DVD DETAILS:
Vision
The 16:9 enhanced widescreen visual transfer on this DVD is evidence of a clean, clear print, nicely capturing the film’s bleakly wintry feel and its frequent deep shadows. It is always elegant and sophisticated in composition, look and texture although ultimately rather formal, remote and even inaccessible as a drama; as if director Apted (noted and respected also as a documentary filmmaker in addition to his narrative features) seeks deliberately to avoid undue stylization. The idea of a snow-bound society proves a potent metaphor for the ideological compromise and corruption examined in the course of the movie, and makes for a dominant visual motif: the heavy burden of a Russian winter is almost overpowering. The cramped world of everyday Russian citizens is nicely contrasted to the spacious realms of the Soviet hierarchy, a world perhaps long out of touch with the people it supposedly protects. Hurt is placed nicely between the official and the personal worlds as mediated in his developing relationship to Pacula. Earthen, drab colors predominate to capture the somber experience of life under Soviet control. There are some intriguing uses of spotlighting effects and nice use is made of Russian sables, whose fierce nature (perhaps representative of an exploited nation) makes for a highly symbolic final gesture – maybe even a note of hope after all in the film’s otherwise bleak resolution.
Sound
The sound transfer on this DVD is efficient enough in Dolby Digital mono but inherently loses out on some directional opportunities to enhance the gently profound sensation of inhospitability running through the movie. It has a deadening effect at times, but the centricity of the sound mix here is full and crisp enough to be more than functional though less than ideal. What remains intact is a sense of off-screen sound, implying vaster spaces and interactions than seen initially on screen. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the transfer is that it crisply preserves the rather stylized and slightly mannered dialogue by veteran English television writer Dennis Potter. This stylized approach to dialogue carries with it a sense of the interpretive and expressive rather than the naturalistic, giving the film its sense of dramatic propulsion (and distance) as it examines the workings of a monstrous international and interpersonal sense of pride. What humor there is present is wry indeed, almost bitter. The score has been thought of by some critics as one of James Horner’s least characteristic or distinctive but still makes for some tense underlying moments and sudden outbursts. Indeed, the score resembles much of the electric work of Giorgio Moroder, then emerging from Scarface. Interludes of classical music function as a fine counterpoint and the final sable growls are well utilized. read more
Wider Screenings DVD Safe Purchase
(in affiliation with Amazon.com)