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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r |
Directed by Bill Morrison
USA 2021
During the summer of 2016, a fishing boat off the shores of Iceland made a most curious catch: four reels of 35mm film, seemingly of Soviet provenance. Unlike the film find explored in Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, it turned out this discovery wasn’t a lost work of major importance, but an incomplete print of a popular comedy starring beloved Russian actor Mihail Žarov. Does that mean it has no value? Morrison thought not. To him, the heavily water-damaged print, and the way it surfaced, could be seen as a fitting reflection on the life of Žarov, who loved this role so much that he even co-directed a sequel to it. In The Village Detective: a song cycle Morrison uses the story as a jumping off point for his latest meditation on cinema’s past, offering a journey into Soviet history and film accompanied by a gorgeous score by Pulitzer and Grammy®-winning composer David Lang. *** Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Iceland, July 9, 2016. The surprising discovery of a canister containing four reels of The Village Detective, a 1969 Soviet film, caught in the nets of an Icelandic trawler, is the first step in a fascinating journey through the artistic life of film and stage actor Mikhail Ivanovich Zharov (1899-1981), icon and star of an entire era of Russian cinema. |
Posters
Theatrical Release: April 27th, 2021 (Moscow International Film Festival)
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
Comparison
:Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray vs. Second Run - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Box Cover |
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Distribution | Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray | Second Run - Region FREE - Blu-ray |
Runtime | 1:20:50.136 | 1:20:47.041 |
Video |
1.78 :1 1080P Single-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 23,053,366,408 bytesFeature: 15,751,170,048 bytes Video Bitrate: 21.99 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video |
1.78 :1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 48,384,282,401 bytesFeature: 26,328,374,976 bytes Video Bitrate: 37.01 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video |
NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes. |
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Bitrate Kino Blu-ray: |
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Bitrate Second Run Blu-ray: |
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Audio |
DTS-HD Master
Audio English 1771 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1771 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 /
48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit) |
LPCM Audio English 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps /
16-bit LPCM Audio English 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit |
Subtitles | English, None | None |
Features |
Release Information: Studio: Kino
1.78 :1 1080P Single-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 23,053,366,408 bytesFeature: 15,751,170,048 bytes Video Bitrate: 21.99 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Edition Details:
• Three short films by Bill Morrison: Buried News (2021, 12:12), let me
come in (2021, 10:41), Sunken Films (2020, 10:51)
Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 11 |
Release Information: Studio: Second Run
1.78 :1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 48,384,282,401 bytesFeature: 26,328,374,976 bytes Video Bitrate: 37.01 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Edition Details:
• Newly filmed, exclusive interview with Bill Morrison (16:52)
Transparent Blu-ray Case Chapters 12 |
Comments: |
NOTE:
The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.
ADDITION: Second Run
Blu-ray
(February 2024): Second Run have also transferred Bill Morrison's The Village
Detective: a song cycle
to Blu-ray. It
is cited as "presented from a 4K
master, supervised and approved by director Bill Morrison". Despite
being a higher bitrate than the Kino - I couldn't find much a difference in
the image quality - although technically the UK disc is smoother in-motion. The 1080P image is housed on a
dual-layered Blu-ray
disc with a max'ed out bitrate. It is a fascinating documentary and has TV news
clips, older film footage, archival footage, modern interviews and, of
course, the decaying, nitrate-based footage with emulsion deterioration that
melts and burns similar to the director's
Dawson City: Frozen Time and
Decasia. You can see other examples in the
Bill Morrison: Selected Films 1996-2014
Blu-ray
set from BFI. The modern sequences are in 1.78:1 and appear to be shot on
HDV.
On their
Blu-ray,
Second Run offer linear PCM tracks (16-bit) in both 5.1 surround and 2.0
channel stereo options - in the
original English language with some Icelandic and Russian. The
Village Detective: a song cycle
is supported by a haunting score by David Lang (Wildlife,
Requiem
For a Dream) that carries reflecting, evocative intent in the
historical and unknown emotions that rise in the viewing of the film.
The Second Run has no English
subtitle option (but there are burned-in subs for the non
English-language sequences) on their Region FREE
Blu-ray.
The Second Run
Blu-ray
offer a new 1/4 hour interview with
Bill Morrison and four of his shorts - two
not available on the previous Kino
Blu-ray.
Beyond Zero: 1914-1918 runs 40-minutes from 2014 and sources original
35mm nitrate footage, filmmaker Bill Morrison pieces together a unique
visual exploration of WWI from footage that has never been viewed by modern
audiences, and will never be seen again outside of this film. Serbian
composer Aleksandra Vrebalov created the haunting score, commissioned and
performed by the Kronos Quartet. The Unchanging Sea is from 2018
running 1/2 hour and was inspired by the discovery of a decaying print of DW
Griffith's The Unchanging Sea (1910) in the nitrate vaults of the
Library of Congress. Taking this ancient title as its point of departure, a
new narrative was re-assembled from a variety of similarly ancient films
about going off to, and returning from, the Sea. The characters in these old
films appear to be emerging from the roiling oceans of Time, having floated
like messages in bottles for over one hundred years, and now having washed
up on our shores to tell us their stories. The remaining two are also
available on the Kino; let me come in (2021) is about
the re-purposing of an early nitrate film, Pawns of Passion
(Germany, 1928) which has begun deteriorating, into a new story,
allowing us to preserve what still remains while also appreciating the
beauty of its transformation. Music and lyrics have been added to
enhance the storytelling. Lastly is Sunken Films (2020)a
precursor to The Village
Detective: a song cycle.
The latter two run ten minutes each. There is a trailer an the package
has a liner notes booklet with new writing on the film by Peter N. Walsh.
Bill Morrison's The Village Detective: a
song cycle
is so rich in Soviet film history, mystery and a degree of
treasure-revealing wonderment. So, in 2016, an Icelandic fishing boat
pulls up four reels of 35mm film from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean,
twenty miles southeast of the 700,000 year old glacier Snæfellsjökull.
The ocean floor around the rift is rich in hydrogen sulfide, which has
immense preservation ability while resting on the seabed. Bill does his
thing and documents the 'find' showing the surviving elements,
discussing the actor and also gives a theory on how it ended up at the
bottom of the sea in that location. Remarkably he shows how parts of the celluloid were still
viewable and why the four reels were still found near each other. His work is aptly described as "a poetic reflection on the
ways in which biographies of film prints are interwoven with biographies
of human individuals, real and fictional, as well as broader historical
events and their mediations through cinema." I agree. The Village
Detective: a song cycle
is more of Bill Morrison's fascinating work. The Blu-rays
show this keen story in 1080P and include some shorts by the director
with the Second Run having two new that are over an hour in total.
Certainly recommended to historical film fans of Morrison's unique
niche of artistic cinema and the experiences it conveys.
***
On their
Blu-ray,
Kino offer DTS-HD Master tracks (16-bit) in both 5.1 surround and 2.0
channel stereo options - in the
original English language with some Icelandic and Russian. The
Village Detective: a song cycle
is supported by a haunting score by David Lang (Wildlife,
Requiem
For a Dream) that carries reflecting, evocative intent in the
historical and unknown emotions that rise in the viewing of the film. Kino offer optional English
subtitles on their Region 'A'
Blu-ray.
The Kino
Blu-ray
|
Menus / Extras
Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Second Run - Region FREE - Blu-ray
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