DVD Review "King Lear (Grigori Kozintsev)" Ruscico - Region 0

Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. Your generosity touches me deeply. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance has become essential.

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

1) Our weekly Newsletter sent to your Inbox every Monday morning!
2) Patron-only Silent Auctions - so far over 30 Out-of-Print titles have moved to deserved, appreciative, hands!
3) Access to over 50,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. Thank you very much.

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Korol Lir" or "King Lear")

directed by Grigori Kozintsev
Soviet Union 1969

Posters

Theatrical Release: April 23rd, 1971 - Finland

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

DVD Review:

RusCiCo (2 disc set) - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

DVD Box Cover
Distribution	Ruscico Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:06:44 (4% PAL speedup) + 2nd disc 1:04:48 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	2.58:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 9.29 mb/s (2nd disc - 9.28 mb/s) NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes
Bitrate: Ruscico Disc 1 .
Bitrate: Ruscico Disc 2
Audio	Russian (Dolby Digital 1.0); Russian (Dolby Digital 5.1), DUB: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), DUB: French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles	Russian, English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Hebrew, Chinese, Arabic, Swedish, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Russian Cinema Council Aspect Ratio: Widescreen letterboxed - 2.58:1 Edition Details: • Shakespeare biography • featurette about composer D. Shostakovich • Still Gallery • Filmographies • Photo Album • Trailers for Andrei Rublyov, Agony, Anna Karenina 2nd disc: • Interview with G. Volchek (Regan) • Filmographies • Photo Album • Trailers for War and Peace, Ashik Kerib, A Cruel Romance DVD Release Date: Keep Case Chapters 16 + 15 = 31

Comments

A very weak transfer by any standards - hazy - prevalent ghosting. Being anamorphic is virtually meaningless in this case. Not an overly long film, but still spread out over 2 discs. The original 1.0 audio is flat but there is a boosted option to 5.1 in original Russian and two DUB offerings also in 5.1 (English and French). On the positive side, the subtitles are good with a clean easy-to-see font and many options. There are some extras but the only decent one is the interview with G. Volchek, one of the actresses. The rest are fillers. It may be the only way to see this fine film at present, but we can always hope it will be done correctly one day.