Piccadilly Blu-ray - Anna May Wong

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

Directed by Ewald André Dupont
UK 1929

E.A. (Varieté) Dupont's Piccadilly, the 1929 silent masterpiece brilliantly restored by the British Film Institute, stars the sultry Anna May Wong in her greatest role.

After many years of supporting roles in Hollywood, Wong left for Europe in search of better work. And did she find it! Her electric, sexually-charged performance in Piccadilly is a revelation. Like Louise Brooks, that other erotic beauty who left America and found stardom as a siren in G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box, Wong found her greatest role abroad. She is mesmerizing as Shosho, the Chinese scullery maid at a Piccadilly nightclub who overnight becomes the toast of London - and the object of desire of all around her. The camera adores Wong, and against Alfred Junge's astonishing set design, she glows on the big screen.

In the 1970s, Louise Brooks was "rediscovered" by writer Kenneth Tynan and cinephiles flocked to the re-release of her films. With this gorgeous restoration of Piccadilly and its first distribution in the US since 1929, audiences across the world fell under the spell of the bewitching Anna May Wong!

***

One of the pinnacles of British silent cinema, Piccadilly is a sumptuous show business melodrama seething with sexual and racial tension. Chinese-American screen goddess Anna May Wong stars as Shosho whose exotic dance routines enthrall a suave club owner. This stylish evocation of Jazz Age London boasts dazzlingly fluid cinematography and atmospheric sets - ranging from the opulent West End nightclub to the seedy Limehouse district. Beautifully restored by the BFI National Film and Television Archive, complete with blue and amber tinting, Piccadilly is accompanied by a commissioned dramatic score by Neil Brand.

Posters

Theatrical Release: February 1929 (London)

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Review: Milestone Films - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Milestone Films - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:49:18.000
Video	1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 38,044,610,900 bytes Feature: 35,567,843,328 bytes Video Bitrate: 39.39 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1634 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1634 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	English Intertitles
Features	Release Information: Studio: Milestone Films 1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 38,044,610,900 bytes Feature: 35,567,843,328 bytes Video Bitrate: 39.39 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Audio commentary by film historian Farran Smith Nehme • Introduction to the 1929 sound version (5:18) • Neil Brand on the score for Piccadilly (19:58) • San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival panel: “Dangerous to Know: The Career and Legacy of Anna May Wong,” moderated by B. Ruby Rich (22:11) Blu-ray Release Date: September 26th, 2023 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 10

Comments:

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

ADDITION: Milestone Films Blu-ray (September 2023): Milestone Films have transferred Ewald André Dupont's 1929 Piccadilly to Blu-ray. It is cited as being "Remastered by the BFI National Archive and presented in High Definition". We reviewed the BFI PAL DVD in 2004, HERE. Milestone came out with a similar DVD in 2005. There was also a BFI Blu-ray that came out in 2021, but we don't own it to compare. We have compared some PAL DVD captures below and the different tints are obvious. We lose the golden-yellow and have a more sepia tinting with a very few scenes in flat black and white. Much of the more flagrant damage (vertical scratches) is minimized but there may be slightly less information in the frame in some scenes. With the lossless score it provides an immersive viewing experience rich with stylish dark intentions.

NOTE: We have added 74 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Milestone Films use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track (24-bit.) It also has Neil Brand's jazzy score (that was in the other digital editions) replacing the film's original music-and-sound effects soundtrack that some critics deemed 'distracting'. Piccadilly's impressive visuals are supported perfectly by the Brand score via the lossless transfer. Milestone Films include the original English intertitles on their Region 'A'-locked Blu-ray.

The Milestone Films Blu-ray offers a new commentary by film historian Farran Smith Nehme (Self-Styled Siren.) She describes the street of Piccadilly as show in the film's opening, the clever credits - as shown on buses, discusses the performers - notably Anna May Wong - crew, director Dupont and much more. There is a bit of narration but I thought it was informative overall. Repeated from the previous editions are the 5-minute introduction to the 1929 sound version and the 20-minute piece with Neil Brand on his score for Piccadilly. “Dangerous to Know: The Career and Legacy of Anna May Wong,” has the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival panel, moderated by cultural critic B. Ruby Rich, and has panelists; actress Jacqueline Kim, author Karen Leong (The China Mystique), actress Nancy Kwan (The Girl Who Knew Too Much,) and author Graham Russell Gao Hodges (Anna May Wong: From Laundryman’s Daughter to Hollywood Legend.) It runs over 22-minutes. There are no liner notes.

Ewald André Dupont's Piccadilly is considered 'proto-noir' - before the "classic period" (40s and 50s) of American film noir (as termed by French critic Nino Frank in 1946)... or eventual 'Neo-Noir,' 'Tech Noir', 'Nordic-Noir' etc. labels. Piccadilly has murder, betrayal and interracial lust - despite Shosho (Wong) and Valentine's (Jameson Thomas) passionate kiss being cut to accommodate US censors. Earlier this year we reviewed Kino's The Anna May Wong Collection with Dangerous to Know (1938), King of Chinatown (1939) and Island of Lost Men (1939) on Blu-ray. However, none of those films can compare to the actress's visceral impact in Piccadilly which many regard as her best onscreen role. It can be spoken in the same expressive terms as Renée Maria Falconetti's Joan of Arc. Milestone Films' Blu-ray has the film in 1080P, commentary, the Brand score in lossless plus other supplements. Anna May Wong's moody, exotic, allure is the stuff of cinema legend making Piccadilly one of the great British silent films. A strongly recommended package, imo.