Cold Souls (2009)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer Gallery-Design Sketches
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	97:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Sophie Barthes
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Paul Giamatti Armand Schultz Michael Tucker Dina Korzun Ted Koch Oksana Lada Natalia Zvereva Lauren Ambrose
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Dickon Hinchliffe

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

   What if we lived in a world that not only universally accepted the existence of the soul, with all its metaphysical trappings, but also created a way to trap it, remove it and store it for future replacement? Such a heady existentialist premise is at the heart of the fascinating, funny and moving Cold Souls from first time feature director Sophie Barthes.

The fact that Cold Souls features Paul Giamatti playing Paul Giamatti, and the fact that the film dealt, in a fantasy way, with identity, drew immediate comparisons with the Charlie Kaufman/Spike Jonze collaboration, Being John Malkovich. It is a connection that has finally been embraced by the distributors of this film who have pasted references to the former classic on the DVD case. This is a blessing and a curse. To be sure it probably brings to this film a greater audience than might have seen it without that hook, but it also ensures that much time will be spent weighing the two films to find one wanting. This is a shame as this feature is an inspired work of art that, despite its faults, is an independent creation and deserves to be viewed as such.

When we first see Paul Giamatti he is in the middle of the rehearsing Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, launching into the Act 4 rant on the futility of existence. He is overcome by the emotion, by the existential weight upon him, and the director calls a break. Giamatti is desperate. The character has burdened him with the weight of another life and he has no idea how he will be able to perform the play. His wife, played by Emily Watson, can't help him. His agent makes a suggestion - look at the article in The New Yorker about a place in town that does soul transference. Giamatti is unconvinced but gradually becomes drawn to the idea of losing the weight and being able to perform with abandon.

Making an appointment Giamatti is convinced by the manager, Doctor Flintstein (David Straitharn), that soul storage is the best thing he could do, after all a twisted soul is nothing but a burden. Taking the plunge, Giamatti is shocked to find his great, artistic soul looks just like a tiny chickpea. But he also feels the tremendous burden that has been lifted off his shoulders. He feels free and light for the first time in ages. All is great. Giamatti can't feel stress, can't feel nervous, in fact he ...can't ...feel ...anything!

He can't act and feels like a different person, somehow less than himself. All would be good, all that needs to happen is for his soul to be put back in. Except for one little problem. The soul is missing. Suddenly actor Giamatti is drawn into a trip into Russia to recover his stolen soul, which has been traded onto the black market!

Set against this tale of artistic angst is a more real story of soul trafficking between Russia and the USA. Russian actress Dina Korzun won a much deserved Independent Spirit nomination for her performance as the "soul mule" who is gradually losing all identity through her job. She brings gravitas to her role and ensures that the points the film makes about the human condition and our desire for quick fix solutions to our problems is well made. Despite the absurd premise this film is played dead straight.

Cold Souls works because of the performance of Giamatti. For a start there is no man on the planet who suits Vanya better than Giamatti, the hangdog look, the whining and railing against injustice all fit this deeply gifted actor to a tee. When he begins the play Giamatti gives the most profound reading of the lines I have heard. It is so searing that we come to realise, as Giamatti does, that it has taken over him and left him empty. His hugely expressive face records the most minute emotional shifts.

Where the film perhaps doesn't work as well is in the integration of the two stories of New York and Russia. There is either a funnier or a more poignant tale to be told between these two distinct journeys. The film has been promoted as a comedy but, in reality, it is often dark and at times deeply moving. Whilst Giamatti and Korzun get the plum acting jobs, great performers like Emily Watson aren't given much to work with. It is hard not to enjoy the performance of David Straitharn as the smarmy doctor.

Cold Souls is not perfection but it is an above average experience and one that improves with repeated viewing.

Video

  Cold Souls was shot on 35mm film and projected in the cinema at a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. That ratio has been preserved for the DVD release. It is 16x9 enhanced.

Amongst the press materials for the film, on the official website is a Cinematographer Statement from the lensman Andrij Parekh. He says that in deciding a look for the film he was strongly influenced by the idea of :
Winter light, particularly the crisp, sharp light of New York in December and the soft, diffused light of Russia, defined the palette as pastel and soft rather than primary and contrasts, which we chose to embrace.

His aims have been realised in the film. The primary tones are a light, cold blue for exteriors and a rather diffusely lit yellow brown for Giamatti's apartment. The film does look soft but in a way that evokes dreams. There is a light grain. The film is spread over a dual layered DVD. I could not detect a layer change but neither could I detect any compression issues or other problems. Aliasing and artefacts were not to be seen.

The flesh tones are accurate. There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired which give a good account of on-screen action. There are burned-in English subtitles for the scenes in Russian.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Cold Souls features an English Dolby Digital soundtrack running at a somewhat underwhelming 224 Kb/s. Though the filmy is quite talky I do think that a more expansive soundtrack would not have gone wasted.

Dialogue can be heard clearly and the actors appear to be in audio sync.

The score is by former Tindersticks member Dickon Hinchliffe. His sparse moody contributions are a perfect fit for the film. Given that some of the same metaphysical, touching ground is covered by his score it is perhaps not surprising that there are moments which sound similar to the score by Carter Burwell for Being John Malkovich

There are some songs on the track that also speak to the soul searching in the film. The music of recently deceased singer Lhasa de Sela is used to great effect. La marée haute and Pa llegar tu lado are strange and moving creations from her 2003 CD The Living Road. All three of her albums are worth a listen.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

The DVD case boasts no extras which is pretty close to the mark. There is a short trailer and some design sketches for the Soul Extractor. How good would have been a commentary track with director and the two leads?

    This film has been released in Region 1. That edition contains a few Deleted scenes and a brief short on the fabrication of the Soul Extractor. It also apparently has a 5.1 sound mix.

A marginally better package.

   Cold Souls is an enjoyable absurdist tale although the tone may leave you a little depressed at the end. A great performance from the leads justifies a viewing but the inventiveness of the idea makes this a worthwhile purchase.

The DVD looks and sounds good but the paucity of extras disappoints.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall