Double Face Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Double Face Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 11, 2019

The late great Al Jarreau had a minor hit a few years before his untimely passing where he collaborated with the fantastic Brazilian keyboard player Eumir Deodato. Music fans may remember Deodato scored a rather unexpected major smash with some ostensible “film music” by reworking Richard Strauss’ iconic opening strains of Also Sprach Zarathustra, also known as the Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, into a jazz-funk classic. This particular tune with the Jarreau vocal, though, while bearing the title "Double Face", was not in fact a film theme. While its lyric is a bit on the obfuscatory side (what else is new?), "Double Face" seemed to be dealing with a guy who had been “done wrong” by a sweet talking but perhaps duplicitous female. There is at least one duplicitous female in this film bearing the same title as the Jarreau/Deodato single, a film which commentator Tim Lucas discusses being able to fit at least partially into both a giallo and a krimi labelling, if only with a bit of “force” applied, in a manner of speaking. Double Face turns out to be a reasonably engaging murder mystery with a bit of a twist involved (what else is new?), but it may be most memorable for its rather tamped down lead performance by Klaus Kinski, as a cuckolded husband who may have resorted to murder to teach his wife a little lesson in "proper" comportment.

For those only (or at least mostly) acquainted through his vaunted relationship and collaborations with Werner Herzog, Double Face may come as a bit of a shock. Kinski portrays harried husband John Alexander, who discovers that his wife Helen (Margaret Lee) may be having an extra- marital dalliance — with a woman named Liz (Annabella Incontrera). That potentially shocking revelation (at least for 1969, when the film came out), along with what seems to be a rather sanguine response on the parts of both Alexanders vis a vis any affairs either or both of them may have, are offered only after some introductory vignettes, one of which turns out to be a bookend of sorts that the film will ultimately return to, and another one documenting earlier, happier times between John and Helen. Unfortunately, as Tim Lucas overtly mentions in his commentary, both the bookending sequence and the scene involving the Alexanders in a prior time are hampered by “special effects” so shoddy as to quite possibly provoke laughter.

Soon enough one of the film's giallo tropes shows up when a black gloved character places some kind of explosive device on Helen's car, and of course a devastating accident ensues, in which Helen is presumed to have been burnt alive. When John returns from the accident scene to his home, he finds a mysterious young woman named Christine (Christiane Krüger) in the shower (it's probably best not to ask too many questions with this particular enterprise), and she then leads John off into a drug fueled nightlife of bacchanalian pleasures that kind of presages some elements in Eyes Wide Shut. One of the smarmier elements of Christine's party hearty ways turns out to be the showing of a porn film, where even the grainy imagery can't keep John from recognizing that one of two women engaged in a little illicit activity is (or at least appears to be) Helen. When he finds out the film was only shot recently, that sets him out on a quest to figure out what's going on.

Günther Stoll and Sydney Chaplin are also on had as a concerned police inspector and the distraught father of Helen, respectively, but the bulk of the film actually deals with the increasingly degraded environment John has to slog through in order to get to the truth. There are some fun if ultimately kind of silly twists toward the end, but the film has a rather peculiar style of its own. As Lucas gets into in his commentary, the linkage to so-called krimi films is fleeting at best, though in Germany the film was marketed as an adaptation of an Edgar Wallace tome (which it wasn’t). In some ways, it’s not even a “real” giallo , despite some surface trappings of that genre. Nonetheless, Double Face is a real curio and one that should be especially interesting to those with a fascination for all things Kinski.

Double Face Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Double Face is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet has the following information on the restoration:

Double Face / A doppia faccia is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with Italian and English mono audio. Scanning and restoration work was completed at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 2K resolution on pin- registered Arriscan. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, picture instability and other instances of film wear were repaired or removed through a combination of digital restoration tools and techniques. The mono Italian and English language tracks were remastered from the optical sound negatives. The audio synch will appear slightly loose against the picture, due to the fact that the dialogue was recorded entire in post- production, as per the production standards of the period.

THe film was graded on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master at R3Store Studios, London.

All original materials used in this restoration were accessed from Surf Film.

This is another fantastic looking transfer from Arrow, and one which should be especially appreciated by those (like yours truly) who originally saw this film either in mangled bootleg editions or in some frankly ridiculous "official" releases which were cobbled together from vastly variant elements. There are a few moments that can look a bit rough (as in the opening English credits, where grain is pretty splotchy), but overall this appears virtually damage free, and offers a nice, robust accounting of an interesting palette. My one caveat in this regard is that flesh tones occasionally looked a bit on the pink side to me. Freda indulges in almost Bava-esque lighting regimens at times, and some of the hues are really lush and vivid. Close-ups offer generally excellent fine detail. There are a few "baked in" issues, like the truly shoddy green screen material toward the beginning of the film (see screenshot 19), but I can't imagine fans of this film not being pleased with its appearance here.

Double Face Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both English language and Italian language version of the film (with requisite credits sequences) are presented with LPCM mono tracks. Both tracks are pretty similar if not identical, other than the obvious differences in voice work. Fidelity is fine throughout the presentations, and the accounting of Nora Orlandi's fantastic score is excellent.

Double Face Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Tim Lucas is rather interesting in a number of ways, not the least of which is Lucas beginning things by stating that this is not going to be a scene specific analysis and also is going to be done without a script, since he had gotten some negative feedback from listeners about that sort of thing. Instead, he thinks of this as more of a "sonic essay", and he encourages people (jokingly, one presumes) to just shut their eyes and listen. That said, for those who do watch as they listen, the fact that Lucas may have done this away from actually screening the film (which is how I interpret his opening comments) means that there are times when Lucas will in fact mention something that occurs on screen, except that in many cases it has already happened and his comments come some time later. With an understanding that this brings with it a certain disjunctive quality which will probably only upset other listeners (hey, Tim, try working on the internet, where no one is ever satisfied, and, yes, that's a joke - kind of), this is an engaging and thorough treatment of both this film in particular, as well as sidebar issues like the prevalence of giallo and krimi films during this period.


• The Many Faces of Nora Orlandi (1080p; 43:28) is a really interesting overview of the composer's life and work by DJ Lovely Jon.


• 7 Notes for a Murder (1080p; 32:18) is an equally interesting interview with Orlandi herself.


• The Terrifying Dr. Freda (1080p; 19:53) is a video essay by Amy Simmons looking at the director's career and making the case that he's perhaps more "important" than he's given credit for being.


• Image Galleries

  German Pressbook (1080p; 1:00)

  
  

  German Promotional Materials (1080p; 4:30)

  
  

  Italian Cinemaromanzo (1080p; 10:20)

  
  Note: As might be gleaned from the timings above, these are all authored to automatically advance, so have your Pause button handy if you want to linger on any given page and/or image.

• English Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 3:32)


• Italian Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 3:32)

As usual, Arrow also has supplied a nicely appointed insert booklet.

Double Face Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Genre fans might actually do better to not even consider Double Face as either a giallo or a krimi, and just approach the film as a kind of twisty murder mystery. There's a feeling of moral turpitude in this film that is really quite interesting, and this is a rare opportunity to see Kinski playing someone "normal" (relatively, at least) with a more naturalistic performance mien than he sometimes displayed in some of his films with Herzog. Technical merits are solid, and as usual Arrow has assembled a really impressive slate of supplements. Recommended.