Almost exactly a year ago this week, I was walking out of the Salle Debussy screen at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, having been utterly blown away by a film that I would spend the rest of the year telling everyone I knew that they had to go out of their way to see. Fast forward to today, and that film,
Derek Cianfrance's
Blue Valentine has now landed on
blu-ray and
DVD. Follow the jump to see whether I'm just as enthusiastic now. As if I could be anything else. I stand by my statement that Blue Valentine deserves to be considered one of the best films of the last, or indeed any year. It is a touching, and occasionally provocative anti-romantic film that takes the established expectations we have for screen romances and squeezes the mindless happiness out of it, replacing that escapist pleasure with a stark reality that suggests not everyone gets a happy ending. The film focuses on two characters from separate worlds who once fell hopelessly and helplessly in love and are now in the advanced stages of falling back out of it, thanks to stark realisations and the ominous shadow of their parents' relationships hanging over them. So during the film we watch the final embers of the relationship dying, despite the couple's attempts to save their relationship, as we simultaneously get to see, in non-linear fashion, the beginnings of their passion.
Director Cianfrance's aesthetic is startling precise and beautifully rich, with a wonderful intimacy in the camera work that heightens both the tension and the enveloping beauty of the relationship: the visuals are the perfect back-drop for the enclosed nature of the relationship. Although the cinematography is great, and the script is a triumph, the film's success relies entirely most heavily on two exceptional performances from its leads.
Ryan Goslings performance as Dean is pitch perfect, and he soars as the desperately hopeless romantic with an entirely unattainable model for romance and happiness. He simmers with tangible passion throughout, which occasionally manifests itself in negative and explosive emotion, but Gosling plays him as a tragic figure, unable to reconcile his expectations of romance, and his own pursuit of simple happiness with the expectations of his partner.
Alongside him,
Michelle Williams rightly gained an Oscar nod for her performance as Cindy, which is as taut and emotionally intense as Gosling's, even if she is positioned a little as the villain of the piece, whose initial seduction quickly gives way to the terror of potentially being trapped in a stagnant relationship. She is marked by the ghosts of her parents' relationship, and the realisation that her own may head the same way plays out in Williams' performance brilliantly. At the heart of things, we have a film about conflicts, personal and ideological, concerning romance and happiness, and it is in the performances of the leads that these conflicts are most expertly realised. What we have here is essentially a two-character piece, reflecting the bubble-like nature of their relationship, which quickly segues from charming to catastrophic as the characters are unable to grow independently and end up loathing one another for the same reasons they fell in love. And in that respect it is one of the most appropriately envisaged modern anti-romances
now available to buy on the market.
Quality
This is a difficult one to review, since Cianfrance seems to have consciously made as stark and grim a print as the subject matter of the movie, with the impetus being on slightly drained natural tones and occasional softness to the image that fits the tonal manifesto. Detail is brilliant though, and textures do shine through when the film doesn't edge towards the softer end of the scale. It isn't the best looking HD transfer I've ever seen, but it does fit the intentions of the film-maker perfectly, and I suspect if it had been too clean, and too precise, I would have been complaining that it didnt match the tone of the film. The audio track on the other hand is necessarily and intentionally more precise, adding wonderful clarity to the talk-heavy film, and allowing music to have the required priority when it does come in to punctuate scenes.
Extras
Nothing hugely innovative here, but the commentary with director Derek Cianfrance is a great listen, concentrating on really getting under the skin of the project, talking about his relationship with the editing team (and specifically co-Editor Jim Helton who joins him on the track), and the authenticity of the performances in a very infectious way. Audio Commentary: With director Derek Cianfrance and Co-Editor Jim Helton Deleted Scenes (20 mins): Relationship Talk in the Van, Makeup in the Rain, The Park, and That Face. The Making of Blue Valentine (14 mins) Frankie and the Unicorn (Home Movie) (3 mins)
Blue Valentine is available to buy on blu-ray and DVD now.