The Company (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Animation Dolby Digital Trailer-Rain Audio Commentary-Neve Campbell (Actor) And Robert Altman (Director) Additional Footage-Extended Dance Scene Featurette-The Passion Of Dance Featurette-Making Of Featurette-Isolated Dance Sequences Theatrical Trailer Trailer-The Notebook
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	106:45
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Robert Altman
Studio Distributor	Capitol Films Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Neve Campbell Malcolm McDowell James Franco Barbara E. Robertson William Dick Susie Cusack Marilyn Dodds Frank John Lordan Mariann Mayberry Roderick Peeples Yasen Peyankov Deborah Dawn John Gluckman
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Van Dyke Parks

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/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 for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Considering that Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick both died without winning an Oscar for Best Director, and Martin Scorsese is still waiting on his in spite of his recent forays into the world of epic moviemaking with Gangs of New York and The Aviator, normally a favourite with Academy voters, it is perhaps not surprising that the great Robert Altman, now in his seventies, should also be without the world's most beloved asexual statuette. This in spite of a career that has given audiences The Player, Nashville, MASH, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Short Cuts, Gosford Park and many more films that, even when not entirely successful, are filled with originality and classic Altman wit. Whilst some directors may allows themselves the comfort of producing works of similarity, whether in terms of genre or visual style, Altman's oeuvre is a kaleidoscope of variety. So it should come as no surprise that Neve Campbell, when searching for a director for her personal project about the life of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, The Company, turned to the American maestro.

    And the film is all the better for it, its director ensuring it avoids becoming a by-the-numbers "quiet achiever with big dreams wins against all odds to become the best (dancer, footballer, musician, substitute your own)" story. Indeed, there is not a lot of story in the film. Altman is often referred to as being somewhat dismissive of plot, so the relative absence of a standard narrative thanks to a deliberately sparse script makes the viewing experience akin to watching a series of artistic impressions - variations on a theme perhaps. Neve Campbell, who herself was a ballet dancer for many years before turning to acting, trained for months with the Joffrey Ballet in preparation for playing the leading role of a company dancer. She has all the poise and class of a professional, featuring in many of the choreographed sequences, some fulfilling the popular misconceptions of the art form being sumptuous classical music and dainty costumes, others defiantly avant-garde, complete with outlandish costumes, gaudy colours and electronic pulsations replacing violins and oboes.

    The 'episodes' of the film take us into the lives of these incredible performers - how they train, battle countless injuries (a girl snaps her Achilles tendon during a seemingly effortless dance move so suddenly people hardly realise what has happened), and live and breathe dance. Live is perhaps not the appropriate word, as there is little time for life's pleasures and ordinariness. Time is split between hours of rehearsals, learning choreography and staying absolutely fit and flexible, and scraping together enough of a living from part time work to continue dancing. In one of the few scenes away from the company, a new dancer arrives with only a backpack slung over his shoulder, asking a friend for a couple of square feet on the floor to sleep. Campbell's character Ry works into the early hours of the morning in a bar during her time away from the company, leaving little time for her to be with her boyfriend, James Franco, in a small but well handled performance. Their scenes together are genuine and filled with good humour and affection, if not amounting to much. They are of course subordinate, and rightfully so, to the extraordinary dance sequences that punctuate the film. Like many a musical, the film doesn't come completely alive until the artistic flair of the performers is in full flight, in this case leaping impossibly high across the stage.

    Malcolm McDowell captures the 'great artist' perfectly as the director of the company, combining sufficient flair, passion and disdain for those who don't share his opinions or understand his concerns without turning his character into a complete caricature, although I think he skates a little close to the mark at times. The remainder of the cast is filled almost exclusively by dancers from the Joffrey, many of them acting in their very first film. The best performances, however, come from the company itself and its talented dancers - for whom I have now developed a greater respect and appreciation of their demanding craft. I mentioned that the film has the feel of a series of artistic impressions, which has strengths and drawbacks - the greatest of the latter being that for all the time spent with the dancers and administrators of the company, we don't learn as much as I would have liked about the company itself. By choreographing every sequence and not shooting it as a documentary, yet neither as a feature film, we inevitably, and I think unfortunately, miss much of the insight a more focussed approach would have provided. Still, as an artistic tribute rather than an in-depth analysis, the film succeeds.

Video

    The video presentation is excellent - with the emphasis being on the word video, as the entire work was shot exclusively on high definition video. The film is presented at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, with 16x9 enhancement. Allowing for the distinctive look that video has, the transfer is well done.

    Sharpness levels and shadow detail are consistently good, with detail lost only during some of the darker night scenes.

    Colours are vibrant and well rendered.

    There is some consistent (light) grain in the picture, but this is to be expected considering the source of the film. There is no aliasing or worrisome edge enhancement to fret about.

    Film artefacts? There are none.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    We have a solitary English 5.1 Dolby Digital track that is excellent.

    Dialogue is clear and easily understood, almost all the time. Audio sync is beyond reproach.

    There were no audible problems with the transfer.

    The surrounds and subwoofer are well utilised to add some depth to the terrific array of music used, and offer a few environmental sounds as well.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    We have a nice little collection of extras:

Audio commentary with director Robert Altman and star/producer Neve Campbell

    This is more of a friendly chat about a film than some high handed lecture, which is pleasant, whilst still offering plenty of insight into the preparation and actual shooting of the film. It is during the two's almost continual dialogue that we learn all the scenes, including the storm, were carefully choreographed and manufactured specifically for the film.

The Passion of the Dance - featurette

    This very short piece (less than four minutes) only scratches the surface but does offer a few interesting snippets of information about what it is to be a ballet dancer.

The Making of 'The Company' - featurette

    A slightly more substantial piece that includes some interviews with Altman, Campbell, screenwriter Barbara Turner and other members of the creative team. At barely eight minutes it doesn't have enough time to delve into much more than the very basic aspects of production, which is a shame, as for an original film such as this, some analysis would have been appreciated.

Isolated Dance sequences

    Get rid of all the acting and what do you have? Dancing - thirty fives minutes of it. This option allows you to watch all the dance sequences, in chronological order as they appear in the film, back to back to back... A good idea to include.

Extended Dance sequence

    A more loosely edited version of a sequence from the film is included, presented at letterboxed 2.35:1, but still of reasonable quality.

Trailer

    A fairly standard trailer, running a couple of minutes and presented without 16x9 enhancement.

    This Region 4 release appears to be identical to its Region 1 counterpart, apart from the PAL/NTSC differences. I would opt for the cheaper release, which at the moment is the Region 1, but I am sure the Region 4 will be in bargain basement sales in a few months.

    An interesting film that doesn't quite deliver.

    The high definition video has transferred well.

    The audio is excellent.

    The extras are light but fun.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall