Right
up front, let me say that VICTOR/VICTORIA ($20) is one of my favorite
films of the 1980s. It is also the highpoint of writer/director Blake
Edwards’ output during that particular decade. Heck, VICTOR/VICTORIA
even provided Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston and Lesley Ann
Warren with their best film roles of that entire decade. I would even
venture to say that Robert Preston and Lesley Ann Warren were robbed on
Oscar night, when their Academy Award nominated performances didn’t capture
the gold statuette that they each richly deserved… but then again, that’s
Hollywood for you. Anyway, in the twenty years since VICTOR/VICTORIA
was released, the film has become something of a classic and even made
the transition to the Broadway stage as a musical. So what makes the film
version of VICTOR/VICTORIA so special? For this reviewer, there
are three things- first, the movie is outright hilarious; second, the
characters are amazing well drawn for a comedy; and third, the performances
are uniformly outstanding.
In
VICTOR/VICTORIA, Julie Andrews portrays Victoria Grant, a down
on her luck singer trying to eek out a living in the Paris of 1934. As
the film opens, Victoria has reached rock bottom and the starving soprano
is seemingly ready to compromise her virtue for a single meatball off
of her landlord’s plate. However, our heroine’s fortunes vastly improve
when she meets Toddy (Robert Preston), a gay cabaret singer, who comes
up with a preposterous plan that will take advantage of Victoria’s "legitimate"
voice to make them both rich. In complete screwball fashion, Toddy proposes
that Victoria pretend to be his lover- one Count Victor Grezhinski, who
just happens to be Europe’s greatest female impersonator, yet completely
unheard of in Paris.
After
Toddy successfully gets this seemingly unbelievable ruse past noted theatrical
producer Andre Cassell (John Rhys-Davies), Victoria finds herself headlining
in one of Paris’ finest nightclubs. At first, Victoria has no problem
of pulling off her charade of a woman pretending to be a man pretending
to be a woman; however, things become complicated when she meets Chicago
nightclub owner King Marchand (James Garner) and his dizzy blonde girlfriend
Norma Cassady (Lesley Ann Warren). Victoria is immediately taken with
the dashing Marchand, and while initially perplexed, he seems to be the
only person in Paris that questions whether or not Count Victor Grezhinski
is truly a man. When the sparks really begin to fly between Victoria and
Marchand, Norma finds herself being shipped back to Chicago after discovering
that her boyfriend is throwing her over for "another man." As
you might expect, the situation comes to a head, thus forcing everyone
to face the realities of the preposterous situation that they have created
for themselves. The delightful cast VICTOR/VICTORIA also features
Alex Karras, Graham Stark, Peter Arne, "Sherloque" Tanney, Michael
Robbins, Norman Chancer, David Gant, Maria Charles and Malcolm Jamieson.
Warner
Home Video has made VICTOR/VICTORIA available on DVD in a 2.35:1
wide screen presentation that features the anamorphic enhancement for
16:9 displays. This is a really gorgeous transfer of a beautiful looking
movie. VICTOR/VICTORIA benefits from the artifice of being completely
filmed on soundstages in London, with every gorgeously lit frame of Dick
Bush’s cinematography being a treat for the eyes. Additionally, the cinematography
is exceedingly well served by the 16:9 enhanced transfer- looking far
better than any previous video incarnation of the film- each of which
this reviewer has been well acquainted.
The
image is sharp and wonderfully well defined, with even tiny nuances in
the sets and gorgeous production design registering cleanly. The film
element used for the transfer is very clean, with only a handful of blemishes
to remind one that the movie is two decades old. Colors are generally
rich and vibrant, with even decidedly drab scenes rendering with appealing
hues. Flesh tones occasionally appear a bit pale, but the effect is intentional.
However, at all other times, the flesh tones come across as healthy and
very appealing. Colors are almost always rendered with complete stability,
but in a couple of shots, there are very hot reds on black backgrounds
that have a bit of a shimmer. Still, I’d have to rate the color reproduction
as excellent for this beautifully photographed film. Blacks have a rich,
velvety quality, plus the picture has smooth contrast and impressive shadow
detail for a twenty-year-old film. Digital compression artifacts are well
concealed on this cleanly authored dual layer DVD.
VICTOR/VICTORIA
is offered on DVD with a remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack.
Owing to the fact that VICTOR/VICTORIA is a comedy with musical
numbers, much of the film is dialogue driven and not particularly showy.
However, the musical numbers by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse do shine
and benefit from the Dolby Digital encoding. Le Jazz Hot,
The Shady Dame From Seville and Crazy World
all sound quite wonderful and obviously were very well recorded two decades
ago. On occasion, there are some sound effects in the mix that do make
good use of the stereo and surround channels, but these are more of an
exception than the rule. However, the sound mix does have breath and depth
thanks to a lot of little ambient sounds and the musical fill contained
in the soundtrack. Dialogue is crisply rendered and always completely
understandable. A French monaural soundtrack is also encoded onto the
DVD, as are English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese subtitles.
A
bit of animation and music serve to enhance the DVD’s nicely designed
interactive menus. Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene
selection and set up features, as well as a few supplements. Blake Edwards
and Julie Andrews are featured on a running audio commentary track. The
participants sometime get wrapped up in watching the movie, so their comments
sometimes get a bit sparse, but they do impart some good information on
the making of the film and those involved with its production. However,
I feel that a third party with specific questions about the film might
have helped get more detail out of Edwards and Andrews during their talk.
The DVD also includes a theatrical trailer, an awards listing and some
cast & crew filmographies.
As
I stated above, VICTOR/VICTORIA is one of my favorite films of
the1980s. The audio and video presentation on DVD is quite wonderful,
making the disc a must have for any fan of this delightful movie.
Right
up front, let me say that VICTOR/VICTORIA ($20) is one of my favorite
films of the 1980s. It is also the highpoint of writer/director Blake
Edwards’ output during that particular decade. Heck, VICTOR/VICTORIA
even provided Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston and Lesley Ann
Warren with their best film roles of that entire decade. I would even
venture to say that Robert Preston and Lesley Ann Warren were robbed on
Oscar night, when their Academy Award nominated performances didn’t capture
the gold statuette that they each richly deserved… but then again, that’s
Hollywood for you. Anyway, in the twenty years since VICTOR/VICTORIA
was released, the film has become something of a classic and even made
the transition to the Broadway stage as a musical. So what makes the film
version of VICTOR/VICTORIA so special? For this reviewer, there
are three things- first, the movie is outright hilarious; second, the
characters are amazing well drawn for a comedy; and third, the performances
are uniformly outstanding.
In
VICTOR/VICTORIA, Julie Andrews portrays Victoria Grant, a down
on her luck singer trying to eek out a living in the Paris of 1934. As
the film opens, Victoria has reached rock bottom and the starving soprano
is seemingly ready to compromise her virtue for a single meatball off
of her landlord’s plate. However, our heroine’s fortunes vastly improve
when she meets Toddy (Robert Preston), a gay cabaret singer, who comes
up with a preposterous plan that will take advantage of Victoria’s "legitimate"
voice to make them both rich. In complete screwball fashion, Toddy proposes
that Victoria pretend to be his lover- one Count Victor Grezhinski, who
just happens to be Europe’s greatest female impersonator, yet completely
unheard of in Paris.
After
Toddy successfully gets this seemingly unbelievable ruse past noted theatrical
producer Andre Cassell (John Rhys-Davies), Victoria finds herself headlining
in one of Paris’ finest nightclubs. At first, Victoria has no problem
of pulling off her charade of a woman pretending to be a man pretending
to be a woman; however, things become complicated when she meets Chicago
nightclub owner King Marchand (James Garner) and his dizzy blonde girlfriend
Norma Cassady (Lesley Ann Warren). Victoria is immediately taken with
the dashing Marchand, and while initially perplexed, he seems to be the
only person in Paris that questions whether or not Count Victor Grezhinski
is truly a man. When the sparks really begin to fly between Victoria and
Marchand, Norma finds herself being shipped back to Chicago after discovering
that her boyfriend is throwing her over for "another man." As
you might expect, the situation comes to a head, thus forcing everyone
to face the realities of the preposterous situation that they have created
for themselves. The delightful cast VICTOR/VICTORIA also features
Alex Karras, Graham Stark, Peter Arne, "Sherloque" Tanney, Michael
Robbins, Norman Chancer, David Gant, Maria Charles and Malcolm Jamieson.
Warner
Home Video has made VICTOR/VICTORIA available on DVD in a 2.35:1
wide screen presentation that features the anamorphic enhancement for
16:9 displays. This is a really gorgeous transfer of a beautiful looking
movie. VICTOR/VICTORIA benefits from the artifice of being completely
filmed on soundstages in London, with every gorgeously lit frame of Dick
Bush’s cinematography being a treat for the eyes. Additionally, the cinematography
is exceedingly well served by the 16:9 enhanced transfer- looking far
better than any previous video incarnation of the film- each of which
this reviewer has been well acquainted.
The
image is sharp and wonderfully well defined, with even tiny nuances in
the sets and gorgeous production design registering cleanly. The film
element used for the transfer is very clean, with only a handful of blemishes
to remind one that the movie is two decades old. Colors are generally
rich and vibrant, with even decidedly drab scenes rendering with appealing
hues. Flesh tones occasionally appear a bit pale, but the effect is intentional.
However, at all other times, the flesh tones come across as healthy and
very appealing. Colors are almost always rendered with complete stability,
but in a couple of shots, there are very hot reds on black backgrounds
that have a bit of a shimmer. Still, I’d have to rate the color reproduction
as excellent for this beautifully photographed film. Blacks have a rich,
velvety quality, plus the picture has smooth contrast and impressive shadow
detail for a twenty-year-old film. Digital compression artifacts are well
concealed on this cleanly authored dual layer DVD.
VICTOR/VICTORIA
is offered on DVD with a remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack.
Owing to the fact that VICTOR/VICTORIA is a comedy with musical
numbers, much of the film is dialogue driven and not particularly showy.
However, the musical numbers by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse do shine
and benefit from the Dolby Digital encoding. Le Jazz Hot,
The Shady Dame From Seville and Crazy World
all sound quite wonderful and obviously were very well recorded two decades
ago. On occasion, there are some sound effects in the mix that do make
good use of the stereo and surround channels, but these are more of an
exception than the rule. However, the sound mix does have breath and depth
thanks to a lot of little ambient sounds and the musical fill contained
in the soundtrack. Dialogue is crisply rendered and always completely
understandable. A French monaural soundtrack is also encoded onto the
DVD, as are English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese subtitles.
A
bit of animation and music serve to enhance the DVD’s nicely designed
interactive menus. Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene
selection and set up features, as well as a few supplements. Blake Edwards
and Julie Andrews are featured on a running audio commentary track. The
participants sometime get wrapped up in watching the movie, so their comments
sometimes get a bit sparse, but they do impart some good information on
the making of the film and those involved with its production. However,
I feel that a third party with specific questions about the film might
have helped get more detail out of Edwards and Andrews during their talk.
The DVD also includes a theatrical trailer, an awards listing and some
cast & crew filmographies.
As
I stated above, VICTOR/VICTORIA is one of my favorite films of
the1980s. The audio and video presentation on DVD is quite wonderful,
making the disc a must have for any fan of this delightful movie.
