5.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
A down-and-dirty modern day musical set in the world of working-class New York which tells the story of one man's journey into infidelity and redemption.
Starring: James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, Bobby CannavaleRomance | 100% |
Musical | 46% |
Comedy | 11% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
There’s been a bit of a backlash to some critics who called Angelina Jolie Pitt’s By the Sea a “vanity project,” with a variety of folks taking these critics to task for what is perceived as a sexist comment. After all, these critics of critics complain, you don’t regularly hear of a male’s film being a “vanity project,” and while that may not be true in every instance, there’s probably a certain validity to the thesis. A brief comparison of Google searches contrasting “Angelina Jolie vanity project” and “John Turturro vanity project” provides anecdotal if hardly scientific evidence to back up this assertion, for the Jolie query brings up an astounding 195,000 results, with many if not all of the titles of the first several pages of those results literally saying “vanity project” right there up front. The Turturro search is relatively miniscule by comparison, offering a mere 12,700 results, with surprisingly few featuring the verbiage “vanity project” in the main titles. The really interesting thing with regard to the Turturro search is that virtually all of the results which mention the noted actor-director and “vanity project” together at least somewhere tend to be about Fading Gigolo, Turturro’s 2013 attempt to make a Woody Allen film (replete with Woody Allen, no less). That may strike some who come to Romance & Cigarettes as at least a little ironic, for this 2005 quasi-musical is, if not a “vanity project” in the strictest sense of the term, at the very least a “high concept” outing that never quite delivers on whatever promise Turturro must have felt his concept provided.
Romance & Cigarettes is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Perhaps because the film disappeared so quickly in its very brief theatrical run (which took over two years to completely unspool globally), elements are in largely pristine shape, with very little in the way of age related wear and tear on display. Colors are a bit dowdy looking at times, some of which is certainly intentional, but when elements like Tula's bright red hair come into view, the palette pops with some immediacy. Detail is very good to excellent, especially in close-ups where things like skin textures are easily discernable (see screenshot 6 for a close-up of Gandolfini's "toe print").
Romance & Cigarettes' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 offers consistent immersion in the many sung moments, though prioritization is a bit dicey due to the film's emphasis on actors singing along with pre-existing pop and rock tracks. Otherwise, the film is fairly restrained from a sound design perspective, relying on fairly turgid dramatic dynamics that typically have two characters simply talking to each other, an aspect which doesn't offer a lot of opportunity for "wow" surround activity. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range appealing wide on this problem free track.
I'm a sucker for musicals as some regular readers of my reviews may be aware, and I was actually kind of rooting for Romance & Cigarettes, despite the fact that it's a kind of "karaoke" experience rather than a true exemplar of integrated song and dance within a narrative. But Turturro's reach far exceeds his grasp here, and his concept simply never resonates with the material well enough to justify its existence. Still, this is a true "oddity", a term that may not provoke quite as much umbrage as "vanity project". Technical merits are first rate for those considering a purchase.
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