The
Blue Room
(2014/MPI/Sundance Selects DVD)/Eastern
Boys (2013/First Run
DVD)/The Merchant Of Four
Seasons (1971/Criterion
Blu-ray)/The Story Of
Adele H. (1975/United
Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)
Picture:
C/C/B/B Sound: C+/C/B-/B- Extras: C-/D/C+/B Films:
C+/B-/B-/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Story Of Adele H.
Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is
limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last
from the link below.
Here's
a new set of foreign film releases you should definitely know
about...
Mathieu
Amalric's The Blue Room
(2014) has Amalric as a married man having an affair with another
woman that is not romantic, not happy and even bitter ans definitely
toxic... but he's involved. Even worse, his wife is suddenly dead.
Did he killer her, or the mistress or both? This adaptation of the
Georges Simenon novel only runs 75 minutes and is a very mixed affair
no matter how hard Amalric and company try to make it work. Some
questions remains unanswered, but I just did not buy this in total
despite the acting on screen and the film viewer should not have to
have read the book. See it only if curious.
A
trailer is the only extra.
Robin
Campillo's Eastern Boys
(2013) tell a story of an older gay man (Olivier Rabourdin) who hires
a rent boy (Kirill Emelyanov) for sex, only to get involved with him,
but the young man is involved with a gang who (like others with them)
have his passport and other private papers. The older man suffers a
home invasion and sudden party against his will he tries to shrug
off, but when he sees the young man he wants to be with as more than
just a sexual partner, but a good person in serious trouble he needs
to help.
Of
course, there are some serious issues with a film that says the
person who hires you for sex can be your savior (Gary Marshall's evil
Pretty Woman
(1990) the biggest example of this) but this film tries to still be
realistic about its narrative, deals with the sex between the leads
in a surprisingly mature manner, asks serious questions about gay
discourse and honestly portrays the bullying and sadness of the 'lost
boys' in the story. Despite some misgivings, this is well done and
not just another 'gay' film only for that audience.
There
are sadly no extras.
Rainer
Werner Fassbinder's The
Merchant Of Four Seasons
(1971) finally put the great German director on the map in a tale of
a married man (Hans Hirschmuller) who sells fruit from a fruit stand
and how that is the beginning of a series of traps that alters his
life, personality and leads to his downfall. No simple narrative,
the script jumps around in the timeline sense and we see him at
different times being a little odd and how conformity in the
supposedly free side of Germany (this was the Cold War era before
reunification) is not as 'free' as it would seem. On some level,
Fassbinder is concerned with the spectre of the Nazis and how they
managed to wipe-away the progressive Germany of the 1920s and early
1930s to the extent the country is still
ruined. The conformity that made the Nazis possible still lives.
With
that said, this is also about his wife (Irm Hermann in a resounding
performance), domesticity (so beautifully made up, a gilded cage
indeed) and the sad side of a country that I and can be so much more
and do so much better. With all that, I still found some of this a
little more predictable (sadly) than I would have liked and is far
from my favorite Fassbinder film before or after this one. Still, it
is a key work and fans should be thrilled Criterion has delivered
such an amazing Blu-ray of it.
Extras
include an illustrated paper pullout on the film including
informative text, tech info and an essay by Thomas Elsaesser, while
the Blu-ray adds an older feature length audio commentary track on
the film by Wim Wenders that I found repetitive and not that good,
but we also get new interviews with actors Irm Hermann and Hans
Hirschmuller, plus film scholar Eric Rentschler, all as separate
segments.
Francois
Truffaut's The Story Of
Adele H. (1975) has a
young Isabelle Adjani in the title role of the woman who turns out to
be the daughter of no less than Victor Hugo, trying to find her way
in the world, but she is not well. In the film, she displays crazy,
dysfunctional behavior in using several fake names, going after men
obsessively, being erratic and not seeming to know what she wants, is
drifting all over. In real life, it turns out she was schizophrenic,
but the film never explains this (did they know at the time of
filming the specifics?) and this aspect is too abstract in the film.
Besides
trivializing the mental illness somewhat, it makes it abstract to the
point that when you add some of the experimentation in the film,
itself (some of which is dated, others of which do not work), the
film lands up having mixed results despite being so good looking and
well made. The cast is good and locales nice, with Truffaut still at
the top of his game and Adjani made a name for herself at a young age
on the international cinema scene with this one. It is a fine film,
but a flawed one, based on actual letter Adele wrote in code. It is
definitely worth a look, but this special edition will only last so
long, so get it if you want to see it at its best. Bruce Robinson
also stars.
Extras
include an illustrated booklet on the film including informative text
and essay by Julie Kirgo, who is joined by Nick Redman for an
exceptional feature length audio commentary track, plus we get the
Original Theatrical Trailer and an Isolated Music Score track with
music originally composed by the late Maurice Jaubert.
The
1.33 X 1 image on Blue and anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Eastern
are good-looking productions, but their respective playback on DVD
are just softer throughout than I would have liked and I strongly
believe both would play better on Blu-ray. The 1080p 1.33 X 1
digital High Definition image on Merchant is amazing, restored
from the original 35mm negative in an impressive new 4K transfer.
Color and depth are particularly striking and it is the way to see
the film, up there with the previous Criterion/Fassbinder Blu-rays.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Adele
is also from a stunning new HD master that brings out the color and
richness of the film as shot by
Director of Photography Nestor Almendros which has many scenes of
rich domesticity like Merchant.
There are a few moments where both transfers might show their age,
but this is not often and they hold up visually very well 40 - 45+
years later and counting. Impressive!
The
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Blue
is not bad for a dialogue-based drama, though the lossy Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo on Eastern
is a bit weak and I wished it was richer and warmer. Merchant
with its PCM 1.0 Mono from it's original 17.5mm magnetic soundmaster
and Adele
with a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 Mono lossless mix from restored
elements tie for the best sound here, warm, clear and clean without
losing any of its character.
To
order The
Story Of Adele H.
limited edition Blu-ray, buy it (along with other great exclusives)
while supplies last at this link:
www.screenarchives.com
-
Nicholas Sheffo