The Faculty's First A-List Disc

Let's follow up one new Scream Factory 4k Ultra HD Collector's Edition with another.  But this time, instead of them revisiting a past Collector's Edition and bumping it up to UHD, this is their first crack at the title.  And specifically, that title is The Faculty, Robert Rodriguez's zany high school space invasion horror movie that's (mostly... we'll come back to this) been relegated to barebones DVD and blu-ray releases that've seen more time in bargain bins than prime shelf space or end caps.  This promises to be the film's first A-list disc, so let's see.

I called The Faculty Robert Rodriguez's movie, but really I associate this much more with its writer, Kevin Williamson.  Fresh off two big Hollywood horror hits - Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, the creative hierarchy of which should've already let us know his material needs a strong director - Williamson gave us what I actually consider to be his greatest work.  Afterwards, he decided to direct himself and helmed the massive stink-bomb Teaching Mrs. Tingle and then slunk off into sequels and television (did you know he created Dawson's Creek?) leaving behind a reputation of a one-hit wunderkind.  Like he had one clever idea to briefly revitalize slashers and that was the extent of what he had to offer.  But I'd argue this at-the-time box office flop proves he has more magic in him and that this deserves a serious re-appraisal.

...Of course, it should also be noted that this was made by his second strongest director.  Williamson is clearly in his element with another high school setting, and the cast is a constant barrage of, "oh wow, they're in this, too?"  Elijah Wood, Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Josh Hartnett, T-1000 Robert Patrick, Usher, Bebe "Lilith" Neuwirth, Clea DuVall, Shooter McGavin himself Christopher McDonald, Piper Laurie and a surprisingly good performance by Jon Stewart.  There's also a now unfortunate cameo by Harry Knowles, as if to remind us we're still in skeevy Weinstein territory.  And sure, big studio teenage horror can be pretty corny, especially in this period, but a big part of what puts this high school Invasion Of the Body Snatchers (a film regularly referred to within this movie, a la Scream's meta-text) is how it mashes together the stereotypes with the stuff Hollywood usually tries to traipse around, from a more realistically depressing depiction of life in the teacher's lounge to the envelope pushing notion that our heroes have to keep snorting a harmful, heroin-like homebrew drug to stave off the evil adults.  The Faculty is clever and keeps reaching more outrageous heights its peers didn't dare for.  Unlike most of its peers, it holds up surprisingly well.

The Faculty was originally released on DVD by Buena Vista all the way back in 1999.  Not only was it barebones, as I mentioned earlier, it was non-anamorphic, so it's completely useless today.  And you know you're in trouble when Echo Bridge is the one to escort this film into HD, via their BD in 2012.  It's a Miramax title; you know how sketchy their home video history has been.  It's been passed around to Lions Gate and Paramount, but their discs have been generic barebones, too.  That's why I imported Paramount's Japanese blu, which actually includes some special features.  But now I can put it behind me (or should I?) because Scream Factory has just restored the film in 4k for their fancy, new Collector's Edition.

1) 1999 BV DVD; 2) 2012 Paramount BD; 3) 2024 SF BD; 4) 2024 SF UHD.

Starting with the aspect ratio, every release is 1.85:1 except the DVD, which is 1.82:1.  Every disc has basically the same framing, except the DVD cuts a little bit off along both sides.  It's also, again, non-anamorphic, though, so it's really just here for some historical perspective.  The initial blu is a general improvement beyond just fixing that.  It clears up a lot of ugly compression and removes what looks like an old master's edge enhancement, though maybe it still shows some much more subtle hints of tinkering.  At least we've move into HD.  But grain is just faintly hinted at and the colors are super pale.  You could make an argument for some of the color timing - the sky in the first set of shots being genuinely blue, for example - but Mr. Hartnett looks downright sickly in the second set of shots.

And the fact that the new, Rodriguez-approved (for what that's worth) color timing brings it back to the DVD's suggests it was always supposed to look like that.  I guess they shot that first scene at golden hour or something.  Anyway, the colors are much more attractive on the new blu, even before looking at the triple-layer UHD, then the faded old blu.  Now all tinkering is definitely 100% gone and the fine grain is here, especially on the UHD (it doesn't pick up so well on the included BD).  This is easily the best The Faculty's ever looked.

The DVD had optional English subtitles, which the BD dropped in favor of Japanese ones.  I checked, though, and the US blu-ray didn't have any subs at all, so they were dropped for every American BD.  Well, until Scream Factory brought them back, that is.  The DVD also gave us a choice between 2.0 and 5.1 mixes, which the initial BDs dropped down to just the 5.1, albeit now in lossless DTS-HD.  The Japanese blu also a lossless Japanese stereo mix.  And Scream Factory has happily given us the choice again, both the English 2.0 and 5.1, both in lossless DTS-HD.  So they've hit us up with everything we could've hope for.

Except, maybe, in the very light extras department.  The DVD had a fullscreen trailer, and that's it.  That's more than the US blus had, though, which is the whole reason I imported.  They have the fullscreen trailer and a crazy widescreen trailer under the title Parasite, but far more importantly, they have over twenty minutes of on-set interviews with the cast and crew.  This is clearly EPK stuff, so it doesn't go that deep, but it isn't padded out with clips from the film, and they include a lot of people, from Rodriguez and Williamson to most of the stars.  Japanese subs are burnt in, but hey, it's good stuff.  I'm glad I went to the trouble of importing - it even comes in Parasite obi strip.

Rodriguez in one of the Japanese-exclusive interviews.

And Scream Factory?  Surprisingly for something billed as a Collector's Edition, it just has two new interviews.  One is a brief chat with the production designer, which is mostly played over clips from the film because they seem to only have low quality webcam footage.  And the second is with effects artist Greg Nicotero, who always does great interviews.  I'm very pleased to receive both, don't get me wrong, but I'm surprised that's all there is.  Maybe Rodriguez's asking price was too high to get him to jump on here, but they didn't even include the old interviews from the Japanese blu.  Heck, they didn't even throw in the trailer.  It does at least come in a slipcover and include reversible artwork, though; and it came with a poster if you pre-ordered it direct from Shout.

So it's a pretty light Collector's Edition, but it is an excellent presentation of a film that was in real need of some additional love on home video.  In short, a good addition to any collection, but it'll leave you wanting more.

When In Spain, Visit Mansfield Park

I've been thinking about Spanish blu-rays lately.  They're so infamous for being hopelessly awash in bootlegs that collectors tend to avoid ordering anything from the whole country because their reputation's been so soiled and people are rightly afraid of getting burned.  The biggest issue seems to be that some major distributors and labels over there get treated like legit companies even though they're consistently selling unlicensed, low quality, even upscaled BDRs in stores and online.  Here's a fantastic series of articles about it (though not Spain-focused, they do detail all of their most notorious offenders).  And you can also, for whatever reason, never seem to find proper online reviews of Spanish discs.  So people just tend to write off anything released over there, which is awful for the completely legit outlets over there that are paying for all the rights and coming out with perfectly respectable BDs.  They're not all bootlegs.  And there are some super tempting exclusives... we just need one poor sucker to take a leap of faith, throw their hard earned money at some blind buys hoping not to get burned with junk discs, and report back.  Today, I'm your sucker.

There was no question what title I'd start with.  I'd been eying Spain's exclusive hold on 1999's Mansfield Park with jealousy for a very long time.  There is no blu-ray anywhere else in the world, just very old DVDs.  And this movie has long been one of my favorites, to the point where anytime I feel blocked as a writer, I can just watch this and I'm fully inspired again.  It's a bright and beautiful adaptation, though as naysayers are quite right to point out, it isn't strictly the most faithful.

Writer/ director Patricia Rozema points out in her commentary, that the opening credits make the important distinction that this is based not only on Jane Austen's novel, but "her letters and early journals."  Most obviously, this allows her to intersperse the film with Frances O'Connor quoting some fun passages of Austen's early writing, allowing us to sample more of her work that's always otherwise been left off the screen, which is a nice treat.  But more importantly, it means that Rozema is up to more than simply, directly filming the novel, and in the course, changing the extremely straight-laced lead character of Fanny Price to someone much more spirited, and in tune with the real Austen.  Referring to the commentary again, Rozema points out some remarkable autobiographical details Price shares with her creator.  We also see Fanny's favorite brother Michael becomes her favorite sister Susan, and more importantly, Rozema is determined to talk about slavery.

Of course, it has to be acknowledged that slavery is touched on in the novel.  It's briefly but directly discussed by characters in the novel, and Austen is no doubt saying something about where the fortune that Fanny is being elevated to derives from, and no doubt some correlations to state of women at that time.  It's certainly illustrated time and again that even Fanny's wealthy cousins are far from free.  But Rozema takes Austen's subtext and bumps it up to the text, with multiple new scenes, some startling imagery and even a recurring African theme song called "Djonga (Slavery)."  But the surprise is how good these new scenes are and how smoothly they fit into the rest of the proceedings without disrupting the main story.  The humor and the romance is unharmed; indeed, it might actually all be enhanced with deeper themes and more serious drama running through its veins.  The character of Tom feels particularly enriched when his behavior, which seems to simply be the result of being spoiled and insensitive due to his wealth and class, thus marking him apart both from Fanny and his disinherited younger brother, is actually at least also in part due to devastating moral conflict with his family business.

The one down-side is that, while the new material never feels like it's working against the original writing, it does mean that, purely in terms of length and screentime, more must be trimmed away to make room.  As a feature film clocking in at under two hours, it was always going to be have to be a fairly abridged presentation of the full story.  Every time I watch it, I'm always struck when we reach their production of Lovers' Vows so quickly.  But that's the nature of condensing novels into features.  And though I don't personally agree, modern audiences might've been happy for the quicker pace.  It's certainly hard to remember to be upset about any of the missing scenes when they keep briskly moving from one delightful moment to another.  The cast - including Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, Army of Darkness's Embeth Davidtz, Trainspotting's Jonny Lee Miller and Lindsay Duncan in a truly impressive dual role - just refuse to let your attention wander to anything off-screen for a moment.  And I've been dying to see them in HD.

2000 Miramax DVD top; 2012 Savor BD bottom.

So first of all, huzzah!  This is a legit 1080p HD image, with none of the weird interlacing or frame-rate issues I was dreading.  And it's not just the same decades-old master, free of the clumpy compression tied to DVDs... though I would have been happy with just that.  No, this is a newer much clearer and sharper image.  It also corrects the colors, getting rid of that ugly greenish hue that covered the DVD's image and naturalizing overblown contrast.  Note how the sunlight flares out on the Crawfords' faces on the DVD, but not the blu.  It's certainly not a cutting edge HD transfer; grain is super soft when it's there at all and I'm sure more detail could be pulled out of a fresh 4k scan of the original negatives.  And yes, this is a single-layer disc.  But it's a substantial step forward.  The framing corrects the DVD's 1.82:1 to a proper 1.85:1.  The DVD has a strip of dead space along the right-hand side, which they got away with back in the overscan days, but now needs to be fixed, which the blu has done.  It's less about revealing any more on the sides, though - the two discs are exactly the same in that respect - but matting vertically.  That, as you may've already noticed, has also included a distinct shift, showing more along the top and less along the bottom.  The adjusted framing actually turns this film's one nude scene back into a PG-safe moment:

2000 Miramax DVD top; 2012 Savor BD bottom.

Given that is a Jane Austen adaptation (albeit one with a few of its own ideas), I'm not sure this isn't actually fitting; but I'm sure for some thirsty viewers, this will be a deal breaker.

And it's not just PQ that's been updated in Spain.  The blu also bumps the DVD's 5.1 mix up to DTS-HD.  And no, it's Spanish subtitles aren't forced.  The only downside is that the Spanish blu drops the optional English subtitles and French dub from the DVD; but for proper lossless track, that's a happy trade.

Perhaps a less happy trade, though, comes in the special features.  Neither edition is barebones, but the DVD does still win in this category, primarily for one main feature: an audio commentary by writer/ director Patricia Rozema.  She gives a great commentary, with never a dull moment, mixing behind-the-scenes anecdotes with insight into her intentions and process adapting the novel.  For example, she suggests that Austen named Mansfield Park after the Mansfield Decision, a landmark ruling in the UK's abolition of slavery, prompting her own decision to add more material on the Bertram's ugly business in Antigua.  Also, Embeth Davidtz was afraid of horses.  It's all covered here!  The DVD also includes a fleeting, five minute featurette that at least gives us soundbites from the cast and B-roll footage, the trailer, and a bonus trailer for Emma.

Savor drops all of that... which makes sense, I suppose, since an English commentary for Spanish audiences would have to be entirely subtitled, thus probably holding less salable appeal.  But anyway, it's not barebones.  It essentially has two features.  One is nineteen minutes of interviews with the cast and crew.  However, this one's not English friendly.  Even though they're speaking English, they're dubbed over in Spanish.  The second featurette is English-friendly however; it's a short collection of B-roll footage, in English with Spanish subs.  It also has a Spanish trailer.  So, yes, it's a step backwards in special features.  But if you hang onto your old DVD, it's still a net gain where you'll be adding one new featurette to the rest of your extras.

And if you're still pining for a doggedly faithful Mansfield Park, may I remind you, that option has already existed for years before this movie.  There's the original 1983 BBC mini-series, readily available on DVD in the US separately or as part of Warner Bros' essential 2004 Jane Austen Collection boxed set, which is quite excellent.  While it doesn't have the glossy look of the 1999 film, it doesn't want for production values, with a robust cast and every interior and exterior location called for by the novel.  This isn't one of those earlier BBC productions where they're filmed live in a set that stands in for only a handful of rooms.  This is a full production, and I use that word in more than one sense.  At over four and a half hours, it's able to thoroughly reproduce the novel, where every other version has had to cherry pick scenes to indicate and suggest the themes the author was aiming for.  The humor is still here - in fact, there's much more of it - and the cast is wonderful, including Nicholas Farrell, who most of us will remember as Horatio in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, Sylvestra Le Touzel portraying Fanny as she was actually written, Anna Massey, Angela Pleasance and a small but fun appearance by a very young Jeremy Miller, this time playing one of Fanny's siblings.

2004 Warner Bros DVD.

Not that Warners' disc is particularly exceptional.  It's a single, double-sided fullscreen (1.33:1) flipper disc that's got some nasty (every frame) interlacing.  The discoloration around those candle frames betrays its videotape origins.  With an old television show, you can't expect IMax quality, but when you look at what, for example, Network recently did with Monty Python's Flying Circus, well... that kind of extensive restoration obviously wasn't done here.  Though it at least the DVD doesn't seem to be quite so swamped in natty video noise as some streaming versions I've seen are.  I'd be very curious to see if the UK discs at least do away with the interlacing.  And of course it's completely barebones, though it at least offers up optional English subs as captions, and the original mono track is reasonably clear.

It's certainly very watchable, and the series is maybe a bit flat, but still quite excellent and by far the most faithful.  ITV did also create a version of Mansfield Park in 2007, which is the most readily available on DVD and blu, but unfortunately, it's the worst of both worlds.  It's again cut down to feature length, losing so much of the book, both in terms of literal scenes and in its tone and character.  It was at least shot in colorful HD, but it drops the ball (not metaphorically... I mean the ball the Bertrams throw for Fanny in the story), Miss Price's hometown and pretty much anything else that couldn't be filmed quick and on the cheap.  And it doesn't have its own ideas like the 1999 version either.  It's just a sort of empty shell of Mansfield Park.  Plus the actress they cast as Fanny, well, I can only guess none of the Kardashian sisters were available and she was their back-up.

But fortunately, between everything the 80s and 90s versions provide, we already get all the Mansfield Park we could ask for on screen.  And with Savor's blu, we even get a pleasing HD presentation that I'm happy to report exceeds my expectations, something I'm now very glad to have in my collection.  Absolutely money well spent.

Scorsese, Coppola, Allen... Dueling Blus: New York Stories

I remember impatiently waiting for New York Stories to be released on DVD.  I needed it to complete my Woody Allen collection, and I was reasonably fond of Martin Scorsese's segment as well. But then, when it finally came out from Touchstone/ Buena Vista in 2003, it was fullscreen. Really? That's how the combined work of Scorsese, Allen and Francis Ford Coppola was being treated on DVD? You'd expect an edition of these guys' combined work to be on like a solid gold disc in a boxset with a three hundred page, hardbound photo book. But, no, that was all we got, and subsequent foreign releases were no better. I even looked into going back to score an old laserdisc, but it was fullscreen there, too. And the situation stayed that way all the way through the advent of HD until finally, one blu-ray company picked up the title to finally take a second crack at it: Mill Creek.

Update 3/21/16 - 6/27/20: And now Kino's come along with an all new Special Edition.  Or, well, so they claim...

If you haven't seen it yet, New York Stories is a trilogy, with each director making essentially their own short film connected only by the loose theme of taking place in, and capturing the spirit of, New York. There's no wraparound story or goofy bellhop that appears in each story, one film just fades to black and then the next one starts, with its own set of opening credits. There's a general New York Stories title shot at the front and they share closing credits, but otherwise they're really just three completely distinct short films under one title.

Scorsese is up first with a character study about a celebrated painter (Nick Nolte) and his volatile affair with the much younger Rosanna Arquette. She's an aspiring artist, too, and he uses his position to become her lover and mentor. She's untalented and drives him crazy, but he seems to need the conflict of their relationship to make his art, creating an unhealthy trap for them both. Scorsese's technical prowess is on full display here, from the camerawork to the music. Even the character's actual paintings are compelling. And the story's fine, too, constantly moving in the only direction it can go until it reaches its inevitable conclusion. But at the end of the day, I'm not sure we've really learned much or enjoyed our time with these unpleasant characters. There's a pretty powerful scene where Arquette tests her own power over Nolte in front of some police officers, and then he gives short monologue about how he's nothing to her. But most of the rest of the story is just kind of waiting for everything that we know will happen to play itself out.

Then we come to Coppola's film, which is downright infamous. It's co-written by his daughter Sofia Coppola, and plays like a silly children's fantasy. It almost seems charmingly forgivable that he's filming the story his little girl. It's about a super rich eleven year-old who lives a lavish, fanciful life in the city. She has a giant costume party inside a hotel with elephants and a thousand friends. It's basically one big party rather than a story, except there's some kind of tacked on children's movie plot tagged on where she somehow winds up in possession of a prince's jewels and so some cartoonish thugs, including Chris Elliot, are after her. I used to think Sofia wrote the party stuff as a toddler and Francis added the jewel heist thing, like a necessary adult alteration to make the film more conventional. But then I realized she was fully grown at the time of New York Stories, and they did this just the year before Godfather III.

Still, I don't hate it. If you look past the royal jewels bit, it's still a fun exploration of a child's fantasy life, where her servants are also her friends and everybody performs choreographed dance numbers. She fixes her father's life, helps the homeless by giving them candy and organizes the most opulent party, filmed with all of the production values at Francis's command. The fact that it just stops in its tracks to roll around in celebration of its mise en scene actually reminds me of Sofia Coppola's later film, Marie Antoinette. And of course the biggest criticism is that it's self indulgent wish fulfillment, but just like Asia (who was also in Marie Antoinette) Argento's Scarlet Diva, that's what makes it interesting. Because it lets you see inside their psyche in a way they're probably not even intending. But, on the other hand, it's still pretty bad in a lot of critical ways and often feels like one of a hundred direct-to-video Home Alone knock-offs.

In contrast to that, Woody Allen's segment is everything his fans want in a film. It's delightful. Allen his having problems in his relationship because of his overbearing mother. But when she gets called on stage at a magic show, the magician makes her disappear - but can't make her reappear! At first it's a perfect stroke of impossible luck, but it turns into a nightmare when she reappears as a giant, floating head that looms over the city, taking her interfering nosiness to a God-like level. It's a perfect short film, and has a wonderful cast including Allen himself, Mia Farrow of course, Julie Kavner, Christmas Vacation's Mae Questel as the mother, a young Larry David, and a cameo by Ed Koch as himself. I mean, come on, you couldn't do a film called New York Stories in the 80s without putting him in at some point.

1) 2003 Buena Vista DVD; 2) 2012 Mill Creek BD; 3) 2019 Kino BD.

Yes, Mill Creek has finally released New York Stories in widescreen! The DVD is kind of an open matte pan & scan mess, but it at least gives you some extra picture on the top and bottom for novelty value. But it also cuts a lot off the sides, and Mill Creek's restores that by presenting the film in its OAR of 1.85:1. Colors are also warmer and more natural, and while there's not a wealth of new detail, the picture is stronger and clearer in HD. For example, you can finally read the numbers on that camera's digital display in the second set of shots. Sure, I could see this being improved with a new 4k scan, but this blu here is 1080p, no interlacing, and perfectly respectable.

I guess that's why Kino felt they didn't need to make a fresh scan for their new Special Edition.  They've made the image slightly darker, but that's it.  Same transfer.  They have bumped the disc itself up from single layer to dual layer, but MC's encode was actually fine, so it's hard to pick up any real improvements in the encode.  The slightly darker picture does make grain a little easier to discern in bright areas, but outside of a direct side-by-side comparison, you'll never notice a difference.

One way you can usually trump a Mill Creek release is to give it lossless audio and English subtitles, but Mill Creek actually did New York Stories up right this time and had both, which is more than you can say for the DVD, which just had a lossy version of the English, a French dub and no subs.  So Kino does have the lossless DTS-HD track and optional English subtitles, exactly the same as Mill Creek.

And yeah, unfortunately this film has always been barebones. Sure, Woody Allen has never been one for extras, but Coppola and Scorsese are usually good for them. But it's just not to be for this film, I guess. Mill Creek has at least secured the theatrical trailer, which is something the DVD didn't even have.  And Kino's Special Edition?  Also, nothing but the trailer.  Yeah, you read that right.  When they announced this title and released the specs, they promised an "Audio Commentary by Film Historian Jim Hemphill," which is thin grounds to dub a release a "Special Edition" on its own, but it ain't here anyway.  All they have is the same trailer as the Mill Creek, plus two bonus trailers.  But yes, even after the commentary was dropped, to this day in 2020, Kino still lists this as New York Stories (Special Edition) on their website.

And so concludes The Case Of the Special Edition That Never Was.  Still, Kino's blu is a fine blu-ray edition of New York Stories.  Technically, it's even better than Mill Creek's... I mean, the slightly darker image is a matter of personal preference, but dual-layer beats single-layer, right?  That's just science.  For a single film with no extras, though, you're probably paying more for the extra peace of mind rather than an actual upgrade.  I mean, do not double-dip.  This is only if you don't already own the film, Kino's is the marginally superior option.  And even then, you may still want to spring for the Mill Creek to save a few bucks.

The Great Woody Allen Anamorphic Project, Part 1

Naturally, Pretty much every Woody Allen movie is available in America on DVD.  I say "pretty much," because where is Harvey Wallinger?  Come on, WNET!  But what I'm really getting to is that, while we've got 'em all, many are so old, they're non-anamorphic.  Yuck.  That was the case with the original Annie Hall DVD, which I already covered.  Even the 2012 reissue was non-anamorphic, and who ever heard of a non-anamorphic blu in the 2010s?  But that's a celebrated enough film that MGM eventually put it out on blu.  Of course, now we've got Twilight Time and Arrow putting out all these great Woody Allen HD editions.  But there's one big problem area in his filmography.  A middle period around the late 90s where his films weren't with MGM (who learned their lesson after Annie Hall complaints), famous enough to get an updated blu-ray, or or new enough to debut with HD masters.  Yeah, in America we're stuck, but fortunately there are some relatively obscure import options that have us covered.  In fact, there's one DVD boxed set from Germany that seems almost specifically designed to replace all our old problem discs.  And there are other options, too, including a couple blu-rays I've got for us to look at, all of which put our American selection to shame.

Update 8/9/17 - 10/1/19: Well, gee, what's happened since I first wrote this post?  Well, the #MeToo movement pretty efficiently pulled the brakes on Arrow and Twilight Time's HD restorations.  And a new blu-ray boxed set came out in Germany from a label called Concorde Entertainment.  What does that mean?  More overlooked Woody Allens in HD, so let's take a look!

So let us begin with 1994's Bullets Over Broadway.  It's the first film chronologically, and it's one I have a blu-ray edition of as well.  So we get a fuller comparison; and once you see this one, you'll get an idea for how the cases of all these films are going to go ...at least until we get to the last one, which is all kinds of messed up.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Bullets Over Broadway is a period piece that was nominated for a half a dozen or so Oscars in its year.  John Cusack stars as a young, starving artist playwright in 1920's New York City who finally manages to get one of his plays produced... by throwing in with the mafia. Theatrical troupes and the mob are both rife for comedy, but the fun really comes from meshing these two worlds together and the unexpected results.  This is less of a heady piece for Allen, and more of a straight-forward display of light character humor, with a truly star-studded cast, including Jennifer Tilly, Chazz Palminteri who steals the picture, Jack Warden, Dianne Wiest (winning her second Oscar), the always underrated Jim Broadbent, Mary-Louise Parker, Harvey Fierstein, Rob Reiner and Debi Mazar.  Wow.  This is just one of those movies that will play for any audience.

Bullets Over Broadway was released in America on a non-anamorphic, barebones DVD by Buena Vista/ Miramax back in 1999.  And that's it forever.  The 2002 UK DVD didn't fare any better.  But thank goodness for countries that wouldn't stand for such shabby product on their more modern releases.  I've got the anamorphic DVD in the aforementioned 2013 German box set called The Woody Allen Collection (not a very helpful title in regards to separating it from all the other Woody Allen box sets out there, I know) from Planet Media.  In fact, there was also a 5-disc blu-ray set from Art Haus that was released at the same time as the DVD set with matching artwork, just leaving out a couple of key films.  And this 2018 Concorde box seems to just be a repackaging of that set - I presume due to rights changing hands.  Honestly, there are also blu-rays from France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Japan... I've got one here from Finland put out by Atlantic in 2011.  This film's on blu just about everywhere in the world but here; it's almost like we're a giant pack of philistines.  But anyway:

1) Buena Vista US 1999 DVD; 2) Planet Media 2013 German DVD;
3) Atlantic 2011 Finnish BD; 4) Concorde 2018 German BD.

Since being anamorphic (anamorphia?) is today's topic, I left the borders around the first set of images to demonstrate how the non-anamorphic Buena Vista DVD compares to the others.  Framing-wise, they're all basically the same aspect ratio.  The original DVD is floating at 1.85, and tall three newer discs are slightly matted to 1.88:1, gaining a tiny bit around all four sides.  The colors are very similar, too, with the US DVD being just a little flatter than the others.  The German DVD and the two blus clearly share the same master, with the DVD just naturally a little softer and more compressed for being SD instead of HD.  The blus are virtually indistinguishable from each other, from compression to brightness levels, while the older DVD is even more compressed by virtue of being a smaller image, and thus with less resolution.  When you compare the latter set of images in full size (click 'em!), you can see the murkiness of the older disc more, and what looks like a little edge enhancement or similar tampering to try and further define the lines.

Both DVDs give us the mono track in Dolby 2.0, though the German DVD also throws in a German dub.  The US DVD has optional English subtitles, while the German has optional German ones.  The Finnish blu-ray has just the English audio track, which is also Dolby 2.0 with optional Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian subtitles, while the German blu English stereo track in DTS-HD, as well as a German dub and optional German subs.

But now here's the neat thing about these German box sets... both the US DVD and Finnish blu are completely barebones, not even the the trailer or unrelated bonus trailers.  But the German Woody Allen Collections (yes, both of them) actually cooks up some special features.  Not a lot, but for Woody Allen films, even a tiny bit is a watershed moment.  So, for Bullets, it's simply titled "Woody Allen Featurette," and the narration is in German with no English subtitles.  But once it gets going, we see it's an audience Q&A with Allen addressing the audience in English interspersed with clips from his films.  But then the German translator starts to speak over him, making Woody very hard to hear.  This is one of the least English-friendly extras in the set - the rest are mostly in unobscured English with German subs - but if you work at it, you can make everything out, as he discusses his body of films and relationship to his work.  Besides that, the German DVD set just has bonus trailers for other Woody Allen films in this set, dubbed into German.  The German BD has several non-Allen bonus trailers dubbed into German, but also has the original English language Bullets Over Broadway trailer.

1999's Sweet and Lowdown wasn't quite as critically or commercially blessed as Bullets Over Broadway, but it still netted Acting noms for Sean Penn and Samantha Morton. I figured I'd follow the 1920s period piece with the 1930s one, this time focusing on struggling jazz musicians.  It's less of a comedy and more of a charming, actorly character study, also with Uma Thurman, John Waters and Anthony LaPlaglia.  It's presented as a drama with documentary-like reminisces by Woody Allen and others, essentially just like Reds.

It's also anamorphic.  That's right; the original 1999 US DVD from Columbia Tri-Star?  It's anamorphic, no problem.  I know what I wrote at the top and what this post is about, but hey, it's in Planet Media's Woody Allen Collection, too, so I figured I'd be thorough and cover it here, too.  I mean, it's still a great film to cover on this site; and it's also never been released on blu-ray in any country, not even Germany's corresponding blu-ray boxed set.  I think it's safe to say the reason why that is is that they've never made an HD master for it.  So, I think it's safe to assume, at least in terms of PQ, the US and German DVDs should be about the same, as they would be on pretty much any disc anywhere.  Oh, except the US DVD is a flipper disc with a fullscreen version on the other side.  So that'll be interesting to compare.

1) Columbia Tri-Star 1999 US DVD (wide);
2) Columbia Tri-Star 1999 US DVD (full); 3) Planet Media 2011 German DVD.

Columbia Tri-Star DVD left; Planet Media DVD right.

So yeah, basically as expected.  The US (widescreen) and German DVDs are pretty similar and likely taken from the same core master.  The colors are a bit different, though, with the US having brighter, bluer whites, while the German goes for a more naturalistic, warmer hue.  And when you get in close, the US DVD does seem to have more artifacting and digital noise (look around her hair and hat) than the smoother German disc.  I wouldn't go out of my way to double-dip for it, but I do see a credible improvement in the newer DVD.  Oh and the fullscreen version, yeah.  It looks like you're usual, compromised pan & scan deal adding some vertical information while losing some of its sides, and of course looking boxy and utterly misframed.

Both discs give us the original English in Dolby 2.0, though the US DVD has a French dub, while the German DVD naturally has German.  Columbia Tri-Star also includes optional English, French and Spanish subtitles, while Planet Media just has German and German HOH.

Again, the US DVD is barebones, apart from three unrelated bonus trailers (well, technically Sean Penn is in U Turn).  But the German disc comes through at least adequately.  First of all, it does have the trailer, in both English and German, plus the same German language Woody trailers as the other discs in the set.  Then there's a photo gallery.  But the big thing this time is a one hour long press conference with Allen and a very pregnant Morton.  It's mostly in English, though Woody tackles answering the French reporters in French, and it's all only subtitled in German. So we get more than half of it, but you'll have to fast forward a few pieces.  Of course I wish it had English subs, or just edited the French bits out, but it's still great to have, since Allen so rarely speaks on his releases.

So okay, guys, let's stop mucking around and get back to the anamorphically deficient titles, like Celebrity from 1998.  A movie crew looks up to see a sky-writing bi-plane spell out "HELP ME" above their city.  That's how Celebrity opens, a black and white satire of Hollywood culture.  Kenneth Branagh stars as Woody Allen, effectively, in the role of a reporter and aspiring screenwriter going through a divorce with Judy Davis.  It's a smart comedy with a lot of great lines and memorable moments from it's amazing cast of characters, including Leonardo DiCaprio (the one everybody remembers from this film), Winona Ryder, Charlize Theron, Joe Mantegna, Frasier's Bebe Nuewirth, Andre Gregory, Hank Azaria, Larry Pine and yes our one and only POTUS, Donald Trump.  I'm not sure this film is completely successful - a lot of the shots at the shallowness of celebrity culture are a little obvious, and while I'd say Branagh's performance is pretty great, I can't entirely disagree people who find his aping of Allen's mannerisms to be distracting from the drama at the core of this film either.  But it's still a great time at the movies.

Buena Vista's 1999 barebones, non-anamorphic DVD is once again still the only version ever released in this country to this day.  Meanwhile, thankfully, there is new remaster available around much of the rest of the world.  It's in the Planet Media and Concorde sets, and yes, there are additional blu-rays from Atlantic, as well as France and Japan.  So there are plenty of importing options.  It's just us being screw-ups.

1) Buena Vista US 1999 DVD; 2) Planet Media 2013 German DVD;
3) Concorde 2018 German BD.

The images here look pretty alike, apart from the obvious point of the 1999 DVD being non-anamorphic.  But the 1.85:1 framing (more like 1.82 on the old disc and 1.84 on the new ones) is slightly different, with a tiny bit of extra picture on the left hand side throughout Buena Vista's transfer.  I guess that's a tiny point in its favor, but it loses plenty to not being encoded for widescreen televisions, plus it's got softer focus because, again, it's a smaller, lower resolution image.  The German DVD and BD, on the other hand, are clearly sharing the same master, so the only difference is the increased resolution.  That does give the BD a distinct boost in clarity and sharpness however, giving us the most attractive image yet.

Buena Vista again gives us a mono mix in 2.0 with optional English subtitles, while Planet Media gives us the stereo with optional German subtitles, and of course an additional German dub.  Concorde gives us both English and German stereo tracks in DTS-HD, with optional German subs.

Now you don't need me to tell you that the US DVD has nothing, not even the trailer, right?  Well, the German DVD and BD do have the trailer and the bonus trailers, albeit all in German.  But far more importantly, they have a roughly 20 minute interview with Branagh and Allen together (and interestingly, Ken says early on that he didn't try to base his character on Woody in any way).  It's 100% in English, with no over dubbing or foreign reporters.  It has German subtitles, but even they're removable.  It's pretty great.

Okay, one more for Part 1, and then we'll swing back for the rest of Woody Allen's anamorphically challenged DVDs in Part 2.  We'll have all the original US DVDs, finish out the German box set, and even throw in a couple extra import versions to flesh it all out.  But for now, let's wind up with Woody Allen's musical, 1996's Everyone Says I Love You.  It takes its title from the great musical title of the same name in The Marx Bros' classic Horse Feathers.  Now, you may've noticed two of the previous films we've looked at already have relied on a cavalcade of stars.  All his films have terrific actors and some major star power, but Bullets Over Broadway and Celebrity, he's jam-packing them in.  And Everyone Says I Love You continues that tradition.  Woody Allen for the first time in this grouping takes a major role in this film, alongside Edward Norton, Drew Barrymore, Tim Roth, Goldie Hawn, Alan Alda, Natalie Portman, Natasha Lyonne, Billy Crudup and even Julia fuckin' Roberts.  It can certainly feel saccharine at times - though with its tributes to classical Hollywood musicals, that's at least partially intentional - but Roth's and Allen's characters manage to bring enough genuine humor to the screen to keep us from eye rolling too hard.

Anyway, it's the same old song: Buena Vista's DVD came out in 1999 completely barebones and non-anamorphic, and has never been updated in the states.  But again, a newer master was created and used to make the German DVD for Planet Media's box, and also multiple blu-rays from around the world, all of which are decidedly preferable to what we get here.  But we shouldn't just assume that, so let's look at the evidence.

1) Buena Vista US 1999 DVD; 2) Planet Media 2013 German DVD;
3) Concorde 2018 German BD.

Exhibit A: Buena Vista's DVD is non-anamorphic, and that's already enough to condemn it to the "must upgrade" bin.  Exhibit B: those colors!  I might almost believe that the walls of the apartment in the first set of shots were meant to be tan instead of pink (though the BD is slightly less pink than the German DVD, probably the most accurate of the three), but the fact that it's a hue overcasting the entire image says otherwise.  Also look at the flared out brights and ugly contrast on poor Drew. Exhibit C: the framing!  Actually, the German DVD is open matte at 1.78:1, as opposed to all the other discs they've been matting to 1.85:1, and I'm not really sure which would be correct here.  The Concorde blu even has a black bar on the left-hand side, pushing it to 1.77:1 and cropping a sliver of picture off the right, which surely shouldn't be happening.  The framing looks a bit tight in the first set of shots (cutting off the top of Woody's head), but you'd think the proper OAR would be 1.85, so I'll give Buena a pass on that one.

Buena Vista DVD left; Planet Media DVD mid; Concorde BD right.

Exhibit D: the tampering!  It looked like Alda was too soft in the original master, so someone drew in all his lines with a thick, black magic marker.  Sure, the Planet Media side looks a little soft, which is improved slightly with the BD's natural boost in resolution, but the 1999 DVD is one sorry looking excuse for a filmic or digital image.  I'd sentence that DVD to a mercy killing.

Anyway, the German discs also have no extras this time around, apart from the German-language bonus trailers, which I suppose is still more than Buena Vista gave us.  The Concorde BD at least has the Everyone Says I Love You trailer in German.

Both DVDs use the English track in Dolby 2.0, with the music sounding nice on either version.  Though this time around, the German dub is bumped up to a 5.1 mix.  The US DVD has optional English subtitles, and interestingly, since all their other discs have optional German ones, the Planet Media disc has none.  This is the worst film to do that to the German viewers on, too, because the dub only replaces the actors' speaking, reverting to the original English for the songs.  So the Germans would have no idea what's being sung.  D'oh!  Anyway, the German blu fixes that, giving the Germans subs for the songs, too, though their dub still reverts to English for the songs.  The BD has DTS-HD versions of both English and German stereo mixes, and said removable German subtitles.

Anyway, that's all for now.  Stay tuned for Part 2!