- " demonlover " Lion's Gate - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Nordisk Film - Region 2

directed by Olivier Assayas
France 2002

"Demonlover" begins in the cutthroat world of big business, and descends as quickly as it can to just plain cutting throats. It's a high-gloss corporate thriller that watches a group of vicious women executives as they battle for control of lucrative new 3-D Internet porn technology. One of the sites in question offers real-time torture and death, leading us to wonder: (1) Can such a dangerously illegal site actually generate the fortune that seems to be involved? and (2) Are any of these women queasy about selling human suffering at retail? The movie's answers are apparently yes and no.

Excerpt from Roger Ebert's review HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: 19 May 2002 (Cannes Film Festival) (premiere)

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DVD Comparison:

Lion's Gate - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Nordisk Film - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Gary Tooze and Henrik Sylow for the Screen Caps!

(Lion's Gate - Region 1 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Nordisk Film - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	Lion's Gate Region 1 - NTSC	Nordisk Film Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	2:00:01	1:56:11 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	2.30:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 4.34 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	2.35:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 7.10 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Lion's Gate
Bitrate: Nordisk Film
Audio	2.0 Dolby Digital French, English, Japanese	5.1 Dolby Digital French, English, Japanese
Subtitles	Partial English subtitles (not removable on the fly once English is chosen)	Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Lion's Gate Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.30:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: March 16, 2004 Keep Case Chapters 16	Release Information: Studio: Nordisk Film Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1 Edition Details: • Trailer (1:41) • Other trailers from Nordisk FIlm DVD Release Date: February 7, 2005 Keep Case Chapters 13

Comments

About Lion's Gate
I know there is a US "unrated" and "R" rated DVD available. This Lion's Gate version was purchased in Canada.

This DVD is horrendous! It fails in almost every known category of Digital Versatile Disc acceptance - non-removable subtitles, non-anamorphic image (for a 2002 film?), this version is shorter by 9 minutes from the original Cannes version as well as appearing to be taken from a PAL source (lot of "ghosting"), no Extras, large intrusive bright colored, non 16X9 friendly subtitles - okay lets get to the picture quality - Demonlover was shot on 35mm, 16 mm and video. I couldn't find an acceptable still among them. Only proving this is a pitifully low bitrate. I have tried below to include screen captures of example of the three cinematography systems. Our investigations show that the print wasn't that bad, so my question is "Who authored this DVD?". This is the worst DVD of a new release I can remember ever seeing. Ever! Lion's gate should recall this immediately.

Gary Tooze

About Nordisk Film
First of all, the Nordisk Film edition is the censured version. Depictions of vagina has been obscurred by pixels. Second of all, neither versions are "cut". The theatrical duration is 2 hours, and differs from the Cannes version by aprx 9 minutes.

The image of the Nordisk Film edition is flawless during its 35mm sequences. No compression artefacts visible, no ghosting. During the hentai sequences, there are minor edge enhancements, mosquito noise and colour banding. During the video sequences, there is ghosting, as seen on image #6. Overall simply great image.

Sadly, this edition only has Scandinavian subtitles.

Henrik Sylow

DVD Menus
(Lion's Gate - Region 1 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Nordisk Film - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

Screen Captures

(Lion's Gate - Region 1 - NTSC - TOP vs. Nordisk Film - Region 2 - PAL - BOTTOM)
subtitle sample (English only)
Captures resized to 713px from 1016px native resolution