Calendar Girls (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-The Naked Truth (15:21) Featurette-Creating The Calendar (6:26) Deleted Scenes-4 (5:35)
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	103:49
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (67:52)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Nigel Cole
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Helen Mirren Julie Walters Linda Bassett Annette Crosbie Celia Imrie Penelope Wilton
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	Patrick Doyle

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired French Spanish Swedish Norwegian Danish Finnish Icelandic Portuguese Dutch Estonian French Titling Spanish Titling Portuguese Titling	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The Women's Institute in Great Britain is something akin to the Australian Country Women's Association. It tries to provide a place where women can gather to enjoy each other's company, indulge in some craft and cooking, expand their minds a little and maybe help raise funds for the local community and other deserving charities. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it serves a rather useful purpose in village life in Great Britain as it does in Australia. So you might just sort of get an idea of what the WI is like: middle-aged women gathering to do the sorts of things middle-aged women like to do, more than likely a little prudish and a little Victorian at times.

    So you can pretty much guess what sort of things they traditionally do with their annual calendar: pictures of the countryside, old buildings, flowers, you know the sort of thing - we have all seen it at some time. So naturally when a few members of a fairly innocuous branch of the WI decide to toss tradition out the window, drop their clothes and pose in the nude for the WI calendar, it is a pretty big deal indeed. Which is precisely what this film is all about - the true story of the ladies of Rylestone WI who did just that - and proceeded to raise the visibility of the WI no end, as well as raising a veritable truckload of money for the Leukemia Research Fund in the United Kingdom. So far they have raised over £500,000 from the sale of their calendar and the rights to the film. Not a bad effort at all for a bunch of middle-aged women from a small town in Yorkshire!

    The main culprits in this dramatisation of the real-life story are Chris (Helen Mirren) and Annie (Julie Walters), two rather atypical WI members it seems. Chris joined the WI to shut her mother up years ago and basically is going insane with the inane proceedings of the local WI. Annie is her best friend and of similarly bored status. Their lives are turned upside down when Annie's husband John (John Alderton) develops leukaemia and eventually dies. Prior to his death he had been asked by Chris to make a talk to the local WI, which he had written before his death. After his death Chris read his talk to the WI meeting. It provides the catalyst for something different in the way of next year's WI calendar. With Chris all gung-ho for her latest idea - a nude calendar - and with Annie all for it, it becomes simply a matter of finding ten or twelve middle-aged ladies who are happy enough to drop their kit and pose nude for the camera.

    Naturally enough this au-naturel approach to the WI calendar turns out to be anything but simple to realise. Just getting enough ladies to drop their kit is difficult enough, at least until the local branch president starts to object to the project. Suddenly a few more ladies join the cause. When matters get referred to a higher authority, namely Madam Chairman of the WI, things still may not happen. But of course, we all know it must as they have raised that money, haven't they? However, there is still the question of the impact that the calendar will have upon the participants, especially when Hollywood calls.

    Truth be told, the story is a little blatant but that is not really an issue at all. With a reasonable pace to it, the story is more than adequately brought to life by an excellent cast. The highlight for me was actually one of the few non-female actors in the film - John Alderton is absolutely terrific in his brief role of John, the man who died of leukaemia and was the inspiration for the ladies. Across the board, the ladies are very good - Helen Mirren and Julie Walters most notably but hardly upstaging Celia Imrie, Annette Crosbie and Linda Bassett. With the story having a nice balance of levity and seriousness, a deft hand was needed in the directorial hot seat and Nigel Cole does a wonderful job of the whole film. The whole thing ends up being just a really delightful experience. It has to be said, however, that fellow Poms are more likely to get the most out of this, as there is a lot of typically subtle English humour here - like the beautiful line "you' re naked in The Telegraph dear... pass the bacon please".

    Whilst it is rather odd that the DVD is going into a rental window when it is already readily available overseas, most especially the identical Region 2 release, this is a sufficiently strong enough film to survive a rental window before becoming available as a sell-through effort. It is certainly well worth renting but frankly you would probably be better off buying the Region 2 release if possible.

Video

    You would be hard-pressed to find any fault with the transfer we have been given here. Presented in its original 2.35:1 theatrical ratio, it is 16x9 enhanced.

    Aside from some very minor lapses that could barely be noticed, this is a really nice transfer indeed, boasting plenty of sharpness and detail. Certainly there is nothing hidden by the basic quality of the transfer, with shadow detail being very good in general and absolutely no grain to be found anywhere. If you want to take a magnifying glass to the transfer you would still probably be unable to locate any issues with low level noise.

    The colours come up superbly here with a generally wonderful vibrant look at all times, and well saturated colours with rich deep tones to them when required. At other times the delicacy is almost on a par with the superb Pleasantville, such as the separation of the colour of the sunflower against the black and white calendar pictures. There is not even a hint of oversaturation or colour bleed to be found anywhere in this transfer.

    There is nothing in the way of MPEG artefacts in the transfer, and quite unexpectedly there was nary a hint of obvious film-to-video artefacts either. About the only time that I noted anything obvious was in the piano at 45:17. On a larger screen there might be some slight general shimmer in some of the footage but it certainly was not really noted on my display. There is basically nothing in the way of film artefacts here at all, hardly surprising given the very recent providence of the film.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change coming at 67:52. Once again I did not notice it on my system and only noted the change point when checking the disc specs on my computer.

    There are a reasonable selection of subtitles on the DVD. The English efforts are very good with hardly any variation from the actual dialogue, although just once or twice the subtitles ran ever-so-briefly in front of the actual dialogue.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

   There are four soundtracks on the DVD, all being Dolby Digital 5.1 efforts. The language options are English, French, Spanish and Portuguese with the English effort being at the full bit rate. I of course stuck with the English effort. It has to be said that I was somewhat disappointed with the soundtrack.

    One of the disappointments was that the dialogue seemed to be mixed at a slightly lower volume in the overall mix and so I needed to lift the listening volume a little - which tended to make the music a little too obvious in the mix as well as a little overpowering. Still, that might just be a personal thing and not an inherent matter. At the higher listening level, the dialogue was quite clear and quite easy to understand. There are no issues at all with audio sync in the transfer.

    The original music score comes from Patrick Doyle, and a nicely complementary effort it is too. Rarely drawing any attention to itself, it seemed to nicely underscore the action without really being too banal, as could so easily happen in this sort of film. It does have a fairly wide style to it, and that lack of identifiable style is rather nice for a change.

    I was a little surprised that a full bit rate six channel soundtrack was used for the film as it really does not need the six channels. Whilst it may not need them though, it does use them pretty effectively. About the only complaint I had, which may be the result of having to turn the volume up a little to hear the dialogue effectively, was that there is a noticeable excess of bass in the sound at times - occasionally distractingly so such as at 67:23 and 88:24. Most of the surround channel use is subtle rather than overt and so when you do get some overt use in the rear channels, it is rather obvious. The additional afforded by the full bit rate certainly gives the sound plenty of space and it uses it very well indeed - plenty of openness and not a skerrick of muddying to be found. Overall, a very good soundtrack with some minor concerns noted.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Since this is a rental-only release at this time, anything we get should be a bonus. What we get is of course the same package that is available on the sell-through Region 2 release: as a sell-through release this package would be a little disappointing.

Menu

    Nicely done, 16x9 enhanced and with some very subtle animation to go with the audio enhancement. The main menu is preceded by a reasonable introduction that does unfortunately spoil the ending of the film somewhat.

Featurette - The Naked Truth (15:21)

    Thankfully, and regrettably, not about the television series starring Téa Leoni but rather a look at the real women upon whom the film is based (most by the way have bit parts in the film). Mainly done through interviews with the ladies, this is a really nice, albeit way too short, effort that is well worth checking out. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, it is 16x9 enhanced and comes with excellent Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Technical quality is very good, more than the equal of the quality of the programme itself. It features selectable subtitles in eight languages: French, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, Finnish and Dutch.

Featurette - Creating The Calendar (6:21)

    A shorter, and generally less interesting, look at the actual creation of the calendar shots in the film, mainly through interviews with the cast and crew, as well as the photographer who did the still shots on set. It, too, is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, which is 16x9 enhanced and features Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Technical quality is again very good. It, too, features selectable subtitles in eight languages: French, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, Finnish and Dutch.

Deleted Scenes (4) (5:35)

    A small collection of chopped bits, which were all chopped for fairly obvious reasons no matter the "attractions" of Anthrax. The actual scenes are:

• Late Delivery (1:17)
• A Father and Son Chat (2:02)
• The Media (0:42)
• In The Lounge (With Anthrax) (1:34)

    They are presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, not 16x9 enhanced and with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound..

Easter Egg

    Of sorts - highlight the sunflower in the menu and you get a page of notes regarding the UK-based Leukaemia Research Fund. A pity that the Australian organisation does not get a mention but I suppose that would be expecting way too much on a Region 4 DVD...

    The Region 1 release of the film is not due until 4th May, but would seem to heading out with the same extras as we have here. I do know that the Region 2 release has been available as a sell-through for a couple of months and it is the self-same DVD that we have here as a rental-only release. Since sell-through has to be better than rental-only, the Region 2 version is the version of choice for the moment.

    Whilst the film is certainly one that seems to be more for the more mature audience, which I suppose includes me, Calendar Girls is a well made British comedy that delivers well on our favourite little disc. Aside from some minor concerns regarding the audio, there is nothing really wrong the DVD per se and this is well worth a rental or three. Personally I would prefer to buy and so I have to say that making this a rental-only release does not really make sense - especially as the self-same disc can be purchased from Region 2 and at about the same price the eventual Region 4 sell-through release will no doubt retail at.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall