Down
By Love (2016/Icarus
DVD)/Mohsen Makhmalbaf:
The Poetic Trilogy (1996
- 2002/MVD/Arrow Blu-ray Set)/No
Date No Signature
(2018/Icarus DVD)/100
Yards (2018/RLJ DVD)
Picture:
B-/B/B-/B Sound: B-/C+/B-/C+ Extras: C-/C/C-/D Films:
C+/C+/B/B
These
releases want the audience to think more than usual, but sometimes in
very different ways...
We
start with a film by Pierre Godeau, Down by Love (2016) is a
French love story that's based on a true story that occurred in a
Versailles prison in 2011, of a sultry affair between a young female
inmate named Anna (Adele Exarchopoulos who starred in Blue is the
Warmest Color) who falls in love with her much older (and
married) Prison Governor (Guillaume Gallienne).
While
this storyline has been done time and time again, the film does
happen to prove that true love can be objectionable. While it is in
French, this film could be in any language really as it happens every
day around the world. The film's main theme of love vs. lust is
explored heavily, as this should be essential viewing of what 'not to
do' when you're a married man with kids!
The
film is presented on standard definition DVD with an anamorphically
enhanced widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and 2.0 lossy Dolby
Digital French track with English subtitles. The film is very nicely
photographed, especially the love scenes, which are a bit stylish and
surreal. Compression issues are evident, as is common with the
standard definition format, but the photography is fine for what it
is.
Extras
include and Trailers and a About Icarus Films/About Distrib Films
bit.
Next
up is Mohsen
Makhmalbaf: The Poetic Trilogy
(1996 - 2002) with three short
stories from the Middle East as feature films written and directed by
Mohsen Makhmalbaf, The
Gabbeh,
The
Silence
and The
Gardner.
The
Gabbeh
is a story of an old man and woman washing a rug and suddenly a
beautiful woman appears and tells the story of the rug. The
Silence
is the story of a blind boy as he goes to work. The
Gardner
is more like a series of documentary on the nature of religion in the
Middle East through the eyes of the younger generations.
In
The Gabbeh, the story of the old man and woman is actually the
story of the old woman in her younger days as she traveled with her
clan and as she weaves the rug it tells of her life story how the rug
represents life, death and their struggles. As she follow her daily
life she dreams of running away with a young horseman and years later
they are here. The Silence (also involving a young boy like
Bergman's classic) story of the blind boy is how he makes a living
tuning instruments, but if he becomes distracted he is unable to
properly tune the instruments he needs to listen to only good or
'pure' music. In The Gardner, it is a series of interviews
with the younger generation in a beautiful garden as if different
religion are like plants in the garden, how every religion
preaches love and peace and yet they fail to achieve it by causing
intolerance and war, how quick religion is to claim everything good
comes from God and all evil is the fault of man/world.
These
short stories are more like cultural insights and little life/moral
lessons through simple stories. Through it, the audience can see a
bit of what life is like in the Middle East and they can only imagine
what would it be like if one had to live in that culture their whole
life.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 and 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers
are pretty good, but have some flaws, though two of the films (The
Gabbeh and The
Silence) are from new 2K scans of the camera negatives.
Color is good, but expect unevenness here and there. The
PCM 2.0 Farsi audio on all three films are fine, but often quiet or
limited.
Extras
(per the press release) include an audio commentary on Gabbeh
by critic Godfrey Cheshire, Poetry
in Motion: An Interview with Mohsen Makhmalbaf,
an in-depth conversation between the Iranian auteur and film critic
Jonathan Romney, newly produced for this edition, Mohsen
with Closed Eyes,
an imaginatively filmed archival interview with Makhmalbaf on The
Silence,
Original trailers, Stills and collections gallery, a reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Scott
Saslow and FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated booklet featuring new
writing by film academic Negar Mottahedeh and Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Another
Iranian drama, this time from director Vahid Jalilvand, No
Date No Signature
(2018) is an award winning film that was thought by many that it got
snubbed for a Best Foreign Film, Oscar Nomination last Awards Season.
The complex film centers a forensic pathologist Doctor Nariman, who
has a freak car accident with a motorcyclist and injures his
8-year-old son, and things just get crazier from there.
The
Doctor offers to take the child to a clinic nearby, but the father
refuses his help and money. A few days later, in the hospital where
he works, Dr. Nariman finds out that the little boy has died, and is
brought the body for autopsy. Did Dr. Nariman cause the child's
premature death due to his reckless driving or did the child die due
to of food poisoning according to other doctors' diagnosis?
The
film stars Amir Aghaee, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Hedye Tehrani, and Saeed
Dakh.
The
presentation here is quite nice for DVD and presents the film in a
1.78:1
widescreen
aspect ratio and pairs it with a lossy 5.1 Farsi Dolby Digital
language track with English subtitles. The film is nicely shot in a
desaturated tone throughout with high contrast, and would look even
better in HD.
The
only extras are Trailers for other titles in the Icarus library.
This
is an interesting, yet mentally exhausting, film that's definitely
worth a watch.
Finally
we have the drama 100
Yards
(2018).
Rich Porter had it all, good looks, money and was to be drafted as
the next big American pro football player, though he is also an
arrogant alcoholic and angry at the world and blaming everyone but
himself for his mistakes. Instead of playing pro football, he goes
to the Philippines in search of his missing mother who disappeared
doing charity work there. While he searches for his mother he
discovers he has a tumor and is dying. In the hospital he meets a
young boy with the same condition that changes his life and with the
help of a caring nurse ...he just might have a second chance.
He
alienated his teammates and then is framed by his ex-girlfriend and
paparazzi, but then tragedy really hit home when he discovers he was
dying of brain cancer. In the hospital he meets a young boy who has
cancer like him and helps turn his life around. Along with a caring
nurse he begins to find his faith and religion again after losing his
reputation, health and everything. It is only when he learns how to
forgive others and himself does he start turning his life around.
This
was another heart warming sports movie about not giving into the evil
temptations of the world, it was a redemption story in how a man so
full or hate, malice, anger and grief can still change himself and it
is never too late to change. It is not just a singe change, but it
takes many steps and it is filled with hardships and pain, but it is
how we rise from those things do we truly define ourselves and do we
being to live life.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image and lossy Dolby Digital 5.1
are as good as they can be for the format and for something so simply
and basically produced. There are no extras.
-
Ricky Chiang and James
Lockhart (Icarus DVDs)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/