Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Reflecting Skin Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson September 9, 2019

British artist/filmmaker Philip Ridley is one in a relatively small group to do both paintings and write/direct films. That esteemed list also includes Jean Cocteau, Derek Jarman, Kim Ki-duk, Akira Kurosawa, David Lynch, George Miller, Andy Warhol, and a few others. The Reflecting Skin (1990), Ridley's feature directing debut, reveals a distinctive painterly aesthetic. The opening shot shows an aerial view of a golden wheat field in rural Idaho during the 1950s. (The movie was actually shot in Alberta, Canada.) Ridley and his cinematographer Dick Pope show this same extreme long shot of the field intermittently throughout the film. Ridley remarks in the audio commentary as well as public statements he's made about the film that he was heavily influenced by the paintings of Andrew Wyeth. Indeed, Wyeth created a "regionalist style" in his work characterized by human figures dwarfed by farmland and other landscapes. Ridley has also adopted that approach in The Reflecting Skin, which depicts 8-year-old Seth Dove (Jeremy Cooper) alone in the middle of the field, or accompanied by his friends, Kim (Evan Hall) and Eben (Codie Lucas Wilbee). There are also remarkable shots of rickety farmhouses, which remind me of Malick's Days of Heaven (1978), another acknowledged influence that Ridley divulged to journalist Richard Ashton.

Seth often travels through the fields en route to him causing trouble for others. For example, he captures an African bullfrog, inflates its belly, and sets it in the open road where it lies in the path of Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan), a widow who lives across the way from Seth's family. Seth takes a slingshot and nails the bullfrog in the stomach, causing it to explode with blood all over Dolphin. Seth is also shown going with his friend over to Dolphin's farmhouse and going through her personal belongings in her bedroom. Luke Dove (Duncan Fraser), Seth's father, reads pulp horror novels and Seth sees an image of a female vampire on one of the covers that reminds him of Dolphin. Seth believes that Dolphin is indeed a vampire. She was only married for a week to her husband, who hung himself in the barn. But did she suck his blood in the process?

The second half of The Reflecting Skin deals with the arrival home of Cameron Dove (Viggo Mortensen), Seth's brother who served during the war in the South Pacific. Cameron is lonely and searching for love so he strikes up a romance with Dolphin, much to his younger brother's chagrin. Seth fears that his sibling will become Dolphin's next victim. Mysteriously, Seth's friends begin disappearing. Is this the doing of Dolphin or one of the leather boys in the black Cadillac?

Although The Reflecting Skin won several awards on the festival circuit, it also had a cold reception when it premiered at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. As Ridley disclosed to Sidney Williams, a feature writer for The Town (Alexandria, LA) Talk: "I’ve had many, many walkouts. The first time it was shown at Can­nes, half the audience left after the first five minutes. On the other hand the people who re­main, see the film through and understand it, think it’s a very emotional and beautiful experi­ence." (Roger Ebert also witnessed some early exits at Cannes.)

The movie is a visual feast but it is also somewhat of a demanding watch. Ruth Dove (Sheila Moore), Seth's mom, is a cold and cruel matriarch who makes her son imbibe water when he doesn't want to. She hasn't been neither a nurturing mother nor a supportive wife. Her husband Luke has been repressed in more ways than one and has struggled with his sexual identity. Seth hasn't exactly been raised by normal parents.

The film is narrated by Seth when he's 80 years old so the film is his visual recollection of childhood. Those memories are punctuated by intensified colors and an unreliable narrator. The audience doesn't know if this is a factual recounting of everything that happened but is how Seth best remembers his experiences.

The Reflecting Skin Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Reflecting Skin makes its fourth appearance on Blu-ray and first in the US courtesy of the Film Movement under its Classics line. The film received a 2K digital restoration about four years and this DI print appears to use the same scan that my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov reviewed for Soda Pictures' UK SteelBook release and which later was the foundation for Mongrel Media's 2016 Canadian edition. (German-based Intergroove issued an MPEG-2 Blu-ray years ago but image quality was reportedly very poor.) Director Philip Ridley approved the 2K HD transfer on the two BDs, although that isn't specified on Film Movement's packaging. The movie appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. FM's presentation isn't identical, however. I watched both discs and evaluating each in-motion, I'd have to say FM has more grain. Svet noted the omnipresence of DNR on SP's transfer and the FM is also filtered but not to the same degree. FM is a bit brighter and you can notice the subtle differences in lighting in some of the screenshot comparisons I've created between the two transfers below. FM has employed the MPEG-4 AVC encode and transferred The Reflecting Skin at an average video bitrate of 34987 kbps. SP similarly encodes the main feature at a mean bitrate of 34999 kbps.

FM has provided a dozen scene selections. (SP has eight more chapter breaks.)
Screenshot #s 1-10, 12, 14, 16, 18, & 20 = Film Movement 2019 2K Restoration
Screenshot #s 11, 13, 15, 17, & 19 = Soda Pictures 2015 2K Restoration

The Reflecting Skin Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Film Movement has supplied an LPCM 2.0 Stereo mix (2304 kbps, 24-bit). The lossless audio presentation is very similar to the way Svet describes Soda Pictures' LPCM Audio 2.0 Stereo track (1536 kbps, 16-bit). Composer Nick Bicât's string-laden score is beautifully haunting and evocative of the visuals. I often think of the heart-wrenching strings that Ezio Bosso and Pepo Scherman wrote for Gabriele Salvatores's Io non ho paura (I'm Not Scared, 2003) as I listen to Bicât's music. Both scores are indebted to Vivaldi. Dialogue is clear and discernible. One can also really hear the ambient noise in the wheat fields (e.g., crickets and flies buzzing).

Like the UK disc, this has optional English SDH for the main feature.

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

Soda Pictures' release came with an isolated score presented in LPCM 2.0 Stereo, two short films by Ridley (with introductions), as well as stills and poster galleries. Unfortunately, those features have been dropped from this FM edition.

• Director's Commentary with Writer/Director Philip Ridley - this is the same commentary that appeared on the UK and CA BD-50s. Ridley discusses his background as an artist, the filming locations, contributions of his cast, different iterations of his script, and how he set up many of the shots. In English, not subtitled.

• Angels & Atom Bombs: The Making of The Reflecting Skin (43:42, 1080p) - a retrospective documentary recycled from the two previous releases. It features interviews with director Philip Ridley, cinematographer Dick Pope, actor Viggo Mortensen, and composer Nick Bicât. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:23, 1080p) - official trailer for The Reflecting Skin

• Bonus Trailers - trailers for other Film Movement titles, including The Quiet Earth, Kamikaze '89, and All About Lily Chou Chou.

• NEW Essay by Film Writers Travis Crawford and Heather Hyche - a 20-page booklet featuring a note on the restoration by Philip Ridley, a new essay on the film by Crawford and Hyche, color photos from the shoot, and poster artwork.

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

The Reflecting Skin is a visually sumptuous, sometimes depressing fable about lost innocence in postwar rural America. It features a pretty significant role for Viggo Mortensen early in his career, although his character doesn't show up until nearly midway through. Film Movement's transfer boasts a modest but not substantial improvement over Soda Pictures' 2K restoration four years ago. Grain removal is still evident, although the image looks a little more organic. The uncompressed audio is as good if not better than SP's mix. Some supplements have been eliminated from the earlier release but the illustrated booklet is a nice addition. Hopefully, Blu-ray releases of Ridley's later features, The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995) and Heartless (2009), will also be on the horizon. RECOMMENDED for the indie arthouse fan and a MUST OWN for Mortensen's fans.