7.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Together with Pandora's Box (1928), Diary confirmed Pabst's artistry as one of the great directors of the silent period and established Brooks as an "actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality and a beauty unparalleled in screen history" (Kevin Brownlow, The Parade's Gone By). Brooks, in a delicately restrained performance, plays the naïve daughter of a prosperous pharmacist.
Starring: Louise Brooks, Fritz Rasp, Franziska Kinz, André Roanne, Josef RovenskýForeign | 100% |
Drama | 58% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Music: LPCM 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region B (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Georg Wilhelm Pabst's "Tagebuch einer Verlorenen" a.k.a. "Diary of a Lost Girl" (1929) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment. The only supplemental feature on the disc is a new video essay created by filmmaker and critic David Cairns. The release also arrives with a 40-page illustrated booklet featuring writings by Louise Brooks, Lotte Eisner, Louelle Interim, Craig Keller, and R. Dixon Smith. With German intertitles and optional English subtitles. Region-B "locked".
The lost girl
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment.
The following text precedes the film's opening credits:
"Due to censorship, Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (Diary of a Lost Girl) was shortened and changed drastically. In 1997, a reconstruction and photochemical restoration of the film as it had originally been intended was created by the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, the Deutsche Filminstitut -- DIF, Frankfurt am Main, and the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Wiesbaden. It is based on the dupe negative from the Danish Film Institute, Copenhagen. Most of the missing scenes were added from a contemporary copy from the Archivo Nacional de la Imagen -- Sodre, Montevideo. The reconstruction of the edit that was shown at the film's premiere is based on a comparison of the surviving copies, as well as the censor records of the Filmoberprufstelle Berlin. The wording of the German intertitles was recreated with the aid of German-French intertitles from a copy at the Cinematheque Royale de Belgique, Brussels. A few surviving titles from the copy at the Archivo Nacional de la Imagen -- Sodre, Montevideo serve as a model for the typography. The master negative of this edit was used for the 2K digital version. For this HD mastering, the image has been corrected in places, and heavy damage to the film has been retouched."
Because different sources were used during the reconstruction process, some fluctuations in terms of clarity, detail and general image stability remain. Minor scratches, specks, and some traces of fading are also visible. This being said, the film's overall appearance is enormously pleasing. To be perfectly clear, while there is certainly room for various cosmetic improvements (such as manual cleanup in select areas) and minor stabilization enhancements, the film really does look surprisingly fresh and vibrant. Depth, in particular, is consistently pleasing. Of course, it is not too difficult to tell where different elements were used during the film's reconstruction, but different optimizations have ensured that the film does have a fluid organic appearance which is also as consistent as the surviving elements allow. Generally speaking, detail is very good, with many of the close-ups, in particular, looking quite wonderful (see screencaptures #1, 9, and 18). Contrast stability is also good. The only exceptions occur in areas where the above mentioned source limitations are a factor (compare screencaptures #1 and 11). There are no traces of problematic degraining adjustments. If there are some noticeable grain fluctuations they can be traced back to inherited density fluctuations. Also, there are no problematic sharpening adjustments. The encoding is excellent. All in all, considering the fact that different sources were used to restore and reconstruct Diary of a Lost Girl, the end result is indeed enormously pleasing. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Music LPCM 2.0. For the record, Eureka Entertainment have provided optional English subtitles for the German intertitles.
The beautiful piano score is performed by Javier Perez de Azpeitia. It includes fragments from classical pieces by Scriabin, Schumann, Chopin, and Ghlinka, amongst others. Clarity and depth are excellent. There is an excellent range of nuanced dynamics as well, which effectively enhance a number of the more dramatic sequences. (See the final sequence at the reform school where Thymian meets her old friend again). There are no audio dropouts or distortions to report in this review.
What a wonderful release. British distributors Eureka Entertainment have added some outstanding silent films to their Blu-ray catalog this year and Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Diary of a Lost Girl is unquestionably one of the best. I sincerely hope that in 2015 we will also see Pandora's Box on Blu-ray. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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