Abbott
Elementary: The Complete Third Season
(2024/Warner DVD Set)/Art
Of Nothing
(2024/Distrib/Icarus DVD)/Girl
With A Suitcase
(1961/Radiance*)/Hong Kong
Hong Kong (1983/88
Films/*both MVD Blu-ray)/Sadie
McKee (1934/MGM/Warner
Archive Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/C/B/B-/B Sound: C+/C+/B-/B-/B- Extras: D/C-/B-/B/C Main
Programs: C+/C+/B-/B-/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Sadie
McKee
Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Now
for some dramas and melodramas...
Abbott
Elementary: The Complete Third Season
(2024) is the continually successful school-set drama/comedy that
proves people are for education and schools that can function, though
the world is tougher than ever, especially when you have too many
people trashing a good system. You can join in an enjoy what is
going on here, even if you missed the previous seasons, but the show
has more impact if you start at the beginning.
Its
a solid show, but I thought this season at least had its ups and
downs and the weekly TV grind (no matter how long your seasons are)
can start to wear on almost any show. The writing and directing
respect the audience, but it is the cast, including Quinta Brunson,
Lisa Ann Walker, Tyler James Williams, Chris Perfetti, William
Stanford Davis and veteran Sheryl Lee Ralph. You can see why the
audience remains loyal.
There
are oddly no extras.
Stefan
Liberski's The
Art Of Nothing
(2024) is a drama/comedy
about an artist named Jean-Yves Machond (Benoit Poelvoorde) who
leaves a good job in Brussels to move to Normandy, meeting another
local artist (Francois Damiens) and a gallery owner (Camille Cottin)
who has her thoughts on things too. Ot os not exactly a
stream-of-thought New Wave film, but does take its time to ponder all
kinds of issues.
At
the same time, it is not exactly focusing on death and aging like it
might have, though those topics are somewhat unavoidable, but also
adds more eccentricities and quirky moments than you might expect for
a recent release. Unfortunately, they do not synthesize into as much
as they could have and we get a few off and uneven spots that hold
this one back. Otherwise, it is worth a look for those interested.
Trailers
for three other Icarus releases are the only extras.
Valerio
Zurlini's The
Girl With A Suitcase
(1961) is a solid, early Claudia Cardinale film we reviewed eons ago
on a good DVD here:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1457/Girl+With+A+Suitcase+(Widescreen/Ivy
And
that was a huge improvement over a really bad DVD that made it
unwatchable, so to see it so beautifully restored after all this time
is something as she plays a gal coming of age and dealing with all
kinds of toxic men until one (Jacques Perrin, who plays the adult
version of the child in Cinema
Paradiso)
becomes interested and does not (or otherwise) reject her via sexism.
Cardinale was already getting noticed when she made this and it
remains one of her solid, early works. It has some fine moments, but
can also be brutal, so this is definitely recommended and this
Radiance version is the only way to see it outside of a mint 35mm or
16mm film print.
Extras
include:
Interview
with assistant director Piero Schivazappa
Interview
with screenwriter Piero De Bernard
Interview
with film critic Bruno Torri on Zurlini's career
Visual
essay about the film by Kat Ellinger
Original
Theatrical Trailer
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo
Di Battista
and
a Limited Edition booklet featuring new writing by Giuliana
Minghelli.
Clifford
Choi's Hong
Kong Hong Kong
(1983) is also a coming-of-age tale about another gal (Cherie Chung)
who comes to the title locale in hopes of opportunities, but her
family there rejects her and acts like they did not know her, but she
meets a nice guy (Alex Man) who also has dreams and they get to know
each other. In all this, he wants to be a kickboxer!
Well,
no corny martial arts phoniness here, as that is a subplot, while the
film is a character study of the couple and the locale, working more
often than expected, if not a home run. The couple has some
chemistry, the city is shot honestly and the film has a density that
works. Produced by one of the Shaw Brothers, it shows again they
could do more than genre films and its too bad they did not produce
more of this. Definitely worth a look.
Extras
include a foldout double-sided poster on thick paper stock with art
by James Neal, while the disc adds a feature length audio commentary
track by journalist/scholar David West, an Original
Theatrical Trailer, Reversible Case Art, Stills Gallery and Alex
Man on Hong
Kong Hong Kong
by Fred Ambroisine.
That
leaves us with Clarence Brown's Sadie
McKee
(1934) that also happens to be about a gal (Joan Crawford this time)
going to the city for more opportunities. She is the title
character, a maid who cannot take it anymore, has fallen for what
seems to be a good guy (Gene Raymond) but also has the option of
marrying into money (Edward Arnold in a more serious turn) and then
finds both with a third man (Franchot Tone) who has the best of both
worlds. Who will she choose, especially with The Great Depression
raging on?
Well,
no matter the results, half the fun is seeing Crawford as the title
character as a sort of heroine in yet another film that made her
transition from silent films to sound complete. She is in great form
here, but then so is the rest of the cast, including Esther Ralston,
Jean Dixon, Leo G. Carroll, Zelda Sears, Helen Ware and Akim
Tamiroff, so it has a really good cast. All serious film fans should
catch this one at least once.
Extras
include the Original Theatrical Trailer and three animated cartoon
shorts: Pop Goes Your Heart, Shake Your Powder Puff and
Why Do I Dream Those Dreams?
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 1.66 X 1 black & white
digital High Definition image on Suitcase
looks really good with some fine detail and depth from a new 4K scan
from the original 35mm camera negative (as shot on DuPont film,)
while the French PCM 2.0 Mono can show its age a bit, but is as good
as this film will ever sound.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Hong Kong
can show the age of the materials used despite being one of the newer
releases here, but color is consistent and the Cantonese PCM 2.0 Mono
sound is as good as this film will also ever sound.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Sadie
of course can show the age of the materials used in spots, but this
is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film and
warner's restoration is top rate, while the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is also as good as
this film will ever sound. Fortunately, it is surprisingly good.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the Abbott episodes
looks good for the old format, but would play better in HD, while the
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 is consistent, but would have more impact in
a lossless format.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 image on Art Of Nothing is
good in color, but detail and depth are limited and we get some
aliasing errors. The lossy French Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is good
for what it is, sounding well recorded, but the old codec is holding
it back.
To
order
the
Sadie
McKee
Warner Archive Blu-ray, go to this link for it and many more great
web-exclusive
releases at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20
-
Nicholas Sheffo
