The Evelyn Waugh Collection (A Handful
Of Dust/Scoop/Acorn Media DVD)
Picture: C Sound: C Extras: C- Features: B-/C+
For the
first time, Acorn Media is issuing two adaptations of the work of Evelyn Waugh
in a two feature-length film set on DVD, though one has already been issued
overseas and the other long out of print in the U.S. market. The Evelyn Waugh Collection includes the 1988
version of A Handful Of Dust with
Kristin Scott Thomas, James Wilby and Judy Dench among others we recently saw
reissued in Australia. The other is Scoop (1987), which was reissued in a PAL DVD import we covered at
this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8765/Scoop+(1987/Network+U.K./Region
Dust is the better of the two films,
which is why it made it to theaters, but I was not still as much a fan as some,
while I liked the cast also including Rupert Graves, Alec Guinness and Anjelica
Huston in a tale of a married woman (Thomas) falling for another man (Graves). It is
just a “higher-class” adultery tale, but one with some intelligence and is a
fan favorite. I was not as impressed.
Both are
listed as full-screen presentations, but Dust
offers the same poor TV-like print that begins with a different aspect ratio
than it continues with, making it highly compromised (think 1.85, then 1.66,
but awkward) with a softness, noise and print damage that makes this hard to
watch and is the same master used for the import. The same goes for Scoop, with the same 1.33 X 1 very soft master used for the
previous editions we covered on DVD.
Both need cleaned up for HD. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Dust is
as weak as the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Scoop,
both with background noise and sounding more aged than they should. The audio is down a few generations like the
video. Text on Waugh and text Cast
Filmographies are the only extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
