Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Christina Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 27, 2016

Francisco Lara Polop's "Christina" (1984) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of U.S. label Intervision Picture Corp. There are no supplemental features on this release. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Kidnapped

I first saw Christina when it was released on DVD by Ryko and thought that it was quite bad. I just finished watching the new Blu-ray release -- which finally has the film presented in widescreen -- and I again found it to be bad, but the vibe that I got from it this time was very different. Maybe in a couple of years from now I will completely change my mind and come back arguing that it is a minor B-classic.

The film begins in Paris where the beautiful heiress Christina Von Belle (Jewel Shepard, The Return of the Living Dead) is living life to the fullest. She is in her late twenties, single and very, very rich. A group of lesbian radicals kidnap Christina and transport her to a lavish mansion somewhere in the south of France. Their leader, Rosa (adult star Karin Schubert, Compañeros), orders her two most experienced warriors to keep an eye on Christina, but they begin flirting with her and one of them quickly gets seduced. Soon after, Christina seduces the second warrior and then convinces her that if she takes out the first warrior the two can have some sort of a real relationship. While the two warriors fight for Christina’s heart, she gets a chance to escape. She is picked up by a gang of Spanish smugglers that take her to some beach resort to have a good time with her and then demand that her relatives pay a hefty ransom. Christina again uses her great figure to seduce a young boy and they disappear in the mountains. Eventually the smugglers track down Christina and her boy toy, but she once again finds a way to outsmart them.

The narrative is a colorful mish-mash of ideas and undeveloped subplots that quickly create the impression that the film is trying to head in multiple directions at the same time. For example, early on Christina and one of her admirers engage in an unusually intense drag race that basically gives cinematographer Alejandro Ulloa a chance to imitate some of the panoramic footage from Jacques Deray’s La Piscine. (If you have seen the film you will know exactly what Ulloa was trying to do here). Then there is the footage from the mansion that borrows all sorts of tricks from the original Ilsa films, but nothing meaningful comes out of it and the story shifts elsewhere. After the Spanish smugglers pick up Christina there is another round of strange subplots, but one after another they are also quickly abandoned because nothing really seems to stick together. In the meantime, Christina routinely takes her clothes off and makes love to various horny characters.

Once it becomes clear that Christina is essentially an "anything goes" project and there is no need to apply conventional logic to it, however, the film can become quite entertaining. It is a bit like those Virtual Encounters films from Full Moon Features’ catalog that emerged a decade later -- they don’t make a whole lot of sense and the first time you see them you are totally lost, but the second time you begin to understand that there is in fact something unique in their attempts to transform kitsch into art.

Christina was produced by the very prolific Harry Alan Towers, who collaborated with cult Spanish director Jess Franco on many of his best films.

Christina Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Francisco Lara Polop's Christina arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Intervision Picture Corp.

My guess is that at some point an interpositive was accessed to create a master that was then used to produce this release. It is also possible that the master was produced from a different element. It is difficult to tell. What is important here is that the film does have a surprisingly good organic appearance. Yes, there are some white flecks, a few scratches, and even some stains and small damage marks. There are also traces of light fading that can be spotted here and there. But there are no signs pointing to corrections that have been introduced by powerful digital tools and as a result all of the characteristics that we address in these reviews are actually in decent shape. Color saturation and density are the only two areas with some notable fluctuations, but depth actually ranges from good to very good (see screencaptures #4 and 14). So the film does reveal signs of aging, but it has retained many essential organic qualities that we like to have preserved when these types of older genre films transition to Blu-ray. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Christina Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are not provided for the main feature.

It is easy to tell that a lot of overdubbing was done. As a result, there are some minor dynamic fluctuations. Overall balance is also somewhat inconsistent, but it appears that many of the obvious shifts are actually part of the film's original sound design (quite a few of Jess Franco's cheaper films have them as well). Clarity and depth can be improved, but there are no annoying distortions, pops, hiss, or audio dropouts to report.

Christina Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

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

Christina Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Christina is a bad film, but it has this very distinctive '80s atmosphere that I've come to appreciate a lot more in recent years. My feeling is that it will appeal mostly to people who remember these types of films from the VHS era and loved to rent them at their local video store. There was an old DVD release distributed by Ryko that had the film cropped, but this recent Blu-ray release finally has it presented in widescreen. It has not been fully restored, but I think that it looks quite good in high-definition.