Prospero's Books
by Peter Greenaway
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DVD details
Actor: John Gielgud, Michael Clark, Michel BlancDirector: Peter Greenaway
Brand: Allied Artists Classics
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Full Screen, NTSC
Running Time: 129 minutes
Published: 2007
DVD Release Date: 2009-09-18
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: AAE Films, Inc.
Product features:
- Adaptation of "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare told in music and dance
- Digitally Mastered
DVD Reviews of Prospero's Books
DVD Review: Great Movie - Terrible DVD
Summary: 1 Stars
Prospero's Books is one of the most remarkable films I've ever seen, and this DVD is no way to see it. Not only is this DVD not widescreen (and this movie, with its liberal and wonderful use of digital compositing must be seen widescreen to appreciate the compositions that Greenaway was creating), but the video and audio quality are terrible. The audio is best described as muddy. The video is best described as an over-compressed, bad transfer from VHS. Ironically, a local video store had a tape of Prospero's Books available for many years, and it was widescreen. So this DVD is actually worse than the VHS version I've seen. There's no excuse for that at any price, but for almost $80 this DVD ought to be flawless and filled with amazing extras. It is not. Beginning with the terrible compression artifacts in the opening text, I watched about 15 minutes of this DVD in horror, then dug up my LaserDisc copy of the film and compared them. Both are cropped, rather widescreen, but at least the LaserDisc transfer had better sound and cleaner video. If you can bear to watch VHS, and can find the widescreen version, that seems to be the only way to see this movie unmangled (apart from the massive loss of quality caused by VHS itself), outside of a movie theater. With great disappointment I returned the DVD to Amazon. To Amazon's credit, they provided a full refund. Thank you, Amazon.
At this point, I can only hope that someday soon there'll be a high-quality BluRay edition of this film. But I've waited for a high-quality edition of this film through three generations of technology and have yet to get it (with the LaserDisc and DVD versions being nothing short of embarrassing), so whoever owns the distribution rights to the film must not give a rat's ass about it. And that doesn't inspire optimism about future releases.
Description of Prospero's Books
A magician in exile wishes to take revenge against his enemies, but runs into a roadblock when his daughter and the son of his arch enemy fall in love. An interesting take on the Shakespeare classic, "The Tempest." The story is told in dance and words. All the dialog is spoken by Sir John Gielgud.Bestsellers in DVD
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