Cate Blanchett joins the French resistance in the war drama "Charlotte Gray", which is released onto a DVD as patchy as the movie itself.
TECHNICAL FEATURES
Picture The handsome cinematography makes for easy viewing, and it's transferred to DVD in icy cool shades that look fantastic.
Sound Stephen Warbeck's score fills the speakers with warmth for a 5.1 mix that's occasionally roused into high drama.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Audio Commentary Director Gillian Armstrong offers a string of comments that could have been condensed into an interview, rather than stretched into this audio track. She does discuss locations, which is useful if you want to dip into the commentary to discover where various scenes were shot.
Cast and Crew Interviews Don't even bother accessing the 25 minutes of cast and crew snippets that you'll find here. Trite nonsense made to promote the film, and then dumped onto a DVD do not make for informative entertainment.
Gillian Armstong Interview This 12-minute interview with Armstrong is far more useful than the dreary commentary. The questions asked lack bite, but Armstrong's casting decisions are explored here.
Cate Blanchett Interview Stock questions get stock answers in this ten-minute example of why asking actors about the characters they play is opening a Pandora's Box of boredom.
Making of Featurette Produced to promote the film, this making of featurette offers behind-the-scenes footage, along with the usual fluffy interviews.
Living Through Wartime Cate Blanchett is given free rein to discuss her utterly trivial thoughts on the Sebastian Faulk novel upon which the film is based, and on women in wartime.
A Village Revisits Wartime Another short featurette here, with behind-the-scenes footage of the village picked as the French setting of the film.
Behind Enemy Lines Every special feature reviewed to this point veers between instantly forgettable to frightfully boring. All is forgiven with the inclusion of this 50-minute documentary on the "real Charlotte Grays" of WWII - this alone is worth buying the DVD for.
Cold-blooded bravery is exposed in interviews with the women who put their lives on the line to go to France, blend in, and sabotage the Germans at every turn. Comments like, "I killed, stole and lied, but I've been honest ever since" come from the lips of old women who look like ordinary pensioners, albeit for the steel in their eyes.
English women who could speak good French were recruited for an organisation so secretive, few initially even knew they were being recruited for the cause. Trained to withstand interrogation and in the arts of guerilla warfare, these meek-looking women were the perfect undercover assassins. Fascinating, frightening, and humbling, this is DVD content worth owning.
Additional Extra Features Also on the DVD are deleted scenes, a trailer, and TV spots.
Region: 2
Chapters: 27
Ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Technical Features: Scene selection, animated menus, and English subtitles.
This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-S57 DVD player.
