More Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

More Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 12, 2011

Barbet Schroeder's "More" (1969) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of the British Film Institute. The supplemental features included on this release are theatrical trailers and a newly commissioned documentary feature. The release also arrives with a 24-page illustrated booklet with new essays, biographies, and notes on the film's famous soundtrack. In English and German, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Sometimes I love you, sometimes I don't

Stefan (Klaus Grünberg, Aufdermauer), a young mathematician from Germany, arrives in Paris, where he hopes to experience everything that he has been missing while studying at the university. He quickly befriends Charlie (Michel Chanderli), a small-time gambler and crook, who takes him to a hippie party. There he meets Estelle Miller (Mimsy Farmer, Road to Salina, Four Flies on Grey Velvet), a young and beautiful blonde from America. Charlie warns Stefan to stay away from her but they meet after the party, make love, and arrange to meet again on the beautiful island of Ibiza. Before Stefan leaves Paris, he robs a house with Charlie.

Stefan arrives on the island a couple of days after Estelle. As she has suggested, he ends up at a small but elegant hotel owned by Dr. Ernesto Wolf (Heinz Engelmann, Cross of Iron), a German who has been living on the island for years. But it takes a while for Stefan to find Estelle, which is why he becomes seriously upset. Then he becomes jealous because he discovers that Dr. Wolf and Estelle are apparently very good friends - possibly even more than friends.

Estelle begins teaching Stefan how to enjoy the sun, her beautiful body, and the variety of drugs one can buy on the island. In the beginning they smoke weed, then they try "horse" (heroin), which Estelle steals from Dr. Wolf, the island’s biggest supplier. Soon after, they are forced to hide in a small but cozy house in a remote area of the island because Dr. Wolf has gone berserk.

Meanwhile, Cathy (Louise Wink), Estelle’s best friend and part-time lover, arrives in the house. However, when she discovers that Estelle is serious about her relationship with Stefan, she quickly leaves. Already addicted to heroin, and down to their last fix, Stefan and Estelle decide to leave the house and look for help on the local market.

Barbet Schroeder’s More was not an easy film to see for a number of years. Even in the early 80s, well after Pink Floyd - who did the soundtrack for the film – had released The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall, the film was still difficult to see. The theatrical prints in circulation were also heavily censored (I don’t know how much of the film was cut in the UK, but I remember seeing it in Prague, at a studio screening, and there were numerous very obvious cuts in the second half of the film).

Today More looks dated because it is firmly rooted into the hippie culture that polarized plenty of people during the 60s and 70s and then quickly died (though some would argue that the hippie culture is still alive and well but made quite irrelevant by the internet, globalization, etc). Its message is also dated, but not irrelevant.

In the 70s, the film became very controversial because it made a clear distinction between hippies and drug addicts. Essentially, it insisted that hippies smoked weed and took acid to intensify their lives while drug addicts took hard drugs to escape from life. This rather positive attitude towards the hippie lifestyle had a lot of people worried and upset.

A lot of these people, however, probably never saw More in its entirety, or had the displeasure of seeing one of those heavily censored theatrical prints I mentioned earlier - because despite the beautiful visuals and lovely music, More is neither a happy nor an inspirational trippy film; rather it is an honest film showing how incredibly easy it is to switch from weed and acid to hard drugs, and then end up in a dark hole with no way out.

More Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Barbet Schroeder's More arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of the BFI.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray disc:

"More was transferred in High Definition from the original 35mm interpositive. Audio was transferred from the original magnetic tracks. The picture was restored using HD-DVNR and MTI restoration systems, removing dirt, scratches and warps, repairing damaged frames and improving stability issues.

Director Barbet Schroeder supervised and approved this new transfer."

There is an enormous gap in quality between this new Blu-ray release of More and the old R1 SDVD release, courtesy of the now defunct Home Vision Entertainment, which I have in my library. On the SDVD the film is cropped and suffering from severe compression artifacts. It is not anamorphically enhanced either (because of the strange cropping). Additionally, there are large amounts of macroblocking that make the film practically unwatchable on a modern HDTV. Projecting it is also absolutely pointless.

The high-definition transfer is beautiful. The film is finally in the proper aspect ratio and looking remarkably healthy. Detail is excellent and clarity very pleasing. The heavy blockiness is also completely gone, while colors, and especially the blues and browns, look natural and fresh. There isn't even a whiff of edge-enhancement or the bad flicker that plagued the SDVD. I also did not see any traces of problematic noise corrections to report in this review. Naturally, there is a lot of grain throughout the film, though the majority of it is also mixed with light noise. Still, this release represents one of the most dramatic upgrades I've seen produced in the UK this year. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

More Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: English LPCM 2.0 (with portions of German). For the record, the BFI have provided optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. The English subtitles appear only when German is spoken, while the English SDH subtitles also cover the English dialog.

The English LPCM 2.0 also represents a serious upgrade in quality - and in this film the audio is indeed very important as the soundtrack by Pink Floyd has a crucial role. The sound is crisp, clear, and rich, never flat or even partially distorted. The dialog is also exceptionally crisp and free of hiss and pops. This being said, the dynamic amplitude is rather limited, but it is obvious that the audio has been optimized as best as possible.

More Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Blu-ray

• Trailers - original trailers for Barbet Schroeder's More, The Valley, and Maitresse. With optional English subtitles where necessary. (1080p).

SDVD

• The Film - More in standard-definition. (PAL).

• Making More - in this newly commissioned documentary, director Barbet Schroeder discusses how More came to exist and his career, his love stories, and his career. The director also offers a tour of the house where the film was shot. In English, not subtitled. (18 min, PAL).

• Trailers - original trailers for Barbet Schroeder's More, The Valley, and Maitresse. With optional English subtitles where necessary. (PAL).

• Booklet - 24-page illustrated booklet with new essays, biographies, and notes on the soundtrack.

More Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The BFI have put together an excellent package for Barbet Schroeder's once very controversial cult film More. I have not yet had a chance to look at their Blu-ray release of The Valley, but will do so as soon as possible. Let's hope that Blu-ray releases of Maîtresse and Tricheurs are not too far behind. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.