Everything Is Illuminated (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Deleted Scenes-Additional Scenes Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	101:10
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (35:00)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Liev Schreiber
Studio Distributor	Warner Independent Warner Home Video	Starring	Eugene Hutz Elijah Wood Jonathan Safran Foer Jana Hrabetova Stephen Samudovsky Ljubomir Dezera Oleksandr Choroshko Gil Kazimirov Zuzana Hodkova Mikki Boris Leskin Robert Chytil Jaroslava Sochova
Case	?
RPI	$34.95	Music	Paul Cantelon

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Arabic Dutch Greek Hebrew Icelandic English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Just before his grandmother (Jana Hrabetova) passed away she handed Jonathan an old photograph that his grandfather wanted him to have. The photograph shows his grandfather standing with another woman in a field. On the reverse is the handwritten message “Augustine and me, Trachimbrod, 1940”. Jonathan’s Jewish grandfather, Safran Foer, was born in the Ukraine in 1921 and fled to America with the assistance of Augustine to avoid Nazi persecution.

    Jonathan decides to travel to the Ukraine to find Augustine and thank her for helping his grandfather escape. He travels to the Ukraine to join Heritage Tours, a small family run business that assists rich Jewish Americans trace their pre-war heritage. Jonathan is meet at the train station by Alexander Perchov (Eugene Hutz), his grandfather (Boris Leskin) and Sammy Davis Jr. Jr., the “seeing eye b****”.

    The first half of the movie is a hilarious clash of cultures and Eugene Hutz’s character, Alexander Perchov, would be right at home amongst the cast of Fat Pizza. By contrast, the second half of the movie conveys a far more serious message, one that will leave you thinking.

    In his directorial debut Liev Schreiber has demonstrated his ample ability to create movies that break out of the Hollywood mould. Based on the Jonathan Safran Foer novel of the same name, Everything Is Illuminated takes the viewer on a surreal journey that is typified by its stylistic cinematography, such as the farmhouse surrounded by sunflowers at 59:30.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced. This is very close to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

    The image is sharp and the shadow detail is good. Blacks appear black and there is no low level noise.

    The colour palette is wonderfully vibrant which lends itself to the often surreal quality of the cinematography. The lush Ukrainian countryside is wonderfully green.

    There are no MPEG artefacts or film artefacts to be found. As mentioned above, mild aliasing is a problem at times but fortunately it isn’t too intrusive. An example of the aliasing can be seen in the flag poles at 18:07.

    Subtitles are available in English, Arabic, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic and English for the Hearing Impaired. All Russian and Ukrainian speech is accompanied by permanent English subtitles.

    This is an RSDL disc, with the layer change occurring at 35:00. Coming at the end of a scene shot in the dark the layer change goes completely unnoticed.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio transfer is very good.

    There are two audio tracks available. I listened to the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) track and sampled the English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) track.

    The dialogue comes across loud and clear at all times, though Alexander Perchov’s English was often difficult to understand due to his strong Ukrainian accent. I did not notice any problems with audio sync on this DVD.

    The musical score by Paul Cantelon is refreshingly up beat and provides a typical Eastern European flavour. At times it practically carries the movie on its own, compensating for what is in places a slow plot.

    Everything Is Illuminated is dialogue driven so the surround channels don’t have a lot to do other than support Paul Cantelon’s musical score, which they do well.

    The subwoofer didn’t have a lot of work to do but its presence was noticed on a few occasions, such as the gun shot and thunderclap at 79:22.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Descriptive Audio Track

    Everything Is Illuminated is accompanied by a Descriptive Audio Track that offers an even handed female voice describing the on-screen scene elements and characters within. It is similar in format to the Descriptive Audio Track found on the Region 4 release of Sin City.

Additional Scenes - Deleted Scenes (18:45)

    The Additional Scenes are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, though they are not 16x9 enhanced. English, Arabic, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, and Icelandic subtitles complement the English Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track.

    The Additional Scenes included are The Collector, Premium Dancer, The Gorky Tickle, Officious Seeing Eye B****, Breakfast, 400 Words For Snow and The Collector Part 2.

    For once I actually enjoyed watching what would normally be called deleted scenes. They are lengthy, well crafted and add to character development, particularly Eugene Hutz’s character, Alexander Perchov. In fact each scene would have sat well within the movie though I can see why they were collectively removed in order to maintain the pace.

Theatrical Trailer (2:21)

    This high quality theatrical trailer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. English, Arabic, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, and Icelandic subtitles complement the English Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Ukrainian Dolby Digital 5.1

• French and Spanish subtitles.

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0

• Arabic, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew and Icelandic subtitles.

    The Descriptive Audio Track provides little more than novelty value to non sight impaired viewers so I consider both the Region 1 and Region 4 versions to be equal.

    The video transfer is very good with just the occasional hint of aliasing.

    The audio transfer is very good.

    There are a limited number of extras to be found on this DVD, with the Additional Scenes being the highlight.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall