Blank City (2010)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Interviews-Crew-Director Celine Danhier Deleted Scenes-Deleted and Extended Scenes Outtakes Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2010
Running Time	91:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Celine Danhier
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Amos Poe Ann Magnuson Becky Johnston Beth B Bette Gordon Casandra Stark Charlie Ahearn Daze Deborah Harry Eric Mitchell
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Visiting Manhattan in 2013 is to enter an island of gleaming buildings, bustling business and undeniable wealth. It is hard to imagine that the trendy lofts and fashion houses of Soho and the Meatpacking District were once dangerous areas, rife with crime. Until the "no tolerance" approach of Mayor Rudy Giuliani it seemed as though between Wall Street and Midtown was the law of the jungle and heaven help you if you strayed north of the Upper East Side into Harlem.

     The documentary Blank City not only looks back with undeniable fondness at this era but focuses on a group of filmmakers/musicians who came to define the No Wave movement in the late 70s and early 80s. Only a few of the names will be familiar to most. Jim Jarmusch began his career amongst this gang of rebel filmmakers and John Waters had associations with the movement. For those more into their alternative music Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch came out of the same melting pot.

     It is perhaps no surprise that this generation of filmmakers adopted the ethos of their surroundings. Most of their film equipment and supplies were stolen and the films featured not some idealised look at the world but the grittiness of the local surroundings. Actors were usually just friends or people who happened to be around at the time. It is also a reflection of the insanity of the period that filmmakers were making music and musicians were making films. It flowed from the punk ideology of anyone can make art as long as they have the artistic spirit. Witness Lydia Lunch's funny story about drafting a non-musician into her band as a drummer. He was only able to keep the beat when given a drum and one drumstick!

     The film features interviews with the key contributors at the time Richard Kern, Amos Poe, Andrew B and Beth B as well as actors like Steve Buscemi and musicians like Debbie Harry. Nick Zedd is on hand to explain the background to his Cinema of Transgression Manifesto which sought to extol the virtues of making films which shocked and challenged audiences.

     Blank City paints an often fascinating portrait of the era. The film is worth watching just to show what was going on in the arts community of New York at this time. Having said that, there is one undeniable fact - the films made during this time were largely unwatchable, with acting and production values barely above amateur. Only a couple of films shown are recognisable, one being Stranger Than Paradise by Jim Jarmusch and the other Wild Style by Fab 5 Freddie. So chalk this down as an insight into a time and a place even if the created works don't add up to much.

     Perhaps it is not just the films themselves. If there is a flaw in this first film by Frenchwoman Celine Daniher it is that there is no reflection on the legacy of the works. The key people involved seem not to have gone on to do anything else in particular and it's hard to know whether the No Wave was simply an isolated event without an impact on the future.

Video

     Blank City was shot on digital video and comes to DVD in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio consistent with its original cinema presentation. It is 16×9 enhanced.

     The film consists of a blend of talking heads interviews which are rendered quite clearly with good colours and accurate flesh tones. Contrasted with this are images from the era which reflect their sources. There are also snippets from films of the era which are often in very average condition. This is no reflection on the film itself.

    Generally the quality of the DVD is good.

    There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Blank City contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack running at 224 Kb/s.

     This is perfectly adequate for a documentary which consists of talking heads interviews and film snippets. There was certainly no surround sound in the original movies!

     The sound in interviews is fine with the dialogue clear and easy to understand. The sound in the films excerpted is not quite so good however it does not present a problem.

     Music in the film is provided by some of the classic bands of the era including Sonic Youth, James Chance and the Contortions and Lydia Lunch. It is suitably abrasive No Wave punk.

    There are no technical problems with the sound.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     There are several extras included with the DVD.

Interview with Celine Daniher

     The filmmaker explains, in heavily accented French, what interested her in the project and how she put film together.

Deleted and Extended Scenes

     This is a series of extra interview material which is interesting to watch once but adds little to the film.

Outtakes

     Some moments that did not make it into the finished film e.g. an interviewee spots a large bug crawling across the ground. These are interesting as they give some insight into the egos of the interviewees.

Theatrical Trailer

    The trailer for the film.

     The version in Region 1 is the same. Buy local.

     Blank City does go some way to showing us how the art coming out of New York at the end of the 70s and through the early 80s was reflective of the collapsing values of the city itself. It is worth a watch however the film never really explains the contribution that these people made to the city of New York or the art of filmmaking.

     The DVD is fine in sound and vision terms and include some interesting extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall