Andre Techine's (Wild Reeds, Alice et Martin) latest film STRAYED is finally coming to R1. Part of the Cannes Film Festival last year the film received some mixed reviews. Nevertheless for fans of E. Beart this is the only opportunity to own the film as the French disc is not English-firendly.

Street date: 11/23

Extras:

Interviews with Andre Techine, Gaspard Ulliel and Gilles Perrault
Storyboards
Photo Galleries
Filmographies
Trailers
Weblinks
Widescreen 1.78:1 Color (Anamorphic)


Region 1 cover:



Region 2 (France/Benelux) cover:




Cheers,
Pro-B

Wow, once again the Frenchies get a nicer cover. Why do the studios insult our intelligence by giving us the worst covers out of any region? Its annoying.

...on top of that I am quite sure this would be a PAL to NTSC port...so lets see....

Pro-B

Roger E.Beart?

I was just gonna say, does E. Beart do any movies with Ro. Perr?

Any DVD REVIEW of this film yet?

I've have the Region 1.

For once -for the love of god- I'm thoroughly impressed with a Region 1 anamorphic Wellspring DVD.

Very nice image with no notice of a bad transfer. 40+ mins of interviews too.


Strange as it may seem, I think the US cover does (for once) say much more about the film's characters and once you see the film you may agree.

8/10 since I'm a fan of the genre and the director/actors.

Thank You.

Daniel,

If you see this post would you please run a detailed review of the disc for me (us). I am considering selling the the Swiss R2 disc I have to another dvd member in Europe but would like to know what the source of the R1 is? If this is a PAL to NTSC port I am going to keep the R2 disc (I have become extremely weary of PAL/NTSC ports lately and try to avoid them as much as I can). I also need to know what's the size of the subs, colour (white, yellow, etc). Also how badly is this disc cropped....the original aspect ratio was 2.35:1...Wellspring's disc I believe is 1.78:1...correct?

Thank you,
Pro-B

Along with the usually technically inept Well Spring's 2nd release of Breaker Morant, Strayed is the best I've seen from them.

No sign of PAL/NTSC. I rate the image very highly. I've seen grabs from the French disc and there are some very strong greens and yellows. That is replicated in the Well Spring release. Unfortunately I missed this at the cinema so I can't compare. I'll not be rushing to update my DVD anyway.

The aspect ratio seems correct and is within what's stated on other DVD versions. I've never heard any mention of 2.35:1 and see no cropping or scanning.

Thank you for the info...

...It was filmed in 2.35:1....
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329111/technical

I will order the disc ASAP.

Pro-B

I wouldn't trust IMDb all the time.

I'm sure if it were really 2.35:1 it would have that in France -it doesn't. I could be wrong but I can usually tell if an image has been cut out or pan/scanned.


I'd like your comments (on both the image and AR) once you see the disc


There's the US trailer www.wellspring.com Again that's a good trailer and gives you a feel for the film. No spoilers in there. 9MB and you'll need Quicktime to play it.

As with all things on the Web if downloading that trailer right click and choose Save Target as... and put it on your desktop first.

I wil comment on the disc once I get it. In addition I already own(ed) the French disc...good quality but not exceptional.

Pro-B

Short review of the disc at DVDVerdict here

Finally received the R1 disc. Here are my thoughts:

Picture quality is rather good (I would not call it excellent). I see good detail and the transfer does not appear to be a PAL to NTSC port (as you Daniel correctly indicated). However I notice plenty of grain (not the typical film grain with which Gary from DVDBEAVER seems to be obsessed ). I notice some rather annoying, exacerbated after repeated viewing, digital artifacts. These are mostly noticeable during the night scenes which indicate to me that the film was shot intentionally that way...to a degree (similar occurance is evident in AE’s disc of Histoire de Marie et Julien) Owning the R2 disc I was able to compare the two and there is a slight difference in the transfers. The R2 night scenes (for example when Beart walks into the house...) are a bit less distracting.

My second problem is with the yellow subtitles. Some people do not get irritated by them some do. Just like La Dolce Vita I did not like the use of yellow subs by Wellspring.

Last but not least...cover work and presentation. There is absolutely NO ROOM FOR COMPARISON. The R1 looks plain bad...compared to the stylish French digipack.

With all of this said I think that the Wellspring R1 is an acceptable package that will meet the requirements of those that would like to see the film in an English friendly version.

I am a perfectionist and would like to have the best presentation available of the films I want to own in my collection...even then however...I would still recommend this disc…not so shabby after all.

Ciao,
Pro-B