur. All is well in
his world, as far as this lifestyle and problem can last, until his sister (the
underrated Carey Mulligan) shows up and disrupts his life and therefore,
addiction pattern. Not that he was not
heading for trouble to begin with, but things are about to change and get
worse.
Rated
NC-17, the film has plenty of sex, nudity and explicit sexually situations
(forget about the language, which is also brutal), yet for all that freedom and
flesh, it never seems as sexual and raw as Ganja
& Hess with its R-rating showing how overly conservative (and therefore
dishonest) cinema has become in four decades, how used we have become to sex on
screen & in media and how much more you can do with the Horror genre than
just dramas.
Fassbinder
is bold, daring and impressive here, totally convincing in his role and totally
convincing as he becomes very slowly but surely gutted out and undone by his
addiction, though it never seems as life threatening as it should or
could. Somehow the mortality is not
palpable enough, even when his risky behavior starts to cross over into
dangerous new territory. We see him
slowly looking worse, more gutted out and his sexual appeal dissipating with
it, which is not as easy to do as it looks.
A few moments will remind one of the banality of big business and big
money from the likes of American Psycho
(though this is a better film) and I give all involved credit for making a
mature, adult film that works well, even if it still did not go as far as I
wanted it to. One of 2011’s best films,
it is a must-see.
Extras
include Digital Copy for PC and PC portable devices, four featurettes on the
making of the film including one on Fassbinder and a Fox Movie Channel piece
promoting the film.
The 1080p
1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Ganja is a nice improvement from the previously restored DVD
editions with more picture information, better color range, more detail and
Video Red that is much more film-like than ever. Originally shot in the Super 16mm format,
this version is from a culmination of worn 35mm prints that the Museum of Modern Art and new backers of saving the
film, The Film Foundation, used to produce a new 35mm negative. The results are impressive given the film’s
history of being chopped up, censored and neglected.
Director
of Photography James Hinton’s work here is masterful, shot for a big screen and
despite some grain (heavier in some scenes, but not as much of a problem in
such a film) and detail limits from this being a blow-up. For the first time in decades, we can see
even more of the atmosphere and density the filmmakers intended. This was a pleasant surprise and it outperforms
the DVDs with ease.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 AVC @ 38 MBPS digital High Definition image transfer on Shame was shot in the old Techniscope
format, originally created by Technicolor Italy using only two perforations per
frame. That made for grainy films, even
when the format was printed in its native dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor
form. Films shot this way not using that
process were known as Chromoscope until Technicolor dropped dye-transfer
printing, so the name no longer meant the same thing.
Using the
newest film stocks, this looks really good and you would think this might be
Super 35mm, but it is far better than an HD shoot, plus only film could capture
the fleshtones needed for the narrative to work. Director of Photography Sean Bobbitt, B.S.C.,
lensed McQueen’s critical independent hit Hunger
and uses the widescreen frame very effectively.
The detail and depth on this Blu-ray is about what this way of shooting
film can deliver and that looks fine, solid and consistent throughout with good
color (even when it is manipulated), good detail and depth. The anamorphically enhanced image on the DVD
is not bad, but no match for the Blu-ray at its best.
The PCM 2.0
Mono on Ganja is also a nice
improvement from the lossy Dolby Digital on the previous DVDs and the restoration
efforts took the best of the available, surviving optical mono tracks and make
the film sound warmer, richer and fuller throughout down to the impressive
score by Sam Waymon. The DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Shame
is as well rounded as its image and even though there are silent moments and
many dialogue-only moments, fine sound recording (note the mix of hit songs
with Harry Escott’s subtle scoring) and a soundfield with accurate soundstage
throughout make this a sound mix with character that works and forwards the
narrative. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on
the DVD is not bad, but no match for the Blu-ray’s superior lossless playback
performance.
- Nicholas Sheffo
