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

I thought I had heard Alexander Tuschinski's name before - he has done some writings in the liner booklet for Arrow's Blu-ray of Tinto Brass' The Key. Here has produced a Blu-ray of his own 2017, 12-minute, short Woyzeck (not to be confused with Werner Herzog's 1979 film of the same name REVIEWED HERE on Blu-ray) and it includes a commentary (in both English or German) and six of his shorts. Everything is in 1080P on a single-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. The short feature is in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio and is silent with hand-painted Intertitles in a sepia tint. It is supposed to present an aged appearance and it succeeds in that goal. It was slightly evocative Guy Maddin's work and this had a specific style, narrative and deliberate editing.  The Blu-ray visuals are presenting an authentic-to-filmmaker's-intentions HD presentation.

The fact that the audio is only lossy Dolby isn't such a detraction as there is no dialogue in the film but there is an intentionally scratchy music score (with pops and plenty of hiss) utilizing militaristic music that sounds as if it is from an old phonograph. It, again, suits the filmmakers intentions of representing an older film. There are optional English subtitles for the German intertitles (see sample below) on the region FREE Blu-ray disc.

The Blu-ray features a director's audio commentary - optional in either English or German. It's an easy listen for the 12-minute short with some revealing information about the production. There is also an 11-minute Making of... featurette, a trailer and about 1/2 hour's worth of 6 short films by Tuschinski - which I found interesting - I liked Hollow Date. One of these shorts; Zombies, has some deleted scenes and another, Five Lovers Down, has a brief 'making of...' piece.

DVDBeaver loves to support independent filmmakers and Tuschinski's work here certainly qualifies. I like the style and warmed more to it the deeper I investigated his brand of cinema. Adventurous film fans may appreciate the Blu-ray although Tuschinski's work might be considered an acquired taste. Certainly the Blu-ray's very reasonable price makes it well-worth the gamble to try out this director's efforts.

Gary Tooze