Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Biographies-Cast & Crew Interviews-Cast & Crew TV Spots-2
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	152:33
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (82:00)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Stanley Kubrick
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Tom Cruise Nicole Kidman Sydney Pollack Marie Richardson Rade Serbedzija
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$36.95	Music	Jocelyn Pook

    Bill keeps seeing love scenes in his head where Alice is with the sailor, which never happened in actuality - it is the thought that it could have happened that really disturbs Bill. Whilst out walking one night, trying to come to grips with his wife's revelation, he allows himself to be propositioned by a prostitute and accompanies her back to her flat. One thing leads to another and he finds out about a secret society which holds masked balls, where dancing and networking are not the main attraction!

    Bill goes to the masked ball after picking up a costume, but he is spotted as an outsider and is warned to leave, immediately, by one of the women present. For those of you who haven't seen the movie, you will have to watch it to find out how it all turns out. There are many confronting topics raised during this movie, not all of which are about sex and nudity. However, if you don't like nudity give this one a big miss, as there is plenty of flesh on show, most of which is female. Personally, I found this movie engaging and a visual feast.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, not 1.85:1 as stated erroneously on the back cover. It is not 16x9 enhanced. This is the full frame version of the film, so supposedly we are not missing out on any footage. I personally would have preferred a 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced version as the horizontal picture structure becomes apparent when blown up to 90" on non-16x9 transfers.

    This is easily the brightest DVD picture that I have ever seen. It constantly astounded me as to just how bright it was, and yet the blacks were still black.

    The picture was very sharp and clear, but suffered from the usual amount of pixelization or grain that seems to plague almost all Warner Home Video DVD transfers. I personally find this grain annoying and wish Warners would fix this problem. The grain usually borders on just being perceptible, but there are several occasions where it becomes noticeable and rather distracting. The worst examples of this can be found at 9:57 - 10:39, 37:02, 37:31, 61:09, 67:33 and 94:35.

    The shadow detail is impeccable, but unfortunately there are a couple of scenes that suffer from low-level noise, such as at 45:09, 85:53, 87:43 and 89:11 - 89:35. These occurrences are very noticeable. Indeed, the first time I saw it, I actually said to myself "what the hell was that?" and promptly rewound and watched the scene again. To think that we used to put up with this problem all the time on VHS and never complained about it - my how things have changed. It is worth pointing out, however, that this low-level noise would be in the film and is not the result of a transfer problem.

    The colour is vivid, and could be considered perfect if it weren't for a couple of scenes where I thought the skin tones were a little too red. No edge bleeding or edge enhancement was noticed.

    I noticed a couple of relatively minor MPEG artefacts, such as at 7:51 (on the Hungarian's nose), 53:13 (around the writing of Nick Nightingale's name), and at 62:23 (on the woman's torso in the background).  All of these occurrences were minor, but NONE of them should have occurred.

    Aliasing and moiré effects are non-existent, except for a couple of trivial occurrences affecting the usual culprits, such as venetian blinds and chrome objects. Most of these occurrences were really only noticed because I was specifically looking for them. Aliasing occurred at 0:53 - 0:59, 1:07, 1:44, 101:50 - 101:55 and 122:42. Moiré effects occurred at 38:04, on the back of a chair.

    I did not see a single film artefact.

    This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change occurring in Chapter 17, at 82:00. There was only a very slight pause, which was not at all disruptive to the flow of the movie as it is placed on a scene change and is also placed in between music beats. This is a superbly timed and placed layer change, even if it is still noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The dialogue was extremely clear and easy to understand throughout the entire movie.

    Audio sync was not a problem at all with this transfer, and was completely spot on.

    The original musical score is by Jocelyn Pook, who takes quite a minimalist approach. However, it suits the movie well, as it adds to the mood and adds a real edge to several of the key scenes.

    The surround channels are used extensively as are the left and right front channels. Unfortunately, the centre channel is too dominant, which collapses the sound field. This left me with the impression that the sound was only coming from the centre channel on many occasions when in fact it wasn't. The sound stage opens up somewhat during the early parts of the Country House scenes (Chapters 17 through 22), and we are enveloped in a pretty good sound field. One of the highlights of this section for me occurs at 70:30, where the elder is banging his staff on the ground. The echo was so convincing that I felt as if I was standing in the Great Hall with the actors.

    The subwoofer is used sparingly, as you would expect from this type of movie.  The .1 LFE channel is mostly used to support the other speakers, adding depth to the sound where required. It is perfectly integrated into the sound-stage, never calling attention to itself even when it is highly active. The Country House scenes also contain the best .1 LFE channel use - there are many instances where the subwoofer is highly active, notably 70:30, 73:44 and 76:59.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Cast & Crew

Interviews -Tom Cruise (8:29 minutes), Nicole Kidman (17:46 minutes) & Steven Spielberg (7:49 minutes)

TV Spot – Jealousy (0:34 minutes)

TV Spot – Combo (0:34 minutes)

    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.

• Theatrical Trailer
• Electronic censorship of the movie

    The picture quality is very good, but it suffered from the usual amount of pixelization or grain that seems to plague almost all Warner Home Video DVD transfers, plus there are a couple of minor MPEG artefacts.

    The audio is flawlessly presented as per the original soundtrack, with minimal use of the surround and .1 LFE channels.

    There are some extras but they are nothing to write home about.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall