Safe
(1995/Sony Pictures Classics/Criterion Blu-ray)/The
Skin (1981/Cohen Film
Collection Blu-ray)/White
Bird In A Blizzard
(2014/Magnolia Blu-ray)
Picture:
B/B/B- Sound: B- Extras: B/B-/C+ Films: B/C+/C+
These
three films from well-established directing talents arrive on
Blu-ray...
Todd
Haynes' Safe
(1995) followed his controversial Poison
(1991, reviewed in its uncut version elsewhere on this site) as his
next breakthrough, adding Julianne Moore in the first of several
memorable collaborations they've had together. Done in a
Kubrickian-like style, Moore is a housewife named Carol who lives a
serene suburban life in the late 1980s that seems to have everything
one could want... or is told they could want. She even has a nice
husband (Xavier Berkeley) and a nice house, but things soon change
when she starts to get unexpectedly ill.
Suddenly,
she has developed allergies out of nowhere, the simplest things are
making her sick and the situation just gets worse and worse until she
is seeking advanced medical help. As we watch, the narrative (though
a slightly distorted view of an old analog TV that was then more
state of the art) keeps showing clips of how environmental abuse is
slowly destroying thew world around us at a time when most films had
rolled back this approach in the Reagan 1980s after it was so rightly
prominent in so many great films up to Blade
Runner and Brazil.
The
film is powerful as ever, creepy as ever, relevant as ever and the
performances are so great and underrated that they have more than
stood the test of time. When this film first arrived, I thought it
was a gem and it still is, but has not always received the full
credit it deserves. When I saw Criterion was issuing it, that was
outstanding news and they have delivered an incredible version that
really delivers in playback performance and extras how great the film
is. Moore's career only got bigger after this and Haynes moved onto
helm films like Velvet
Goldmine (which I was
mixed on), Far From Heaven
(a great reunion with Moore), I'm
Not There. (his surreal,
multiple takes film on Bob Dylan) and the not bad cable TV
mini-series version of Mildred
Pierce.
He
has more films coming up, but this remains my personal favorite of
his (though I never saw the banned Superstar)
and strongly recommend Safe
as a still ahead of its time work.
Extras
include a nicely illustrated, thick paper foldout on the film
including informative text and an essay by Dennis Lim, while the
Blu-ray adds a great, vintage feature length audio commentary track
by Haynes, Moore & Producer Christine Vachon, new on camera
Vachon interview, new on camera Haynes/Moore interview, the Original
Theatrical Trailer and Haynes 1978 film The
Suicide, recently
rediscovered and worth your time.
Liliana
Cavani's The Skin
(1981) is another tale of the immediate aftermath of Italy switching
allegiances from being with Mussolini and the Axis Powers to the
Allies and what an ugly mess that got to be. With touches of Fellini
throughout, the drama has some very gross, ugly, brutal moments of
people being, killed, exploited and the like that will remind one
more of another film about the same period: Pasolini's Salo
(1975, reviewed on Criterion Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) so
Cavani is not pulling hardly any punches.
Based
on a series of short stories by Curzio Malaparte, this is a little
long at 142 minutes and goes out of its way to tell its story to its
credit, even offering talented leads in Marcello Mastroianni and Burt
Lancaster as different military men, plus a solid supporting cast
including Claudia Cardinale, Ken Marshall, Alexandria King and
Jacques Sernas. Unfortunately, the script seems too
compartmentalized for its own good and never coheres into a big epic
film making any big statement. The
Night Porter (now on
Criterion Blu-ray) shows that Cavani is capable of pressing buttons
and making a movie that stays uncomfortably with the viewer, but it
just juggles too much.
Finally,
most of it seems period, but sometimes it does not. The one glaring
flaw, a Batman comic book that was not made until the 1970s keeps
showing up. Oh well.
Extras
include a nicely illustrated booklet on the film including
informative text, feature length audio commentary track by film
historians Andy Klein & Wade Major, 4 Behind The Scenes/Making Of
featurettes (3 with Cavani, one with Production Designer Dante
Feretti), Original French Theatrical Trailer and a 2014 reissue
Trailer.
Gregg
Araki's White Bird In A
Blizzard (2014) is a new
mystery thriller about a sexy housewife (Eva Green) who mysteriously
disappears and in various flashbacks, we find out her behavior was
unusual and put her at odds with her husband (Christopher Meloni in a
downplayed role), not always helping her daughter (Shailene Woodley)
and makes no sense why she'd be gone. Did she just leave, was
kidnapped or plain killed? This haunts her daughter in particular
who would like to know.
She
has become involved with the son (Shiloh Fernandez) of her blind
neighbor and has some friends showing her support in dealing with
such an uncomfortable absence that continues to become more haunting.
She is perceiving something she cannot understand. Then there is
the police detective (Thomas Jane in some of his best dramatic work
to date) who she also takes an interest in. The film is about people
crossing boundaries they likely should not in most cases and the mild
misery this starts causing that leads to worse things.
This
has its moments, but does not always work, can be uneven and in the
end, takes a bad turn when a new ending different from the book is
added that not only does not fit with earlier parts of the script,
but feels very thrown in for a pseudo-shock. It is not as bad as how
Sliver was changed, but as awkward. See this one for the
actors and nice shots throughout as Araki (Mysterious Skin,
the overrated Living End, the problematic Doom Generation)
still delivers one of his better films.
Extras
include BD Live interactive functions, a feature length audio
commentary track with Araki and Woodley, AXS-TV clip to promote the
film, on camera Woodley interview and and Original Theatrical
Trailer.
All
three Blu-rays deliver fine performance, but the 1080p 1.85 X 1
digital High Definition image transfer on Safe comes from a 4K
scan of the original camera negative and is very impressive
throughout far outdoing the old DVD version. The film hardly ever
shows its age and the style holds up extremely well. Director
of Photography Alex Nepomniaschy delivers an enduring, Kubrickian
density that helps deliver the intent of the narrative in the densest
ways.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Skin
also barely shows the age of the materials used and is also a solid
new HD transfer. Color might be light at times, but this is not a
major issue overall. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition
image transfer on Bird
is the only HD shoot here and it has some minor flaws that stop it
from being as good as the older films, yet it is consistent enough
and has some fine shots throughout.
As
for sound, Safe (from its original magnetic soundmaster) and
Skin are here in PCM 2.0 Mono presentations that sound good
for their age, though Skin has so much obvious dubbing typical
of Italian films of the time that some may be more annoyed than
average. Safe was (along with Woody Allen films of the time)
among the last monophonic films issued in the U.S. and has very smart
sound design including Ed Tomney's score.
That
means the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Bird
the only multi-channel presentation here, but despite some good music
and surround moments, tends to be on the quiet side and never really
exceeds the quality of the older releases long enough to be better.
Some moments of the recording are also not up to par.
-
Nicholas Sheffo