Death in Brunswick: Collectors Edition (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy Drama	Menu Animation Audio Commentary-Sam Neill & John Clarke Audio Commentary-John Ruane & Ellery Ryan Featurette-Making Of-Memories of Murder Featurette-The Grass Is Greener - Sam Neill Featurette-The Grass Is Greener - John Clarke Deleted Scenes Theatrical Trailer-Death In Brunswick Teaser Trailer-Umbrella Propaganda
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	105:03 (Case: 109)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (60:02) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	John Ruane
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Sam Neill Zoe Carides John Clarke Yvonne Lawley Nick Lathouris Nicholas Papademetriou Boris Brkic Deborah Kennedy Doris Younane Denis Moore Kris Karahisarlis Steve Hutchinson Huriye Balkaya
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	$29.95	Music	Phil Judd

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary 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	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     I remember first seeing Death In Brunswick at the 1991 AFI judging screenings and have admired the film ever since. The film made a brief appearance on VHS after its initial cinema run, but has been "missing" for many years - until now.

     Death In Brunswick opens with a crane shot in a typical street in the inner-northern suburb of Melbourne, known as Brunswick. Carl Fitzgerald (Sam Neill) is woken by empty cans blowing around outside his rundown, rented house. However, his day gets worse when he discovers that his meddling mother (Yvonne Lawley) is in his kitchen. She has decided to pay him a surprise visit (only for a few days), to help him sort out his rather bohemian existence. Carl is around forty years of age, loves a drink, is unemployed and recently single - something that his mother would love to change.

    Carl gets a job as a cook in a cockroach-infested kitchen at a local, sleazy nightclub. The Bombay Club is owned by Yanni (Nicholas Papademetriou), who nearly always has the company of his over-zealous bouncer, Laurie (Boris Brkic).

    Carl meets his kitchen hand, Mustafa (Nick Lathouris), who seems more keen on running his side business of drug dealing and stolen goods than helping Carl in the kitchen. However, one positive that comes with the job is that Carl meets and instantly falls in love with a very young barmaid, Sophie (Zoe Carides). When she can, Sophie smuggles a tequila and ginger to Carl in the kitchen and it isn't long before the pair become more than just friends.

    Not even the drudgery of his unrewarding job or his domineering mother can stop Carl from feeling elated about his new love life. He visits his long time friend and confidant, Dave (John Clarke) to give him the good news, but Dave is just a little concerned with the age difference. No such concern from Dave's wife, June (Deborah Kennedy), who thinks that Carl is a loser and is always quick to offer him advice with an acid tongue.

    Late one night at the club, Mustafa is savagely beaten by Laurie and the other bouncers when they discover his illegal activities. Laurie then whispers to the semi-conscious Mustafa that it was Carl who tipped them off. Mustafa enters the kitchen in a bloodied and bruised state and confronts Carl about the false allegation. In the physical altercation that follows, Mustafa is accidentally and fatally stabbed with Carl's roasting fork. Quickly hiding the body, Carl again calls on the services of his trusty mate Dave, who just happens to be a grave digger.

    Naturally, Carl's life begins a familiar downward spiral from here and we're still only half way through the film.

    Death In Brunswick is often laugh-out-loud hilarious, albeit in a very dark manner. The humor is dry and wonderfully timed, with great performances all round. It is somewhat of an underrated film in Australian cinema and is clearly one of the better local films made in the nineties.

    I worked in Brunswick for six years, so apart from being quite familiar with some of the locations used in the film, I developed a feel for the place. Despite the fact that some locations were constructed sets and other real locations were actually outside of Brunswick, director and co-writer, John Ruane has managed to capture the essence of the suburb incredibly well. I believe this was a critical factor in bringing Boyd Oxlade's novel to the screen. Also critical in this area and worth mentioning is Chris Kennedy's superb production design, which achieved some amazing results on a very tight budget.

    Ruane has made just two feature films since Death In Brunswick; That Eye, The Sky in 1994 and Dead Letter Office in 1998. Let's hope we haven't seen the last from this talented Australian director.

Video

    The video transfer for Death In Brunswick is generally very good.

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, which is 16x9 enhanced. Although to be more accurate, my measurements continually indicated that the ratio is somewhere between 1.78:1 and 1.85:1. I couldn't confirm the correct aspect ratio for Death In Brunswick, but it's likely to be 1.85:1.

    Although on the whole, sharpness and clarity is good, the transfer does tend to be slightly on the soft side. It has been many years since I've seen this film in a cinema, but I'd go out on a limb and say this is probably consistent with the source material. Either way, it's certainly not problematic and far better than any old VHS copy you might own. Blacks were clean and shadow detail was generally very good.

    Colours appeared natural and very nicely balanced.

    I didn't notice any MPEG artefacts in the transfer. Film-to video artefacts were not a significant issue and film artefacts were almost non-existent. While it was not particularly distracting, a single reel change marking was evident at 85:31.

    There are no subtitles available on both discs.

    Both DVD's are single sided, dual layer discs. The layer change on disc one (film disc) was noticeable, but well placed at 60:02.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio transfer has remained faithful to original mix.

    There are three audio tracks available on the DVD, English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) and two separate audio commentaries, each English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).

    I had no problems with the dialogue quality and audio sync appeared to be excellent.

    The original music in Death In Brunswick is credited to ex- Split Enz guitarist, Phil Judd. It's a superb soundtrack with a strong Greek influence, while still remaining accessible to a general audience. Phil has incorporated the bouzouki into the mix of instruments and created the perfect mood for the film. Some non-original music is also used in the film, including Mahler's Symphony No 5.

    The sound activity is all front-based. This is consistent with the original sound mix for the film.

    The subwoofer came to life during many of the music passages.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Umbrella have again delivered a cracking set of extras for a fine Australian film.

Menu

    The main menu has very subtle animation, is 16x9 enhanced and silent.

Disc One Extras:

Audio Commentary - Sam Neill (Carl) and John Clarke (Dave)

    As you would expect, this is a highly entertaining commentary. Sam and John are actually very good friends and seem to relish the opportunity see this film again after so many years. Sam in particular, has many laughs as the pair relay their memories of the production, pausing only occasionally to soak up the action on screen.

Audio Commentary - John Ruane (Director) and Ellery Ryan (Cinematographer).

    This is another outstanding commentary, but this time the dialogue is technically more informative and slightly less fun. John and Ellery have a clear memory of the production and offer some great insight into all aspects of the film. John in particular, is also very frank about the things that didn't quite go to plan. Both commentaries are highly recommended.

Original Theatrical Trailer - Death In Brunswick  (2:09)

Umbrella Trailers

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall