7.8 | / 10 |
Users | 3.4 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.2 |
Alexander is celebrating his birthday with family and friends when they receive some stunning news from the radio. World War III has erupted, and the end of the world is near. In order to avert the apocalypse, Alexander makes a bargain with God: He'll give up everything he values in life, including his beautiful home and beloved son. So, when Alexander awakens from this episode, as if from a dream, he sets about doing just that.
Starring: Susan Fleetwood, Allan Edwall, Erland Josephson, Sven Wollter, Guðrún GísladóttirForeign | 100% |
Drama | 99% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.67:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Swedish: LPCM 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Region free
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
The great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky made just seven feature films during his nearly thirty-year career—including Andrei Rublev, Solaris, The Mirror, and Stalker—and his swansong, The Sacrifice, serves not only as a summation of his life’s work, but also as his final thoughts on faith, mankind, and the modern age. Shot while Tarkovsky, then 53, was dying of cancer, the film has an inescapably reflective, elegiac quality, but its inherent sadness is bookended in the opening and closing scenes by a potent symbol of optimism—a tree that will bloom if tended—and it’s worth noting that the director dedicated the film to his son Andriosha “with hope and confidence.” In his excellent book on film theory, Sculpting in Time, Tarkovsky himself stated that the film is “a parable” and that “the significant events it contains can be interpreted in more than one way.” While theses events are often intentionally vague—there is the possibility, for example, that some of the film, if not most of it, is a dream—the subject of the parable is quite clear: self-sacrifice as an act that’s capable of changing individual lives and indeed all of human history.
I have mixed feelings about Kino's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer of The Sacrifice. On the one hand, the film definitely looks much better than it ever has on home video—it's quite a drastic improvement in overall clarity and color balance—but on the other, it displays some traits that detract from the beauty of Sven Nykvist's evocative cinematography. The main problem is that the image doesn't always look naturally filmic. It appears that some slight DNR has been used to smooth out grain—which is still partially there but often looks somewhat frozen in place—and edge enhancement is frequently visible in the form of white haloes that appear on hard outlines. This is especially visible outdoors, when trees and people are silhouetted against the sky, but if you look for it, it's there in just about every scene. If you have a smaller TV screen it won't be as noticeable, but those of you using larger screens or projectors will definitely see it. I don't have any inside details, but to me, this looks like a transfer that was prepared for cable broadcast. That said, there is a significant upgrade in clarity when compared to prior DVD releases. Clothing often yields up its textures, and fine detail is frequently discernable in the actors' faces. The film goes through a number of intentional color shifts—from realistic, to stark black and white, to lightly sepia tinged—and the transfer handles these changes without any problems. Although black levels can be a bit grayish during darker scenes, most color is suitably dense. It's a shame the image couldn't have been less doctored—and I'm not sure why that is—but The Sacrifice still looks strong and you won't be sorry to trade in your old DVD copy.
The film's spartan sound design is reproduced by way of a generally excellent Swedish Linear PCM 2.0 stereo track. My sole complaint is that you can occasionally hear some clicks and pops in the dialogue, but I prefer this to a track that's lost its character after being digitally scrubbed and tweaked. This is a highly conversational film, and the dialogue is always presented clearly at the forefront of the mix. There are a few instances when the ADR dubbing seems a bit too obvious, but this is inherent in the source material. Where this track really impresses is in its handling of the film's score, which is comprised of Bach's "Mattheus Passion," traditional Swedish chants, and fluttering Japanese flute music by Watazumido Shuso. The music sounds wonderful—the orchestration rich and the flute pieces breathy and warm. The disc includes optional English subtitles.
There are no special features whatsoever on the Blu-ray disc, but the package includes a DVD of the excellent documentary Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky (SD, 1:37:33), a production of the Swedish Film Institute that features insightful interviews, clips, and behind the scenes footage of the director at work on The Sacrifice, strung together with excerpts from Tarkovsky's book on film theory, Sculpting in Time. (Which you should also track down if you haven't yet.) On this disc, you'll also find two stills galleries—one for The Sacrifice and one for Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky—as well as a collection of trailers for other Kino-Lorber titles.
If you like serious cinema, few filmmakers are more poetic and transcendent than Andrei Tarkovsky, and The Sacrifice, his final film, is also one of his finest. Writing or talking about it simply doesn't do it justice—it needs to be seen and soaked in. Kino's high definition transfer unfortunately displays some evidence of digital manipulation, but this is still by far the best the film has ever looked outside of the theater. As a bonus the package includes a DVD with the terrific documentary Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, which helps elucidate the director's themes and methodology. Highly recommended! While you're ordering the disc on Amazon, also consider adding Sculpting in Time—Tarkovsky's book on the art of cinema—to your cart. It's a must read.
1983
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1966
Зеркало / Zerkalo
1975
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1962
Сталкер
1979
Солярис / Solyaris
1972
A Torinói ló
2011
Viskningar och rop
1972
Il deserto rosso
1964
Sátántangó
1994
Трудно быть Богом
2013
Smultronstället
1957
1966
Herz aus Glas
1976
The Decalogue
1988
Летят журавли / Letyat zhuravli
1957
Иди и смотри / Idi i smotri
1985
晩春
1949
Det sjunde inseglet
1957
Im Lauf der Zeit
1976