6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A Man (Mayans) invites a Woman (Romay) to his house to live with him, just before the arrival of his wife (Vela) who is coming back from the insane asylum.
Starring: Lina Romay (II), Antonio Mayans, Juan Soler (I), Jesús Franco, Rocío FreixasForeign | 100% |
Erotic | 89% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Spanish: LPCM 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Jess Franco's "Cries of Pleasure" a.k.a. "Gemidos de Placer" (1983) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films. The supplemental features on the disc include two new programs with critic and author Stephen Thrower as well as archival interviews with the director and his muse, Lina Romay. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.
The visitor
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Cries of Pleasure arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films.
The release is sourced from a recent 4K master. Even though this remaster retains a few tiny scratches and blemishes, I like it a lot. In fact, I think that it is one of the more convincing organic remasters done for a Jess Franco that I have seen in recent years. So, the best news is that there are no traces of problematic digital work. (You can see such on Vampyros Lesbos). Predictably, the entire film has a rather nice organic appearance. Encoding optimizations could have been made to make the presentation even more convincing, but on my system the film looks just fine. The color grading is convincing. However, a few indoor sequences capture light in unusual ways which create the impression that balance is temporarily disrupted. It is not. This is just a limitation of the photography, which by the way is quite common on many Franco films. Image stability is very good. All in all, even though there is some room for minor cosmetic improvements, I like the technical presentation of Cries of Pleasure a lot. My score is 4.25/5.00. (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).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Spanish LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When Turned on, they appear inside the image frame.
The dialog is clear and stable. A few small pops can be heard, but there are no serious age-related imperfections, such as distortions. Dynamic intensity is a tad uneven, but my guess is that this is how the audio was mixed. (This is another common limitation on many Jess Franco films). The English translation is very good.
If I had to rank all of the erotic films from Jess Franco's oeuvre that I have seen to date, I would place Cries of Pleasure toward the very top. There are a few like She Killed in Ecstasy and Vampyros Lesbos that have vastly superior production values, but the long sexual séance that is chronicled in Cries of Pleasure oozes atmosphere that is too pure to have been crafted entirely in Franco's head. The people that made the film in the lavish villa in Costa del Sol went on some kind of a trip, and while it lasted, Franco shot the best of it. I could be wrong, but this is the only take on the film that makes perfect sense to me. Severin Films' release is sourced from a very nice recent 4K master and comes with three excellent bonus features. It is also Region-Free. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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