Jerichow - Benno Fürmann

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

directed by Christian Petzold
Germany 2008

A taut, brilliantly acted thriller. Here is a filmmaker, one of the most exciting to come from his country since the heyday of the New German Cinema, whose name critics should be shouting from the rooftops.

Product Description
In a small desolate town in northeastern Germany, a handsome ex-soldier, a Turkish businessman, and his beautiful, restless wife find themselves in a desperate love triangle in this suspenseful reworking of classic film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice from acclaimed director Christian Petzold...

***

Nothing in this movie may be that simple. Petzold, who also wrote the script, doesn’t make level one thrillers, and his characters may be smarter than us, or dumber. It’s never just about the plot, anyway. It has to do with random accidents, dangerous coincidences, miscalculations, simple mistakes. And the motives are never simple.

It’s easy to compare “Jerichow” with the films of “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” with the grimy gas station owner, the sexy wife and the rugged drifter, but people have a way of not behaving according to their superficial qualities. And there may be something going on here about the complexities of being a stranger in a very strange land.

Excerpt of reviewby Roger Ebert at the Chicago Sun-Times from located HERE

Poster

Theatrical Release: January 8th, 2009 (Germany)

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DVD Review: Cinema Guild - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Cinema Guild Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:31:42
Video	1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 6.75 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	German and Turkish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Cinema Guild Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1 Edition Details: • Trailers for four films by Christain Petzold • Making-of-Documentary (25:12) DVD Release Date: October 27th, 2009 Keep Case Chapters 18

Comments

"Jerichow", the second of a pair of films by Christian Petzold recently released by Cinema Guild, deftly tells the story of a disastrous love affair between a recently widowed ex-soldier and the wife of a thuggish and self-destructive businessman. As the box states, the film thematically recalls classic noirs like "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Double Indemnity". While its easy to be reminded of them when watching this film, Petzold veers off onto a different track than they do, focusing more on the fragility of his characters than on any considerations of doing the poor cuckold in. This is now the second film of Petzolds that I have seen, and while I wasn't as struck by this one as I was his "Ghosts", I now understand why some feel that Petzold is among the important directors to emerge in German cinema this decade.

Like their release of his "Ghosts", Cinema Guild has a fairly thick image that is not notably sharp. It may be the SD-DVD rendering of what could be heavy grain. It's never terribly distracting, and appears to be a decent progressive, dual-layered, and anamorphic transfer. Colors are quite briliant.

The audio here is quite strong. The surround-sound soundtrack sounded excellent on my system and was free of any distracting background noise. Unfortunately, the distributor chose a less than pleasant yellow block font for the subtitles that, while looking unattractive, always does the job that it was meant to do. Like their other recent Petzold release, the disc comes with trailers for four of his films, along with a decent "making of..." documentary.

While I do have some concerns over the transfer, the release itself is easy enough to recommend. The film is good, the sound is excellent, the picture acceptable, and the documentary informative. Those who enjoy Petzold's work will likely get a lot out of this release. Recommended.

- Brian Montgomery

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