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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Stage > Acting > Character Study > British > Cable TV > Art > History > WWII > France > Race Cars > Ital > The Dresser (2016/Starz/Anchor Bay DVD)/Francofonia (2016/Music Box Blu-ray)/A Sicilian Dream (2015/MVD Visual/Duke Blu-ray)

The Dresser (2016/Starz/Anchor Bay DVD)/Francofonia (2016/Music Box Blu-ray)/A Sicilian Dream (2015/MVD Visual/Duke Blu-ray)



Picture: C/B-/C+ Sound: C+/B/B- Extras: C/B-/D Main Programs: B-/C+/C+



This set of interesting releases comes from Europe...



Richard Eyre's The Dresser (2016) is a cable TV remake of the stage classic made as a feature film decades ago with Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney. This time, Sir Ian McClellan is the title character helping fidgety actor Sir Anthony Hopkins (they did not allow 'Sir' to be allowed in the credits) through a Shakespeare performance of King Lear that has all the hallmarks of high respectability, but our old lead star has become more annoying and harder to manage than even his previous reputation would already have us know.


Ronald Harwood's character study of acting and the stage is as relevant as ever, brought to life here by the first-ever pairing of two of the most important actors of their or any generation. Why this did not get more attention when it was first released/broadcast is shocking, but it is great it finally has hit home video, albeit DVD (it deserves a Blu-ray) and the supporting cast including Sarah Lancashire, Tom Brooke, Vanessa Kirby and Emily Watson fit together perfectly in one of the best cable telefilm productions of the last few years. Be sure to catch this one and be prepared to be surprised.


Two brief featurette clips are the only extras.



Alexandre Sokurov's Francofonia (2016) is a work about art and the world, how art needs to be preserved and protected against the darker part of that world and how this is the very thing that happened by necessity during WWII. When the Nazis invaded, occupied and took over France, the culture and life there was in jeopardy. While killing, destroying and exterminating everyone in their way, Hitler and company were hoarding the art of the world, thew basis of many tales fact and fiction.


At the center of art in France was The Louvre, their great museum and one of the largest, most respected in the world. Would the Nazis gut it and bomb it? Recycle it? Mutilate it? Just in case, people fought to protect what they could and track what they could, but a man named Jacques Jaujard particularly coordinated these efforts that would pay off in the long run. Though this work can get off track and go into too many post-modern directions for its own good, it is worth the trouble for its 87 minutes length.


Extras include a nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and a few essays on the film and subject, while the Blu-ray adds a director press conference at the Venice Film Festival, featurettes The Man Who Saved the Louvre (with French track narration by the great actor/director Mathieu Amalric) and a making of piece for this release called Visitors to The Louvre.



Last but not least is Philip Walsh's A Sicilian Dream (2015) telling the story of the Targa Florio, a classic series of car races through Sicily that became increasingly challenging after even its first run in 1906, using the harsh, twisting roads of the great part of Southern Italy and how it all still became legend and drew the car producers of the world every year it was held until it became too dangerous to continue by 1977, the last run.


Alain De Cadenet (who barely survived a 1971 accident and has hosted a great series of videos on key makes and models of sports cars called Victory By Design you'll find elsewhere on this site) and Francesco De Mosto plays about 70 minutes and though this gets sidetracked at times, has rare footage, shows how the race survived the horrors of WWII and celebrates sports cars as much as it celebrates this great, rugged place in Italy. Sicily has given the world amazing art, food and people against all odds and this program shows how rare cars and classic moments are as much a part of that list.


There are no extras.



The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image in Dresser is consistently shot, but has a softness that is partly the way it was made, but this lower-def format does not help so it is often softer than one would like. I'd love to see this in HD.


As for the latter two releases, the 1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Francofonia and the 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Dream can show the age of the older materials used, but mix in old film and video footage in a mix of visuals (including faked old footage; computer-added scratches and dirt never look like the real thing guys) do not help. Thus, we get analog-like videotape flaws that can purposely include video noise, video banding, telecine flicker, tape scratching, PAL cross color, faded color and tape damage.


Its annoying on Francofonia and especially unfortunate on Dream, cutting into the narrative pace and distracting from any kind of build up. No synthesis of ideas here, but by default, Francofonia is the best-looking release here. Blame a mix of Sokurov's Russian Ark, bad HD and even documentarian Ken Burns for this trend.


The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Dresser is dialogue-based and not bad, but it is still the weakest track here via its codec, but it is the most consistent in its recording and mixing. Francofonia is the best sonically be default with its DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix despite the sometimes mixed sources and a few parts that are a bit off, but Dream sports a PCM 2.0 Stereo mix that is not as lucky and can be a bit choppy, despite sounding better than Dresser overall.



- Nicholas Sheffo


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