Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

HD Moods Chihuly in Nature Blu-ray Movie Review

'Chihulean Nature' might be an equally apt title for this engaging ambient television outing featuring the resplendent glasswork of Dale Chihuly.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 5, 2010

The forms and cycles of nature have provided inspiration for countless artists in all media from time immemorial. Whether we think of relatively realistic interpretations like various painters’ still lifes or nature scenes to more abstract impressions such as some composers’ tone paintings “describing” the natural world, Man seems preprogrammed to try to understand the world in which he finds himself by creating something akin to nature with his own hands. That predilection comes round robin in a rather stupendous manner with the incredibly lush, organic glasswork of Dale Chihuly, the visionary Pacific Northwest artist who has become a legend in glass blowing circles, despite the fact that he rarely if ever blows his own glass creations anymore, the result of both a debilitating eye injury (leading to blindness in one eye) and, later, a shoulder mishap. For those interested in seeing something of Chihuly’s technique, as well as his background, I highly recommend Chihuly in the Hotshop, another Topics title I recently reviewed for Blu-ray.com here. For a somewhat more experiential hour, Chihuly in Nature provides one of the better outings in Topics’ HD Moods series, one which focuses on an artist’s creations as much as it does nature itself, blending the two together in often very pleasing ways.

Some stunning Chihuly glasswork.

As with most HD Moods titles, there’s very little if any background information given on what the viewer is seeing. According to the minimal PR accompanying this outing, we are viewing some lovely Chihuly creations which have been placed in a variety of outdoor gardens, evidently including the New York Botanical Garden, the United Kingdom Botanical Gardens and Pittsburgh’s Phipps Conservatory. Though my one visit to the New York Botanical Gardens was many years ago when I was a child and therefore my memory may not be what it should be, some of the structures shown in the video seemed very much like those in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, though I wouldn’t want to go out on a glass limb and absolutely claim some of this footage is from that locale.

The fact is, the actual places this was filmed are of less importance than the stunning pieces of glass themselves. If you’ve seen any Chihuly pieces, you already know his flair for capturing the nuance of various flora, sometimes in outright mimicry, but at other times with a more impressionistic approach. We are greeted throughout Chihuly in Ntaure with a truly astounding variety of different forms, from long stemmed “flowers” that resemble lilies, to more plantlike or shrublike aggregations of glass “leaves,” to large blue icebergs, to forms which, while certainly organic looking, defy any easy classification with “real world” phenomena. The camera glides through and around these forms with ease and grace, often fading to actual real natural items like fern leaves and such, obviously letting the viewer’s mind make the “natural” connection between Art and Nature.

Both brightly lit daytime footage and some very appealing nighttime footage is featured. In fact one of the coolest moments in Chihuly in Nature is seeing a giant amber tower that almost looks like a sculpture of serpents lit from within, casting a glorious glow on the water surrounding it. In fact, most of these glass structures, though in botanical gardens, are “housed,” as it were, in lakes within the gardens, and the reflections of the glass on the water is ineffably beautiful. Glints of sunlight reflect off of the various facets of the glass during the daytime sequences and give a magical sparkle to many of the proceedings.

The HD Moods series has proven surprisingly popular, at least to those in the Blu-ray community who perhaps opt for more traditional, narrative fare, whether that be the latest summer blockbuster, or romantic comedy, or intimate character driven drama. There’s something to be said for utilizing the visual potential of high definition with formats such as HD Moods, but the result can often be the visual analog of “elevator music,” something that is undeniably there, but which is just as undeniably ignorable. The strength of Chihuly in Nature is that the artwork is so completely captivating that the ambient “nature” of the video becomes almost an afterthought. This is one of the most strangely hypnotic outings in the HD Moods series, and despite a lack of storyline or character arc, may well prove to be one of the more interesting video offerings yet released in this nascent genre.

HD Moods Chihuly in Nature Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Despite having an interlaced source video, this VC-1 encoded offering is artifact free, and provides some of the most gorgeously saturated colors imaginable. Chihuly is not afraid to exploit the boldest of palettes, and that tendency shines through this video, with absolutely resplendent blues, reds, purples and greens. The subtle gradations of hue are ably demonstrated here, and you can see some of that aspect in the screencaptures here. Deepest cobalt blue will just slightly shift toward the purple end of the spectrum in some "leaf" forms, and the Blu-ray reveals those minute changes effortlessly. Though we're dealing with glass here, that doesn't mean there's a lack of surface detail. In fact Chihuly varies his effects so widely that you'll delight in both the expected smooth surfaces of some of the work, as well as the more unusual pock marked or bumpy surfaces which are also on display. The actual, real life natural world which surrounds these works of art also look great for the most part, though the relatively pale blue of the real sky seems somewhat blanched when compared to the robust blue of some of the glass seen just below.

HD Moods Chihuly in Nature Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

You may want to choose your own soundtrack for the images and turn your surround system down while you watch Chihuly in Nature. An uncompressed PCM 2.0 track is offered, but it features a sort of Philip Glass- or John Adams-lite minimalist music track with annoyingly repetitive triadic structures on piano and with an unneeded and intrusive snare drum to boot. There's nothing egregiously horrible about the music, but it's bland and detrimental where the image content is strong and vibrant. The track itself sound fine, albeit obviously of limited spatial range. The music is reproduced with accurate, if uninspiring, fidelity. Because of the minimalist nature of the music, there's little to no dynamic range to speak of.

HD Moods Chihuly in Nature Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No extras are offered on this budget priced Blu-ray release.

HD Moods Chihuly in Nature Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you've been loathe to experience one of these "ambient television" outings, you may want to tip your toes through the glass tulips of Dale Chihuly in Chihuly in Nature. Though the soundtrack is lamentable, the images here are glorious, a wonderful mirroring of nature's wonders as seen through the eyes of one of the most visionary artists of our time.