Paranoid Park Gus Van Sant

Directed by Gus Van Sant
USA 2007

Paranoid Park is a swooping skateboarding free zone where young men learn to fly. It’s also the title of Gus Van Sant’s most recent film, a haunting, voluptuously beautiful portrait of a teenage boy who, after being suddenly caught in midflight, falls to earth. Like most of Mr. Van Sant’s films “Paranoid Park” is about bodies at rest and in motion, and about longing, beauty, youth and death, and as such as much about the artist as his subject. It is a modestly scaled triumph without a false or wasted moment.

Excerpt from Manhola Dargis at the NY Times located HERE

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Theatrical Release: May 21st, 2007 - Cannes Film Festival

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DVD Review: IFC/Weinstein - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	IFC/Weinstein - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:24:42
Video	1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.17 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles	English (SDH), Spanish, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: IFC/Weinstein Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • none DVD Release Date: October 7th, 2008 Keep Case Chapters: 16

Comments:

Firstly, YES Paranoid Park was meant to be in the 1.33:1 (or 1.37) aspect ratio. There is an excellent article on the whole dispute HERE and we don't need to rehash the reasons. I understand there have been some other DVDs out of the film released in widescreen and this is the first to preserve the director intended ratio (actually I see now that the French edition is 1.33 but the UK Blu-ray is 1.78!). Okay.

The IFC/Weinstein progressive transfer is on a single-layered disc and looks fine supporting the film's varied uses of lenses and visual distortion (haziness) effects. The image looks a little frail on this DVD with some noise but I wasn't deterred during my viewing experience. I'd term is acceptable although with minor weaknesses. The audio is in 5.1 with a few instances of decent separation (skateboards rollers, music). Again an okay track that I had no strong complaints with. There are optional subtitles in English or Spanish. The English ones actually detail the music being played and even identify the sound 'building' (as in the shower scene).

Bare-bones with not a supplements in sight and the reasonableness of the price reflects that. This is a shame but the film speaks volumes by itself. This is a highly memorable film experience - Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2007!... and it makes this DVD must-have especially at the price offered.