Review by Brian Montgomery
Production:
Theatrical:
Trotwood Productions Inc.
Video:
BFI Video
Disc:
Region: FREE!
(as verified by the
Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player)
Runtime: 2:02:04
Disc Size: 38,794,105,520 bytes
Feature Size: 23,121,653,952 bytes
Video Bitrate: 21.73 Mbps
Chapters: 12
Case: Standard Blu-ray case
Release date: May 25th, 2009
Video:
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 matted to 1.78
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio:
LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps /
24-bit
Subtitles:
English, none
Extras:
• Alternative, more explicit,
version of the feature
• Three 60s London Sketches; Pub
(Peter Davis, 1962, 15 mins);
Chelsea Bridge Boys (Peter Davis,
Staffan Lamm, 1966, 28 mins); Strip
(Peter Davis, Staffan Lamm, Don
Defina, 1966, 26 mins)
• Original trailer
• Illustrated booklet with essay by
novelist and critic Stewart Home
(author of Down and Out in
Shoreditch and Hoxton); original
review and promotional material;
recollections by Davis, Defina and
Lamm
Bitrate:
The Film:
Less focused even than its
companion piece
Primitive London
from 1965, what Miller's film does
offer is an intriguing little window
onto the tensions between that
mythical city Swinging London, and
the prosaic reality for the dancers,
drinkers, workers, and punters all
hankering after a little late night
action....Like
Primitive London,
David Gell's narration warns that
there's nothing quite as expensive
as a cheap thrill. That attitude may
be a little rich, given that the
film trades shamelessly on the thing
it purports to expose, but 40 years
on and even the hypocrisy looks
rather quaint. London In The Raw's
roots lie in the 'mondo'-style
documentary - a cheerfully cynical
hybrid of eye-popping revelation and
awkward theatricality. Ironically,
it's the implausibly staged
sequences which now provide some of
the kitsch appeal, but even without
them Miller's film is a fascinating
historical document.
Excerpt of review from Jon Fortgang
at Channel 4
located HERE
Image:
The BFI deserves a lot of credit for
the image quality here. Given the
time and conditions that this film
was made in, one would expect a a
good deal of scratches, and
damage. Yet, you will find none
of that here. Instead, the image
looks glorious in 1080p on both cuts
of the film. The skin tones appear
natural given the lighting (mostly
indoors in low lights). The color is
often vibrant with sharp details and
there is no evidence whatsoever of
artificial manipulations. It's clear
that there was a lot of effort put
into restoration here, and that work
really shines through. The
disc is advertised as 'Remastered
to HD from the original negative'
and has the same consistent grain as
Primitive London.
This appearance is quite strong on
Blu-ray.
There is no gloss and the feature
takes up over 23 Gig of the
dual-layered disc and there doesn't
appear to be any intrusive DNR or
edge enhancements. This is another
solid job by the BFI's Flipside.
Audio & Music:
The dialogue always sounds crisp
without any evidence of
unintentional background
noise(those meant to be in the film
are always balanced nicely against
the narration and music so that we
never miss anything), hisses or
pops. You can always clearly hear
the narration and the music comes
across as wonderful, particularly in
the final scene. The disc also comes
with English subtitles for the deaf
and hearing impaired which, unlike
some recent releases always
corresponded with what was actually
on screen. Oh, and despite what the
BFI's website says, this is indeed,
region free!
Extras:
The additional cut of the film is
memorable not just for shortening
some of the longer scenes, but also
containing differences on how the
film's nudity is handled. In the
theatrical cut the nudity (mostly
bared breasts) is often done in a
long shot, thereby obscuring some of
it. In the alternate cut the nudity
is presented less modestly, with
clear medium shots and perhaps a few
extra nude women (and a transvestite
stripper) that weren't in the
theatrical edition. While there are
some interesting parts of scenes
missing, there is also some non-nude
material that I believe was added,
most interestingly a group of
beatniks dining on gourmet cat food!
The short subjects "Chelsea Bridge
Boys" and "Pub" seem a bit out of
place on this disc, as this film's
sequel, "Primitive London" dealt
more with bikers and pubs. Both
present fascinating subjects that
provide us with a glimpse into
London in the early 1960's. Yet, I
for one, found the cinéma vérité
"Strip" to be the real gem in the
bunch. Here we get to see a group of
women at a London strip club give an
unobtrusive guide through their
lives and their reasons for
stripping. Finally, the BFI has also
included a 37 page booklet with
widely entertaining promotional
material interspersed between some
rather informative essays on the
films and filmmakers.
Bottom line:
I consider this to be an obvious
purchase to anyone interested in
cult and exploitation cinema. Beyond
that it provides us with a
fascinating glimpse into a city that
has undoubtedly changed much in the
45 years that this was made. Lacking
much of the faux moralizing of its
successor (just think of
Primitive London's key party scene) and
simply presenting much of the
underground scene without judging,
makes for a more enjoyable overall
experience. For me this is an easy
disc to recommend. After all, who
wouldn't love a film that ends by
thanking both the Whiskey A Gogo and
Omar Khayyam?
Brian Montgomery
September 10th, 2009