Umbracle Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Umbracle Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 4, 2024

Note: This version of this film is available on Blu-ray as part of Severin's Cuadecuc Vampir / Umbracle double feature release.

Severin offered fans a 1080 release of Jess Franco's Count Dracula way back in 2015, a release that had some perhaps less than spectacular technical merits, but which had, in typical Severin fashion, some really appealing supplements, including the so-called "expressionist" behind the scenes film Cuadecuc Vampir, which is probably really not a behind the scenes film in a traditional sense. More recently, Severin brought out Count Dracula 4K, which upped the technical merits game significantly, while also offering a glut of bonus material, including quite a bit ported over from that first 1080 release, though noticeably not inclusive of Cuadecuc Vampir. That may be because Severin deemed the weird feature suitable for its own release, paired now with another odd outing from Pere Portabella, Umbracle. Without punning too horribly on his surname, some may feel that Mr. Portabella may have been indulging in fungi of a more "magical" type when making these unabashedly hallucinogenic presentations.

In some ways, Umbracle is at least relatively more straightforward than Cuadecuc Vampir, though its scenes with Christopher Lee may in fact be even more opaque than the ones in that film. This is another gonzo combo platter of ideas and presentational aspects that once again from a cinematography angle offers a deliberately heterogenous approach that is at least somewhat in line with what's offered in Cuadecuc Vampir. Christopher Lee is once again on hand, maybe playing a character, maybe just being a movie star, and once again there's a bit of Lee's sonorous voice reciting classics, in this case Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. Lee also indulges in a little quasi-aria singing in an opera house.

Otherwise, though, there's everything here from Commedia dell'Arte-esque moments to actual more traditionally documentarian approaches with discussions of how censorship in Francisco Franco's Spain has hobbled the film industry. There's even a sequence lifted from a (Francisco) Francoist film. It's all very odd and probably intentionally designed to at least occasionally subvert the rational mind, but there's an undeniably provocative element at play here that is probably more overtly screed-like than Cuadecuc Vampir.

Umbracle Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Umbracle is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Severin doesn't offer a ton of technical information, other than a back cover mention that this is "scanned in HD from Portabella's own vault elements for the first time ever in America". This is a somewhat more variable looking presentation quality wise than Cuadecuc Vampir, with some noticeable flicker and image instability in the early going, and then some minor but still noticeable damage afflicting various moments. The snippet from the pro-Franco film is much more weathered than the bulk of the presentation, and includes some rather significant scratching and other signs of age related wear and tear. The "newly" filmed material is much like Cuadecuc Vampir in that Portabella ping pongs between relatively normal contrast 16mm sequences which are gritty but at least decently detailed, and then other almost crazily high contrast moments where fine detail disappears beneath the blooming whites and crushed blacks.

Umbracle Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Umbracle features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track largely in Spanish, though Lee speaks in English as well. There's another somewhat cacophonous aggregation of sound effects and some kind of hilarious uses of source cues, much like in Cuadecuc Vampir. In fact, Portabella may have been a Bacharach fan, as Cuadecuc Vampir utilizes a Frank Chacksfield version of "Here I Am" from What's New Pussycat?, and this film has not one but two Ray Conniff covers, Bacharach's "Close to You" and the inimitable "Harper Valley P.T.A." This track is arguably in a bit more ragged shape than Cuadecuc Vampir, with various pops and crackles audible, and things like background hum during the filmmaker talking about censorship. There's more background noise behind Lee reciting The Raven as well. Optional English subtitles are available.

Umbracle Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Severin has packaged Cuadecuc Vampir and Umbracle together on one disc, with the following supplements available once Cuadecuc Vampir has been selected:

• A Cinema of Vampires: Pere Portabella, Jess Franco and the School of Barcelona (HD; 35:40) is a fascinating interview with Spanish film scholar Dr. Alex Mendibil, who contextualizes the films in this set as well as the kind of, um, widely divergent reputations of Portabella and Franco. Subtitled in English. This makes for a really thought provoking companion piece to Dracula Barcelona, included on Severin's 4K release of Count Dracula.


• Trailer (HD; 1:50)

Additionally, Severin offers a very nicely appointed insert booklet, with writing from Pere Portabella, Jonathan Rosenbaum and Federico Karstulovich.

Umbracle Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Portabella's obvious distaste for Francoist Spain and the strictures it imposed on filmmakers suffuses this subversive piece, though that suffusion can be both subliminal and overt at various moments. Does Umbracle "mean" anything in the normal sense? Maybe not, but even that is a "statement from Portabella about cinema and its effects on an audience. This is a strange, hallucinatory film until it suddenly becomes a more or less "straight" documentary for a moment or two as it discusses censorship, only to lapse back into near psychedelia again. Technical merits are a little less fulsome than on Cuadecuc Vampir, but generally solid nonetheless. At least for those looking for something really unusual, Umbracle comes Recommended.