Punch-Drunk Love Blu-ray

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

(aka 'Just Desserts' or 'Punchdrunk Knuckle Love' or 'Untitled P.T. Anderson Project' or 'The X-4 Project')

directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

USA 2002

During the press conference in Cannes after the screening of "Magnolia", Paul Thomas Anderson was asked, what his next project would be. The answer: "I'm gonna make a 80 minute comedy with Adam Sandler". Everyone laughed, but once he actually did, he had the last laugh.

To Paul Thomas Anderson, it was impossible to follow up on "Magnolia". It was the most complex narrative he ever had written and in structure an advancement to both "Boogie Nights" and "Hard Eight". He felt trapped, he felt that he had reached a dead end, he felt stereotyped by the press as "the boy wonder who makes complex collective narratives". So in order to get away from the stereotype, to get some artistic creativity and freedom, Paul Thomas Anderson destroyed the path he was walking and made himself a new one with the help of friend Adam Sandler. Adam and Paul were close friends and had for some time been discussing a project together. Especially Adam Sandler would like to do serious acting and the timing was perfect for Paul Thomas Anderson.

Where the three former films all had fancy montages, he devised the mise-en-scene with cinematographer Robert Elswit to be deep compositions, attacking the integrity of the frame and the conventions of space. Using a special stock that is very sensitive to light, Elswit shot most of the film underexposed to give shadows more room to play. The cinematography and special composition in "Punch Drunk Love" is nothing less than stunning: And possible some of the most original and best cinematography to come out of Hollywood in years (Look at the grabs to view how Elswit and Anderson composed in space). It is also the first film by Paul Thomas Anderson, where he actively uses colors as here: Especially Blue and Red are worth a close examination.

The story is deceptive simple. Barry is sociophob and suffers from a few other emotional disorders as well, which he tries to keep at bay, when not being harassed by his seven sisters. One day he meets Lena and he falls in love. Now he just has to accept the emotion and win Lena's heart.

Once again, Paul Thomas Anderson demonstrates what great director he is. Alone that he manages to keep Sandler under control should say it all, but it is far more interesting to look at how wonderful he makes Emily Watson appear. Also the sequences where he uses overlapping dialogue are so free and natural. He was rightfully awarded for his efforts in Cannes, where he received the "Best Director" award. out of

Henrik Sylow

Posters

Theatrical Release: 19 May 2002 (Cannes Film Festival) (premiere)

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Comparison:

Columbia Tri-Star - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Criterion - Region 'A' + 'B' - Blu-ray

Box Covers		Also available from Criterion on Blu-ray in the UK one week later: Coming to 4K UHD from Criterion in February 2025:
Distribution	Columbia Tri-Star Region 1 - NTSC	Criterion Collection - Spine # 843 - Region 'A' + 'B' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:35:03	1:35:19.755
Video	2.35:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 7.58 mb/s NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s	2.40:1 1080P / 23.976 fps Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 46,207,788,529 bytes Feature: 28,855,412,736 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.77 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes
Bitrate:
Bitrate: Blu-ray
Audio	5.1 Dolby Digital English, 6.1 DTS English, 5.1 Dolby Digital French	DTS-HD Master Audio English 3541 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3541 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	English, French, None	English (SDH), None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Columbia Tri-Star Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1 Edition Details: • 12 page art booklet • 3 Theatrical trailers • Deleted scenes • Mattress Man commercial • 12 Scopitones • Additional artwork by Jeremy Blake DVD Release Date: June 24, 2003 Custom Case (2 Disc) Chapters 22	Release Information: Studio: Criterion 2.40:1 1080P / 23.976 fps Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 46,207,788,529 bytes Feature: 28,855,412,736 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.77 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Blossoms & Blood, a short 2002 piece by Anderson featuring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, along with music by Jon Brion (11:58) • New interview with Brion (27:19) • New piece featuring behind-the-scenes footage of a recording session for the film’s soundtrack (9:56) • New conversation between curators Michael Connor and Lia Gangitano about the art of Jeremy Blake, used in the film (20:25) • Additional artwork by Blake (2:42) • Cannes Film Festival press conference from 2002 (37:43) Interviews at cannes (7:02) • NBC News interview from 2000 with David Phillips, the “pudding guy” (5:04) • Twelve Scopitones (6:20) • Deleted scenes (The Sisters Call - 7:18, "Are You From California - 2:23) • Mattress Man commercial (0:52) • Trailers (theatrical - 2:27, Jeremy's Blake's Love - 1:24, Eat Tomorrow - 0:33) • PLUS: An essay by filmmaker, author, and artist Miranda July Blu-ray Release Date: November 15th + 21st, 2016 Transparent Blu-ray Case Chapters 10

Comments

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

ADDITION: Criterion Region 'A' - Blu-ray - October 2016: Criterion's 1080P transfer is "supervised by director Paul Thomas Anderson". It's a textbook improvement across the board with the richness of the colors (Barry's blue jacket) standing out prominently as a huge example of the higher resolution superiority. Skin tones warm. Detail significantly tightens and there is now depth to the visuals. It looks fabulous on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate.

For the audio Criterion use a robust DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround at 3541 kbps (24-bit) and the film's effects are deep and dialogue crisp and even. The addictive score by Jon Brion (Synecdoche, New York, Andersons Magnolia and Hard Eight) sounds tremendous in the lossless. The film's music is augmented by Ladies K performing Waikiki, the frequent refrain of He Needs Me performed by Shelley Duvall and Conway Twitty's Danny (Lonely Blue Boy). There are optional English (SDH) subtitles on the Region 'A' Blu-ray disc - but this is being released in region 'B' Blu-ray one week later.

Blossoms & Blood is a 12-minute short 2002 piece by Anderson featuring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, along with music by Jon Brion with plenty of Jeremy Blake digital art. There is a new 27-minute interview with composer Jon Brion and also presented is 10-minutes of footage from one of the orchestra recording sessions for Brion's score. There is a new 20-minute conversation between curators Michael Connor and Lia Gangitano about the art of Jeremy Blake, used in the film . Blake (1971-2997) was a noted digital artist and painter, who created the abstract imagery featured in Punch-Drunk Love. In the conversation bewteen Connor and Gangitano they discuss Blake's work on the film and his career as a whole. Also presented are some additional artwork Blake created for Punch-Drunk Love that runs as a slideshow for under 3-minutes. We get the interesting Cannes Film Festival press conference from 2002 (37:43) and 7-minutes of group interviews with Sandler, Watson, Hoffman and Anderson. Repeated from the 2003 DVD release is the 5-minute NBC News interview from 2000 with David Phillips, the “pudding guy”, the Twelve Scopitones, 2 deleted scenes (The Sisters Call - 7:18, "Are You From California" - 2:23) and the Mattress Man commercial with Hoffman. There are trailers and the package has a liner notes booklet with an essay by filmmaker, author, and artist Miranda July.

I've been re-watching and talking about Punch-Drunk Love for 10 years. I've shown it to dozens of friends. It's such a quirky masterpiece. Brilliant filmmaking by Anderson and this Blu-ray package is surely a must-own for film fans. Our highest recommendation!

***

ON THE DVD: While the Superbit DVD as always is perfect in sound and vision, especially the DTS track is nothing less than amazing, this DVD is simply to weak. As a 2 Disc SE, one would expect more than 3 trailers, a 14 minute featurette and a few deleted scenes to fill out an entire DVD. Where we have grown accustomed to warm and intelligent audio commentaries from PTA, we get nothing here.

Get the single Disc edition, which is the exact same as Disc 1 and save $10, unless you want everything this Superbit DVD has to offer.

- Henrik Sylow

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