The
Bride Wore Black
(1967/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/The
Zero Theorem (2013/Well
Go USA Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+/B Sound: B-/B Extras: A-/C+ Films: A-/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Bride Wore Black
limited edition Blu-ray/CD set is now only available from our friends
at Twilight Time, can be ordered from the link below while supplies
last and is limited to only 3,000 copies.
Now
for two key films from two of the most important filmmakers of all
time!
Francois
Truffaut's The
Bride Wore Black
(1967, released 1968) is the famed director's best attempt to do a
film in the Alfred Hitchcock mode, though instead of imitation, he
does all the style and themes, yet uses them as a starting point.
Influenced by several of the Master Of Suspense's films (including
Vertigo),
Jean Moreau plays Julie, whose husband was shot dead as soon as soon
as they were married and left the church. Turns out five men were
playing with a bolt-action rifle and one of them was playing around
when he should not have been and accidentally killed the man. They
couple were childhood sweethearts and somehow, Julie has found out
who they are and decides to go after them, one by one.
Instead
of being a tired, predictable, dumb, dull, obvious revenge thriller,
Truffaut (from the novel by William Irish aka Cornell Woolrich, famed
for his Noir works) makes it a dreamlike character study of all the
people involved, the world they live in, has the characters be full
human beings and also manages to make it a very suspenseful thriller
where when the other aspects and dynamics are added, raises the
stakes higher than just about any thriller ever made. One of his
greatest works and to me, one of the greatest french films ever made,
Truffaut takes advantage of the moment (the French New Wave,
counterculture, resurgence in respect and love of Hitchcock as an
artist he helped make possible, getting Herrmann to score the film
since Hitch had a falling out with Herrmann (they never worked
together again) and that going to color pushed Truffaut to work in
new ways, bringing out his talent in rare form.
Also,
the actors are all amazing here from Moreau in one of her
greatest-ever performances, Michel Bouquet, Charles Denner, Claude
Rich, Jean Claude Brialy, Daniel Boulanger, Alexandra Stewart and
Michel Lonsdale before his later successes and broadly commercial
recognition in films like Frankenheimer's Ronin
and the James Bond film Moonraker.
The actors are in top form, sound & picture editing superior and
so many great moments that happen and come out of nowhere are here
(including how the film deals with human sexuality) that it just gets
better and better with age. This is a must-see classic!
Extras
in this great set is one of the best from Twilight Time yet including
a CD with an extended Bernard Herrmann interview, then we get yet
another nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative
text and one of Julie Kirgo's best of so many great essays to date
really getting what Truffaut was trying to do with the film. The
Blu-ray adds a fresh, great new feature length audio commentary track
with Kirgo, film scholar Nick Redmond & Kevin C. Smith, the
English Dub version of the film, an Isolated Music and Sound Effects
track for the film and the hilarious original U.S. Original
Theatrical Trailer from Lopert Releasing, who first issued the film
in the States. Glad to see this great film get such deluxe
treatment.
Terry
Gilliam's The
Zero Theorem
(2013) completes a trilogy of science fiction films that show the
absurdity of dystopian futures where there is so much technology that
there is no more room for human being, nature or life following
Brazil
and 12
Monkeys
(both reviewed elsewhere on this site) and this time, a worker named
Qohen Leth (Christoph Waltz) who is employed by a computer company
and overseen by an annoying boss (David Thewlis) who wants him to
take on a new project while Qohen just wants his big phone call that
means he'll be able to take sick leave.
Qohen
is lucky to live alone in a big house he inherited, but soon, that
private world and priceless private space will slowly be challenged
and moved into but odd people and strange events. With the approval
of the owner of his company (Matt Damon), Qohen has to crete a
complex mathematical formula that says everything equals nothing.
Often represented by a black hole, the absurd assignment matches
endlessly generic advertising, endless dumb laws and a future world
without hope of a better future or inner peace of mind. He knows
this, yet is given a cyber psychiatrist (a great turn by the
ever-underrated Tilda Swinton) and all this while he might be
starting a relationship with a gal (Melanie Thierry) he likes!
Though
the film covers some of the ground Gilliam already broke, making it
less surprising in its differentness than Brazil,
he is making a big statement about cyberspace that would not have
been possible or necessary in his previous films. At its best, which
is often, the film impresses throughout in its cleverness, dark
humor, wit and is easily his best film since 12
Monkeys.
Look for the great musician Ray Cooper (an Elton John alumni) in a
street commercial, plus Sanjeev Bhaskar, Peter Stormare and Ben
Wishlaw as doctors who seem more like total quacks and Lucas Hedges
nailing it as Damon's computer-proficient son trying to help Qohen.
Nice to see some real filmmaking that works!
Extras
include Behind The Scenes and Visual Effects featurettes, plus the
Original Theatrical Trailer.
Both
films were shot on 35mm film in color and show advances uses of
color, definition, detail and create their own worlds as only as only
the best filmmakers can. The 1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition
image in Bride
is the best I have seen the film since I saw it years ago in a 35mm
print and outdoes its then-impressive 12-inch analog Laserdisc and
DVD versions with detail and depth that are impressive for a a film
its age and that was not from a fully restored/4K master. Director
of Photography Raoul Coultard, a Truffaut veteran who also shot many
of Godard's films pushes the color in all kinds of ways, going for a
Hitchcockian look as well as a modern, New Wave one with remarkable
shots throughout. Truffaut was unhappy with the color, something I
would like to address briefly.
When
he made his remarkable film of Bradbury's Fahrenheit
451
(1966), he wanted to use the underrated TruColor format, but
Universal Pictures was locked into a Technicolor contract and he
pushed the color as much as he could. This time, he had Deluxe
color, which can be rich and great but not even as wide-ranging as
Technicolor, so I believe part of his longing for TruColor (and not
so much his disappointment with Coutard) is the reason he was a bit
unhappy with the look. With that said, it looks great. To see the
greatest TruColor film ever made, a Blu-ray of Nicholas Ray's Johnny
Guitar
(1954) is now out on Blu-ray.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Zero
is far from nil, shot on 35mm film by the underrated
Director of Photography Nicola Pecorini, who joins Gilliam in doping
something very interesting visually here we've never seen before.
They are playing with three elements here that break up dichotomies
and generic monotony that has ruined filmmaking since most features
have switched to digital shooting. We get advanced uses of color
(from wide-ranging to dulled to almost monochromatic, in and out of
the cyber world), definition also varies throughout in constantly
unexpected ways and especially in context to the narrative, what is
real and artificial is multi-layered (digital effects are used in
unique ways, for instance) and the digital visuals of the various
technology is even purposely inconsistent as if to comment on its
quickness to date and genericness. I expect this to eventually be an
influential work worth restudying and on Blu-ray, you see no mistakes
in intent.
As
for sound, both films are impressive for their time in how their
sound and music is used. In Bride,
Truffaut actually took liberties with Hermann's music to the point
they stopped talking, but Truffaut ultimately made the best
decisions. There is also more character in the original French
language track than in the dubbed english version also available here
as an extra. Note also the use of sound effects and sound editing.
Though it can be slightly harsh on the edges at times, the DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) French 1.0 Mono lossless mix sounds really good and
full throughout (the English dub is on the weak side in volume,
fullness and richness), including with Hermann's score offered here
as an isolated music track. Sadly, the original recordings of his
score for this film are lost for now, so any hope of even a simple
stereo upgrade to the film is not happening.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Zero
has one of the best sound mixes of any new film in the last few
years, which says something considering it is not a loud,
big-budgeted blockbuster film with a ton of overproduced digital
visual effects. It is a clever, complex, multi-layered mix that ads
to the density and overtechologization of the world presented as the
soundtracks on Brazil
and 12
Monkeys
had before. Smart with sonic surprises and well-recorded to boot, it
embarrasses most big budget messes we have suffered through in recent
decades and will impress on the best home theater systems.
To
order The
Bride Wore Black
limited edition Blu-ray/CD set, buy it while supplies last (along
with many other great limited edition releases) at this link:
www.screenarchives.com
-
Nicholas Sheffo