Charlotte Gray (2001) |
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Charlotte Gray (2001) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Drama |
Audio Commentary-Director Gillian Armstrong Featurette- A Village Revists History Featurette-Living Through Wartime Theatrical Trailer |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2001 | ||
| Running Time | 116:41 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (66:36) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Language Select Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Gillian Armstrong |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Universal Pictures Home Video |
Starring |
Cate Blanchett Billy Crudup Michael Gambon Ron Cook |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $24.95 | Music | Stephen Warbeck |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English French Arabic English Audio Commentary French Audio Commentary Arabic Audio Commentary English Titling French Titling |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
When Charlotte (Blanchett) falls in love with a British pilot who disappears over France during Germany's occupation of the country's north, she puts up her hand to travel to the mainland to become a spy and, at the same time, to try to find her lost love. She gravitates toward local French Resistance leader Julien (Billy Crudup) and slowly begins to realise what role she will play in the outcome of this mission, but unfortunately, it is too late.
I will not tell you much more of the storyline here as it will give away more than I am comfortable to give. The film, however is a magnificent looking film that is mostly shot on location in the French countryside. The production values are fantastic and the film truly looks as good as other contemporary wartime films such as Saving Private Ryan and Captain Corelli's Mandolin- even though these films are poles apart from Charlotte Gray.
Each shot in this film is thoughtfully crafted and measured to show off the production as well as tell the story in an effective and sustained manner. Armstrong has produced a film that does the beauty of the landscape and the depression of the time justice evenly - not an easy task to marry these two bi-polar feelings at once so effectively.
Blanchett is again, very solid in her role. After bursting onto the Hollywood scene in Elizabeth, the Melbourne native has certainly gained the respect of the masses very quickly. Charlotte Gray is a good performance from her, but ultimately she does not completely nail the role like she did with the virgin queen back in 1998.
In summary, Charlotte Gray is a quality film that will appeal to fans of the period, the director and the genre. If you dig fast paced, edgy films with quick dialogue and lots of action, then this one is probably not for you. However, if you enjoy films that will slowly evolve through the running time and make you feel for the characters as opposed to just relating to them, then Charlotte Gray is one for you.
The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. Armstrong uses all of the width of her lens for beautiful sweeping landscape shots and graceful close-ups throughout the film. To see this film in any other ratio would be an absolute shame and would diminish the film's overall effect on the viewer as it would feel much more congested and confined, failing to capture the beauty of the production.
The sharpness of this transfer is one of the highlights for me. Every shot is beautifully crisp, clear and bright with brilliant shadow detail even in darker scenes with soft lighting. The picture is bright and leaps off the screen without any problem at all. There are a few very minor instances of grain noticed, but nothing worth noting here. There was no low level noise.
Colours in this film are beautiful and bright throughout with strong definition for the entirety of the feature. There is a lot of natural light used in this film which never serves to flare the lens too much or seem overexposed. The colour palette is very green/grey with splashes of strong colours such as red and blue. All colours are steady and there was no evidence of colour related artefacts.
There are no MPEG artefacts to be found here whatsoever. There are some slight instances of aliasing throughout the film but these are so insignificant that I will mention them only because I found almost no other artefacts with this transfer. Small amounts of aliasing can be found at 14:05 and 21:07. Film artefacts steadily appear through the film in the form of little marks of dirt and grime on the print.
There are a number of subtitles recorded on this disc. I watched about 15 minutes of the English subtitles and found them to be fairly accurate to the spoken word with only a handful of slightly simplified passages.
This is an RSDL formatted disc, with the layer change occurring at 66:36. It not a horrible change, but not fantastic either. After reviewing Panic Room, all other layer changes pale in comparison.
| Sharpness |  |
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| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
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There are a number of audio tracks here - I listened to the English 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack running at 384 kb/s and the English Audio Commentary track, with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded sound.
The dialogue quality is brilliant throughout with a very strong and resonant sound apparent for the entire feature. Obviously this is a heavily dialogue based film and the quality of this dialogue is very important. There are no issues with audio synch or any sound dropouts.
The music in this film by Stephen Warbeck is not overbearing and does not do too much to inspire, but it is solid nonetheless. Music emanates from the left and right channels and occasionally echoes through the rear channels.
Surround presence is very busy during this film. Surprisingly, as the film is more of an art house piece, the surrounds are heavily used during action scenes and with planes flying overhead. A very nice surprise, and one that is a testament to how well this DVD is produced.
Likewise, the subwoofer is heavily used during the same scenes and really performs well.
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| Overall | |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;
The video transfer is lovely.
The audio transfer is very nice indeed.
The extras are there but with the exception of the commentary, are not very inviting.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony DVP-S525, using Component output |
| Display | Loewe Xelos (81cm) 16:9. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to DVD player. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Onkyo TX-DS797- THX Select |
| Speakers | Jamo X550 Left and Right, Jamo X5CEN Centre, Jamo X510 Surround |