NOTE: WE HAVE ONLY SEEN 5 ONLINE SCREENERS
An agent provocateur, a cunning trickster, a difficult auteur and much more. This is the noise that surrounds the myth of Lars Von Trier. I will always have a rather high level of excitement on the eve of any of his films release (although his last film THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT was numbing and dull in equal measures). So when rumours, then whispers, then reader emails and calls flooded in, we knew this set, as anticipated by us, was, neigh, would be a contender for most interested set of the year.
LARS VON TRIER – A CURZON COLLECTION – 14 Blu-Ray Collector Set
Featuring in the set film wise is ELEMENT OF CRIME (restored), EPIDEMIC (restored), EUROPA (restored), BREAKING THE WAVES (restored), THE IDIOTS (restored), DOGVILLE (restored), THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS, MANDERLAY, THE BOSS OF IT ALL (restored), ANTICHRIST, MELANCHOLIA, NYMPHOMANIAC THE DIRECTORS CUT I & II and THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT.
Wow. LARS VON TRIER is a defining character of cinema and more than the Dogme 95 (alongside Thomas Vinterberg) creator.
He is a director not uncommon with confrontational and extreme cinema that asks its audience questions but also avoids answers. Thinking in terms of his work, he is only closely matched by Gasper Noe in terms of challenge in content and Steven Soderberg in terms of revolution in use of form (see GREYS ANATOMY,SCHIZOPOLIS or KAFKA to see my point). This is a grand overview of the great mans work. 14 films from Von Trier. Of these 14 we saw 5. These were on screening link so we can tell you what these looked like and can assure you that Curzon suggest this is the same quality of the discs. The films that come out the best are not the restored ones. Though they do well enough.
THE IDIOTS, though intentionally shot on super DV, has been restored and cleaned up. The light and colour resolved enough to make it live anew. In a world of clarity, it holds its own. BREAKING THE WAVES makes you marvel again at Robby Müller cinematography (that broke the code of Dogme by the way). The rich blues and reds reverberate. Making it feel somewhat colder and more cynical for some reason. DOGVILLE finds itself again but as that was a well shot, interior film, it has little place to go. This is my preferred Von Trier film and though it always looked good, it has been rewarded with a digital stock that gleams here. ANTICHRIST and MELONCHOLIA, the two non restored films we saw, are more effected. I guess the budgets on these was higher or its just that I have never seen them outside of DVD. They look stunning and of these alone, you would think that you are treated well on this production.
We saw none of the extras. We also didnt see the additional content, so no 3 collectible posters and 1 wide poster of the cover illustration by Daniele Castellano (which having seen is amazing). Nor any PDF of the 68-page booklet including new essays by Slavoj Zizek, Catherine Wheatley, Steven Ryder and more. No 2 Digipaks and hardcover slipcase in a canvas Curzon Collection slipcase
SPECIAL FEATURES
Over 12 hours of special features including interviews with Lars von Trier and cast, commentaries, behind-the-scenes, featurettes, casting tapes, extended and deleted scenes, and theatrical trailers.
