Amadeus
4K
(1984/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/Behind
The Door
(1919)/Below
The Surface
(1920/Flicker Alley Blu-ray)/The
Eel
(1997/Radiance Blu-ray)/Naked
Maya (1959/United
Artists/MGM/Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: X/C+ & B-/B-/B Sound:
B-*/B-/C+/B- Extras: C+/B/C+/D Films: B/C+ & B-/C+/B-
Next
up are some prestige releases from several eras, most of which you
may not have heard of...
Milos
Forman's Amadeus
4K
(1984) has been upgraded to Ultra HD and the picture is the real
winner here, versus the decent Blu-ray edition we reviewed years ago
at this link:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8284/Amadeus+(1984/Warner+Blu-ray
What
our fellow critic said then holds up today, but all these years
later, it is still a film people talk about and it was still more of
a pop culture sensation than anyone expected, from its unexpected
commercial success (people always think classic music is stuffy) to
the fact that it was more than just a predictable biopic to people
like the late, great Falco jumping in and having a huge international
megahit with his classic song ''Rock
Me Amadeus''.
The
cast is so good here and F. Murray Abraham rightly won his Oscar for
almost outdoing Tom Hulce in the title role. Of course, Forman is
one of the only directors who could have pulled this off and more
than understood how Kubrick's Barry Lyndon totally changed for the
better how to do such films. Add the amazing costumes, production
design, well recorded score, smooth editing, sense of humor and a
solid supporting cast that includes Simon Callow, Elizabeth Berridge,
Christine Ebersole, Roy Doltrice, Jeffrey Jones, Charles Kay, Kenny
Baker, Vincent Schiavelli and Cynthia Nixon, Amadeus
remains a great classic and one everyone should see and see again.
Extras
include Digital Movie Code, while the disc adds The
Making of Amadeus
(New) and Amadeus:
The Making of a Masterpiece.
Thomas
H. Ince was a big, early movie producer in his time, but not enough
of his films have been saved and are known. Flicker
Alley's new Blu-ray set of Behind
The Door
(1919) and Below
The Surface
(1920) features a pair of related hits in that they are both directed
by Irvin V. Willat and stars Hobart Bosworth.
The
first film has the actor as a German American who starts to get
constantly bashed once WWI begins, happily married to a beautiful
woman (Jane Novak) when a German submarine that even takes out an
entire ship shows up when they are in a boat and the crazed captain
(Wallace Berry) kidnaps her and leaves him for dead. He intends to
get revenge and no matter at what cost. It starts out slow and can
have off moments,but when it is good, it is impressive.
The
second film involves a sunken, stuck submarine whose passengers need
saved, so a diver (Bosworth) and his son (Lloyd Hughes) are able to
save them. The big story makes them the target of an illegal scheme
and they have to survive being exploited. I liked think one a little
better and it was a little more consistent, though it also has more
time to develop and tell its story (91 minutes versus 70 for the
first film, though some footage is still considered lost, but
hopefully not forever) and they make a very appropriate double
feature. In the end, another great, surprise release from Flicker
Alley!
Extras
are great and include:
Russian
version of Behind
The Door:
The re-edited and re-titled version of the film that was distributed
in Russia, with musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne
Outtakes
from Behind
The Door:
Featuring music composed and performed by Stephen Horne
''Restoring
Irvin Willat's Behind
The Door'':
A behind-the-scenes look at the restoration
''Kevin
Brownlow Spotlights Irvin Willat'':
Film historian and Honorary Academy Award winner Kevin Brownlow's
spotlights director Irvin Willat
Slideshow
gallery of stills and promotional material from Behind
The Door
and Below
The Surface
Printed
Essays featuring writing on both films by historians Jay Weissburg
and Scott Simmon
and
an Optional Double-Sided Slipcover available either as a standard
release or, exclusively from www.flickeralley.com,
special limited edition double-sided slipcover that showcases
vintage art for both films.
Shohei
Imamura's The
Eel
(1997) is an award-winning film that only so many have heard of with
Koji Yakusho as a man who has killed his wife, gets caught and goes
to jail. Later out on parole, he only talks to an eel and no one
else, then opens a barber shop resulting in a whole new group of
people (albeit eccentric) who show up. When a woman's suicide also
happens, it starts to throw off what was a sort of recovery and makes
him deal with the return of the repressed.
It
is a good film, but not a great or memorable one to me, yet issues
with the transfer (as described below) got in the way of me really
watching this. I knew this was shot in large film frame VistaVision,
but it just has issues throughout and Radiance
up until this time has had an excellent series of Blu-ray releases
quality-wise with limited complaints.
Until
the issues get addressed (we hope) and maybe a 4K edition (aka an
opportunity to fix this all) happens, the company is at the mercy of
whomever they licensed the film from. AT least we have a nice group
of supplements.
Extras
include a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned
artwork by Time Tomorrow
Interview
with critic Tony Rayns (2024)
Interview
with screenwriter Daisuke Tengan (2024)
Visual
essay by Tom Mes on the year 1997 as a turning point in Japanese
cinema (2024)
Newly
improved English subtitle translation
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time
Tomorrow
Limited
Edition booklet featuring a newly translated archival interview with
Imamura
and
Limited Edition of 3,000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo
packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of
certificates and markings
Henry
Koster's The
Naked Maya (1959)
is the most glamorized of several feature films (et al) about the
relationship between the Duchess of Alba (Ava Gardner) and the famous
artist Goya (Anthony Franciosa, paired well enough here) resulting in
the then-scandalous title painting, but it also serves as a double
biopic, also serving as lush epic filmmaking, a big production (they
got more bang for their buck in Italy, we expect) and it runs about
111 minutes. Was it longer? Does extra footage exist?
Either
way, even if you land up not thinking it works all the time, it is
interesting, good to look at (especially on a solid 4K or HDTV) and
the kind of film United Artists would pick up over most of the
studios. The loads have an odd chemistry that works and almost
works, but is not exactly a big romance. The supporting cast (mostly
little or unknown Italian actors) actually meld together well and
Koster (superhit The
Robe,
The
Virgin Queen,
Desiree,
Flower
Drum Song,
Mr.
Hobbs Takes A Vacation,
My
Cousin Rachel)
was a solid journeyman director since the early sound era, so he knew
better than not how to handle a large production. This is as
interesting as any of them.
There
are sadly no extras.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, HDR (10;
Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Amadeus
4K
can have its share of grain and noise in spots, but the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.0 lossless mix still has sonic limits
where the dialogue does not sound as clear or warm as the music,
almost sounding a generation down, so be careful of high volume
playback and volume switching. This was an issue on all previous
releases of the film, What happened?
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfers on Behind
The Door
and Below
The Surface
can
definitely show the age of the materials used, especially when the
nitrate has gone so badly (in the first of the two films in
particular) that you cannot see what is going on, but the hard work
to save both films with the luck of some material being in amazing
shape has some impressive moments just the same. Tinting and toning
also look nice throughout both films and the new music scores by
Stephen Horne in PCM 2.0 Stereo are fine if a little forward
sounding.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on The
Eel
should look great, but the color is off and slightly faded
throughout, a point proven by the older trailer having better and
more accurate color. What happened to the negative or did someone
botch and take liberties with the transfer. This was shot in
VistaVision and should look way better and more accurate than this.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Japanese Mono lossless mix is sadly not
in stereo or multi-channel sound and is likely as good as this film
will ever sound.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Naked
Maya
can sometimes show the age of the materials used, but the large-frame
Technirama shoot has yielded some great shots and impresses over and
over in certain shots. Issued in 35mm technicolor dye-transfer
reduction prints in its time, the color here looks more like a color
format other than either Technicolor or Eastman Color Negative, and
more like Ferrania, Agfa or maybe Ansco. Maybe it is the lab work?
A nice surprise in any case and worth seeing just for that.
Fellini
and Visconti Director Of Photography veteran Giuseppe Rotunno, A.I.C.
(On
The Beach,
John Huston's The
Bible,
Candy,
Secret
Of Santa Vittoria,
Mike Nichols' Wolf,
Carnal
Knowledge,
All
That Jazz,
Rollover,
Altman's Popeye,
Adventures
Of Baron Munchausen)
is one of the great cameramen and this is some of his most underrated
work.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is also sadly not in
stereo or multi-channel sound and is likely as good as this film will
ever sound.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
