Blue Velvet Blu-ray Isabella Rossellini

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

directed by David Lynch
U.S. 1986

Blu-ray Product Description: From the mind of David Lynch (Mulholland Drive, “Twin Peaks”) comes a visionary story so startling, so provocative, so mysterious that it will open your eyes to a world you have never seen before. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment celebrates the anniversary of a groundbreaking American cinema classic when the BLUE VELVET: 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION makes its curtain call on Blu-ray November 8th. For the first time ever, fans will see over 50 minutes of deleted scenes from the film, thought to have been lost for the past 25 years, with a transfer and color correction supervised by Lynch himself.

Beneath the surface of small-town serenity lies a dark domain where innocence dare not tread and unpredictability is the norm. It is the haunting realm of BLUE VELVET. In this “shocking, deeply disturbing, startling mixture of the heartfelt and the horrific” (Newsweek), clean-cut Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan, “Twin Peaks”) realizes his Mayberry-like hometown is not-so-normal when he discovers a human ear in a field. His investigation catapults him into an alluring, erotic murder mystery involving a disturbed nightclub singer (Isabella Rossellini, Death Becomes Her) and a drug-addicted sadist (Dennis Hopper, Speed). Soon, Jeffrey is led deeper into their depraved existence past the point of no return.

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Jeffrey (MacLachlan) is the contemporary knight in slightly tarnished armour, a shy and adolescent inhabitant of Lumberton, USA. After discovering a severed ear in an overgrown backlot, he embarks upon an investigation that leads him into a hellish netherworld, where he observes - and comes to participate in - a terrifying sado-masochistic relationship between damsel-in-distress Dorothy (Rossellini) and mad mobster Frank Booth (Hopper). Grafting on to this story his own idiosyncratic preoccupations, Lynch creates a visually stunning, convincingly coherent portrait of a nightmarish substratum to conventional, respectable society. The seamless blending of beauty and horror is remarkable - although many will be profoundly disturbed by Lynch's vision of male-female relationships, centered as it is on Dorothy's psychopathic hunger for violence - the terror very real, and the sheer wealth of imagination virtually unequalled in recent cinema.

Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release Date: 19 September, 1986

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Comparison:

MGM (SE) - Region 2,4 - PAL vs. MGM SE- Region 1 - NTSC vs. Castle Home Video - Region 2 - PAL vs. MGM - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Thanks to Enrique B Chamorro and Vincent Bouche for the screen caps!

1) MGM SE - R2 - PAL LEFT

2) MGM SE - R1 - NTSC - SECOND

3) Castle Home Video - R2 - PAL - THIRD

4) MGM - Region FREE - Blu-ray - RIGHT

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	MGM SE Region 2/4 - PAL	MGM SE Region 1 - NTSC	Castle Home Video Region 2 - PAL	MGM Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:55:36 (4% PAL speedup)	2:00:20	1:55:16 (4% PAL Speedup)	2:00:32.683
Video	2.35 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 4.84 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	2.35 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 4.84 mb/s NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s	2.10:1 cropped 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 4.70 PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 46,973,892,272 bytes Feature: 32,505,636,864 bytes Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Total Video Bitrate: 27.18 Mbps
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes
Bitrate: MGM- SE (NTSC)	UNAVAILABLE
Bitrate: MGM- SE (NTSC) .
Bitrate: Castle Home Video
Bitrate: MGM Blu-ray
Audio	English and French DD5.1	English (Dolby Digital 5.1), DUBS: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)	English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 2990 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2990 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit / DN -4dB) DTS Audio French 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit / DN -4dB DTS Audio German 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit / DN -4dB DTS Audio Italian 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit / DN -4dB DTS Audio Spanish 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit / DN -4dB Dolby Digital Audio Portuguese 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -4dB / Dolby Surround Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -4dB
Subtitles	French, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Polish, Greek, Hungarian, Czech and None	English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and none	English, Spanish, French and none	English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, none
Features	Release Information: Studio: MGM/UA Video Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1 Edition Details: • New Digital Anamorphic Transfer Supervised by David Lynch • Mysteries of Love • Deleted Scenes Montage • Siskel & Ebert : At the Movies • Theatrical Trailer • 2x TV Spots • Photo Galleries DVD Release Date: 18 September 2002 Keep Case Chapters 32	Release Information: Studio: MGM/UA Video Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1 Edition Details: • New Digital Anamorphic Transfer Supervised by David Lynch • "Mysteries of Love" Documentary Featuring New Interviews with Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan and Other Cast and Crew • Archieve Interview With David Lynch • "Are You A Pervert? Deleted Scenes Montage • Siskel and Ebert Critical Review • Photo Gallery • Widescreen anamorphic format • 4 page insert "booklet" DVD Release Date: June 4, 2002 Keep Case Chapters 29	Release Information: Studio: Castle Home Video Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.20:1 Edition Details: • "Dennis Hopper in conversation with Tony Watts, talks about his career in the movies as an actor and as a director." 44 min 46 sec, 10 chapters • 8 page insert "booklet" with photos and an essay by Alan Robinson, August 2000 DVD Release Date: 18 September, 2000 Keep Case Chapters 19	Release Information: Studio: MGM 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 46,973,892,272 bytes Feature: 32,505,636,864 bytes Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Total Video Bitrate: 27.18 Mbps Edition Details: • "Mysteries of Love" 8-part Documentary Featuring New Interviews with Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan and Other Cast and Crew (1:10:45 in 480i) • TV Spots / Trailers • Siskel and Ebert Critical Review (1:31) • 4 Vignettes (I Like Coffee Shops, The Chicken Walk, The Robin, Sita) • Over 50 minutes of never-before-seen lost footage (51:42 in 1080P) • "A Few" Outtakes (1:34) Blu-ray Release Date: November 5th, 2011 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 28

Comments:

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

ADDITION: MGM - Region FREE - Blu-ray - (October 2011) - Looks to be taken from the same source as the SE DVD - but the image shows all the basic improvements of the new format. It is notably more detailed - has slightly even more information in the frame, colors are solid and tighten up and contrast is substantially superior. The two-hour film is housed on a dual-layered disc with a healthy bitrate (more than 6X that of any of the SD transfer). This 1080P gave me an impressive presentation. I could detect no digital manipulation nor flagrant flaws of any kind. Thumbs up on the visuals.

Audio goes lossless with a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround at 2990 kbps. All the Lynch-esque music sounds wonderful in HD from Bobby Vinton + Isabella Rossellini's "Blue Velvet" crooning of the film's theme song and Ketty Lester's hauntingly beautiful Love Letters. Let's not forget Roy Orbison's "In Dreams". It's classic, nostalgic and crisp - there are some subtle separations piercing their way to the rear speakers - and dialogue is always clear and consistent. Depth is more seething than overt. The disc is rife with foreign language DUBs and subtitles marking it as a region FREE Blu-ray - also available in Europe (Germany).

Supplements were highly anticipated by Lynch's loyal fans and they don't disappoint. We get the previously seen "Mysteries of Love" - an 8-part, 1 hour 10-minute, documentary featuring interviews with Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan and cast and crew - still in 480i. But the big newss is over 50 minutes of never-before-seen lost footage (in 1080P). There are some surprises and suspense - fans who can't get enough of the film will definitely want to indulge. There is also "A Few" Outtakes - listed as 'new'. The short Siskel and Ebert critical review, 4 Vignettes (I Like Coffee Shops, The Chicken Walk, The Robin, Sita) and TV Spots / Trailers exist. Everything but a commentary but it's so nice to see some new stuff.

For the price this is one of the easiest purchases of the year - I saw Blue Velvet theatrically but while my memory fades I am confident that this is the best representation available for home theater consumption. This masterpiece remains timeless and the Blu-ray is strongly recommended!

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ADDITION: (Region 2/4 MGM PAL edition - Sept -04) - THE MGM PAL version is slightly cropped on both sides and the bottom and although the colors appears accurate (if less vibrant), it is a bit hazier than its NTSC counterpart. It has most of the same extras of the Region 1 release, and loses a Spanish DUB but has more subtitle options. We still say stick to the Region 1 MGM in all departments.

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The UK version is more than slightly cropped as you can tell by the captures below (2.10:1 from 2.35:1). It is also quite hazy in direct comparison to the Region 1 SE version. I note a shade of edge enhancement in the SE Region 1 (look at the roses) . I think that the Region 1 SE has also had some contrast boosting and it has manipulated the colors ( look at the ear ). The Region 1 is better for many reasons, but it is far from a perfect DVD. Lots of extras on the Region 1 and a nice long Dennis Hopper interview on the UK edition. A shame, I doubt a better version will come out for a while, so the Region 1 and its flaws are the one to buy.