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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Glorious 39 (2009)

Glorious 39 (2009)

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Released 10-Nov-2010

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Thriller Audio Commentary-Director Stephen Poliakoff & Actress Romola Garai
Featurette-On the Edge of War: Uncovering Glorious 39
Theatrical Trailer-Madman Propaganda
Trailer-Madman Propaganda
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2009
Running Time 123:43
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (49:54) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Stephen Poliakoff
Studio
Distributor

Madman Entertainment
Starring Romola Garai
Bill Nighy
Julie Christie
David Tennant
Juno Temple
Eddie Redmayne
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $29.95 Music Adrian Johnston


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired Smoking Yes, it is prewar Britain after all.
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     In the glorious, idyllic summer of 1939 an aristocratic English family gather at their palatial ancestral country home to celebrate the birthday of patriarch Sir Alexander Keyes (Bill Nighy). In the group are his children Ralph (Eddie Redmayne) and Celia (Juno Temple), his adopted daughter Anne (Romola Garai) and her friend Lawrence (Charlie Cox), outspoken Member of Parliament Hector Haldane (David Tennant) and the sinister Balcombe (Jeremy Northam). Haldane is vehemently opposed to Prime Minister Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler and believes it is time to turn to Churchill and oppose the Nazis. It is not a popular view: many of the English elite feel that a war with Germany cannot be won and that Britain’s safety depends upon coming to an agreement with Hitler.

     Anne’s idyllic life changes when she accidentally finds a series of gramophone records left in the Keyes house for safekeeping by Balcombe. They contain recordings of secret meetings at which special deals being offered to Hitler in return for England’s safety were discussed. When Haldane dies in mysterious circumstances, Anne comes to believe that a murderous conspiracy exists, involving Balcombe and the British Secret Service, to neutralise any opposition to an accommodation with Nazi Germany. But who can Anne trust with her fears? Her immediate family; her Aunt Elizabeth (Julie Christie); Lawrence, who works in the Foreign Office; her friend, actor Gilbert Williams (Hugh Bonneville)? As Anne delves into further recordings she hears threats being made to Haldane before his death, and she recognises some of the voices. Just how high in the Government, and her family, does the conspiracy go? And how many people will be killed in order to preserve the conspirators’ secrets?

     Glorious 39 is a sumptuous, slow burning thriller from writer / director Stephen Poliakoff, better known for his introspective TV dramas such as The Lost Prince (2003) or Shooting the Past (1999); this is his first feature film since The Tribe (1998). Poliakoff is an influential figure in British arts, awarded a C.B.E. in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and ranked 75 on the Telegraph's 2008 list of the 100 most powerful people in British culture. His high reputation explains the actors willing to participate in Glorious 39; as well as Bill Nighy and Julie Christie, Christopher Lee, Corin Redgrave and Jenny Agutter have small roles.

     Glorious 39 is opulent in every sense. The cinematography, by Danny Cohan, highlighting the lustrous English countryside, the stately homes, the luscious interiors is beautiful, and pausing the film would often result in a picture you could frame and put onto the wall. The music, by Adrian Johnston, is orchestral and equally lush, adding to the opulent mood. However, this is not a big film. While there are a number of widescreen external scenes, much of the film has a closed in claustrophobic feel with no large set piece sequences. Instead, the film concentrates upon the Keyes family, and many scenes involve two characters talking in smaller spaces: even if the rooms are large, the director uses few establishing shots and the camera is placed close to the characters, shooting them from the waist up, giving a closed in feel. As the film moves towards its climax, the colour palate also becomes darker, with browns prevalent.

     Glorious 39 is introspective and slow moving, yet it does build a reasonable tension, helped by the dominant performance of Romola Garai. She looks beautiful, her combination of vulnerability and spirit is convincing in every scene and she gets to wear some stunning outfits. Her's is a naturalistic performance. In contrast Bill Nighy seemed mannered and stiff, which may well have been the director’s intention, but for me didn’t quite work. On the other hand, Hugh Bonneville was good although Julie Christie was mostly wasted.

     Set in the Indian summer before WW2, Glorious 39 is a sumptuous, slow burning thriller from writer / director Stephen Poliakoff. It looks great, has a wonderful central performance by Romola Garai but could be a bit slow and introspective for some.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     Glorious 39 is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, the original theatrical ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced. It looks stunning.

     Colours are not vibrant as such but instead are deep and mellow, with beautiful hues of greens, brown and yellows showing off both the English countryside and the inside of stately homes. In a number of sequences there has been a deliberate decision to adjust the colour palate; remembered scenes of the English summer have a golden glow, while London features a colder blue hue. The picture is very sharp with excellent clarity and contrast; blacks and shadow detail are excellent. Occasionally, the picture seemed over bright, affecting the skin tones especially of Romola Garai, who often looks very pale, but this may have been deliberate.

     I did not notice any film or film to video artefacts. The layer change at 49:54 resulted in a very slight pause.

     There are English subtitles for the hearing impaired in a yellow font. Some of the film’s dialogue is rapid fire and the subtitles miss occasional words and can be slightly behind the spoken word. They do still give the sense of what is said and there were no spelling or grammatical errors in the portion I sampled.

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

Audio

     Audio is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The dialogue is clear at all times and the lush orchestral score by Adrian Johnston is well represented in the mix. The surrounds mainly carried the score with only limited effects. Indeed, in one scene where the church bells were ringing I expected more from the surrounds, but they remained silent. The sub woofer was also mostly silent, but gave support to the score. This is not a film with chase scenes, explosions or any real need of a massive sound boost so the audio track was satisfactory.

     Lip synchronisation is fine.

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

Extras

Audio Commentary with Director Stephen Poliakoff & Actress Romola Garai

     The director and star are recorded together and provide a chatty, non-stop commentary. Poliakoff provides the bulk of the commentary; Garai answers questions posed by Poliakoff and interposes her own thoughts and experiences. There is some information about the locations and shooting “summer” scenes in the winter, but the commentary is often about what is happening on screen, themes and plot points and the historical background. Worth a listen, although Poliakoff especially has lots of “ums” in every sentence.

On the Edge of War: Uncovering Glorious 39 (8:09)

     An extended press kit with numerous clips from the film, interview snippets with the writer/ director Stephen Poliakoff, 11 cast members and the producer saying how wonderful everyone was.

Theatrical Trailer (1:55)

Madman Propaganda

     Trailers for other films from Madman: North Face (2:38), Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (2:33), Five Minutes of Heaven (1:54) and Amazing Grace (2:45).

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     The Region 2 UK version includes the same audio commentary, “On the Edge of War” featurette and trailer but also adds a substantial featurette on Stephen Poliakoff (25:09), London Premiere footage (2:25), Costume Gallery Sketches and a photo gallery. If you are a fan of Stephen Poliakoff the Region 2 would be the preferred choice. I cannot find any record of a Region 1 US release at the present.

Summary

     Glorious 39 is a sumptuous, slow burning thriller from writer / director Stephen Poliakoff. Set in the last glorious summer before WW2, a young woman from a wealthy aristocratic family makes a dangerous discovery that will affect her family and may well cost her life; a conspiracy within the British establishment to make a deal with Nazi Germany and appease Hitler.

     The DVD has beautiful video, good audio but only some of the extras available on the Region 2 UK edition. Still, the package and the film are worth checking out.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ray Nyland (the bio is the thing)
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Review Equipment
DVDSony BDP-S350, using HDMI output
DisplayLG 42inch Hi-Def LCD. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderNAD T737. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated.
AmplificationNAD T737
SpeakersStudio Acoustics 5.1

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