Death and the Maiden Blu-ray - Sigourney Weaver

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

(aka 'La Jeune fille et la mort')

UK / USA / France 1994

Ariel Dorfman's acclaimed play of the same name serves as the basis for Roman Polanski's drama, which depicts a politically and psychological complex battle of wills amongst three characters in an unnamed South American country. The trio in question is made up of Paulina Sigourney Weaver, her husband Gerardo Stuart Wilson, and Dr. Miranda Ben Kingsley, a seemingly friendly stranger who provided Gerardo with a ride home after a car breakdown. The trouble begins when Paulina claims to recognize Miranda's voice, and accuses him of being the unseen doctor who had subjected her to horrific torture during her days as a prisoner of the country's former government. Miranda, flabbergasted, denies any knowledge of such events, but Paulina is determined to have her revenge. The uncertain Gerardo finds himself caught in the middle, forced to decide if his wife is telling the truth or reacting irrationally due to her past trauma. The confrontation and shifts in power between the three inevitably raises issues of justice and revenge, especially in relationship to the punishment of war criminals.

Excerpt from B+N located HERE

***

Probably my favorite Polanski film along with "Le Locataire", Death and the Maiden is a riveting psychological exploration that increasingly picks up pace and suspense along the way for an unforgettable dramaturgical ride. Quite possibly the excellent performances from Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley as well as the layered story are at the heart of my appreciation of the film.

The plot, performable on a stage (actually based on Ariel Dorfman's play), has once imprisoned Paulina (Weaver), devout in her assumption that an unexpected visitor was her unseen captor and sadistic torturer in South America some fifteen years hence. On debatable evidence (only his voice) she demands just vengeance for being raped fourteen times. Simultaneously she is brushing aside her politically motivated husband's plea's for rational behavior.

Almost exclusively character driven, one couldn't imagine better players in this drama. Three strong actors, an isolated home on a stormy night, secrets of the past slowly revealed... and a gun. out of

Posters

Theatrical Release: December 24th, 1994 (limited)

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Comparison:

New Line Home Entertainment - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Studio Canal (DE) - Region 'B' - Blu-ray

Box Cover

Distribution	New Line Home Entertainment - Region 1 - NTSC	Studio Canal Region 'B' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:43:16	1:43:36.043
Video	1.83:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4.29 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 33,417,266,698 bytes Feature: 31,369,270,848 bytes Video Bitrate: 33.87 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Bitrate: Blu-ray
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 1.0)	LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit DUB: LPCM Audio German 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles	English, None	German, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: New Line Home Entertainment Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.83:1 Edition Details: • 5 Trailers (Death and the Maiden, Bitter Moon, Invincible, Storytelling and Human Nature. ) • DVD-Rom links DVD Release Date: June 3rd, 2003 Keep Case Chapters: 22	Release Information: Studio: Studio Canal 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 33,417,266,698 bytes Feature: 31,369,270,848 bytes Video Bitrate: 33.87 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Trailer (1:55) Blu-ray Release Date: June 6th, 2019 Standard Blu-ray case Chapters 12

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Studio Canal - Region 'B' Blu-ray - July 2019: Studio Canal have transferred one of my favorite films, Roman Polanski's Death and the Maiden to Blu-ray. It is housed on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate and our captures can indicate the improvement in color and texture over the 2003 DVD. Flesh tones lose their orange-ness and return to cooler normalcy. The visuals are, appropriately, darker and free of compression artifacts or noise. The overall image is not dynamic but seems a far better representation of the film than the DVD. The Blu-ray has almost 7X the bitrate of the DVD.

Audio gets linear PCM (24-bit!) in 2.0 channel in both the original English language or an untested German DUB. The storm and rough sea carry some depth. Wojciech Kilar's (award winning music for this film and has done music for Wajda's The Promised Land, as well as Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Roman Polanski's The Pianist, and The Ninth Gate - to name a few) score is subtle but impacting. The film is bookended by Franz Schubert's String Quartet in D Minor which relates to the film. There are, fully, optional German subtitles on this Region 'B' Blu-ray disc.

The only extra is a trailer, but I am pleased the transfer of the film, both audio and video, was treated so well. This film floors me - the performances and deeply-layered story make for excellent cinema. See this in the best format you can.

***

ON THE DVD: I found it a shade soft at times. The lossy audio is unremarkable - the raging storm and wonderful classical music could have really impacted the dialogue and surroundings.

Non-existent extras will hurt this DVDs score as I felt this film deserved some discussion in the form of shorts or interviews etc. Still a deeply probing and suspense driven film from a master. out of