Hiroshima
Mon Amour (1959/Criterion
Blu-ray)/Love Unto Death
(1984)/Life Is A Bed Of
Roses (1983 Alain Resnais
Double Feature/Cohen Media Blu-ray Set)/The
Remains Of The Day
(1993/Sony/Columbia/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+/B-/B+ Sound: B/B-/B+ Extras: B+/C+/B Films: A-/C+/C+/A
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Remains of The Day
Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, it
is limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies
last from the links below.
These
new releases of ambitious filmmaking that includes two filmmakers and
two masterworks of cinema.
Alain
Resnais' Hiroshima
Mon Amour
(1959) was a shocking film in its time for not just being about the
nuclear bombing of the Japanese city of the Allies as Hirohito would
not let the country go when it was obvious he and his Axis friends
were losing WWII, but because it dealt with its mortality, disturbing
commodification, results and did this through groundbreaking visuals
and an abstract love story that was so ahead of its time that cinema
and the world have still not totally caught up to it.
The
love story happens between a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) and
French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) that we are introduced to in nude
images juxtaposed to dead bodies and images in between while the duo
debate what they have and have not see of life and the actual
bombing. Originally meant as a short like Resnais' Night
& Fog
(1955) about The Holocaust, both films show how it is impossible to
capture such horrid events on even exceptional films and how we need
more complex approaches to deal with such devastation instead of
falling short in thought or action. That can allow equally awful
things to happen too.
Criterion
has issued an incredible Blu-ray of the film as they had with the
horrifically out of print Last
Year At Marienbad
(get it if you see it!!!) that deserves a reissue after having its
rights pulled, complete with priceless extras and the best upgrade of
the film I have ever seen. It is as relevant as ever with the
nuclear situation and the bad way more crisis than ever are dealt
with happening as we post this review. The film is in smart sections
as scripted by Marguerite Duras and is one of those landmark films
that never ceases to amaze. Yet too few people have seen it and I
hope this new release will change that. If you have not seen it in a
long time or especially if you have never seen it, you MUST catch
this great new release of this all-time classic. It is one of the
best from one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.
Over
the years, Resnais would continue to make a mix of more classics,
followed by a few films here and there that would be more
experimental whether they would break through or not. After his
remarkable Mon
Oncle D'Amerique
(1980, reviewed elsewhere on this site), he decided to get more
experimental with two odd films made with some of the same lead
actors and crew. Cohen Media has issued Resnais' Love
Unto Death
(1984)/Life
Is A Bed Of Roses
(1983) (backwards for some reason) as a double Blu-ray set in
upgraded editions.
To
look at them in release order, Roses
jumps between three periods from pre & post WWI to the present of
the film. The WWI scenes are shot on the oldest Eastmancolor 35mm
film stocks he could find to have a slight haze to the scenes, yet
push lush color throughout (foregoing Ilford, Agfa, Ansco, Ferrania
and other color film formats besides Kodak for whatever reasons) and
the present is shot on Fuji 35mm color stocks (clearer and sharper,
but with flatter color save green that class too much attention to
itself and in this digital age of colors being mindlessly manipulated
or idiotically drained, has a fakeness to it not intended) is
contrasting the harsh realities we rarely see of WWI in the film with
the lush life of those who made it happened.
Somewhat
a comedy, it is concerned with the idea of fantasy and fairy tales,
which it examines with some irony and looks at the banality of all
the eras. Resnais is also referencing filmmakers like Georges
Melies, Eric Rohmer and Marcel L. Herbier, but the film jumps around
too much and is a little too self-amused (bringing us in on the jokes
all the time does not help) resulting in an uneven work that did not
stay with me years ago and has not improved since. Still, it is
ambitious and the work of a superior master of filmmaking.
Death
(shot all on new Eastmancolor 35mm film stocks) is much slower, much
less humorous ands wants to really go the long, long, slow way in
dealing with death, denial, mortality and is very segmented by two
images: snow slowly falling in a background and/or just black
emptiness in its tale of people being affected by very close
relationships, emotional loss and mortal loss. It too has some good
moments, but despite good acting and cast like the other film, it
gets too lost and almost becomes too choppy for its own good. If it
is trying to make us feel a sense of death, angst or mortality, it
has mixed results there too and is not as convincing in this matter
as Bergman or Kubrick are. Still, like Roses,
it is worth a look and the use of the widescreen scope frame only
increases the isolationism here.
Fanny
Ardant, Sabine Azema, Pierre Arditi and Andre Dussollier appear in
both films, with Geraldine Chaplin and Vittorio Gassman also in Roses
to push its comic side more, which they do.
Last
but absolutely not least is James Ivory's The
Remains Of The Day
(1993), a film that manages to defy the expectations (i.e., stuff,
slow-moving art house filmmaking that the Ismail Merchant/James Ivory
team become know for when active) of the past Merchant/Ivory releases
and is easily their masterpiece. Anthony Hopkins gives one of the
greatest performances of his career, as well as of all time, as the
highly efficient, highly professional butler Mr. Stevens. Working
for Lord Darlington (James Fox) as his father had, he was born into
this life, servitude and social-economic situation and stuck with it
to a fault instead of striking out on his own for whatever reasons.
His
father (the great Peter Vaughan) is still there, but his health is
starting to slowly fail, but that is the least of Stevens' problems.
Darlington is entertaining the Nazis in the early years of Hitler's
regime thinking it will be like WWI where it will be a gentlemen's
war where everything can be reasoned out. Darlington is wealthy, has
a massive mansion and an art collection among other things the Nazis
secretly want. Darlington's British friend/enablers even know of
concentration camps and The Holocaust (as well as many of its causes)
constantly haunt and inform the film throughout, but Stevens is
unable to say or do anything to stop what will be one of the worst
mistakes England ever made. On top of that, needing new help in the
face of all this, a new employee is hired (Emma Thompson so brilliant
that I still go into shock to see her in action, especially opposite
Hopkins) who not only disrupts Stevens' sense of order with her
humanity, sense of justice and humanity, but because he is falling in
love with her and hides behind the many layers of denial that has
made his whole life possible.
But
the film does not stop there. Scenes minus Hopkins and Thompson are
just as powerful, do not give us any breathers and show us more of
what is going on from Nazis secretly planning to dupe the UK in there
stylized visit, to several strong subplots including Christopher
Reeve as the American businessman who I part of the
Darlington/UK/Nazi meeting calling the Nazis out for what they really
turn out to be without even he himself realizing how bad it will get.
His get-up-and-go American common sense in that one scene why the
United States will succeed the UK as the new world power.
Add
amazing acting turns by Hugh Grant, Ben Chaplin, Michael Lonsdale,
Brigitte Kahn, Lena Hedley, Tim Pigott-Smith, Peter Eyre, Patrick
Godfrey, Peter Halliday and a cast that is so incredible that they
help make this one of the greatest British films of all time alone,
it is an all-time classic that only becomes more relevant with age
and and is an all-time must see masterwork everyone serious about
film needs to have on their list.
The
two classics here are from great new 4K upgrade transfers, with the
1080p 1.66 X 1 black & white, digital High Definition image on
Amour meticulously restored and cleaned up without hardly any
compromise and having superior Video Black and grey scale. The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Day comes
from prime Super 35mm elements lensed by Director
of Photography Tony Pierce-Roberts, B.S.C. For 70mm blow-up
presentation. Merchant/Ivory films are known for looking good, but
they really topped themselves here in the best looking film their
collaborations ever produced and color range impresses. Rarely can
you tell the age of the materials used, so the presentations of both
are not only far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the
film on video, they are like high quality film prints and serious
Ultra HD Blu-ray candidates.
That
leaves the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Roses
(by DP Bruno Nuytten of Godard's Detective,
Brubaker,
Jean
de Florette
& Manon
Of The Spring)
and 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Death
(by legendary Sasha Vierny in real 35mm anamorphic Panavision)
restored, but not to the same extent, including some print damage and
spots of dirt that remain. However, the color is often good,
consistent and the nuances intended can finally be seen. We still
get some great shots, but I cannot lie about the work some parts of
the materials still need.
All
the films here, save Remains,
are theatrical mono releases with Amour
in really nice and clean PCM 1.0 Mono and the later Resnais films in
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes that are not as
good, but fine for their age. Remains
was originally designed as a 5.1 film and was issued digitally as
such in Dolby Digital and even better Sony Dynamic Digital Sound,
plus 70mm 6-track Magnetic stereo prints (apparently without any
Dolby noise reduction). The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless
mix here is an excellent presentation rendering all previous home
video presentations obsolete and showing off how smart, clever and
masterful this soundtrack really is. Richard Robbins' score is a big
plus too.
Extras
for all releases include illustrated booklets on each respective film
including informative text with Amour
adding a
Kent Jones essay & vintage Resnais interview, while Day
adds another solid Julie Kirgo essay and
feature length audio commentary tracks, with Amour
offering a brilliant track by the amazing Peter Cowie, Wade Major &
Andy Klein offering good-enough commentaries on the other Resnais
films and Day
repeating the Ivory, Merchant & Thompson commentary from an
earlier DVD that holds up very well. Amour
also adds 1961 & 1980 on-camera Resnais interviews, 1959 &
2003 Riva interviews, a Tim Page interview about the film's music,
author/Resnais scholar Francois Thomas on the film & man and 2013
featurette Revoir
Hiroshima
about how the film was saved & restored. Only new reissue
trailers are added tot he Resnais double feature.
Day
also offers an Isolated Music Score of Richard Robbins' superior
score, the Original Theatrical Trailer, Deleted Scenes with optional
audio commentary on them and two Behind The Scenes/Making Of
featurettes: The
Filmmaker's Journey
and Blind
Loyalty, Hollow Honor: England's Fatal Flaw.
To
order The
Remains Of The Day
limited edition Blu-ray, buy it and many more exclusives while
supplies last at these links:
www.screenarchives.com
and
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
