Drowning by Numbers 4K UHD - Joan Plowright / Juliet Stevenson / Joely Richardson

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

directed by Peter Greenaway
UK / Netherlands 1988

Three related women, a mother, her daughter and her niece (played by Joan Plowright, Juliet Stevenson and Joely Richardson), are all known by the name Cissie Colpitts. Also in common are their dissatisfaction with their husband's philandering ways. The solution ? - drown each of them and make it look like an accident. The reluctant local coroner, a curmudgeon called Madgett, is drawn in to help hide the murders. His eventual price? - sexual favors. The story is sequentially interspersed with the numbers one to one-hundred, which appear passively hidden though easily visible, throughout the entirety of the film.

Regarded as one of Greenaway's finest, it showcases his unique brand of cinema with beautiful, teasing imagery while perfectly mirroring a literary riddle of murder, morality and sexual solidarity. The director's following, who enjoy his quirky characters, are in their nirvana with this offering. Many may find it tedious and often disjointed. Reactions often vary from strongly like to strongly dislike. Unfortunately for me, I am in the latter camp, but can plainly see how others can be attracted to this form of cinema 'madness'. Ripe with the crossword style appeal (in searching for the numbers), few can argue about the beautiful cinematography of the countryside and landscapes. Perhaps Greenaway's most abundantly desirable facet in his films are that they are dissimilar to most everything else existing in movies today. Eclectic in the extreme.

Posters

Theatrical Release: September 10th, 1988 - Toronto Film Festival

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Review: Severin - Region FREE - 4K UHD

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Severin - Region FREE - 4K UHD
Runtime	1:58:40.083
Video	1.66:1 2160P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 91,166,403,267 bytes Feature: 88,662,663,168 bytes Video Bitrate: 92.69 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate 4K Ultra HD:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 2042 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2042 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 256 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 256 kbps / DN -31dB
Subtitles	English (SDH), None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Severin 1.66:1 2160P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 91,166,403,267 bytes Feature: 88,662,663,168 bytes Video Bitrate: 92.69 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video Edition Details: 4K Ultra HD disc • Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Peter Greenaway • Theatrical Trailer (2:19) Severin - Region FREE - Blu-ray • Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Peter Greenaway • Painting By Numbers - Interview With Peter Greenaway (14:28) • Three Women And A Coroner - Interview With Actor Bernard Hill (9:53) • Fear Of Drowning (Archival Featurette (27:16) • Some Greenaway Game Concepts (5:30) • Theatrical Trailer (2:19) 4K Ultra HD Release Date: May 30th, 2023 Black 4K Ultra HD Case Chapters 12

Comments:

I'd like to dedicate this review to a friend that moved away and I can't find. Wendy C. loved this film and even used her Forum moniker as "Cissie Colpitts". I hope she is well.

NOTE: The below Blu-ray and 4K UHD captures were taken directly from the respective discs.

ADDITION: Severin 4K UHD (April 2023): Severin are releasing Peter Greenaway's "Drowning by Numbers" to 4K UHD. It is cited as "featuring a new 4K scan from the original negative personally supervised by Greenaway". This is rendered for Dolby Vision. It looks magnificent - rich, very deep colors while maintaining a dark cast. This really supports the film's beautiful art direction. Flesh tones warm. Back in 2015, HERE, we compared the Film-Four PAL DVD to the Medium-Rare (UK) Blu-ray. We found the 1080P improvement highly remarkable. But now, 8 years later the BD looks pale beside Severin's new 4K UHD transfer. It is on a triple layered disc with an atmospheric bitrate (almost 4X that of the UK Blu-ray) for the two-hour film. I thought the heavy darkness supported the film's tones and the color intensity helps infuse the expression to a higher level. I loved the way this looked on my system.

It is likely that the monitor you are seeing this review is not an HDR-compatible display (High Dynamic Range) or Dolby Vision, where each pixel can be assigned with a wider and notably granular range of color and light. Our capture software if simulating the HDR (in a uniform manner) for standard monitors. This should make it easier for us to review more 4K UHD titles in the future and give you a decent idea of its attributes on your system. So our captures may not support the exact same colors (coolness of skin tones, brighter or darker hues etc.) as the 4K system at your home. But the framing, detail, grain texture support etc. are, generally, not effected by this simulation representation.

NOTE: 50 more more full resolution (3840 X 2160) 4K UHD captures, in lossless PNG format, for Patrons are available HERE

We have reviewed the following 4K UHD packages to date: Serpico (software uniformly simulated HDR), Cool Hand Luke (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Seventh Seal (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Maltese Falcon (software uniformly simulated HDR), Mildred Pierce (software uniformly simulated HDR), Tár (software uniformly simulated HDR), Marathon Man (software uniformly simulated HDR), Dazed and Confused (software uniformly simulated HDR), Three Colors: Blue (software uniformly simulated HDR), Invaders From Mars (software uniformly simulated HDR), Death Wish (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (no HDR), High Plains Drifter (software uniformly simulated HDR), Mystery Men (software uniformly simulated HDR), Silent Running (software uniformly simulated HDR), Dressed to Kill (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Power of the Dog (software uniformly simulated HDR), Escape From Alcatraz (software uniformly simulated HDR), I, the Jury (no HDR), Casablanca (software uniformly simulated HDR), In the Mood For Love (NO HDR applied to disc), The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman (software uniformly simulated HDR), Blow Out (software uniformly simulated HDR), Night of the Living Dead (NO HDR applied to disc), Lost Highway (software uniformly simulated HDR), Videodrome (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Last Picture Show (software uniformly simulated HDR), It Happened One Night (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Mummy (1932)(software uniformly simulated HDR), Creature From the Black Lagoon (software uniformly simulated HDR), Bride of Frankenstein (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Amityville Horror (software uniformly simulated HDR), The War of the Worlds (1953) (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Incredible Melting Man (software uniformly simulated HDR), Event Horizon (software uniformly simulated HDR), Get Carter (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Killing (software uniformly simulated HDR), Killer's Kiss (software uniformly simulated HDR.)

On their 4K UHD, Severin use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel (24-bit) in the original English language. The violence in "Drowning By Numbers" is mostly passively expressed but there are fireworks etc.. They can punctuate scenes but remain authentically flat. The beautiful score is by Michael Nyman (The Piano, Gattaca, Man with a Movie Camera, Keep It Up Downstairs, Greenaway's A Zed & Two Noughts etc.) entirely based on themes from the slow movement of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat, bars 58 to 61 of which are heard in their original form immediately after each drowning. It supports the film elegantly in the lossless transfer. The disc offers optional English (SDH) subtitles - and is, like all 4K UHD, region FREE, playable worldwide. The second disc Blu-ray is also region FREE.

The 4K UHD disc offers a wonderful commentary by Peter Greenaway. He describes that the film is about the games we play - love, lack of it, sex, and lack of it and death - and how to remember an celebrate it and mentions a location where he was learning about sex and love and was obsessed with death. He covers production details, the cast and much more - it was a joy to hear him speak while watching the film as I have on three of his films (The Pillow Book, The Draughtsman's Contract and A Zed and Two Noughts.) There is also a trailer on the 4K UHD disc.

The second disc Blu-ray, has the film in 1080P, the Greenaway commentary, a 1/4 hour interview With Peter Greenaway entitled Painting By Numbers, a ten-minute interview with actor Bernard Hill (Madgett in Drowning By Numbers.) it is entitled "Three Women And A Coroner". Included is the previous 1/2 hour archival featurette, Fear Of Drowning, 5-minutes exploring some Greenaway Game Concepts and a trailer.

I can't believe how my opinion of Peter Greenaway's "Drowning by Numbers" has changed over the years. I was initially indifferent but have grown to accept it as a wonderfully eclectic, darkly humorous, expression filled with unique characters longing for... being needed. They are all wrapped-up in amazingly broad-range of archaic images (sometimes crawling, poetically, with large insects or snails.) The device of counting of numbers from one to one hundred (too many to turn into a drinking game) appearing randomly on screen (through text and dialogue) harkens to the complex games (Bees in the Trees, Deadman's Catch, Flights of Fancy (or Reverse Strip Jump), Hangman's Cricket etc.) played throughout "Drowning by Numbers". Surely Wes Anderson and the Coen brothers have been influenced by Greenaway. "Drowning by Numbers" is fascinating and a joy to watch - even more so with Severin's 4K UHD a/v that is like seeing the film anew. The commentary and interviews are very worthwhile and we strongly recommend this as a long term keeper. Wow - what a great film to bring to this format.