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The Belly of an Architect [Blu-ray]
(Peter Greenaway, 1987)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Tangram Film / MGM Video: BFI
Disc: Region: 'B' (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:59:12.041 Disc Size: 34,279,295,586 bytes Feature Size: 30,144,227,328 bytes Video Bitrate: 29.85 Mbps Chapters: 12 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: June 18th, 2012
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles: English (SDH), none
Extras:
• Insight: Terence Conran (Peter Greenaway, 1981, 14:33):
portrait of the designer and entrepreneur with an uncredited
score by Micheal Nyman
Bitrate:
Description: World Premiere Blu-ray edition, and first time
on DVD or
Blu-ray
in the UK for one of Peter Greenaway's
most acclaimed films.
The Film: Without question, Mr. Greenway deserves credit for naming his hero Stourley Kracklite, calling his villain Caspasian Speckler, and using his film to celebrate Rome and its architecture with such elegance and discernment. But ''The Belly of an Architect'' may have as much to do with one man's intestinal maladies as with art, beauty, obsession, permanence and mortality, subjects to which it also pays some attention. It's hard to know. And watching the film's visual obsessiveness - with architectural shapes and symmetry, with cool, stationary long shots, even with the marble surfaces and deep, velvety tones that give it visual texture - becomes an ever less rewarding pursuit as the measure of the film's solipsism becomes known. Excerpt from Janet Maslin at the NY Times located HEREAmerican architect Stourley Kracklite (Brian Dennehy) comes with his young wife Louisa (Chloe Webb) to Rome to supervise an exhibition devoted to Etienne-Louis Boullée, a French architect of the 18th century. Suffering from severe abdominal pains, Stourley doesn't pay much attention to his pregnant wife, and she finds consolation in the arms of suave Caspasian Speckler (Lambert Wilson). Built from rigidly symmetrical images, the film has quite an unusual subject: the belly -- both the sick one of the architect and the pregnant one of his wife, the rounded forms alluding to the spherical constructions designed by Boullée, the architect whose visionary projects seldom materialized. Beautifully shot on location in Rome, this ironic fable wittily examines the issues of artistic creativity. Excerpt from MRQE located HERE
Image : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. Peter Greenaway's gorgeous The Belly of an Architect appears very strong on Blu-ray from the BFI in the UK. The image is thick with grain and texture, colors (reds and maroons are prominent) are vivid and I'd describe the overall appearance as being 'rich'. There is some noise in the darker sequences. The transfer is dual-layered with a high bitrate. Skin tones seem true and contrast exhibits healthy, rich black levels. Detail has impressive moments in close-ups. The 1.85:1 transfer is very clean without speckles or damage. This Blu-ray seems to be exporting a very authentic, consistent, and film-like representation of the film.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :BFI have gone with a linear PCM 2.0 channel track at 2304 kbps . Every nuance of the audio is clean and clear. The original music was composed by Wim Mertens and supports the film very using the lossless rendering. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles and my Momitsu has identified it as being a region 'B'-locked.
Extras : Extras on the disc include Insight: Terence Conran - a 15-minute, 1981, Peter Greenaway film as a portrait of the designer and entrepreneur with an uncredited score by Micheal Nyman. The package contains a fully illustrated booklet with newly essay, interview, biographies and credits by Michael Brooke, Donald Ranvaud and Marcia Landy and being dual-format we get a DVD that has DVD-ROM content featuring original script, press pack and sheet music.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze June 8th, 2012
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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 5000 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.
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