Somers Town (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy Drama	Theatrical Trailer-Somers Town Teaser Trailer-Madman PropagandaTrailers
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	68:01 (Case: 71)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Shane Meadows
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Thomas Turgoose Piotr Jagiello Ireneusz Czop Perry Benson Elisa Lasowski Kate Dickie Wojciech Olczak Wojtek Macierznski Ben Porter Jamie Belman Steve Hillman Mark Monero Ryan Ford
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Gavin Clark

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) 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

     After the international acclaim and success of his 2006 film, This Is England reviewed on this site here, you might expect British director Shane Meadows to be lured by a Hollywood studio with a big budget production. Thankfully though, Meadows next feature, Somers Town, was a small, low budget film set in the London district of the same name. The actual area of Somers Town is substantial and encompasses three railway stations in the London system, King's Cross, St Pancras and Euston Stations. St Pancras Station now plays a key role in the operation of the Eurostar Rail Network. In fact, the film Somers Town was funded largely by Eurostar Group Ltd. It is however important to note that while the refurbishment of St Pancras Station has some relevance in the narrative of the film, it is totally incidental to the overall story. Somers Town was originally envisaged as a short film project but was expanded into a feature film with a theatrical running time of just 71 minutes. The film also sees another fine performance from Thomas Turgoose in his second feature for Shane Meadows.

     Young teenager, Tomo (Thomas Turgoose) has left his depressed and lonely life in the Midlands for a new start in London. But what little money and possessions he has is soon gone when he is robbed and beaten by a group of three youths. Tomo meets another boy of similar age in a café. Marek (Piotr Jagiello) is a Polish immigrant who lives in a small flat with his father, Mariusz (Ireneusz Czop). Except for his father, Marek is also very lonely. While his father works, Marek spends most of his days in solitude, comforted by his interest in photography and his infatuation with an older French waitress, Maria (Elisa Lasowski).

     Marek provides Tomo with a home base, even though he hides him from his father. Marek and Tomo find some work with "wannabe" entrepreneur, Graham (Perry Benson), who also agrees to put Tomo up for a time. Tomo and Marek's awkward friendship is further complicated by the fact that they are now both in love with the same girl. But instead of fighting each other, they work together to win her affection. However, their worlds come crashing down when Maria leaves unannounced for Paris. Heartbroken, Tomo and Marek plan a train trip to Paris to find her.

     Somers Town is a beautifully funny, bitter-sweet tale of isolation, love and friendship from one of Britain's most talented filmmakers.

Video

     Somers Town is presented in the correct aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which is 16x9 enhanced.

     Even with the presence of inherent film grain, the transfer looks excellent. Natasha Braier's beautiful black and white cinematography sets the ambience. Sharpness levels were generally good throughout. Blacks and shadow detail was also very good.

     As mentioned, Somers Town is basically a film shot in black and white. In the last few minutes the film moves into colour. Deliberately soft and muted colours are used to good effect to convey the look of an old home movie. There were no MPEG artefacts noticed in the transfer. Film-to-video and film artefacts were negligible.

     Unfortunately, there are no subtitles available on this edition.

     This is a DVD 5 single layer disc, so there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     There are two audio tracks available on the disc - English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) and English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s). Despite a few heavy accents, I didn't have much trouble hearing and comprehending the dialogue. There were no apparent problems with audio sync.

     The original music by Gavin Clark is a beautiful acoustic and vocal score which blends perfectly into the narrative of the film. The score is even worth a listen independently of the film.

     The surround channels were active mainly with music and occasional elements of ambient sound. Somers Town is a mostly a dramatic story with little requirement for directional sound. Likewise, the subwoofer enforced bass elements in the music and occasional street noise.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

     The main menu is static, 16x9 enhanced and features a sample of Gavin Clark's score.

Theatrical Trailer - Somers Town (2:00)

Madman Propaganda - Trailers

• French Film (1:54)
• Last Ride (1:58)
• Man On Wire (2:14)
• The English Surgeon (2:23)

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

     Somers Town is also available on DVD in Region1 and Region 2 editions - both containing a selection of extras.

     The Region 1 edition released by Film Movement in 2009 contains Interviews with cast members and Shane Meadows (26:44), Somers Town: A History - a text based page about the London suburb, Odd Shoe - a short film by Paul Cotter and the Theatrical Trailer.

     The Region 2 edition released by Optimum Releasing contains Shane Meadows' Master Class at the Tribeca Film Festival (68:46), Interview with Shane Meadows (14:41), Interview with Thomas Turgoose & Piotr Jagiello (6:20), Interview with Perry Benson (5:38), 2 x TV Spots (1:04) and Theatrical Trailer (1:59 ).

     There is also a UK, Region B, Blu-ray edition available from Optimum Releasing. This release features the same extras as their Region 2 DVD edition.

    Shane Meadows' Somers Town is a beautiful, bitter-sweet tale of isolation, love and friendship. While the film is often moving, it is also rich in humour and leaves the viewer with a glow of optimism.

    The transfers are equally very good.

    Unfortunately, this local release misses out on all the extras offered in overseas editions.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall