Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Two Girls on the Street Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 17, 2023

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of the Criterion release of Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project, No. 4.

Criterion is often described as the very paradigm of a "niche" collector label, and in that regard, there may be nothing Criterion has offered over the years that is more "niche" than their series of World Cinema Project offerings, all bearing the rather notable imprimatur of one Martin Scorsese. This fourth volume follows in the footsteps of the previous three collections and offers another often bracing aggregation of little or at least lesser known films, some from rather unusual places and also at times addressing subjects that are not regular fodder for big budget Hollywood extravaganzas.

Reviews of the previous three volumes in this series, all of which offer some really interesting and worthwhile films, are accessible by clicking on the following links:

Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project, No. 1 Blu-ray review

Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project, No. 2 Blu-ray review

Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project, No. 3 Blu-ray review

I mentioned the perceived prominence of 1939 in filmmaking annals in my review of another film found in this collection, Prisioneros de la Tierra, and that venerable year is back with regard to this feature, which has the added "Hollywood connection" of having been directed by André De Toth, a name that maybe even relatively casual film fans will recognize from a series of both westerns and noir projects, but who will forever be remembered as having helmed the first "big" 3D feature, House of Wax. Two Girls on the Street might have been described as a so-called "women's picture" had it stemmed from De Toth's Hollywood era career, something that perhaps even its title seems to hint at. That said, this 1939 film is amazingly provocative in a couple of ways that may make it seem oddly prescient in terms of what might be broadly called a "woman's right to choose", not necessarily just about pregancy and birth, but more generally about actual careers and "lifestyle choices".

The two focal women here are already perhaps at least perceived as being on slightly different levels of the socioeconomic scale, though that hasn't keep violinist Kártély Gyöngyi (Maria Tasnadi Fekete) and bricklayer (!) Torma Vica (Bella Bordy), from bonding together after each having experienced some boorish (and perhaps worse than that) behavior by males. There's an underlying atmosphere here that the back cover of this release calls "the power of working class female solidarity", but that perhaps overly sanguine description may elide several rather emotionally roiling decisions the women face. Perhaps ironically, the film ultimately kind of "goes Hollywood" with a more conventional ménage à trois angle that might seem to undercut any feelings of "working class female solidarity".

Two Girls on the Street Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Two Women on the Street is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This is one of only two films in this collection which don't offer detailed introductory text about the restoration, and instead features only this generic comment:

The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project was established by Martin Scorsese in 2007 to help foster cooperation among filmmakers worldwide and to identify, preserve, and restore endangered films representing diverse cultural heritage.

Luckily, Criterion's insert booklet has a bit more information on the transfer:

Two Girls on the Street is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. This digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an Arriscan film scanner from the 35 mm original camera negative. The original monaural soundtrack was restored from the 35 mm original soundtrack negative, preserved at the Hungarian National Archive in Budapest. The film was restored in 2010 by the Cineteca di Bologna / L'Immagine Ritrovata, in assocation with The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project and the Hungarian National Archive. The restoration was funded by Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways and the Qatar Museum Authority.

This is a generally nicely detailed looking presentation, though it perhaps pales if admittedly slightly from some of the more lustrous restorations included in this set. One of the definite pluses of the transfer is nicely consistent contrast, which weathers a number of different lighting and location changes without any significant faltering. That in turn offers nice delineation of gray scale and some suitably inky blacks. Detail levels are somewhat variable, and there is some very slight blurriness at the edges of the frame at times. Close-ups can offer very appealing levels of fine detail. Grain resolves naturally throughout. There are some minor signs of age related wear and tear that the restoration gauntlet has not been able to completely remove. My score is 3.75.

Two Girls on the Street Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Two Girls on the Street features an LPCM Mono track in the original Hungarian. There is undeniable distortion discernable in some of the music cues, as in the opening orchestral score underlying the credits, where a lot of the midrange sounds pretty muddy and the high end strident. A number of brass and wind cues in particular have a kind of "crackly" quality to them. That qualm aside, lower amplitude underscore typically sounds at least decent, and the dialogue is presented without any major problems. Optional English subtitles are available.

Two Girls on the Street Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Criterion has packaged Two Girls on the Street and Kalpana together on one disc. After selecting an individual film, supplements exclusive to that film are then accessible, as follows:

• Martin Scorsese Introduction (HD; 2:31)


• Life Lessons from Andre de Toth (HD; 11:09) offers some fun excerpts from a 1994 interview de Toth did at the National Film Theatre in London.

Two Girls on the Street Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Two Girls on the Street seems to be heading in one kind of (for its era, anyway) anachronistically provocative direction before heading off into more conventional territory. This has some interesting aspects, but probably less of a sociopolitical edge than some of the other films in this set. Technical merits are generally solid, if improvable, and the supplement with De Toth is great. Recommended.