A Thousand Times Good Night Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

A Thousand Times Good Night Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 22, 2014

Erik Poppe's film "A Thousand Times Good Night" a.k.a. "Tusen ganger god natt" (2013) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Films. There are no supplemental features on this release. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

"I shoot what I see"

Rebecca (Juliette Binoche, Cosmopolis, Elles) lives in two very different worlds. In the first she is a talented and very brave photographer whose work is internationally recognized. If there is a dangerous conflict, chances are Rebecca is already there, in the middle of the chaos, capturing with her camera the suffering of nameless men, women and children. In the second world, Rebecca is a wife, a mother, and a respected friend. She has a house, a car, and even a few extra pairs of expensive shoes.

During a dangerous assignment in Afghanistan, Rebecca is seriously injured. When she recovers, her husband, Marcus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Game of Thrones: Complete Seasons 1-2), makes it clear that it is time for her to choose between her job and family. Initially, she vows to stay home, but when an opportunity presents itself she travels to Kenya with her daughter. A serious incident rocks her marriage and forces her to reevaluate her entire life.

Norwegian director Erik Poppe’s A Thousand Times Goodnight was inspired by his own experiences as a war photographer. During the 80s, Poppe worked as a photographer for Reuters and visited some of the world’s most dangerous places.

The focus of attention is on the various dilemmas professional photographers face and the difficult adjustments they must do in order to keep their private and professional lives separated. In the film, Rebecca has reached a point where she is no longer capable of being the professional she wants to be and the wife and mother she is expected to be. Her next move seems obvious, but when her freedom to easily transition between the two worlds she has been living in is restricted, she finds it impossible to remain the person her family and friends have known.

What follows is a long and painful reevaluation of relationships and commitments which produces some unexpected discoveries. Perhaps the most surprising one for Rebecca is the fact that her professional success has irreversibly eroded the foundation of her family. She is still loved and needed to be part of it, but the trust that once existed between Rebecca, Marcus and their two daughters is questioned and eventually compromised. After a series of tense discussions with Marcus, Rebecca also discovers that she has never been aware of the enormous psychological distress her long trips abroad have introduced in her family.

The film can be very intense at times, but its observations are delivered with the right tone and as a result it never evolves into a soapy melodrama. The frequent changes of scenery are also handled with great precision allowing the film to sustain an excellent intimate atmosphere.

Binoche is very convincing as the experienced photographer whose reality suddenly collapses. The two sequences where she meets the suicide bombers are absolutely incredible. Coster-Waldau is also likeable as her concerned husband.

Pope and cinematographer John Christian Rosenlund (Bent Hamer’s O'Horten) shot the film on location in Ireland, Kenya, Morocco, and Afghanistan.

A Thousand Times Good Night Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Erik Poppe's A Thousand Times Good Night arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Films.

The film looks spectacular in high-definition. Excluding some minor fluctuations in terms of contrast and brightness, which are part of the film's original cinematography, everything else is as solid as one would expect it to be. Detail and sharpness are outstanding. In fact, a number of the close-ups look like very recent digital photographs (see screencapture #7), while the wider panoramic shots impress with outstanding fluidity (see screencaptures #3 and 8). Colors are very rich, wonderfully well balanced, stable and natural. Overall image stability is excellent. Finally, there are no encoding anomalies to report in this review. All in all, this is a very strong technical presentation of A Thousand Times Good Night, and I personally consider it one of the very best in Arrow Films' Blu-ray catalog. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

A Thousand Times Good Night Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, Arrow Films have not provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

There are no big surround effects in this film, but separation and clarity are outstanding. During the long prologue in which Rebecca gets seriously injured, for instance, the chaos before the explosion is very effectively captured (different random sounds and noises are exceptionally easy to identify). Furthermore, Armand Amar's music has primarily a supporting role, but when the music is used to further enhance the tense atmosphere, balance and the range of nuanced dynamics are excellent. The dialog is clean, crisp, stable, and always easy to follow. There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report in this review.

A Thousand Times Good Night Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on this release.

A Thousand Times Good Night Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I liked Erik Poppe's A Thousand Times Good Night quite a lot and Arrow Films' technical presentation of the film is excellent. However, I would have loved to see an interview or at least a featurette with the Norwegian director in which he discusses his experiences as a war photographer. Nevertheless, this is a film well worth seeing. RECOMMENDED.