Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Always for Pleasure Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 7, 2019

Note: This film is available as part of Les Blank: Always for Pleasure.

Chances are that unless you have a specialized interest in some of the indigenous folk music(s) of the United States, your recognition of the name Les Blank, if indeed you recognize it at all, may well come courtesy of Burden of Dreams (note that the link points to a DVD, not a Blu-ray), Blank’s fascinating documentary about the filming of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. That piece was actually kind of an outlier in Blank’s oeuvre, a large body of work that otherwise tended to focus primarily on musicians (though there are a couple of exceptions in this set). Criterion’s collection of fourteen Blank documentaries may understandably be thought of as a niche product, but for those interested in this subject, it’s a virtual smorgasbord of great performances and at least some biographical data.

If you've never been to "The Big Easy", Blank's ode to New Orleans, jazz culture, and Mardi Gras is a celebration that can also suffice as a bit of a travelogue. Once again Blank has an "ear" not just for the joyful music residents play, but for the entire cultural zeitgeist that informs this region. Professor Longhair makes an appearance here, but there are also a number of other lesser known musicians who contribute some fantastic playing.

Always for Pleasure Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Always for Pleasure is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1.

Criterion's insert booklet has the following information on the transfers in this set:

All fourteen films are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right side of the image to maintain the proper screen format. These new digital transfers were created in 2K resolution on a Scanity film scanner from internegatives at Technicolor Los Angeles. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, and noise management.

This is another transfer where the IMDb lists a 35mm source, but where a pretty heavy grainfield and some occasionally lackluster detail levels can look more like 16mm. Grain is once again noticeably rough looking against some of the brighter backgrounds, especially in outdoor moments that feature sunny skies. The palette looks just slightly skewed toward purple at times, but overall is rather robust and natural looking. This is another documentary with quite a few text overlays, and grain understandably spikes during these opticals. There seems to be a requirement in many of these Blank documentaries that at least one hair gets stuck in the gate, and eagle eyed videophiles will be able to spot just that in this presentation.

Always for Pleasure Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Criterion's insert booklet has the following information on the soundtracks:

The original monaural soundtracks for The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins; A Well Spent Life; Dry Wood; Always for Pleasure; Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers; Sprout Wings and Fly; In Heaven There is No Beer?; Gap-Toothed Women; Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Creole and Cajun Cooking; and The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists were remastered at 24-bit from 35 mm full-coat magnetic tracks. The original monaural soundtrack for Hot Pepper was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16 mm full-coat magnetic track. The original monaural soundtrack for God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance was remastered at 24-bit from a restored DA-98 tape and the restored 35 mm full-coat magnetic track. The original monaural soundtrack for Spend It All was remastered at 24-bit from a restored WAV file. And the original stereo soundtrack for Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16 mm full-coat magnetic track. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX3.

Always for Pleasure features a robust sounding LPCM Mono track, though this documentary does have some archival audio (as in the opening recording of "Sea Cruise") that has a noticeably more boxy, even muffled, sound than the bulk of the presentation. Music and spoken elements are both delivered without any major problems.

Always for Pleasure Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Lagniappe (1080i; 25:25) assembles additional footage not used in the final film.


• Celebrating a City (1080i; 10:13) is a 2014 piece featuring Blank collaborators Maureen Gosling and David Silberberg.

Always for Pleasure Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This was another standout for me in the Blank set, one which appropriately features a "Joy Street" early on and which does a fantastic job of detailing the unabashed ebullience of New Orleans residents and music makers. Video is occasionally spotty, but audio is fine and the supplements very enjoyable. Highly recommended.