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

ADDITION: Grasshopper Film Blu-ray (December 2019): Here is one of 2019 finest film's , the 4-hour (two-part) "A Bread Factory". With this latest release from director Patrick Wang, Grasshopper Film continue to build a truly enviable catalog of Blu-ray and DVD releases. Just look at some of their recent offerings; Bi Gan's "Kaili Blues", Hong Sangsoo's "Right Now, Wrong Then", Pedro Costa's "Casa de Lava", Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet's "Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach", Bertrand Bonello's "Nocturama", Claire Denis' "Towards Mathilde", and Robert Greene's "Bisbee '17". "A Bread Factory" comes with 2 discs, the first being a dual-layered Blu-ray housing both parts of the 4-hour film via the VC-1 encode. There is a modest bitrate, most likely the result of housing a 4-hour film on a single disc. The image is consistent throughout though, with a not-too defined look lacking crystal detail or wide range of contrast. All this is a little too nitpicky for a film that really demands to be seen. I imagine that the cost of splitting the film onto two Blu-rays wasn't feasible and that is just fine.

We are given the choice of either a DTS 5.1 Surround or 2.0 Dolby Stereo track for the film. Both are in English and the surround track is in 24-bit sound. While flipping between the two tracks I find little difference, though there does some to be some surround effects that would lend me to preferring the 5.1 option. The film features some effective and hilarious musical numbers, including one featuring a memorable selfie-brigade. Director Wang also contributed to writing some of the music for the film, along with Aaron Jordan, Chip Taylor and Melissa Li. Taylor provides the closing credits song, "Could You Be a Little Less Supportive". There are optional English, French, German, Portuguese, Chinese, and Korean subtitles on this Region 'Free' Blu-ray from Grasshopper Film.

The extras are located on the second disc (a DVD as opposed to the main Blu-ray that houses the 2 films). The first extra is a discussion between Patrick Wang and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum which lasts for almost an hour. This is a must-watch discourse and dissection of the film, and is well accompanied by Jonathan Rosenbaum's typically cogent write-up on the film for Artforum located HERE. "Filming Hecuba" spends around 23-minutes focusing on filming the Euripedes play within the film. A music video for Chip Taylor's "Sir Walter" is included here, as is the film's trailer (for both parts 1 & 2).

If you haven't already noticed, "A Bread Factory" is one of the best films that I have seen this year. Grasshopper Film continue to be a truly essential curator and purveyor of cinema. This film reminds me of another recent classic, Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York". Both films feature such grand expression and meaning within the idea of microcosms. If Kaufman's film left you heart-broken, there is possibly more hope here in "A Bread Factory", at least I think there is.  

Colin Zavitz