6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
A Jewish circus entertainer is kept alive by the Nazis to entertain Jews as they march to their deaths. He ends up in an asylum for Holocaust survivors, fighting to survive the madness around him.
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Derek Jacobi, Ayelet Zurer, Moritz BleibtreuDrama | 100% |
War | 51% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
As a genre, Holocaust dramas are tricky. Not only do actors and directors feel beholden to show appropriate reverence for the material, but in the wrong hands, stories of dignity and courage can dissolve in syrupy sentiment or harden into black and white morality plays. Case in point, for every Schindler’s List there’s one Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The subject matter lends itself to specific conventions—a sober visual look, a tone of sadness commingling with fortitude, a restrained directorial style—and to a certain extent you know exactly what to expect when watching a film about the Holocaust. Adam Resurrected, then, comes as a bit of a shocker. Based on a novel by Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk, a novel born of the same satiric sense as Catch-22 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the film trades the expected grief of its genre for a reactionary look at history that’s almost absurdist in tone.
There's a good dog.
After very limited theatrical engagements, Adam Resurrected is reborn on Blu-ray with a beautiful and detailed 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer. My most immediate response was to the film's color palette. The scenes in the asylum have a cold warmth, if that makes sense, rich in somber greens and concrete grays. The tones are strong, yet restrained, giving a look that's just stylized enough to remind us that this is all a fiction. As Schrader moves through different time periods he approximates the style of each era's film stocks, shooting the WWII segments in stunning, high contrast black and white, and then moving into an Ektachrome, almost Technicolor look for the scenes in late-1950s Haifa. Black levels are finely tuned through much of the film, and contrast tends to be slightly overheated, which fits the somewhat unreal look to which the cinematography aspires. As the film is shot largely with handheld and steadicam-mounted cameras, focus sometimes drifts, but overall the image is sharp, exhibiting fine detail in both close-ups—you'll make out every pore on Goldblum's iconic schnauz—and longer shots, which are nicely resolved. Finally, the image is overlaid with a pleasing dispersion of grain that gives the picture a warm, filmic texture. The film fits comfortably on a 25 GB platter, and I didn't notice any pesky compression issues.
More restrained than the color palette is the film's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, which nonetheless impresses by being clear and precise. There's not much, audio-wise, for this track to get worked up about—no explosions or gunplay, no big cross-channel pans or swooping front-to-back effects—but it handles Goldblum's chatty dialogue with aplomb. More so, the acoustics of each room have a keen and noticeable effect on the timbre of the characters' voices. As the asylum is basically a concrete, Bauhaus sepulcher, dialogue here is carried with a tinge of reverb. Sound effects—like the clacking of Nurse Grey's heels through the corridors, the slamming of doors, and the clinking of silverware—carry a convincing presence, and though the rear channels aren't incredibly active, you'll notice environment-establishing ambience throughout, if you listen close enough. Though it rarely makes full use of it, the track has a strong range, and I was even surprised by some healthy LFE rumble from time to time. Hairs most definitely won't be raised on the arms of audiophiles worldwide, but Adam Resurrected sounds great for a talky drama.
Commentary by Director Paul Schrader
"I like this film, I think it's a good film, but it's [from] a great novel," says Schrader, who laments
the impossibility of encapsulating the immensity of the book in film, which he calls a "reductive
medium." So starts Paul Schrader's excellent commentary track for Adam Resurrected,
a monologue filled with very specific details about the more technical aspects of filmmaking. If
film stocks, editing techniques, and cinematography aesthetics aren't really your thing, you might
want to skip this track. If you're a student of film, however, Schrader has cinematic wisdom in
spades.
Behind the Scenes (SD, 24:01)
I enjoyed watching this "making of" documentary, which features on-set footage, clips from the
film, and interviews with all the key players of the multi-national production. Jeff Goldblum tones
down his showmanship to discuss the necessity of doing the material justice, and Paul Schrader
discusses how he changed up his usual visual style to differentiate this film from other Holocaust
dramas. Well worth watching.
Deleted Scenes (SD, 9:32)
There are about seven deleted scenes here, the most interesting of which features Adam hiding
Commandant Klein in his attic after war, teaching him how to be Jewish so he can hide from the
war crimes tribunals.
Haifa International Film Festival Panel Discussion (SD, 1:11:58)
Paul Schrader, writer Yoram Kaniuk, and producer Ehud Bleiberg take questions from a
moderator, and discuss the process of adapting the book, the difficulties inherent in the
production, and the thematic content that differentiates Adam Resurrected from other, more
reverential Holocaust films. There's definitely an interesting dialogue taking place here, but it gets
a little long-winded at times, especially considering the panel is presented entirely unedited.
Adam Resurrected is one of those films that, if it were a little bit weirder, a little more manic, might have been destined to become a cult classic. It's certainly an original take on the often-predictable Holocaust drama, but the film just doesn't coalesce into something greater than the sum of its quirky parts. Still, the film gets a winning presentation on Blu-ray, and I have no trouble recommending it for a rental.
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