Separation
(1968/Britain/BFI Blu-ray/Region Free)
Picture:
B Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: B-
PLEASE NOTE: This Blu-ray edition is only available
in the U.K. from our friends
at BFI (British Film Institute’s home video arm) in the U.K. and can be ordered from them
at the website address link provided below at the end of the review or at finer retailers. This is a Region Free Blu-ray.
Trying to
show anyone falling apart emotionally and mentally has been a challenge of
filmmakers since the silent era, with many feeling sound has actually been a
minus in showing this. With the new
freedom of the 1960s and late 1960s filmmaking in particular, it became a
popular subject again. Like Roman
Polanski’s Repulsion (1965) and
Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert
(1964, both reviewed elsewhere on this site), Jack Bond’s Separation (1968) attempts the same tale, but its female lead Jane
Arden (in her last acting role before permanently going behind the camera)
wrote the script.
Due to
its raw approach and freer camera style, it comes across more like a John
Cassavetes work (or even Jean Luc-Godard) than those previous classics, though
the result can be the same. Even with a
female script, you still have a male director and some of the choices made seem
more like what a male filmmaker would do, resulting in yet another film that
features that as a limit. Bond may not
be the auteur that the other four noted director’s are, but has a directness
you might find in a Peter Watkins film or British cinema of the time in general
by way of the likes of the Angry Young Man movement, et al.
No doubt
that Arden’ performance is rich and believable, including not being as
glamorous as Miss Vitti, Miss Deneuve, et al, but that does not always
guarantee more realism. The politics of
a marriage in decline is included in this variant and effectively so, but it is
towards the end the film dies not seem to totally know how to conclude and part
of this at least is in the way director and writer do not and really cannot
mesh. Maybe if Arden directed this
herself, such obstacles would be less of an issue, yet most of the film works
enough to see it again, it is ambitious, pretty honest and deserves rediscovery
by a whole new generation of filmmakers and serious film fans. David de Keyser, Ann Lynn and Tom Corbett
also star.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image is mostly shot in black and white film,
but some color film shots are also included.
The print is new and in great shape, though I hoped the color might be more
vibrant as in the time it was shot. Not
that it does not look good, but it seems a tad muted. Though some of the monochrome shots are soft,
there are plenty of sharp, clear shots throughout that make this a surprisingly
good viewing and more than a few shots are demo quality if you want to see how
good black and white can look on your HDTV/HD Video set-up.
Co-Directors
of Photography Aubrey Dewar and David Muir (The Burning, Lust For A
Vampire) did a great job here, especially considering the budget limits and
the transfer is better than expected overall.
The PCM
2.0 48/24 Mono is a good approximation of the original monophonic sound at its
best, cleaned up here without any major compression issues, though you might
wish the Procol Harum music and dialogue is usually just fine for its age. However, you can still hear some compression,
sonic limits and other minor flaws.
Extras include
an informative, high quality booklet printed on high quality paper inside the
Blu-ray case, trailer for the Arden/Bond film Anti-Clock, short psychedelic film Beyond Image (1969 by artist Mark Boyle & Joan Hills) used
throughout the film with score by Soft Machine and feature-length audio
commentary by Bond and Sam Dunn.
As noted
above, you can order this Blu-ray import exclusively from BFI at this link:
http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_13354.html
- Nicholas Sheffo
