6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Left without men in the dying days of the American Civil War, three Southern women - two sisters and one African-American slave - must fight to defend their home and themselves from two rogue soldiers who have broken off from the fast-approaching Union Army.
Starring: Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, Muna Otaru, Sam Worthington, Kyle SollerThriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
History | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The Keeping Room demands close attention but richly rewards it. It's a bleak, spare film peopled
by characters whose faces say as much as their words. It punctuates long arcs of quiet tension
with abrupt eruptions of shrieking violence. It's the kind of film that can provoke strong but
opposite reactions. Some viewers will be riveted; others will wonder what the fuss is about.
Screenwriter Julia Hart first conceived of her story while visiting friends on whose property
several Civil War soldiers were rumored to be buried. Envisioning how those soldiers might have
come to such an anonymous resting place, Hart imagined a scenario that is both specific to the
history of America's bloodiest conflict and universal in its exploration of how war transforms
both soldiers and civilians. Hart's script attracted the attention of Daniel Barber, director of the
contemporary urban thriller Harry Brown, who
proved to be an ideal match for the material,
despite the radical change in setting from modern London to the 19th Century American South.
As with Harry Brown's vigilante retiree, the characters in The Keeping Room are forced by
circumstances into a conflict they would rather avoid. The fierceness of their response is a
surprise to both themselves and their attackers.
The Keeping Room premiered in September 2014 at the Toronto International Film Festival, after
which it was acquired by Drafthouse Films. Following a limited theatrical release, Drafthouse
has now issued the film on Blu-ray, providing yet another fine addition to their unique collection.
The Keeping Room was shot on the Arri Alexa by German cinematographer Martin Ruhe, who
previously worked with director Barber on Harry Brown
. Ruhe favored natural light, accentuated
with illumination from oil lamps, to achieve a period look, and he and Barber deliberately
adjusted the film's palette to play down the beauty of the surrounding countryside and emphasize
the desolation of the three women toiling (and fighting) on a remote farm. Drafthouse's 1080p,
AVC-encoded Blu-ray, which was presumably sourced from the digital intermediate, captures the
rough and dirty detail of the production design, costumes and makeup; the image shifts
effectively between the overbright exteriors, where the women toil in the sun, and the darkened
exteriors, with little to illuminate them. Several night scenes feature deep blacks, with figures
reduced to silhouette. Noise, interference or other distortion are nowhere to be found.
Drafthouse has mastered The Keeping Room with an average bitrate of 24.99 Mbps, which is fine
for digitally originated material, and the compression has been carefully done.
The Keeping Room's 5.1 soundtrack, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, draws sharp contrasts between the quiet of the countryside and sudden intense bursts of noise: a dog barking loudly, a horse's hoof beats and, especially, gunfire. The sound design makes effective use of noises that would normally fade into the background, like the flies that buzz a little too loudly when Augusta makes a startling discovery, or the distant voices of Moses and Henry outside the farmhouse they are attacking. Most of the dialogue is quiet and understated, often reflecting the speaker's fear of saying the wrong thing, but it is always intelligible. The mournful score, punctuated by violins, is by Martin Phipps, another veteran of Harry Brown.
Recent cinema is filled with post-apocalyptic visions of a blighted world, including The Road,
the Mad Max series and How I Live Now. The Keeping Room
reminds us that one doesn't need to
look forward to find characters coping with an apocalypse. "War is cruelty", says General
Sherman, in the quotation that opens the film. "The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."
When it is over, worlds have been destroyed. The Keeping Room takes us deep inside such a
world, one rarely examined in depth or with so much appreciation for the courage of survivors.
Highly recommended.
2015
2016
2016
1970
Warner Archive Collection
1946
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1967
1960
2012
1976
1964
2014
1972
2010
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1955
1971
2016
1956
2015
4K Restoration
1952