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

H D - S E N S E I

A view on Blu-ray by Gary W. Tooze

Deep End [Blu-ray]

(Jerzy Skolimowski, 1970)

Review by Gary Tooze

Production:

Theatrical: Bavaria Film

Video: BFI (Flipside) / Carlotta

Disc:

Region: FREE! Region 'B' (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player)

Runtime: 1:31:41.495 / 1:31:30.000

Disc Size: 43,826,230,670 bytes / 35,643,803,576 bytes

Feature Size: 20,325,734,400 bytes / 24,065,624,064 bytes

Video Bitrate: 26.45 Mbps / 29.98 Mbps

Chapters: 12 / 15

Case: Transparent Blu-ray case (same inside cardboard sleeve box)

Release date: July 18th, 2011 / November 28th, 2011

Video: (same on both)

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Resolution: 1080p / 24 fps

Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

Audio:

LPCM Audio English 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit

LPCM Audio English 768 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 16-bit
LPCM Audio French 768 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 16-bit

Subtitles:

English (SDH), none

French, none

Extras:

• Starting Out: The Making of Deep End (2011, 73 mins): an in-depth documentary about the making of the film, featuring interviews with Jerzy Skolimowski, Jane Asher, John Moulder Brown, and principle crew
• Deep End: The Deleted Scenes (2011, 8 mins): featurette about sequences removed from the film
• Careless Love (Francine Winham, 1977, 10 mins): Rare and disturbing tale in which a woman (Jane Asher) takes drastic actions to keep the affections of the man she loves.
• Illustrated booklet featuring new sleevenote essay by David Thompson

DVD of the feature included

• Starting Out: The Making of Deep End (2011, 1:14:54 in 1080i): an in-depth documentary about the making of the film, featuring interviews with Jerzy Skolimowski, Jane Asher, John Moulder Brown, and principle crew (French subtitles)

• Deep End: Remembering The Deleted Scenes (12:15 in 1080i): featurette about sequences removed from the film

• "Deep End" C'est Moi - (3:41 in 1080i)

• Careless Love (Francine Winham, 1977, 10:06 in 1080P): Rare and disturbing tale in which a woman (Jane Asher) takes drastic actions to keep the affections of the man she loves.

Bitrate:

BFI - Region FREE - Blu-ray - TOP vs. Carlotta - Region 'B' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM

Description: The Swinging Sixties are over and the long, grey morning after has only just begun. But there are still eye-opening new experiences in store for wet-behind-the-ears teenager Mike (John Moulder-Brown) when he takes a job at a rundown London swimming baths. After one of its more mature visitors steamily attempts to take advantage (Diana Dors, in a superb cameo), he gradually wises up to find himself adrift with an increasingly obsessive interest in sassy, self-assured, co-worker Susan (played by a seductive Jane Asher). Giddily he follows her into the grimy underbelly of Soho for a long dark night of the soul -- soundtracked with great intensity by legendary Krautrock band Can. Will Mike sabotage Susan's relationship with her fiancé and get together with her instead?

Jerzy Skolimowski's compelling, darkly poetic portrait of Britain in an era of uncertainty.

The Film:

The Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski has been making movies since 1964. He has had showings, especially film festival showings, from the beginning, and he has received a good deal of serious critical attention. But he has not, at least in this country, enjoyed great popularity even with the minuscule movie audience that supports in spirit, if not with cash, whatever really matters in the new and newest cinema.

One reason is that a time lag generally attaches to East European cinema which, like Skolimowski's, follows Western modes, and automatically renders the latest thing just a little old hat. But there are other reasons in the personality of the filmmaker himself, a penchant for fashionable rhetorical postures, a tendency toward surface obscurity without much real complexity underneath, an addiction to more strained anguish than most audiences—or even Skolimowski's own point of view—could really handle.

Excerpt from The NY Times located HERE

The pool is often a hotspot of youthful longing and discovery in cinema, and in this 1970 film, re-released by the BFI, Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski brings the generational confusion, pop sensibilities and emotional chaos of late 1960s Britain to a tattered old London bathhouse.

Excerpt from TimeOut London located HERE

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

Deep End appears highly impressive on dual-layered Blu-ray from the BFI. The image quality shows some consistent grain, credible detail and even some surprising depth. It is exceptionally clean, colors are bright (notable are pastel greens) and it supplies a very strong presentation. This Blu-ray has a dynamic feel with solid contrast. This exceeded my expectations in terms of appearance. I think most purchasers will be extremely impressed.

Not enough of a difference visually that we can comment on between the BFI and the Carlotta. Both are dual-layered, colors match-up precisely and the bitrate is very similar. This is probably from the same source. Technically the French Blu-ray has a slight edge - this also looks very strong.

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

BFI - Region FREE - Blu-ray - TOP vs. Carlotta - Region 'B' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM

More Blu-ray Captures

Audio :

Audio comes via a linear PCM in 2.0 channel at 1536 kbps. Musically we have as varied as "But I Might Die Tonight" (Cat Stevens), the Krautrock band Can (Mother Sky) and even Richard Wagner sounding pretty clean and tight. There are optional English subtitles and my Momitsu has identified it as being a region FREE disc playable on Blu-ray machines worldwide.

The Carlotta offers a similar linear PCM in true one channel mono - as well as an optional French DUB - also in lossless. Sound quality is without flaw and probably a very strong representation of the theatrical. There are optional French subtitles on the region 'B'-locked Blu-ray disc.

Extras :

Extensive extras including a DVD of the feature (hence entitled a 'Dual-Format package') We get Starting Out: The Making of Deep End over 1:13 made in 2011. It is an in-depth Fiction Factory documentary about the making of the film, featuring interviews with Jerzy Skolimowski, Jane Asher, John Moulder Brown, and principle crew. There are 8-minutes of deleted scenes via a 2011 featurette about sequences removed from the film. Careless Love is 10-minutes long from 1977 - a short by Francine Winham, described as a rare and disturbing tale in which a woman (Jane Asher) takes drastic actions to keep the affections of the man she loves. Also included is an illustrated booklet featuring new sleevenote essay by David Thompson.

NOTE: The 3-Disc Collector's edition HERE contains and exclusive bonus DVD featuring Q&A with Jane Asher and John Moulder Brown.

The Carlotta offers the same extensive 'Making of...', the Deleted Scenes and Careless Love short - all with French subtitles - plus a 'C'est Moi featurette although they lose the second disc DVD and the sleevenotes. The bulk is there and the video pieces are in HD.

BFI - Region FREE - Blu-ray - LEFT vs. Carlotta - Region 'B' - Blu-ray - RIGHT

BOTTOM LINE:
This may be my favorite 'Flipside' release from BFI (incidentally spine #19 of that series). You can really get into the physical and social setting of Deep End especially via the pristine transfer of the Blu-ray. This is yet another very cool Skolimowski film and one we can recommend via BFI's highly pleasing, and region FREE, package.

Great French-friendly package from Carlotta - essentially equal to the BFI on a/v and extras - if losing the region FREE status. Skolimowski's film is addictive and improves upon re-visitation. Certainly recommended!

Gary Tooze

August 6th, 2011

November 22nd, 2011

About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500 DVDs and have reviewed over 3500 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.

Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction.

Gary's Home Theatre:

60-Inch Class (59.58” Diagonal) 1080p Pioneer KURO Plasma Flat Panel HDTV PDP6020-FD

Oppo Digital BDP-83 Universal Region FREE Blu-ray/SACD Player
Momitsu - BDP-899 Region FREE Blu-ray player
Marantz SA8001 Super Audio CD Player
Marantz SR7002 THX Select2 Surround Receiver
Tannoy DC6-T (fronts) + Energy (centre, rear, subwoofer) speakers (5.1)

APC AV 1.5 kVA H Type Power Conditioner 120V

Gary W. Tooze

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