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BFI

Region 2 - PAL

1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 6.40 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.

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1

Edition Details:
• Feature Commentary by Bracewell, Tarter and Sather
• Gigolos Uncovered (29:22)
• The Big Idea: A Portrait of Entrepreneuroal Britain: A Short Folm fromthe Crerative Team Behind
• Interview with Director (6:57)
• How to Write a Hollywood Screenplay: A Short Film Written by and Starring David Wolstencroft (13:31)
• Original Trailer
• Illustrated Booklet

DVD Release Date: February 9th, 2009
Keep Case

Chapters 19

As Sacha Tarter tells us at the beginning of the “making of…” documentary on “The Gigolos”, he and his partner Trevor Sather, were inspired to make the film in the mold of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s productions. Unfortunately, nothing that the duo comes up with in this film approaches the genius of the best work of Gervais and Merchant. Instead, their slow moving and entirely improvised dialogue can occasionally be chuckle inducing, but I found that it rarely rose above that. While it is an interesting experiment in pure improvisation, the overall experience was somewhat underwhelming. Although I wouldn’t call it a bad film, it’s not a memorable one, and I doubt that I’ll ever feel compelled to experience it again. While I realize that the film has quite a large fan base in Britain, I’m afraid that I simply did not see the same charms that they have.

The anamorphic image on this dual layered disc suffers from one major problem. The film was originally shot on 16 mm stock, but was later blown up to 35 mm, creating an exaggerated and unrealistic grain structure. Consequently, the sharpness of the image leaves a lot to be desired. This was, I suppose, the best that the BFI could have done with the print, and they’ve done an admirable job with the rest of it as well, since there are no instances of damage or manipulation. Still, given that some of the extras look far superior to the main feature, I can’t help but feel disappointed.

The film’s soundtrack is presented here in the original English, with a choice between Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1. Predictably, the latter choice is the superior of the two, offering more in the way of sharpness and clarity. The stereo option, however, is a decent enough choice for those without surround sound, as neither track seems to suffer from any unwanted background noise. The subtitles are easily read, and unobtrusive.

The BFI has gathered together a decent amount of extras for this release. First, there is a commentary featuring the two leads and the director. While I haven’t been able to listen to more than a few excerpts of the commentary at the time of writing this, from what I’ve heard, the participants maintain the dry humor of the film itself and detail the production of the film. The behind the scenes documentary adds on to this, showing the principle collaborators discussing the making of the film in a roundtable meeting, interspersed with images of the production and the film itself. There’s also an interview with the director, discussing his collaboration with the two stars and directing them. Next, there’s an unusually thin booklet (only 9 pages this time around) containing an essay on the film and the director. Finally, aside from a theatrical trailer, the disc also contains two comedy shorts from the makers that are decent enough.

 - Brian Montgomery

CLICK to order from:

BFI

Region 2 - PAL