Rembetiko
(1983/Umbrella/Greece/Region Free/Zero/PAL DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C Film: B-
PLEASE NOTE: These DVDs can only be operated
on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Zero/0 PAL
format software and can be ordered from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment
at the website address provided at the end of the review.
We do not
see or hear about enough films actually coming out of the country of
Greece. It is so bad that you would
think it is an exotic place trapped in the past, but it is a modern enough city
and still exotic. However, there is also
its actual history, the country’s dark side (all countries have them) and the
epic Costas Ferris film Rembetiko
(1983) is a rich, but overly long look at a side of the country rarely seen or
discussed outside of it.
Like
Nashville or even Ragtime, the film offers music as a major component and even
star as a group of people called the Rembetes do what they can to survive a
Greece in turmoil during most of the 20th Century (surprisingly so)
who build a community around their own new style of music that is now-unlike
Blues Music, but with some differences you have to hear to appreciate.
The
acting is good, but cast will remind you often of what you would get in Italian
Neo-Realism, all of which helps make this palpable and believable. However, the film becomes uneven when it is
not certain whether it should show us, tell us or be the actual experience
lived. A very ambitious film, the music
in inarguable and the result seems more like a grand intelligent film from the
1970s, so it seems like an epic on the tail end of the last great period of
World Cinema. In that, it is worth a
look.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is very weak, though there is a warning of the poor
quality in advance, if this is the condition of the film, it needs immediate
restoration. There is a haziness and
fuzziness beyond anything the makers intended, though I like the look as I
could make it out. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Mono is also aged and considering this has so much music, could some of that
have been recorded separately so it could be reintroduced with better
fidelity? Extras include an outtake,
director’s interview and trailers.
As noted above, you can order this PAL DVD import exclusively
from Umbrella at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
- Nicholas Sheffo
