Flesh (1968)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1968
Running Time	89:28
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Paul Morrissey
Studio Distributor	Andy Warhol Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Joe Dallesandro Geraldine Smith Patti D'Arbanville Candy Darling
Case	Amaray-Opaque-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

   When Andy Warhol entered the world of cinema in the early sixties, he created some truly bizarre films, of which many you will probably never see on DVD. One of his early works, Sleep (1963), consists of six hours of footage of a man sleeping. Another, Empire (1965), shows an eight hour motionless shot of the Empire State Building. Bizarre, yes, but fairly consistent with his unique style of pop art, the Campbell's Soup reproduction a perfect example.

   In 1968, Andy Warhol was shot and seriously wounded by a rejected member of Warhol's "factory". He subsequently passed over control of film production to his production assistant and cameraman, Paul Morrisey. It was the beginning of a very successful partnership. With Morrisey came a more conventional style of filmaking, albeit at times, controversial. The collaboration between the two produced many popular underground cult films, with Morrisey writing and directing. Flesh was the first of a trilogy involving the newly discovered Joe Dallesandro. Trash (1970) and Heat (1972) were to follow.

   Flesh opens with a possible homage to the aforementioned Sleep. A long static shot of the film's main character, Joe (Joe Dallesandro) sleeping in bed opens the film. Joe is a male prostitute, and supports his domineering wife, Geri (Geraldine Smith), and their baby son by hustling men on the streets. Geri is bisexual and informs Joe that she needs $200 to help pay for her girlfriend Patti's (Patti D'Arbanville) abortion. Reluctantly, Joe agrees to get the cash for her, and so begins a day in Joe's life. Along the way Joe encounters a myriad of unusual people,  including an old artist (Maurice Baddell), and two transvestites (Candy Darling and Jacki Curtis), in a stand out scene.

   To achieve the raw emotion needed in the film, most of the dialogue was improvised. This gives the film an almost documentary feel. Paul Morrisey  also chose to edit the film in an erratic jump cut style. This is the trend right through the film, even cutting through dialogue at times, which will annoy some people. These aspects, although unusual in the mainstream, are what give this film its unique quality.

   Flesh was made for the unbelievable sum of $1,500, and has grossed millions over the years. It has been a regularly scheduled film in arthouse cinemas since its release. The film was banned in the UK for a time, I would assume this was because of the amount of male full frontal nudity the film contains.

Video

   As previously mentioned, Flesh is a very low budget production. A consequence of this is that the source material and equipment used were not of a high standard. The vast majority of quality problems with this disc lay in the source material.

   The aspect ratio of the transfer is 1.29:1, and it is not 16x9 enhanced. Although the slick states this is a pan & scan transfer, I tend to believe this is probably full frame.

   Images are very soft and are constantly in and out of focus, which was sometimes probably deliberate. Grain is prevalent throughout the film, but varies between scenes. Shadows and black levels are ordinary most of the time, containing quite a bit of low level noise.

   Colours are very drab and washed out, especially the outdoor street scenes. These scenes in particular are over bright and grainy, and lack any sort of depth. A perfect example of this occurs at 63:55 .

   MPEG artefacts and film to video artefacts weren't a real problem. There was minimal evidence of edge enhancement and aliasing. Film artefacts weren't as bad as I would have expected, consisting of mainly small hairs and scratches. The worst of them occurs at 38:28, but by and large, these were of a minor nature and didn't trouble me too much. There was also some minor telecine wobble, but again, this caused me no real bother.

   This is a single sided, single layered disc, so there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio has source problems as well. It is riddled with pops and clicks from the opening credits through to the end. None are particularly loud, and surprisingly, you do get used to them. At times, audio drops out for very short periods, and there is some low level hiss.

    There is one audio track on this DVD, English Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) mono.

    In some scenes, dialogue is clear and very easy to understand. However, it isn't at all consistent, and at times you have to strain your ears to hear the dialogue. I believe this not so much a technical problem, more a mumbling problem on the actors' part.

    To my surprise, audio sync was excellent. I could not find any problems in this area.

    The only music in the film was a song called "Making Wicky Wacky" ( I think), which plays during the opening sleep scene. Apart from that, there is no music, and no credit is listed.

    Being a mono soundtrack, the only speaker called to action was the centre.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    I would have loved an audio commentary on the DVD, but we get nothing. The menu is a static image, with one option - Play Movie. There are no subtitles on this disc.

    The Region 1 version of this DVD also has no extras.

    There is an Italian version available in Region 2, with two soundtrack languages, English and Italian, which may be in stereo.

    A French version is also available in Region 2 which has considerable extras. Based on my limited French skills, it would appear to have an Audio Commentary from Paul Morrisey, a clip gallery featuring Joe Dallesandro, and a short film entitled "All Aboard The Dreamland Choo Choo". This version would appear to be the clear winner, subject to confirmation of the extras and the removability of any French subtitles.

   Put into context, this is a pretty good transfer. Let's face it, a pristine print of Flesh with vibrant colour and brilliant sound simply does not exist. An audio commentary would have been a sensational addition, but, oh well.

   Flesh has an unconventional style that won't appeal to everyone. If your film tastes are firmly planted in the mainstream, you may want to look elsewhere.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall