Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		3.0

The Reflecting Skin Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 3, 2015

Philip Ridley's "The Reflecting Skin" (1990) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Soda Pictures. The supplemental features on the disc include new audio commentary with the director; new featurretes with new cast and crew interviews; promotional materials; two short films; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Seth Dove

The world in which the young boy (Jeremy Cooper) exists is similar to the one Victor Erice captured in his classic film The Spirit of the Beehive. It is a stunningly beautiful but eerie place, one that could inspire and just as easily terrify at the same time.

As the film progresses the boy gradually becomes confused by the order of things around him. And so does the viewer. Time becomes unusually fluid and odd images and sounds create the impression that something isn’t right.

Then the boy begins to see and hear things which convince him that the lonely woman (Lindsay Duncan, Le Week-End) who lives in the house on the other side of the road has a dark, possibly even dangerous secret. A mysterious black Cadillac also passes through and soon after innocent people die.

What is going on here? Is this place real? Who is the lonely woman that scares the boy? Where does the Cadillac come from and where is it going? Why do people die?

Instead of offering some logical answers the film introduces a new character, the boy’s older brother (Viggo Mortensen, A History of Violence). He is a soldier who has been somewhere far away, serving his country. Initially, it seems like he is a wise and experienced man who is happy to be back and ready to begin a new life. But after spending some time with the lonely woman, he undergoes a very strange character transformation.

This film feels like a giant surrealist painting that can be deconstructed in a number of different ways. This isn’t surprising as Ridley studied painting at Saint Martin's School of Art in London and his work has been shown in various galleries around the world. In a new interview included on this release, cinematographer Dick Pope also confirms that the film’s visual style was very much inspired by Andrew Wyeth's work.

Judged strictly by the power of its visuals, the film is unquestionably an impressive achievement. Colors and light are wonderfully managed to create a dreamy world that can easily stimulate the viewer’s imagination. The camera also moves in ways that make even seemingly ordinary shots unusually elegant.

But there is a great deal of artificiality in this film that makes it awfully difficult to care about the story it tells and its characters. Indeed, instead of using the beautiful panoramic shots to enhance a good story, the filmmakers have used an average story to justify their existence. It is the very reason why the film remains so fluid -- parts of it make some sense, but the rest is simply filler material that does not work.

The acting is also a mixed bag. The film tries really hard to create unusual contrasts where different sorts of polarizing emotions overlap and as a result the actors are routinely left struggling with various painfully pretentious lines. Nick Bicât’s lush score occasionally brings some relief, but there are many sequences where the music also feels forced.

The Reflecting Skin Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1008p transfer, Philip Ridley's Reflecting Skin arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Soda Pictures.

I have mixed feelings about the technical presentation. It is very easy to see that the film has been remastered and that the end result was quite impressive. The images are wonderfully balanced, stable, and clean. Unfortunately, there are traces of moderate to strong filtering throughout the entire film. From what I can tell, it appears that the filter was preset and left to do its work without any further adjustments. This is disappointing because there are numerous areas where detail and especially depth clearly suffer. The distracting effects of the filtering are particularly obvious during the indoor footage or in areas of the film where light is restricted -- the image becomes smeary and flat; in some cases where the camera quickly moves there are also banding-like effects. Well-lit close-ups tend to look better, but the flatness is always present. Color reproduction is very good, but the filtering has introduced some obvious crushing which further enhances the blacks because minor nuances are lost. Contrast levels are stable. Lastly, overall image stability is excellent. Also, there are no large debris, cuts, damage marks, or stains to report in our review. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Reflecting Skin Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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

Nick Bicât's beautiful orchestral score benefits the most from the lossless treatment. The music is lush, wonderfully rounded and balanced. A lot of the transitions in the film are actually initiated by the music and its tone evolves with the music -- sometimes the visuals are quite surreal, sometimes they are very tense. The dialog is stable, clean, and always easy to follow. There are no audio dropouts, pops, or digital distortions.

The Reflecting Skin Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary - in this new audio commentary, writer/director Philip Ridley discusses in great detail how various sequences were shot (some were shot on location and some in the studio), how and why specific locations were chosen, the unusual and perhaps slightly confusing structure of the narrative, some of the discrepancies between the original script and the final cut of the film (there are sequences in the film that were not part of the script, such as the one where Seth Dove sees the twins), the film's color scheme, etc.

• Trailers - in English, not subtitled.
  
  1. Original Theatrical Trailer. (3 min).
  2. Re-Release Trailer. (3 min).
  3. Trailers for Other Soda Pictures Releases. (6 min).

• Stills Gallery - photography by Douglas Curran. (8 min).

• Poster & Video Art Gallery - a collection of promotional materials. (2 min).

• Short Films - presented here are two early short films directed by Philip Ridley. Both come with brand new optional video introductions by the director.
  
  1. Visiting Mr. Beak (1987). In English, with optional English subtitles. (22 min).
  2. The Universe of Dermot Finn (1988). In English, with optional English subtitles. (12 min).

• Featurettes -
  
  1. Angels & Atom Bombs: The Making of The Reflecting Skin - in this brand new featurette, Philip Ridley recalls how the idea for The Reflecting Skin emerged and how he initially imagined the world in which Seth Dove exists, how the epic vistas in the film were shot, the casting process and his interactions with different cast members, etc. Also included are clips from new interviews with cinematographer Dick Pope (who has some very interesting comments about the importance of Andrew Wyeth's paintings and some of the similarities between them and the film's visual style), Viggo Mortensen, and composer Nick Bicat. The featurette was directed and edited by James Flower. In English, not subtitled. (44 min).
  
  2. Dreaming Darkly - in this new featurette, Philip Ridley also discusses some of the common themes that appear in The Reflecting Skin, The Passion of Darkly Noon, and Heartless. Also included are clips from new interviews with Viggo Mortensen and composer Nick Bicat. The featurette was directed and edited by James Flower.. In English, not subtitled. (17 min).

• Art Card - steelbook-exclusive "Fatal Blossom" art card individually signed by Philip Ridley.

• Isolated Score Track - assembled from original recordings, including previously unreleased extended and unused cues. Presented as LPCM 2.0.

The Reflecting Skin Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It is very easy to tell that this new release of Philip Ridley's The Reflecting Skin was meant to be a special one. The film has been recently remastered and the release comes with an impressive selection of new supplemental features. Unfortunately, during the remastering process some adjustments were made that I think are problematic. However, fans of the film should still consider upgrading as previous home video releases have been very disappointing.