Hour of the Wolf - Ingmar Bergman

(aka "Hour of the Wolf" )

Sweden 1968

Twenty-two years ago (Crisis) Bergman was telling the story of a man torn between two women; ten years ago (The Face) he was showing a performer being stripped of his mask, and five years ago (The Silence) he was revealing a single human coin by the examination of both its sides. All these were present in Persona, and they recur again in Hour of the Wolf, augmented on the immediate visual level by such familiar Bergman phrases as the bleached flashback (Sawdust and Tinsel), the errant eyeball (The Face), and the corpse that rises laughing from its slab (Wild Strawberries). Yet there are new departures, too—the dizzying revolve by Nykvist's camera around the dinner-table, the hideous ambivalence of the murder scene, the startling levitation of the Baron (a joke that is delicately capped by von Sydow's nervous glance at the ceiling as he hurries on his way), the jump-cuts with the firing of the gun, the rapturous Lester-style burst of sunlight on the lens as Veronica flings herself into her lover's arms. 'Awful things can happen,' she murmurs. 'Dreams can be revealed.' Nightmares as well, it seems. In the hour before dawn, Bergman's imagination remains the finest, and the most disturbing, of all the cinema's modern visionaries.

Excerpt of review from Excerpt from Philip Strick's Review in Sight & Sound located HERE

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Theatrical Release: February 19th, 1968

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DVD Comparison:

MGM (Special Edition) - Region 1 - NTSC vs. MGM - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Per-Olof Strandberg for the Region one Screen Caps and Stan Czarnecki for the review!

(MGM - Region 1 - NTSC - LEFT vs. MGM - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	MGM Region 1 - NTSC	MGM Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	1:27:24	1:23:48 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	1:1.33 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 7,81 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.73 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: MGM
Bitrate: MGM
Audio	Swedish (Dolby Digital 2.0)	Swedish, DUB: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	English, Spanish, French, None	English, Dutch, Greek, Rumanian, Italian, none
Features	Release Information: Studio: MGM Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1:1.33 Edition Details: • Audio commentary by Marc Gervais • Featurette (26:11) • Interview with Liv Ullmann (2:55) • Interview with Erland Josephson (3:35) • Trailer (2:11 / 4:3 / 1:1.66) • Photo Galleries • DVD-9 DVD Release Date: April 20, 2004 Keep Case Chapters 20	Release Information: Studio: MGM Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: DVD Release Date: August 2nd, 2004 Keep Case Chapters 16

Comments

ADDITION: Region 1- May 08': I can't find any reason why someone should buy the PAL version of this particular DVD. If you are Region 2-locked and don't have a multi-region player, it's time to purchase one. The R1 version is vastly sharper and has superior contrast. The R1 disc is a little bit cropped on the top of the image. On capture # 6 it's quite noticeable, especially when at the same time the R1 has more information at the bottom.

MGM did the first printing of this DVD in a mistake cropped to 1:1.66 from 1:1.37. MGM did replace the DVD in correct OAR (1:1.33) when DVDBeaver brought it to their attention (see HERE). For that reason, the the film clips on the extra material is in the wrong OAR, and presented in 1:1.66.

- Per-Olof Strandberg

ON THE PAL EDITION: A fine, but somewhat disappointing release by MGM. The image, though, is very satisfying. The contrast is always apt. Bergman experimented a lot with contrast in this period of his career, so there are scenes which are intentionally very dark (Ullmann and Sydow's conversations in the cottage at night), as well as scenes with perfectly balanced contrast (the dinner party) or sequences with a very strong contrast (the murder by the lake). The black and white image is also very crisp and sharp, displays a moderate amount of grain and has no digital noise whatsoever. So there's really nothing to complain about.

The audio is pretty flawless as well. The soundtrack is always clear and audible and Bergman's extraordinary audio effects sound very strong.

Alas, this British disc has been deprived of all the bonus material of the R1 release. The commentary, documentary and interviews that fill the dual-layered US disc are totally absent from this single-layered release. But if you don't mind that, then this very inexpensive, but image- and audio-wise great DVD of one of Bergman's greatest films is the way to go.

- Stan Czarnecki

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(MGM - Region 1 - NTSC - LEFT vs. MGM - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)