Review by Gary Tooze

Production:

Theatrical: Cinema Guild

Disc:

Video:

Audio:

• 8 Cinema Guild Preview/trailers
• 2-page liner notes introduction by film critic Elvis Mitchell
• Collectible Marwencol mini-print by Mark Hogancamp

Bitrate:

 

Description: Outside a small bar in Kingston, NY, Mark Hogancamp was beaten nearly to death, his memories wiped away. Seeking recovery, he builds Marwencol, a miniature World War II-era town filled with doll versions of his friends, fantasies, and even his attackers. As he documents the town's dramas with his camera, the dolls become living characters in an epic tale of love, adventure, resurrection and revenge. When his photos are discovered by the art world, Mark is suddenly forced to choose between the safety of his imaginary world and the real world he's avoided since the attack.

Winner of over a dozen awards, including two Independent Spirit Awards and Best Documentary of the Year from Boston Society of Film Critics.

See some of Hogencamp's photography HERE

 

 

The Film:

Excerpt from Ann Hornaday at the Washington Post located HERE

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

Marwencol was shot on digital and is directly transferred to Blu-ray - hence using a 1080i transfer.  The film is filled with still photographs of the posed action figures that are often stunning in their quality showing some real depth and strong, true, colors. This is only single-layered with a small feature size but an acceptable bitrate. The interlaced combing in the live action sequences is not overly disturbing but the disparity between them and the static shots are noticeable. It kind of brings the war fantasy to a higher plain. This Blu-ray offers the best presentation for the limited budget film and there are plenty of visuals that are highly impressive - as I hope the screen captures below indicate.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The track is lossless but expectantly modest utilizing a DTS-HD Master stereo rendering at 1704 kbps. There is some nice WW2 music and an original score by Ash Black Bufflo but this is a documentary with narration and not much in the way of effects or separations necessary. There is a bit of expectedly scattered dialogue and no range of depth - authentic to the original production. There are no subtitles offered and my Momitsu has identified it as being region FREE.

Extras :

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
A totally unique film experience - Marwencol is wonderful - a kind of psychological adventure. I've definitely had my head turned by a healthy handful of documentaries this past year - more than ever before - and this fits perfectly in that category. With all the action-figure poses this works very well via Blu-ray, in my opinion. Technically we have a modest production of a stirring piece of cinema that benefits from the new format transfer. We endorse Marwencol very much... 

Gary Tooze

April 8th, 2011