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General		Extras
Category	Musical	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1998	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	116 minutes	Other Extras	Booklet Cast & Crew Interviews
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Selection, then Menu
Region	0	Director	David Mallet
Studio Distributor	Polygram	Starring	Elaine Paige John Mills Ken Page
Case	Super Jewel
RRP	$34.95	Music	Andrew Lloyd Webber

    This film version was created with a number of design and conceptual decisions to make it a different experience to the theatrical experience. The overall aim of the project was to envelop the audience within the story rather than to show it from a theatrical perspective.

    No audience was present, and a full 70-piece orchestra was used rather than the traditional much smaller theatrical orchestra. In addition, the musical was filmed over the course of a number of days (18 according to the accompanying booklet). The music was mixed into 5.0 surround sound, also different to the typical theatrical experience.

    This leads to, in my opinion, a number of weaknesses with this production. This production is clearly edited together, which dramatically lessens its impact. The lead vocals are mixed very much up front, often quite incongruous to the on-screen image, and clearly dubbed in at a later date. In addition, a number of visual effects which would have been impossible to achieve in a live performance have been added to the production.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.67:1 (15:9), and is not 16x9 enhanced. This is an unusual ratio, but is the typical European theatrical ratio, and an intermediate ratio between 4:3 and 16:9.

    The transfer was captured onto film and then transferred to video. It is quite sharp and clear throughout, though the line structure is apparent at times during pans. There is a considerable amount of low level noise present. Blacks are never fully black, but are a very dark and noisy grey. This production was specifically lit for film, and it shows in that peak white levels are never exceeded, but conversely, blacks are not deep and rich.

    The colours were well saturated as a result of the lighting, but there was a significant amount of chroma noise, particularly in blue-lit scenes, and there are a lot of these.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of a small amount of aliasing, but that was all. Film artefacts were non-existent.

Audio

[Addendum 21st May 1999: The .1 track is missing as a result of a mastering error. At this stage, the disc is not going to be remastered. Caveat emptor.]

    Singing was almost always clear and easy to understand, with only the odd word here and there hard to make out. Turning the English subtitles on at these points helped in this regard. The singing, particularly for the lead characters, was mixed very much up front and close, and this often was at odds with the on-screen image which was often much more distant. I found that this was quite distracting and made for an unsatisfying aural experience. There is some distortion during the song about McCavity cat.

    The singing is also clearly dubbed in at a later stage, so there are a number of issues with the vision being marginally out of sync with the audio. This is also very distracting and unsatisfying.

    The score is by Andrew Lloyd Webber and is one of his best pieces of work. I am very much an admirer of his work, and consider that he was near his peak with this work. In addition to the show stopper Memory, there are a number of great ensemble numbers, and a number of different styles showcased in this musical.

     The surround channels were used unevenly. Most of the time, they coasted along with some orchestral mix in the rear, then at times, they would explode with either special effects or ensemble singing. Because of this unevenness, they tended to be distracting more than enhancing. The mix is aggressively spatializing, which is at times incongruous with the on-screen images. This is also distracting. In comparison, the 2.0 mix has no surround information, and disappointingly little directional information. On the other hand, decoding this mix will send some signal to the subwoofer, and this enhances this soundtrack considerably.

    The .1 channel was not encoded, and was sorely missed.

    In some ways, the 2.0 soundtrack was more satisfying than the 5.0 mix, except that directionality was removed to a great extent from the 2.0 mix.

Menu

Cast & Crew Interviews

Booklet

    The video quality is passable.

    The audio quality is distracting because of its inappropriate mixing.

    The extras are limited.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
20th March 1999
Updated 21st May 1999