Ghost World (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Black Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	107:20
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Terry Zwigoff
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Thora Birch Scarlett Johansson Brad Renfro Steve Buscemi Bob Bulaban Ileana Douglas
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$35.95	Music	David Kitay

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, brief alternate scene

    Ghost World is not easy to categorise. It originated as a comic book (sorry, "graphic novel"). Steve Buscemi is in it, so you know it has to be peculiar. It is, but at times there's the feeling that the director is trying too hard for the off-beat — it feels contrived.

    This film centres on Enid (Thora Birch). She is self-consciously not fitting in, trying very hard to be quirky and different. She and her best friend, Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson), have just graduated from high school. They spend most of their time together sneering at virtually all of the people around them — I'm sure they see themselves as very mature. They have the careless cruelty of the thoughtless young. An example is the way they pick a personal ad from the paper and ring the number, pretending to be the person to whom the ad was addressed.

    Enid finds herself curious about, and interested in, a lonely man called Seymour (Steve Buscemi). Seymour is really only interested in his record collection — he collects 78s (for the younger readers, these are really old vinyl records) of blues and jazz. Seymour finds Enid a bit shocking in her out-spoken manner, and the language she uses, but he's flattered by her interest in him.

    Rebecca is getting on with her life, getting a job (she's working at a shop that's carefully not identified as Starbucks), and looking for an apartment. She and Enid had grand plans during school of getting an apartment together. Now Rebecca is following through, and Enid isn't — it seems that Enid doesn't want to grow up and take on some responsibilities. This is splitting them apart.

    There are a multitude of strange people in this film, including an art teacher (Illeana Douglas) who's somewhat "out there", and an old man waiting for a bus on a cancelled bus route. I found these, and other, incidental characters quite interesting. One thing I found less interesting was the strange obsession the director (and, for that matter, the DVD author in Region 1) seemed to have with a song and dance number from a 1965 Indian movie.

    Very slowly, Enid comes to some realisations. This part is worthwhile, but there's a lot of film to get through to get there. Maybe it works better if you've read the comic books? This film has an interesting ending. I found it more satisfying than a lot of the rest of the movie.

Video

    This transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. Given that the original aspect ratio was 1.85:1, that's acceptable.

    The image is quite sharp most of the time, with occasional minor lapses — it begins with some footage from a 1965 Indian movie, which gives a different impression, but that doesn't last. Shadow detail is rather good. Film grain is no problem, and low-level noise is not to be seen.

    Colour is very good. Thora Birch frequently looks pallid, but I think this is a deliberate make-up choice, because she's alone in this. There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are a few tiny film artefacts, but you have to look hard to see them.

    The big failing of this transfer lies in aliasing and moiré — Enid's outfits, in particular, have a tendency to strobe. Have a look at 79:28, for example. There are a variety of backgrounds that alias, too, things like Venetian blinds and cane constructions. The hedge at 97:20 shimmers heavily, too. There's mosquito noise on a lot of the backgrounds.

    There are no subtitles.

    The disc is single-sided and single layered, so there is no layer change. I suspect that the restricted space on the single layer has led to a bit more compression than might have been ideal, leading to the background shimmer and mosquito noise.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in English. The cover only lists the default Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, but there's a Dolby Digital 2.0 version as well — there's no menu option to switch between them, though. I only listened to the 5.1 soundtrack.

    The dialogue is clear, but there's a word or two that is less than completely clear. There's no trouble with audio sync.

    The score is composed by David Kitay. It's a bit patchy, but seems to fit the action. There's some poor quality music reproduction in this soundtrack, but that's understandable, given that we're hearing 78s and a lo-fi record-player; there's also the tinny sound of that clip from the 1965 Indian movie.

    There's nothing special in the way of directional sound, and the surrounds get little to do. The subwoofer is hardly used — mine spent almost the entire movie switched off due to lack of signal.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    This disc is utterly bereft of extras. That wasn't too surprising when this was a rental disc, but it's sad for a retail release.

Menu

    The menu is static and silent. It has two entries: "play feature" and "select a scene".

    The Region 1 release has a reasonable selection of extras. It has a transfer that's a touch darker than the Region 4, with slightly less in the way of shadow detail, but it is noticeably sharper and clearer on close-ups, with no noise in the backgrounds.

    The Region 4 disc is missing:

• deleted / alternate scenes (4)
• music video: Jaan Penechaan Ho from Gumnaam
• making of featurette
• trailers:
  • Ghost World
  • Princess Bride SE DVD
  • Terminator SE DVD
  • Ghost World Soundtrack Promo
• subtitles (English, French, Spanish)
• dual layered disc

    The Region 1 disc is missing:

• nothing

    If you want the extras, the choice is obvious. If you just want the movie, then either disc will do.

    Late News: I've just been told that there are interesting versions in Region 2. Apparently the UK version has a number of interesting featurettes, while the Dutch version has a dts soundtrack (in English). I have neither of these versions available to me for comparison, so I suggest you consult a Region 2 site if you want to pursue these. Bear in mind that these discs would be PAL, which can't hurt.

    Ghost World is a black comedy that's a lot more black than comedy.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    There are no extras on this disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall