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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Environment > Allergies > Sickness > WWII > Death > Prostitution > Politics > Mystery > 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)

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


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