6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
In the face of a modern urban life devoid of anything but an uninterrupted parade of dehumanizing compromise and disappointment, Stanley (Gene Wilder) tenuously guards his fragile individuality in between gulps of booze. The only solace he enjoys is commiseration with his self-consciously sophisticated neighbor John (Zero Mostel), and his unspoken adoration of a warmly sympathetic co-worker Daisy (Karen Black). But as a surreal comic apocalypse begins to transform, one by one, everyone into a rhinoceros, the non-conformism that seemed like Stanley's downfall may be his only salvation.
Starring: Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel, Karen Black (I), Joe Silver, Robert WeilComedy | Insignificant |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.84:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt.That original German version of Franz Kafka’s disturbing tale The Metamorphosis has led to a certain amount of controversy with regard to various English language translations. Virtually every English language version of Kafka's unsettling story begin more or less the same, namely:
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into —but it's what comes after that "into" that has caused occasional issues, since Ungeziefer has been rather widely interpreted in different English language versions to mean a number of different things, including "insect", "cockroach" and "vermin". There’s a rather interesting summary that those interested can read here to see how various translators have decided to deal with the problematic word. Perhaps Franz Kafka could have saved translators all that angst by having Gregor Samsa turn into a Nashorn, since that would seem to definitively mean "rhinoceros", though then he might have been impinging on territory that would ultimately be staked out by Eugene Ionesco, albeit admittedly decades after Kafka’s own tale of a troubling transformation appeared. Now of course all of this is obviously said in jest, not the least reason being that Ionesco was on record himself as stating how profoundly influenced by Kafka's writing he was, and there's an obvious linkage between ideas found in both The Metamorphosis and Rhinoceros, even if the media by which those concepts are being relayed are obviously manifestly different.
Rhinoceros is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Classics, an imprint of Kino Lorber, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. When this transfer is firing on all cylinders, it approaches what in my estimation is "4.0 territory", but this is another American Film Theatre offering that shows fairly wide variances in many aspects, including palette warmth, overall densities, clarity and grain structure. When things look good here, they look very good indeed (see screenshot 2), but there are quite a few moments here that are afflicted with pretty wan colors and at times an unmistakably "dupey" appearance (see screenshot 16, which does come from a longer sequence which admittedly involves an optical at the end, but there are several interstitial edits between this moment and the optical). Several moments that involve some kind of optical (like the opening credits) have pretty significant fading down the right side of the frame for some reason. In the best moments, detail levels are commendable and the palette nicely vivid. A parsing of some of the screenshots included with this review will hopefully show some of the fairly wide variances on display.
Rhinoceros features a nice sounding LPCM 2.0 mono track. Though I have to say I'm not particularly convinced his contributions help the film, Galt MacDermot of Hair fame (and, to some of us, Via Galactica and Dude fame) contributed the rock and funk score, and it sounds full bodied throughout the presentation. Dialogue is also rendered cleanly and clearly without any problems whatsoever.
This release repeats some of the supplements found on other Kino Blu-ray versions of the American Film Theatre series.
- Butley (1080i; 2:58)
- A Delicate Balance (1080i; 3:25)
- Galileo (1080i; 3:30)
- The Homecoming (1080i; 2:36)
- The Iceman Cometh (1080i; 2:38)
- Jacques Brel is Alive and Well. . . (1080i; 3:26)
- Lost in the Stars (1080i; 2:10)
- Luther (1080i; 2:31)
- The Maids (1080i; 3:06)
- The Man in the Glass Booth (1080i; 2:44)
- Rhinoceros (1080i; 1:55)
- Three Sisters (1080i; 2:43)
In doing some background research on both the play and this film adaptation for purposes of writing this review, I discovered that scenarist Julian Barry returned to this property and actually helped to musicalize it. (You can read about it here.) That might have been a more suitable property for O'Horgan to have tackled than this manic but still listless adaptation. Fans of Mostel, Wilder and/or Black may find this of passing interest, but probably as more of a curio than anything. Video is variable, but watchable, and audio is fine, for those considering a purchase.
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