Tesis Blu-ray - Ana Torrent

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

directed by Alejandro Amenábar
Spain 1996

The winner of 6 Goya Awards - including Best Picture - TESIS is an American-style thriller from Spain's director sensation Alejandro Amenabar (The Others, Open Your Eyes). Angela (Ana Torrent: Spirit of the Beehive, Cria), is a university student writing her thesis about violence in the media. During her research, she comes across a shocking ''snuff'' film (a film where a murder is actually committed for the camera) that has apparently been shot on the campus. Investigating further, she uncovers clues that the university s administrators may be involved in an unexplained series of student disappearances, leading her to the ultimate terrifying revelation: she might be the next victim. TESIS has been acclaimed by critics around the world as a superbly constructed thriller that generates considerable suspense and thrills from beginning to end.

***

"Tesis" focuses on Angela (Ana Torrent) who is a student at the School of Mass Communications. Angela is doing her thesis on media violence and society. She asks her advisor Professor Figueroa (Miguel Picazo) to help her find the kind of film that couldn’t be shown on television due to its violent content. Figueroa agrees to help her and searches the school’s archives for the material. He finds a tape, but he dies while watching it. Angela finds Figueroa’s body and takes the tape home. She enlists the help of fellow student Chema (Fele Martinez), who is seen as an outcast due to his love of violent films. They watch the tape together and discover that it is a snuff film. They recognize the girl who is being tortured on the tape as a student who disappeared two years ago. Angela and Chema set out to discover the murderer responsible for the tape, not realizing the danger that they are putting themselves in.

Posters

Theatrical Release Date: February 1996 (Berlin International Film Festival)

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Vanguard Films- Region 0 - NTSC vs. Tartan R0 PAL vs. Sogepaq CE - Region 2 - PAL vs. Bayview - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Bayview Entertainment - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Big thanks to Ole of DVDBasen for the Sogepaq CE R2 - caps and Gregory for the Tartan DVD screen caps!

Box Covers					Coming to 4K UHD from Umbrella in October 2024:
Distribution	Vanguard Films Region 1 - NTSC	Tartan Video Region 0 - PAL	Sogepaq CE Region 2 - PAL	Bayview Ent. Widowmaker Region 0 - NTSC	Bayview Entertainment Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:50:10 (4% PAL Speedup)	1:58:40 (4% PAL Speedup)	1:58:46 (4% PAL Speedup)	2:03:40	2:04:08.858
Video	1.66:1 Cropped Average Bitrate: 4.14 mb/s NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s	1.80:1 Slightly cropped Average Bitrate: 5.91 PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 7.54 PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1.85:1 Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 6.25 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 22,267,450,853 bytes Feature: 18,134,218,752 bytes Video Bitrate: 16.80 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Vanguard
Bitrate: Tartan
Bitrate: Sogepaq SE
Bitrate: Bayview Ent Widowmaker
Bitrate: Bayview Ent Blu-ray
Audio	Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)	Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)	Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)	Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0)	LPCM Audio English 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit
Subtitles	English, ( non removable )	English, none	English, Spanish, French and none	English, and none	English, and none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Vanguard Films DVD Release Date: Aspect Ratio: - 1.66:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: March 7, 2000 Keep Case Chapters 22	Release Information: Studio: Tartan Films Aspect Ratio: - 1.80:1 Edition Details: Original theatrical trailer Star and Director Filmographies 'Making of....' Documentary Poster and artwork Gallery Roger Clarke Film Notes World Cinema Trailer Reel DVD Release Date: Dec 26th, 2001 Keep Case Chapters 20	Sogepaq (Spain) - Region 2 Runtime: 1:58:46 (PAL) Av. bitrate: 7.54. Ratio: Anamorphic 1.85:1. None of the extras are subtitled! Extras (Disc 1): Commentary with Amenábar Presentation of the movie with Amenábar (1:34): 4 deleted scenes (:33, :41, 3:36, 2:10): Access to some story boards when the movie is playing with a press on a videotape in the corner: Extras (Disc 2): Alejandro Amenábar's short film "Himenóptero" (1991) (33:00): Making of (22:17) Galería gráfica: Promo photos, pressbook, loobycards, behind the scenes photos, posters, press material and others , total more than 50 images. 6 Story boards Trailer (1:32). DVD Release Date: May 2002 Keep Case Chapters 24	Release Information: Studio: Bayview / Widowmaker Aspect Ratio: - 1.85:1 Edition Details: Storyboard (9:25) 'Making of Tesis (24:50) Deleted Scenes (7:19) DVD Release Date: February 8th, 2011 Keep Case Chapters 12	Release Information: Studio: Bayview Entertainment 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 22,267,450,853 bytes Feature: 18,134,218,752 bytes Video Bitrate: 16.80 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Director Introduction (:52) • Touching Death (41:59) • The Making of Thesis (23:16) • Deleted Scenes (7:25) • Storyboards (9:26) Blu-ray Release Date: December 9th, 2014 Standard Blu-ray case inside cardboard slipcase Chapters: 13

Comments:

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

ADDITION: (December 2014) Bayview Region FREE - Blu-ray: That's a pretty big increase in the quality - which generally - was quite lackluster in the SDs. It is far brighter with much more realistic skin tones. It's far from perfect but is probably a solid representation of what the film looked like theatrically. It is 1.85:1 with layered contrast and I was surprised that it looked as good as it does.

The score is by Alejandro Amenábar himself (as he did in his own The Others) and Mariano Marín and it is transferred via a linear PCM stereo at 1536. It all sounds very atmospheric and crisp via the uncompressed. Excellent actually and there are optional, yellow, English subtitles.

Again, we don't get the commentary but there is a brief director introduction and a great Fiction Factory documentary - Touching Death runs 40-minute and it focuses on the acclaimed Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar discussing his debut feature, Tesis. Amenábar was interviewed in his Madrid home by Robert Fischer. There is also a 23-minute featurette entitled The Making of Thesis, some deleted scenes and the Storyboards as seen on other SD releases.

I've always been a fan of this film - because of Amenábar as a storyteller and Ana Torrent (Spirit of the Beehive) has an appealing presence. Yes, this Blu-ray is very recommended!

***

ADDITION: Bayview - February 2011: Apologies - our initial comparison was many years ago but we have utilized the same capture method to obtain the matched stills below. The new re-mastered Bayview looks as good as the Spanish edition, but it has no PAL speed-up and the extras have English subtitles. It is dual-layered and anamorphic. Visually it seems strong. Audio has only 2,0 channel but sounded clean and without flaw to me - in the original Spanish with optional English subtitles. Supplements include a 25-minute ''making of'' featurette, 7-mnute of deleted scenes, and an almost 10-minute piece on storyboarding. It would have been nice to have an Amenábar commentary - with English subs but I am content.

I've always liked this film - a lot - and it's nice to have a strong NTSC version finally available after all these years. Strongly recommended suspense, horror flic - let's hope we see more from Bayview Entertainment of the same caliber.

***

ON THE FIRST 3 DVDs: Wow, what a joke the Vanguard Region 1 DVD is... burned in subs, cropped, terrible picture quality. the tartan is at least in aspect ratio, but is a little hazy. The Sogepaq wins in all categories including sound with the 5.1 track. Some nice extras on the Region 2 PAL 2nd disc as well... too bad they aren't in English ( or have Eng subs ! ) but the Tartan (slightly cropped by the way) has a nice Making of Documentary too. Note: the Sogepaq is the Collectors Edition - I understand there is another earlier Spanish release.