7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.4 |
Winner of two Silver Bears at the Berlin Film festival for its actors and photography, and of the Best Film award in the 2010 London Film Festival, the film is set on a remote weather station in the Arctic manned by old hand Sergei and the novice Pavel. When Pavel receives an important radio message, his fear of the older man prevents him telling Sergei the shocking news. From this decption, lies and suspicions poison relations between the two to such an extent that Pavel is in fear of his life, not just from the polar bears that roam the island, but from Sergei. Filmed entirely on location in one of the remotest places in the world, How I Ended This Summer becomes a stunning existential drama of survival.
Starring: Grigoriy Dobrygin, Sergey Puskepalis, Igor Chernevich, Artyom Tsukanov, Ilya SobolevForeign | 100% |
Drama | 3% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080/50i
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Russian: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Russian: LPCM 2.0
Back cover incorrectly states Dolby Digital 5.1
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Winner of Best Film Awards at the BFI London Film Festival and the Chicago Film Festival, Russian director Aleksey Popogrebskiy's "Kak ya provel etim letom" a.k.a. "How I Ended This Summer" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors New Wave Films. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailer for the film and Q&A session with Aleksey Popogrebskiy chaired by Ian Christie. In Russian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
Lost in the fog
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080/50i transfer, Aleksey Popogrebskiy's How I Ended This Summer arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors New Wave Films.
Shot with the Red One Camera, How I Ended This Summer looks fantastic on Blu-ray. The high-definition transfer is encoded in 1080/50i, but it actually contains progressive frames. Unsurprisingly, there is absolutely no motion-judder whatsoever. To be perfectly clear, this is essentially a progressive transfer 'locked' inside a 1080/50i encode.
Detail and clarity are often extraordinary. Especially when there is plenty of daylight, the visuals are mighty impressive. Colors are rich and very, very natural. Contrast levels are stable from start to finish. There are no encoding anomalies (aliasing and banding). Edge-flicker is also nowhere to be seen. To sum it all up, this is easily the very best looking Blu-ray release I have seen to date from New Wave Films. (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 are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Russian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Russian LPCM 2.0. For the record, New Wave Films have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.
The Russian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track opens up the film very well. The nature sounds are exceptionally crisp and clear. Dmitriy Katkhanov's ambient soundtrack is also well mixed to enhance the unique atmosphere as best possible. Surround activity is limited but such is the film's sound design. The dialog is stable and very easy to follow. The English translation is excellent.
Aleksey Popogrebskiy's How I Ended This Summer is an extraordinary film, at times evoking parallels with Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky's greatest films. It takes the viewer on an incredible journey to a place only a few directors have had the courage to visit throughout the years. Its presentation on Blu-ray is equally impressive. In fact, I now consider this the best Blu-ray release New Wave Films have produced to date. I wish we would have received a screener to cover it when it was first released. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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