Betty Blue (1986/Cinema Libre Blu-ray)/City Of God (2002)/Heavenly Creatures (Uncut/2002)/The Velvet Goldmine (1998/Miramax/Lionsgate Blu-rays)

 

Picture: B-/C+/B-/C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C/B-/C-/C-     Films: C+/B-/C-/C-

 

 

The following foreign films have previously been issued on DVD and now, we look at their mixed Blu-ray debuts.

 

Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Betty Blue (1986) is virtually the same as the DVD we covered a while ago including the extras and sound, which you can read about at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9380/Betty+Blue+(1986/Jean-Jacques+Beine

 

Only the image has improved, but the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image could be better with some shots looking nice with clarity and good color range, but too many others looking smeared, color limited and not what it could be.  However, none of the actor’s nudity is blurred out like it was on expensive Japanese 12” LaserDisc releases, so this is as uncut as it is likely to get.

 

 

Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund co-directed the often acclaimed City Of God (2002), but I was not always as impressed as we get the story of two young men out of the poorest section of Rio de Janeiro trying to survive poverty, hate, guns and gang violence in the horrible place of the title.  One becomes a drug dealer, but the other is fascinated by still cameras and is more interested in following higher pursuits.

 

Though well acted, written and even shot, some of the slick shots look like bad Music Video tricks and have put age on the film, plus this approach tends to glorify the very thing it is trying to criticize.  This also falls into the trap of so many of Gangster films and youth gang films that it runs into clichés that have become more so since its release since there is such an embarrassing glut of these tales on TV and movies, though not as much from other countries like this one.  Still, it is the best film of the four here and worth your time.  You can read more about the TV companion series

City Of Men at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4581/City+Of+Men+%E2%80%93+The+Co

 

Extras include the hour-long News From A Personal War which shows more of the real life stories that inspired the film including some amazing footage of its own.

 

 

Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures (2002) is based on a wild tale of young girls committing murder after bonding in obsessed ways that really happened in Christchurch, New Zealand.  It is the debut film of Kate Winslet, she and the actors in general are just fine, but I never thought this film worked and it was as if Jackson was trying too hard to be Peter Weir or something.  It does not work as a character study, a thriller, a mystery or much of anything else save a history lesson.  It is obviously a curio, but every time Jackson tries to do a female narrative film it backfires, as it recently did with his worst-ever film, The Lovely Bones.  The only extra is a Theatrical Trailer.

 

 

Finally we have the talented Todd Haynes’ The Velvet Goldmine (1998), which also happens to be my least favorite film of his as he tries and fails to recreate the atmosphere of the Glam Rock movement in England despite a great cast that includes Ewan McGregor, Johnathan Rhys Meyers and a then less-known Christian Bale that constantly feels like a pale imitation of the period, is more about its story than what the music and time was about and even his gay subtext is boring here.  It also is more clichéd than I would have liked and has not improved with age, but it too is a curio because of the actors (including Toni Colette) and people will want to see what it is about.  Just don’t have high hopes.  The performance playback of the disc did not help.  Extras include a Theatrical Trailer and feature length audio commentary by Haynes and Producer Christine Vachon who I also like very much but could not get me more into the film.

 

 

The three Lionsgate Blu-rays also offer 1080p digital High Definition images, but at different aspect ratios and only Creatures (at 2.35 X 1) looks good some of the time.  All can look rough and all seem to be second-generation HD masters, but City (1.78 X 1, though it was supposedly a 1.85 X 1 theatrical release and there is a difference, this mixed Super 16mm and Super 35mm film and should look better) and Goldmine (at 1.85 X 1) are overall weaker.  For Goldmine, this undermines (no pun intended) the entire heightened color-schemes the film originally had, making it look faded and limited in ways never intended.

All three Lionsgate Blu-rays also additionally have DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless mixes, but the sound is too much towards the front speakers in all cases and surprisingly weak throughout.  This especially hurts Goldmine (5.1) with so much music on its soundtrack in so many ways, City is also 5.1 and Creatures 2.0 Stereo but decodes with monophonic surrounds when you use Pro Logic if you watch it on a home theater system though the package does not suggest that.  The film was originally issued theatrically in Dolby’s older A-type analog encoding, so maybe Jackson could redo it in 5.1 if he had the chance.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo