Dalgliesh:
Series 1
(2021/Acorn DVD set)/Last
Night In Soho 4K
(2021/Universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Lies
& Deceit
(Chabrol: Cop
Au Vin
(1985) Inspector
Lavardin
(1986) Madame
Bovary
(1991) Betty
(1992) Torment
(aka L'Enfer/1994)/MVD/Arrow
Blu-ray Box)/Miss
Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop
(2022/Lionsgate DVD)/Run
Lola Run
(1998/Sony/Umbrella Region Free Import Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: C/B/B- (Bovary:
B)/C/B- Sound: C+/B+/B-/C+/B Extras: C/B/B/C/C Main
Programs: B-/B/C+ (Bovary:
B)/C/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Run
Lola Run
Import Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on all 4K and Blu-ray
players and can be ordered from the link below. Additionally, the
film has now been upgraded and reissued in an amazing 4K edition,
which is the preferred version to get and you can read more about it
at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16214/Sony+Pictures+Classics:+30th+Anniversary+Collec
Here's
a group of mystery and thrills from overseas...
On
TV, the mystery cases of author P.D. James' D.C.I. Adam Dalgliesh
(pronounced dal-gleshh)
was brought well to life by actors Roy Marsden (from the brilliant
British TV spy show The
Sandbaggers,
reviewed elsewhere on this site) in the 1980s and then Martin Shaw
(from the huge hit action favorite The
Professionals CI-5
among others) in the 2000s and both left lasting impressions with the
high quality of their shows and performances. Now, two more decades
later, Bertie Carvel takes on the role in Dalgliesh:
Series 1
(2021) and though he is a new actor to most people, he is not bad in
the initial three mysteries set in the 1980s.
The
mysteries include Shroud
For A Nightingale,
The
Black Tower
and A
Taste Of Death.
Though I started to recall each as I watched from previous
adaptations, these are some of the best remakes I have seen in a
while and serious mystery fans will not be too disappointed to catch
these. We'll see where they go the next season... I mean series.
The
only extras are the featurettes Who
Is Dalgliesh?
and a Making
Of
program, running about a half-hour total.
Edgar
Wright's Last
Night In Soho 4K
(2021) is a new thriller about darkness, doubles and parallels in
this smart piece that is one of the year's best and most effective
films, maybe too dark for some critics and awards, but that's fine
with me. Thomasin McKenzie is a young lady who lives in England,
loves 1960s culture, pop culture and fashion and also loves clothes.
She wants to be a clothes designer and things are looking up when she
is accepted into a major fashion school in London, so off she goes.
Unhappy
with boarding with her rowdy peers, she goes searching for an
off-campus place and finds a top floor flat, which she immediately
signs for after meeting its no-nonsense landlady (the late, great
Diana Rigg in her final performance) and is even happy it looks
untouched for decades. She even starts dreaming about the 1960s and
another young woman (Anna-Taylor Joy) there that seems so very real,
which gives her inspiration and ideas for her fashions and life.
However,
after a few such surreal trips while she sleeps, something is
suddenly a miss and the happiness and change of pace start to sour as
other things start to surface. But what it is? Return of the
repressed? Picking up on something she does not understand that
might be bad or horrific? Sexual anxiety? Another mystery?
Former
Doctor Who Matt Smith and 1960s acting legend and icon Terence Stamp
make up the impressive supporting cast. Add the costume design,
production design, acting, superior editing, smart screenplay and all
the twists and turns and you get some unexpected results that show
that Wright continues to be one of the best directors around. The
more you know about the 1960s, music, cinema, fashion, England and
pop culture, the more you'll get out of the film. If your knowledge
of those things are more limited, you'll still be impressed.
Saying
any more would ruin it, but all serious film fans should see this one
at least once.
Extras
include Digital Code, while the disc (per the press release)
includes...
MAKING
OF FEATURETTES
MEET
ELOISE - An in-depth look at the character of Eloise and the
challenges that star Thomasin McKenzie faced while bringing her to
life.
DREAMING
OF SANDIE - A closer look at the characters of Sandie and Jack and
why Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith were the perfect actors to
embody the essence of the time period.
SMOKE
AND MIRRORS - The cast and crew break down how lighting, makeup,
special effects, and creative camerawork came together to create a
collision between the present day and 1960s time periods.
ON
THE STREETS OF SOHO - The cast and crew discuss the importance of
shooting on location in Soho and the complexity of transforming the
city streets back in time.
TIME
TRAVELLING - A look into how the music, costume design, and
production design of the film work together to immerse the audience
into the world of 1960s Soho.
DELETED
SCENES
ANIMATICS
FIRST
DREAM
SHADOW
MEN
MURDER
FINAL
CONFRONTATION
EXTRAS
''DOWNTOWN''
MUSIC VIDEO
TRAILERS
FEATURE
COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR/CO-WRITER EDGAR WRIGHT, EDITOR PAUL
MACHLISS AND COMPOSER STEVE PRICE
and
a second FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR/CO-WRITER EDGAR WRIGHT AND
CO-WRITER KRISTY WILSON-CAIRNS
I
am not the biggest fan of Claude Chabrol and never felt he was the
next Hitchcock (if such a filmmaker existed, it would be Brian De
Palma) so when Arrow announced the first of at least two Blu-ray box
sets with his work, I was curious to revisit his work after all these
years. Lies
& Deceit
features five feature films, including Cop
Au Vin
(1985) and Inspector
Lavardin
(1986) try to deconstruct the detective/mystery genre with Jean
Poiret as Inspector Jean Lavardin in two films that have mixed
results, though I would lean towards the first one as being a bit
better.
His
epic version of Madame
Bovary
(1991) is one of his better films with Isabelle Huppert really good
as the title character and offers additional evidence that for
whatever reason, she above all other actors brought out the best in
Chabrol. This is as good a film version of the Gustave Flaubert
novel as has been made, up there with the decent Jennifer Jones
version and classic Jean Renoir version. This runs 142 minutes, but
does not waste a minute of it.
Betty
(1992) is based on the book by the creator of the great detective
Maigret (Georges Simenon) with Marie Trintignant as the depressed,
drifting, self-destructive title character who cannot catch a break
as we see her problems add up. We've seen this before, at best as a
character study, but the film wallows a little too much in the
subject matter and is not as good as it could have been despite
impressive efforts by the cast. Brace yourself if you intend to sit
though it because it is a long one.
Finally,
we have the sometimes appropriately titles Torment
(aka L'Enfer/1994)
features a project the late, great filmmaker Henri Georges Clouzot
nearly made, about a marriage that is very toxic, abusive, depressing
and sad. Very bare for a Chabrol film, it helped make a star of
Emmanuelle Beart (later of the first Tom Cruise Mission:
Impossible,
et al) and Francois Cluzet as the jealous husband. Like Betty,
it wallows a little too much in itself and that backfires here too,
but I give credit to the actors for trying. I just did not think
there was much new here or memorable to recommend it despite some
ambition and good work here and there.
That
all makes this set worth a single look at best, though I question the
image quality below, these are still major French films to know
about.
Extras
are many and include a high quality, fully illustrated, 80-page
collector's booklet of new writing on the films by film critics
Martyn Conterio, Kat Ellinger, Philip Kemp, and Sam Wigley plus
select archival material
Disc
One:
Brand
new commentary by film critic Ben Sachs
An
Interview with Ian Christie, a brand new interview with film
historian Ian Christie about the cinema of Claude Chabrol
Claude
Chabrol at the BFI,
Chabrol discusses his career in this hour long archival interview
conducted onstage at the National Film Theatre in 1994
Claude
Chabrol, Jean Poiret & Stephane Audran in conversation, an
archival Swiss TV episode in which the director and cast discuss Cop
Au Vin
(Poulet
au vinaigre)
Archive
introduction by film scholar Joel Magny
Select
scene commentaries by Claude Chabrol
Theatrical
Trailer
Image
Gallery
Disc
Two:
Brand
new commentary by film critic Ben Sachs
Why
Chabrol?,
a brand new interview with film critic Sam Wigley about why the
films of Claude Chabrol remain essential viewing
Archive
introduction by film scholar Joel Magny
Select
scene commentaries by Claude Chabrol
Theatrical
Trailer
Image
Gallery
Disc
Three:
Brand
new commentary by film critic Kat Ellinger
Imagining
Emma: Madame
Bovary
On Screen,
a brand new visual essay by film historian Pamela Hutchinson
Archive
introduction by film scholar Joel Magny
Select
scene commentaries by Claude Chabrol
Theatrical
Trailer
Image
Gallery
Disc
Four:
Brand
new commentary by film critic Kat Ellinger
Betty,
from Simenon to Chabrol,
a brand new visual essay by French Cinema historian Ginette
Vincendeau
An
Interview with Ros Schwartz, a brand new interview with the English
translator of the Georges Simenon novel on which the film is based
Archive
introduction by film scholar Joel Magny
Select
scene commentaries by Claude Chabrol
Theatrical
Trailer
Image
Gallery
Disc
Five:
Brand
new commentary by film critics Alexandra Heller Nicholas and Josh
Nelson
On
Henri Georges Clouzot,
an archival interview with Claude Chabrol in which he talks about
fellow director Henri Georges Clouzot (Les
diaboliques),
whose original attempt to make L'enfer
was abandoned, and how the project came to Chabrol
An
Interview with Marin Karmitz, an archival interview with Marin
Karmitz, Chabrol's most frequent producer
Archive
introduction by film scholar Joel Magny
Select
scene commentaries by Claude Chabrol
Theatrical
Trailer
and
an Image Gallery
Brad
Watson's
Miss
Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop
(2022) offers Nathalie Cox as a detective who knows a little martial
arts, but has hardly any kind of script to work with here as the
title wants to suggest some kind of Indiana Jones series idea.
However, she makes Nancy Drew look like Pam Grier, circa Coffy!
For
95 long minutes here, she investigates her friend's business, the
bookstore of the title, to see if it is really haunted or something
else. Unfortunately, it is far too safe, tame, flat and never takes
off, with a cast that can sometimes look bored. Too bad. Tara
Fitzgerald also stars.
Extras
include a trailer and Behind The Scenes featurette.
Tom
Tykwer's Run
Lola Run
(1998) is a film people still talk about when it comes up, but I was
not as impressed at the time and the lack of talk about it these days
shows its limits, yet it looks more ambitious today versus so much
'product' and 'content' we are suffering through these days. This
new Umbrella Region Free Import Blu-ray repeats most of the U.S.
Blu-ray edition we covered many years ago at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6679/Run+Lola+Run+(Blu-ray
Franka
Potente (later of the Matt Damon Bourne
Identity)
is the title character, delivering everything she needed to in this
role and is now iconic in it as a result, while Moritz Bleibtreu
(whose had a solid career since this hit) is the criminal she has to
deal with over and over and over and over and over again. And its
Groundhog
Day
that gets better remembered? Oh well.
Extras
are almost the same as the U.S. Blu-ray and include an Original
Theatrical Trailer, 'Still
Running'
featurette and feature length audio commentary track by Tykwer and
Potente.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby
Vision, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on Soho
is easily the best-looking film here, shot in a combination of 3.4K
Ultra HD video and 35mm photochemical film in both Super 35 and the
better anamorphic Panavision format on Kodak's ever-amazing Vision3
film stocks. Including some demo shots and some amazing
compositions, with some impressive uses of color, it is one of the
best-looking films of the year and is always a pleasure to watch.
The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on the regular
Blu-ray also included is not bad, but it is missing out on detail and
range that make this film far more effective.
Both
discs offer Dolby Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older
systems) soundmixes that are also easily the sonically best and most
capable of all releases here, including its own demo moments and some
great mixing, editing and surround work that makes the film even more
involving.
The
1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on all five
Chabrol can show the age of the materials used, all shot on Eastman
Kodak 35mm color negative, save Bovary
in 35mm color Fuji negative, which is the best-looking film in the
set by default despite being slightly darker in parts than it should.
However, that is a picnic versus the other films that are softer
than they should be, lack the detail they original had theatrically,
have flat video black where they should not have and tend to be too
yellowish throughout despite being new 4K scans, plus have some shots
that rate worse than my final rating. What happened?
Compare
to older Blu-rays of some of the same titles issued earlier on
Blu-ray by Cohen Media and you can see the further troubles. Someone
to way too many liberties in these cases and it has nothing to do
with the film stock, brand or how they were stored. Even if I am not
the biggest fans of these films, they deserve to be seen as intended
and these are not totally it.
All
five films are presented here in lossless PCM 1.0 Mono sounds, save
Bovary
in PCM 2.0 Stereo and issued in Dolby's older analog A-type noise
reduction format. All five were saved on analog, optical sound film
stock by Agfa-Gevaert and have held up well. I cannot imagine any of
these films sounding better than they do here, no matter how off the
video transfers get.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Lola
simply looks like a second-generation version of the video master
used for the now old Sony U.S. Blu-ray edition, but this is due for a
4K edition, so the differences are only so significant, while the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix that sounds like a recycled
variant of the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix on the older Blu-ray. The 4K
upgrade kept a 5.1 mix, but its just fine.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on both DVDs are a little
softer than I would have liked, with Bookshop
having some
really bad digital work, but its lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 fares better
and is the default highlight of a release that could have worked if
they just worked more on it. Dalgliesh
offers lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo when a 5.1 mix would have been
more welcome, but it is one of the better stereo mixes we've heard
lately from an Acorn release, so that helps too.
To
order the
Run
Lola Run
Umbrella import region-free Blu-ray, go to this link for it and other
hard to find titles at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
