Varieté Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Varieté Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf July 31, 2017

The story of “Variete” offers broad swings of drama and disaster, and it’s only fitting that the filmmaking follows suit. The 1925 silent picture is directed by Ewald Andre Dupont, and he puts in an energetic effort to help articulate the moods of the feature, with his camera playing a key role in the tale. However, there’s more than cinematographic tricks in play here, with “Variete” also making room for star Emil Jannings, who delivers powerful work as a haunted man sabotaged by his own impulses.

Jannings portrays Boss, a former star of the trapeze who’s living a less than fulfilling life with his wife and child and their sideshow business. Boss finds opportunity with another woman, commencing a series of decisions that deliver immediate satisfaction and longtime ruin as he makes his return to the glory of the circus. “Variete” celebrates the visual potential of Boss’s journey, opening with his incarceration and working back through his confession, often taking a Biblical stance when it comes to the power of sin and temptation. It’s a film about the blinding nature of passion, and Dupont takes the challenge seriously, putting together the epic movement of Boss’s battles with personal corruption.

Varieté Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Pieced together from elements found all over the world, "Variete" makes an impressive debut on Blu-ray. The AVC encoded image (1.33:1 aspect ratio) presentation remains consistent, with impressive sharpness that brings out the best in facial details, picking up on aging, make-up, and emotive acting. Production accomplishments are also on view, preserving depths and decoration. Delineation is generally strong, handling shadowy encounters, and whites are steady. Grain is intact and filmic. For a nearly 100-year-old feature, distracting damage is surprisingly limited, with restoration work capably managing age and multiple sources.

Varieté Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The LPCM 2.0 track presents a new score from the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra. Instrumentation is crisp and inviting, while musical moods, from mounting suspense to circus atmosphere, are cleanly communicated. Also offered is a 2015 score performed by The Tiger Lilies.

Varieté Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Visual Essay (10:35, HD) is provided by Bret Wood.

• "The Making Of" (7:28, HD) looks at the creation of the score, where producers turned to the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra, offering students a chance to prove themselves with wall-to-wall music. The journey carries from intense studio work to a live performance in San Francisco in front of a sold-out audience.

• "Othello" (79:43, SD) is a 1922 Shakespeare adaptation starring Emil Jannings.

Varieté Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Visually, "Variete" is lively, with Dupont matching the masters of the era with his command of silent storytelling, unafraid to move his camera or permit it time to articulate psychological spaces. It's an interesting feature to explore, but thankfully there's a human element to it that reaches out, almost 3D-style, to the viewer.