Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 12, 2020

Paul Bartel's "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills" (1989) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include an exclusive new video interview with actor Robert Beltran and vintage theatrical trailer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The bet is on!

It takes a very special talent to make a crude comedy that is genuinely funny and thought-provoking. Paul Bartel had that kind of a talent. Spend some time carefully deconstructing his comedies and you will realize that they are very witty creations designed to do multiple things at once. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that the best of them are satirical kamikazes that share the fearless spirit of timeless classics like Marco Ferreri’s La Grande Bouffe and Ettore Scola’s Ugly, Dirty and Bad. They just have modern personalities.

A quiet corner of Beverly Hills. Former sitcom star Claire Lipkin (Jacqueline Bisset) has unexpectedly lost her husband (Paul Mazursky) in a wild sexual experiment but regained her freedom and is now planning a glorious comeback. Because her teenage daughter Zandra (Rebecca Schaeffer) does not care she seeks encouragement from her best friend and neighbor Lizabeth (Mary Woronov), who would have loved to see her cheating husband, Howard (Wallace Shawn), wasted in a fatal accident. But Lizabeth does not have time to think about her disastrous relationship with Howard because her brother, Peter (Ed Begley Jr.), has just arrived in town with his brand new wife, To-Bel (Arnetia Walker), who is excited to meet his family. However, neither Lizabeth nor Peter realize that To-Bel has already met Howard and knows much more about his intimate desires than his frustrated wife does. A pair of local gangsters are just as excited to meet Juan (Robert Beltran), who works for Claire and owes them a large sum of money. Frank (Ray Sharkey), who works for Lizabeth, is excited because he has convinced Juan to participate in an unusual competition that will prove once and for all that he is the ultimate seducer.

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills is not for the easily offended because it ploughs through a massive number of socio-cultural stereotypes with such unbridled energy and wit that damage is basically unavoidable. But this is precisely the reason why the film is so entertaining -- Bartel and his cast do not play it safe. Once the fireworks begin everything becomes fair game.

The narrative is a big collage of uneven episodes in which every single character becomes a target and then gets compromised in a way that forces the viewer to reconsider various norms and taboos. The point of the fun activities is to reveal how hypocritical the masters and their servants are and that in the grand scheme of things they are in fact the same. Hal Ashby’s Shampoo offers the exact same thought-provoking litmus test but remains more civilized. At the right time it also welcomes politics into its narrative. Bartel’s film isn’t even remotely interested in civility. It immediately goes on mad offense and has a ball satirizing LA culture and its popular image.

There is a lot of crude material throughout the film, but Bartel presents it with wit that routinely makes it irresistibly hilarious. It also helps a lot that the quality of the writing is so good that even though the film fires at will it never feels like it does so randomly. In other words, there is always a good reason for the ‘offensive’ to exist. (Obviously, viewers that are determined to find something that offends them and makes the film intolerable will do precisely that).

The film’s visual style is casual yet unusually attractive. At times it certainly looks like La Grande Bouffe might have been an inspiration for Bartel and cinematographer Steven Fierberg (Secretary, Aspen Extreme).

The original soundtrack was created by veteran award-winning composer Stanley Myers (The Deer Hunter, Eureka).

*Kino Lorber’s release of Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills is sourced from an exclusive new 2K master.

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The initial information Kino Lorber dispatched about this release indicated that it will be sourced from a new 4K master but on its back cover it is made clear that it is in fact sourced from a new 2K master. Well, this new master is outstanding, so I am going to speculate that it will remain the definitive one for the film.

It is immediately obvious that the master is very recent because the visuals have an incredibly pleasing organic appearance.Clarity, delineation and depth can fluctuate a bit, but these are the type of cinematographic fluctuations that actually give the film its identity. The color grading job is lovely as well. As you can tell from our screencaptuires, there a wonderful very nicely saturated and balanced primaries with equally impressive supporting nuances. To be honest, next to Force 10 from Navarone this is one of the most beautiful masters that I have seen from Kino Lorber's catalog in quite some time. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections. Image stability is outstanding. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I thought that the lossless track was fantastic. Stanley Myers' soundtrack is actually quite diverse and in areas where the strings for instance come alive there are some really beautiful dynamic contrasts. The dialog is crystal clear, sharp, and free of balance/dynamic issues. There are no encoding anomalies to report.

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Life is a Bullfight - in this new video interview, actor Robert Beltran recalls how he became involved with Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills and what it was like to work with Paul Bartel and other cast members. The interview was conducted exclusively for Kino Lorber. In English, not subtitled. (7 min, 1080p).

• Trailer - a hilarious vintage trailer for Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills is another fine example proving that the '80s were a freer and funnier decade than, well, all the decades that came after it. Sad but true. Paul Bartel would have never been able to make this wonderful film in the current suffocating socio-cultural environment because his uncompromising satire would have been seen as hurtful and repugnant, maybe even hateful, which of course it is not. The good news is that Bartel's films are transitioning to Blu-ray after being beautifully remastered, so those that are not easily offended and can appreciate their wicked sense of humor and wit can experience them as they were meant to be seen. I am not exaggerating, folks. I honestly believe that some of these films now look and sound better than when they had limited theatrical runs. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.