7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
In 1980s East Germany, Barbara is a Berlin doctor banished to a country medical clinic for applying for an exit visa. Deeply unhappy with her reassignment and fearful of her co-workers as possible Stasi informants, Barbara stays aloof, especially from the good natured clinic head, Andre. Instead, Barbara snatches moments with her lover as she secretly prepares to defect one day. Despite her plans, Barbara learns more about her life that puts her desires and the people around her in a new light. With her changing perspective, Barbara finds herself facing a painful moral dilemma that forces her to choose what she values.
Starring: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Rainer Bock, Christina Hecke, Jasna Fritzi BauerForeign | 100% |
Drama | 69% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080/50i
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
German: Dolby Digital 2.0
German SDH, English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Selected to represent Germany at the Oscars, Christian Petzold's "Barbara" (2012) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of German label Indigo. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailer for the film and two featurettes with director Christian Petzold, actors Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld, cinematographer Hans Fromm, costume designer Anette Guther, and production designer K.D. Gruber. In German, with optional English and German SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
No one can be trusted
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080/50i transfer, Christian Petzold's Barbara arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Indigo.
Note: Even though the transfer is flagged as 1080/50i, it is actually progressive. So, there is no motion-judder and interlacing.
Excluding some extremely light banding that I noticed early into the film (the sequence where Barbara sits on the bench to have a smoke before she enters the hospital), the film looks solid in high-definition. Close-ups boast excellent definition and consistently pleasing clarity (see screencapture #5), while the wider panoramic shots convey very good depth (see screencapture #3). Contrast levels are stable. From start to finish color reproduction is enormously satisfying - there is a wide range of well saturated, natural looking greens, blues, browns, grays, and blacks. No attempts have been made to apply problematic sharpening corrections. Compression is also solid. For the record, there are no serious stability issues to address in this review. To sum it all up, Barbara looks lovely on Blu-ray, and I am convinced that those who have been hoping to get an English-friendly release of it will definitely be pleased with the technical presentation. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc. German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and German Dolby Digital 2.0. For the record, Indigo have provided optional English and German SDH subtitles for the main feature.
The lossless is solid. Barbara is primarily a dialog-driven feature and clarity and crispness are quite impressive. There are a couple of sequences where Stefan Will's music score is felt, but the atmosphere is indeed quite subdued. Surround movement is minimal at best. The English translation is excellent.
Barbara is a flawless film. I think that it recreates perfectly the maddening environment people in East Germany had to endure under Erich Honecker. It may not impress those who never experienced it, but those who have will immediately recognize how incredibly accurate everything in the film is. I must also say that the two leads, Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld, are astonishing. If you could play Region-B "locked" discs, I urge you to consider importing Barbara. It is one of the year's best films. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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