Cloudstreet (Blu-ray) (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Various Featurette-Making Of
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	353:17
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Matthew Saville
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Geoff Morrell Essie Davis Stephen Curry Kerry Fox
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Bryony Marks

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080i
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     One of Australia's best known contemporary novelists is Tim Winton. His work has received many awards and his books are greatly loved by critics and readers. One of his best known novels, Cloudstreet, was published in 1991 and has since been adapted into a stage play in 2002 and now into a television mini-series in 2011. It was made for and first appeared on the Showcase cable network here in Australia. The rewrite for television was done by Tim Winton himself, retaining the literary style of the book.

     The plot follows the lives of two families in Western Australia during the 1940s and 1950s. The families are the Lambs and the Pickles. The Lambs are a large family of hard working, god fearing people who have been farming in the Margaret River. There are six Lamb children along with the father, lovable Lester (Geoff Morrell) and the difficult and downbeat mother Oriel (Kerry Fox). The Pickles are a less industrious family with the father, Sam (Stephen Curry), being a gambler and the mother, Dolly (Essie Davis), an alcoholic, and their three children. The two families are living in different rural areas until both suffer separate tragedies. This drives them to move to Perth, where Sam Pickles has inherited a house, No 1 Cloud Street. It is a large somewhat rundown house, with a chequered past, having previously been used as an 'education' facility for aboriginal girls.

     The Lambs are looking for a place to live and the Pickles need to rent out part of the house to get money, as due to their habits they rarely have any. Accordingly, the Lambs move in and despite their differences find some synergy developing between the families. Amongst the children, the ones who drive more of the story are two older boys in the Lamb family, Quick and Fish, and the older girl in the Pickles family, Rose, but all the children have their moments. I won't go into the tragedies which start the story or how things develop over the years as this would spoil the story for people who have not read the book.

     This is a dramatic story, which despite some comedic elements can be hard going at times, not because of the quality of the production but rather that this is not a story for everyone. It is somewhat downbeat at times and the tragedies are life-changing. There is also a mystical element to the story which adds to the overall feeling of melancholy. Having said that it is very literary in style and I would think that fans of the novel would enjoy it greatly.

     The production is excellent, with marvellous photography, well done sets and locations, top-notch acting from the ensemble cast and a great approach to incorporating the literary quality and the mysticism into a television show. The show is spread over three Blu-ray discs, one part per disc, totalling close enough to six hours.

     If the subject matter appeals to you or you are a fan of the book, you should give Cloudstreet a go.

Video

     The video quality is good but unfortunately only 1080i. The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is 1080i encoded using AVC.

     The picture was variably clear and sharp, sometimes excellent such as in outdoor scenes and other times a little softer. The shadow detail was somewhat lacking at times probably due to the naturalistic lighting.

     The colour was very good, with the dusty Perth of the 1940s mostly reflecting a dull colour scheme, however some of the dream sequences and outdoor scenes show the impressive colour possibilities of Blu-ray.

     There were no obvious artefacts to spoil the viewing.

     There are subtitles available in English for the Hearing Impaired which are clear and easy to read. They use various colours for the different speakers.

     There are no obvious layer changes during playback.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     The audio quality is very good but quite front focused.

     This disc contains a English soundtrack in DTS-HD MA 5.1 and an English Audio Descriptive track in Dolby Digital 2.0. The DTS-HD MA track is nicely enveloping, with lots of atmospherics and highlights the poignant and emotional music, however, the surrounds only really play a supporting role. Obviously this is not some big budget action film so you would expect less aggressive surrounds.

     Dialogue was very clear and easy to hear and understand.

     The surround speakers were used for music and atmosphere and subwoofer mostly supported the music and minor LFE sounds such as steam trains.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

     There are lots of extras on this set, however, they are mostly promotional featurettes.

Menu

     The menu included music, however the print used was too small even on my 52" television.

Disc 1

Trailer (3:18)

     Extended Trailer for the show.

Introducing... (1:11, 1:08, 1:06, 1:09, 1:07, 1:06, 1:10)

     Featurettes which introduce the various characters through scenes from the show and interview snippets. Included are Fish Lamb, Lester Lamb, Oriel Lamb, Quick Lamb, Rose Pickles, Dolly Pickles and Sam Pickles.

About Fish (6:55)

     A longer version of the introduction to Fish Lamb including Tim Winton.

About the Characters (12:00)

     Extended character introduction including interview snippets with Winton and the cast.

Disc 2

Creating the Music (6:05)

     The composer discusses the excellent score and the orchestration.

From Novel to Script to Screen (7:05)

    Tim Winton and the cast/crew talk about the process by which the novel was brought to the screen including Winton's rewrite process.

Creating the World of Cloudstreet (6:52)

     Featurette focused on production design and how the house was created. Costume design is also covered.

Creating the Magic (5:58)

     Featurette focusing on special effects and how and why they were used especially for dream sequences.

Creating the Sound (4:26)

     Featurette focused on sound design.

Disc 3

Behind the Scenes : Recreating an Australian Classic (25:19)

     Comprehensive making of featurette which covers the production process, the story, building the house and other topics but unfortunately has some crossover to the shorter featurettes. Not Bad.

    This show is currently only available on Blu-ray or DVD locally in Australia.

     A dramatic story of two families sharing a house in 1940s Perth, based on a famous Australian novel.

    The video quality is good but only 1080i. The audio quality is very good.

    A good set of extras, which can be a little samey.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall