Fred Patton

Gemini Video Editions

Region 2 - PAL

1.63:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 5.4 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

1.65:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 7.5 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

Dual-layered Blu-ray MPEG4 - AVC

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Gemini Video Editions

Second Run DVD

Blu-ray

Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.63:1

Edition Details:
• Pedro Costa's Notebook (31:11)
• Interview with cinematographer Emmanuel Machuel (7:47)
• Film Analysis by Serge Kaganski (4:11)
• Poster Gallery
• Still Gallery
• Filmographies
• Trailers for O SANGUE, OSSOS, CASA DE LAVA

DVD Release Date: 17 January 2005
Amaray

Chapters 14

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.65:1

Edition Details:
• Interview with director Pedro Costa (16:9; 18:44)
• Interview with cinematographer Emmanuel Machuel (4:3; 7:57)
• The Other CASA DE LAVA - extracts from Pedro Costa's scrapbook (16:9; 23:41)
• New Essay Booklet by Jonathan Rosenbaum

 

Chapters 12

Blu-ray Release Date: November 14th, 2017

ADDITION: Grasshopper Films - Region FREE- Blu-ray - April 18': This is in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio on a dual-layered disc with a high bitrate. It looks liker the same source as the Second Run supporting the same colors, flesh tones gain some warm and look a shade more realistic and the higher resolution providing a stronger level of detail, and often a thick film-like, presentation. It's a definite pleasing notch-up from the DVDs and, of course, it not longer has the unnecessary PAL speedup.

Casa De Lava is a film that improves each time I see it. It's mysterious and rich in imagery, detail and resonates poetry and art - not unlike Tourneur's I Walked With a Zombie. I really enjoyed my Blu-ray viewing for both resonating audio and film-like video. Great job Grasshopper Film. Certainly I couldn't develop an argument against this being called a masterpiece. Your collection is weaker without it.

***

ON THE DVDs: Second Run's dual-layer, anamorphic DVD is mastered from a new director-supervised HD master which is brighter and appears to handle the contrasts of the sun-baked cinematography (as well as the night scenes) better than the previous SD master. The sound mix is supposed to be Dolby Stereo, but the remastered audio mix - while vibrant - is not too directional (although the mix suits the film's atmosphere).

Pedro Costa appears in an English-language interview shot at the Tate Gallery in 2009 (the Eureka Entertainment copyright suggests that Costa's discussion of COLOSSAL YOUTH on the Eureka "Masters of Cinema" release and this may have been part of a career-length discussion). Costa confirms Jonathan Rosenbaum's assertion in the disc's liner notes essay that the film was at first mounted as a remake of Jacques Tourneur's I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (which was later remade in a more straightforward yet less satisfactory adaptation as RITUAL in 2002 as the intended third installment of Universal's TALES FROM THE CRYPT feature film series but ended up shelved for several years before being purchased by Miramax and released straight to DVD). Costa discusses the difficulty of financing his second feature despite O SANGUE's reception and his conflicts with the cast and crew when he decided to abandon (and even boycott) his own script (he refers to the shooting of the film as his APOCALYPSE NOW). He (as does Rosenbaum in the booklet) also discusses the importance of this film to his subsequent Cape Verde-set films (the Robert Desnos poem recited in this film - in the form of a love letter - is heard repeatedly in his later films, and a character late in the film even shouts "Juvemtude em Marcha" the Portuguese title of the later Costa film better known as COLOSSAL YOUTH).

The French disc also featured excerpts from Costa's scrapbook, but Second Run's version is newly-created (set to the music of Raul Andrade from the film and the ambient sounds recorded by Henri Maikoff during the production). Since it runs shorter than the version on the French disc, I'm not sure whether anything has been omitted or if the the former simply lingered longer on each page. The scrapbook really does not get us that much closer to Costa's original scenario (some brief subtitle captioning of the text or pictures might have been useful), but it may give viewers a hint of the filmic world Costa had constructed for the project before it was ruptured. Although copyrighted 2012, cinematographer Emmanuel Machuel's interview is presumably the same one as seen on the French disc (it is in 4:3 unlike the other extras). Machuel's discussion is extremely generalized and seems to be more about the general working method rather than his actual collaboration with Costa.

 - Eric Cotenas

FRED PATTON ON THE FRENCH RELEASE: The disc is subtitled throughout the bonus content and the film. This seems to be a standard for Gemini Vid?o Editions, who decide on some 15 films to release a year and handle them like artworks. While there is no director commentary or interview with the director, the provided supplements are excellent. Costa's preparation notebook is a gem. Kaganski's commentary is quite brief. Machuel's 8 minute talk is nice. All said, the extras are perhaps a wee bit lean, but the notebook slide show leaves me very satisfied. I look forward to pursuing the rest of Gemini's catalogue.