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Berberian Sound Studio [Blu-ray]
(Peter Strickland, 2011)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Illuminations Films Video: Artificial Eye
Disc: Region: 'B' (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:32:07.563 Disc Size: 45,332,345,821 bytes Feature Size: 24,712,747,008 bytes Video Bitrate: 26.00 Mbps Chapters: 12 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: December 31st, 2012
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio Italian 3335 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3335 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit) LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit Commentary: LPCM Audio Italian 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles: English, none
Extras: • Audio commentary by director Peter Strickland• Interview with Peter Strickland (32:25) • The making of Berberian Sound Studio (46:48) • Deleted scenes with commentary by Peter Strickland (19:55) • Production design gallery (20:28) • 'Box Hill' extended documentary (5:19) • 'Berberian Sound Studio' original short film (1:00) • Theatrical trailer (1:36)
Bitrate:
Description: 1976: A timid sound engineer from rural Surrey arrives in Italy to work on a mysterious horror film, mixing blood-curdling screams with the grotesque sounds of hacked vegetables. But as the on-screen violence seeps into his consciousness reality and fantasy become blurred and the nightmare starts to awake. Daringly original and masterfully constructed, this inspired homage to 70s Giallo horror is a devastating assault on the eyes and brain, already being compared to the films of Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch.
The Film:
One of the underappreciated cinematic gems of 2012, Berberian Sound
Studio features the superb Toby Jones as a sound engineer working in
the mid-1970s. For his next job, he heads to Italy, to start working on
a new horror movie, where his task is to put together the audio mix for
the film. However, things don’t prove to be that simple. As he watches
more and more of the movie in question, Jones’ character gets
increasingly affected by it, to the detriment of his mental state. As he
does so, Berberian Sound Studio intelligently pays homage to the
likes of Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, and it emerges as something of a
love letter to the Italian horror movies of the era. A delicately detailed immersion into the world of Z-grade Italian horror cinema that ultimately may or may not be a horror film itself, Peter Strickland's "Berberian Sound Studio" is a tense, teasing triumph. Affording the humble sound engineer his finest onscreen showcase since Brian De Palma's "Blow Out," this exquisitely crafted sophomore feature makes good on the atmospheric promise of Strickland's debut, "Katalin Varga," and offers British thesp Toby Jones a subtle moment in the spotlight. Excerpt from MRQE located HERE
Image : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. Berberian Sound Studio gets a solid transfer to Blu-ray from Artificial Eye. It is definitely into dual-layered territory and has a decent bitrate for the 1.5 hour feature. The improved contrast adds subtle layers to the visuals with defined shadows and occasional depth. There is only some minor noise. The 1080P supports a pleasing appearance in the 1.85:1 frame. It's pristinely clean showcasing some hi-def detail and there are really no flaws with the rendering. This Blu-ray probably looks like exactly the theatrical version of the film. It supplied a fine video presentation.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :Audio comes in the form of a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround at a strong 3335 kbps. Of course, there are plenty of sound effects and they ring very true via the uncompressed with deft separations. Generally the rendering is quite impressive. There is also a linear PCM stereo option and there are optional English subtitles for the non-English dialogue and my Momitsu has identified it as being a region 'B'-locked.
Extras : As well as an interesting audio commentary by director Peter Strickland, there are almost 2 hours of video extras including a 1/2 interview with Strickland, a 3/4 hour Making Of..., 20-minutes of deleted scenes with commentary by the director, a production design gallery, 'Box Hill' - an extended documentary lasting 5-minutes and the original short film for the project, as well as a theatrical trailer. Fans will enjoy delving into these.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze January 1st, 2013
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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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