Dead Again (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Theatrical Trailer Audio Commentary-Lindsay Doran (Producer) & Scott Frank (Screenwriter) Audio Commentary-Kenneth Branagh (Director/Actor)
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	103:17
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (56:36)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Kenneth Branagh
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Kenneth Branagh Andy Garcia Derek Jacobi Hanna Schygulla Emma Thompson
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Patrick Doyle

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian 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	Greek English Spanish French Hebrew Croatian Italian Portuguese Slovenian English Audio Commentary Spanish Audio Commentary French Audio Commentary Italian Audio Commentary English Audio Commentary Spanish Audio Commentary French Audio Commentary Italian Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes, one scene in the film will cure anyone of smoking
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Dead Again is a particular favorite of mine, as with Much Ado About Nothing I love Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson together. After the success of Henry V, Branagh's directing debut, he received many scripts. Dead Again was chosen from these; according to the commentary, during the interval of a stage show that he and Emma were in together. I believe at that time they were also married.

    Apparently the studio was a little nervous about this combination of relatively new director and a script that contained some concepts that they thought might be hard to sell to the public, such as reincarnation. The producer was told to 'get some names' and this she did. Robin Williams is one of the many characters in this film and he is nothing short of brilliant as the somewhat psychotic ex-psychiatrist. Andy Garcia plays the part of a news reporter and Wayne Knight of Jurassic Park fame plays another reporter.

    Derek Jacobi plays the adult Franklyn Madson and he along with everyone else in this film does a fantastic job. Scott Frank is the writer and, after many iterations, has produced a film that is both riveting and suspenseful as well as having some very funny moments.

    This is a very difficult story to write a synopsis for. Integral to the enjoyment and suspense is the many twists and turns that the plot takes. The viewer is constantly trying to work out what is going on and beat the writer to the punch, though if you manage it with this film then you are doing well.

    A woman is found that has lost her memory completely - she has no idea who she is. A private detective is brought in to try and find out who she is. He starts by having a photo taken and published in the local paper. One of the responses to this ad is a hypnotist who offers to try and help, saying that he hopes to be rewarded by her family when they find them.

    The woman is placed under hypnosis to try and bring back her memory, but they discover that she has regressed back to a past life and starts describing events from fifty years ago. The story now splits as we follow both the events of that time and the continuing search for the woman's identity in the present. The plot becomes a lovely twisted tale that will have you on the edge of your seat for the rest of the film.

    They have deliberately set out to recreate a film noir with this movie. The script, the cinematography and the music are all in this style. Tempered by the comedy, this works very well. They separate the past and present by using black and white for the past and colour for the present. The commentary mentions that originally they shot all scenes in colour but the audiences became confused as the story moved back and forth between the past and present, compounded by the fact the the different characters in the past and present are played by the same actors. While this change was made to reduce this confusion, I like the look of the black and white footage - it gives a real feeling of the '40s to those scenes.

Video

    Sharpness is pretty good throughout. Shadow detail is a bit disappointing, being quite opaque at times. This is a particular problem as there are quite a few dark scenes. There is no low level noise. There is a slight problem with the brightness particularly in the black and white sections. The overall brightness of the scene seems to strobe occasionally. Not every scene does this and at first I thought it might be deliberate to give an old feel to the black and white footage, but it is also present in a couple of the colour scenes though much less noticeably. There are quite a few examples during the black and white footage such as at 32:14 and 64:30, and an example where it occurs during colour footage is at 94:02.

    The colours are generally very good though the saturation level does vary a little depending on the lighting level. However, we should remember that the emulsions used in 1991 were not as good as they are now. Skins tones are pretty much spot on. The black and white sections also show some grain but have a very nice neutral grey.

    Despite a reasonable amount of grain being visible, the MPEG encoding has gone quite well. There are some very minor artefacts in the background of some scenes and a minor amount of posterization such as on Branagh's face at 21:27. There is also a small amount of aliasing such as the railing in the background at 57:59. There is quite lot of grain visible and a handful of specks and a couple of hairs - not too bad but could have been better.

    The English subtitles are easy to read and fairly accurate. For long sentences, they show an abridged version but the meaning is kept.

    This is an RSDL disc with the layer change at 56:36. It is noticeable but not too distracting.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Dialogue quality is excellent throughout the film, particularly important in a dialogue driven mystery.

    There were no problems with audio sync.

    The music accompanying this film is fantastic. Written by Patrick Doyle, it is an equal partner with the script and actors and really brings the scenes to life. It is a rich lush score that works perfectly for the film.

    While this is a 5.1 soundtrack, the surrounds seemed to be mono. They are used to subtly expand the sound stage and for some ambient effects, but this is predominantly a front-heavy sound stage.

    The subwoofer received some redirected bass and occasional input from the LFE track supporting the music and some thunder.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    Presented at 1.78:1 the menu is a simple static image with no music.

Audio Commentary : Lindsay Doran (Producer) & Scott Frank (Screenwriter)

    The audio commentaries are also accompanied by subtitles. This is a fun commentary with a good balance between tidbits about the production, movie information, information about the evaluation of the script and many other topics. The banter between Lindsay and Scott is excellent. They obviously know each other well and bringing this script to the big screen was clearly a challenge.

Audio Commentary : Kenneth Branagh (Director/Actor)

    I have heard some director's commentaries where the ratio of commentary to movie soundtrack was not very high. This is the complete opposite, with Kenneth Branagh talking almost continuously. His commentary is more about the making and directing of the film though he does branch out occasionally. This is a really good complement to the other commentary with little that repeats, though there are a couple of points where the two commentaries disagree, admittedly only on minor points. I found myself not noticing the passage of time, a sign of a good commentary.

Theatrical Trailer

    Presented at 1.85:1 (16x9 enhanced) and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 sound track, this runs for 2:24 and is of similar quality to the main feature. As usual they give away too much in the trailer, so it is best watched after the film.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Spanish and Italian sound tracks.
• A swag of subtitle languages for both the main feature and the commentaries.

    I have not seen the Region 1 version of this disc personally so cannot comment directly but the reviews in Region 1 might indicate that they have a slightly better transfer. Other than this there is no compelling difference as long as you speak and read English. Not having seen the Region 1 disc, I will have to call this one a draw.

    For me, Dead Again is a must-own movie and this disc is good enough to carry the same tag. The film is a wonderfully entertaining story that does not let up right up to the end, with plot twists that are quite original. Everyone brings home a great performance so you cannot help but be drawn into the story.

    Considering the age of the film the video is not bad.

    The audio is subtle but enveloping.

    The extras are a very pleasant surprise.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall