6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The eccentric professor Collins lives completely secluded in his chaotic apartment. When the model Penny moves in next to him, he becomes fascinated of her. He drills holes in her walls and ceiling and peeps on her day and night. He loses himself in daydreams and delusions.
Starring: Jane Birkin, Jack MacGowran, Anita Pallenberg, Irene Handl, Richard WattisDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.67:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.75:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The Beatles were nearing the end of their long and winding road (sorry) when Wonderwall briefly—very briefly—played a few United Kingdom cineplexes in January 1969 (just a couple of weeks before The Beatles’ iconic rooftop performance which would signal the end of their public partnership), after having been screened to no particular acclaim at Cannes in early summer 1968. Perhaps because the film came and went so quickly and featured a heroine named Penny Lane (Jane Birkin), not to mention the fact that it contained music by George Harrison, Wonderwall attained a certain cult status. The film is certainly a relic of a bygone age, a psychedelic fable of a voyeur that plays out anecdotally without much indulgence in traditional narrative forms. Harrison’s music is clearly from his Eastern Mystical phase, and seems at times to almost be channeling Ravi Shankar. If Wonderwall is no recently unearthed formerly forgotten masterpiece, it weaves its hallucinogenic spell rather artfully, but it will be an “acquired taste” for many, even those used to the surrealism of such filmmakers as Luis Buñuel.
Wonderwall is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory, Hollywood Classics and Fabulous Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. Considering the way this film was curated through the years, this Pinewood restoration looks amazingly good most of the time. Colors are beautifully saturated and accurate looking, and fine detail is quite excellent in midrange and close-up shots. There are still some issues extant with this release, however. It's obvious that either the elements were badly damaged in various places or (perhaps more likely) this was sourced from different elements. There are some jarring differences in sharpness and color at various moments (compare, for example, screenshots 6 and 7). The fact that these segments are also accompanied by extra grain leads me to believe that some of this transfer may have been sourced from dupes. There are also occasional issues with low contrast, making some of the dimly lit interior scenes in Oscar's crowded apartment hard to make out.
While Joe Massot's fascinating notes in the insert booklet discuss the film's original mono optical track and how he knew he would need to access the original stereo masters to create his Director's Cut, there's unfortunately no information about how the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track included on this Blu-ray was created. The truth is this is not an overly active surround mix, other than Harrison's music, which is splayed decently throughout the channels. On just a couple of occasions, there's a bit of midrange distortion in the music, but it's never very distracting. Some of the dialogue suffers from a slightly phased sound as well. As mentioned above in the main body of the review, the music is mixed oddly at times, fading in and fading out without much regard to the dramatic goings on.
- Stills Gallery (1080p; 00:49)
- Poster Scan (1080p)
- Publicity Booklet (1080p; 00:25). You should have your remote handy so you can press the pause button to actually read the various pages.
- Casting Story (1080p)
- Press Release (1080p)
- Jack MacGowran (1080p)
- Jane Birkin (1080p)
- Iain Quarrier (1080p)
Wonderwall is a completely peculiar film that is about the closest cinematic equivalent to what I imagine an LSD trip might be like (there's even a superhero character who wears an LSD insignia). The story here is probably incidental to the visuals and music, both of which are anachronistic and odd, but also weirdly alluring. This kind of fever dream will not be to everyone's taste, but those who love George Harrison and/or Jane Birkin will no doubt find a lot to like here. This Blu-ray release features mostly excellent video and very good audio (at least with regard to most of the music), and comes with great supplements. Recommended.
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