What is Beige, Yellow, Pink and Purple All Over? The Covers for These Sam Fuller Blu-Rays.
I don’t like the packaging for the new Sam Fuller Blu-rays of The Naked Kiss and Shock Corridor. The beige-yellow-pink-purple-black color scheme is gruesome. Sickly, even. The colors do not compliment Daniel Clowes’ artwork at all. The packaging should have been like the movies — black-and-white.
On the other hand, the transfers are spectacular. Two stills from my favorite Shock Corridor scene are shown below. I love this film’s didactic in-your-face approach. It’s like Sam Fuller shouting in your ears: WAR IS BAD! RACISM IS BAD!
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) can be summed up as follows: fun, colorful, and dated. Technical specs for the high-def restoration reflect The Criterion Collection’s typically high standards. The MPEG-4 AVC encoded video streams at an average of 35 mbps. Aspect ratio is 2.35:1 and the sound is good old monaural. Extras are basically the same as the previous standard-def release.
A full review is forthcoming. Until then, take a look at the stills, one of which shows Adam West staring at a girl monkey in a space suit.
“RGB’s technique consists in the overlapping of three different images, each one in a primary color. The resulting images from this three level’s superimposition are unexpected and disorienting. The colors mix up, the lines and shapes entwine becoming oneiric and not completely clear. Through a colored filter (a light or a transparent material) it is possible to see clearly the layers in which the image is composed. The filter’s colors are red, green and blue, each one of them serves to reveal one of the three levels”
Last night, I realized that Calvin Reeder — the director of The Oregonian, which will take a midnight bow at Sundance 2011 — was a co-director of a foul and funny cable access show called Jerkbeast. I compiled a bunch of clips from this show for a video project many months ago. I even corresponded with the other director — Brady Hall —, but failed to notice that Reeder was involved. Here is a NSFW trailer for the Jerkbeast movie.
Busy? Yes. As an act of appeasement, here are links to four — yes, four! —recent reviews. The head scratcher in this batch is Tinto Brass’ Salon Kitty, an ultra-daft Nazi exploitation epic. The film’s mix of gaudy art design and amoral sleaze is probably what got Tinto Brass hired for Caligula. Did the SS really dress like Flash Gordon (see below)? I don’t think so.
Cronos was Guillermo del Toro’s first film. I think it is very good — it is not truly great — and shows the promise that he fulfilled with films like The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth. I am not so hot on the Hellboy movies. However, it is hard to deny that those films are imaginative and skillfully made.
As expected, The Criterion Collection has done a quality job on the Cronos Blu-Ray. Aspect ratio is del Toro’s preferred 1.78:1. MPEG-4 AVC video streams at 34960 mbps. The transfer is excellent (see Still 1 and Still 2).
One of the extras on the Blu-Ray is a tour of del Toro’s house/workspace, which he refers to as Bleak House. If you get this Blu-Ray, watch this immediately; the house is amazing (see Still 3).
A review of The Criterion Collection Blu-Ray of Videdrome is forthcoming. In the interim, here are some technical notes and screencaps.
The Blu-Ray boasts a newly restored high-def transfer of the unrated cut. The transfer is in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. DVD Beaver says that Criterion DVD streams at an average 7.39mbps. My software tools indicate that the Blu-Ray MPEG-4 AVC is almost 5 times higher at 35mbps. The Blu-Ray image quality is a significant improvement over any other release ever. The screen caps, which are directly from the Blu-Ray and not from photographs, show how the darker scenes benefit from the improved resolution. Scenes that looked kind of murky in standard-def are now clear. No more pixels. No more fuzz.
On a purely personal note, Videodrome is a formative film for me. It has influenced my view of cinema — and art — in numerous ways. I am pleased that the film has received such a quality treatment on Blu-Ray.
I saw Charles Laughton’s Night of the Hunter on late night TV many, many years ago. This 1955 black-and-white film left a strong impression. How do you describe it? Southern Gothic meets German Expressionism? Kind of. At times, it’s hokey and over-ripe. Most of the time, it is flat-out stunning. Robert Mitchum is completely out-of-control here.
The Criterion Collection Blu-Ray that hits the streets next week. Once again, they have done a bang-up job. Bit-rate is super high at 35mbps. Aspect ratio is 1.66:1. A still in 500x281 is shown below. A link to a full-size 1900x1080 still is included as well. A review is going to happen.
