Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Hot Pepper Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 7, 2019

Note: This film is available as part of Les Blank: Always for Pleasure.

Chances are that unless you have a specialized interest in some of the indigenous folk music(s) of the United States, your recognition of the name Les Blank, if indeed you recognize it at all, may well come courtesy of Burden of Dreams (note that the link points to a DVD, not a Blu-ray), Blank’s fascinating documentary about the filming of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. That piece was actually kind of an outlier in Blank’s oeuvre, a large body of work that otherwise tended to focus primarily on musicians (though there are a couple of exceptions in this set). Criterion’s collection of fourteen Blank documentaries may understandably be thought of as a niche product, but for those interested in this subject, it’s a virtual smorgasbord of great performances and at least some biographical data.

If Dry Wood might be thought of as a companion piece to Spend It All, Hot Pepper could almost be thought of as a sequel to Dry Wood, since it was shot at the same time and deals again with South Louisiana's Creole culture. In this instance, however, Blank goes the "Lightnin' Hopkins" route by focusing on an individual, the incredible "King of Zydeco", Clifton Chenier. Anyone who wants to experience what I'd term "nascent World Music" should check out this intriguing documentary, because Chenier's music has echoes of all sorts of influences running rampant through it. Once again Blank manages to capture a unique mood for the region.

Hot Pepper Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hot Pepper is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1.

Criterion's insert booklet has the following information on the transfers in this set:

All fourteen films are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right side of the image to maintain the proper screen format. These new digital transfers were created in 2K resolution on a Scanity film scanner from internegatives at Technicolor Los Angeles. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, and noise management.

The IMDb lists this as having been shot on 35mm, but a pretty rough grain field and middling detail levels almost makes this look like it was sourced from 16mm at times. The grain can look pretty roughhewn during the credits or other moments that have text overlays, but it also approaches a noisy appearance against brighter backgrounds, as in shots that include the sky. The palette is generally appealing, and close-ups provide adequate fine detail, but many of the midrange shots are lacking in clarity, as can perhaps be gleaned from some of the screenshots accompanying this review.

Hot Pepper Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Criterion's insert booklet has the following information on the soundtracks:

The original monaural soundtracks for The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins; A Well Spent Life; Dry Wood; Always for Pleasure; Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers; Sprout Wings and Fly; In Heaven There is No Beer?; Gap-Toothed Women; Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Creole and Cajun Cooking; and The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists were remastered at 24-bit from 35 mm full-coat magnetic tracks. The original monaural soundtrack for Hot Pepper was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16 mm full-coat magnetic track. The original monaural soundtrack for God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance was remastered at 24-bit from a restored DA-98 tape and the restored 35 mm full-coat magnetic track. The original monaural soundtrack for Spend It All was remastered at 24-bit from a restored WAV file. And the original stereo soundtrack for Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16 mm full-coat magnetic track. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX3.

Hot Pepper's LPCM Mono track can sound just slightly bass heavy at times during the many musical moments, and there's a layer of background hiss that is evident especially in some spoken moments, but on the whole this is a nice, full bodied accounting of the film's extremely enjoyable soundtrack. Chenier sounds great throughout this piece, and fans of his music should be well pleased with the general acoustics of this track.

Hot Pepper Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is the sole documentary in this set which does not have any supplements "attached" to it, though those interested should check out the supplement on Dry Wood, which also deals with this film.

Hot Pepper Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Yet again Blank manages to achieve both a personal portrait as well as a more generalized view of an entire community in this hugely engaging piece. Video is a bit problematic at times, but audio is fine. Recommended.