"THE WRESTLER": Blu-Ray Test "News" DTS-Phile | The acoustics in High Definition movies

"THE WRESTLER": test Blu-Ray

S YNOPSIS

In the late '80s, Randy Robinson, told The Ram ("Aries"), was a wrestler. Twenty years later, it no longer occurs only in high school gyms and community centers ... At odds with his daughter, he is unable to develop a lasting relationship with anyone: it lives only for the pleasure of the show and the adoration of his fans. But when it is struck by a heart attack in the middle of a match, his doctor ordered him to drop the catch: another fight could be fatal. Forced to pull over, he tries to reconnect with his daughter and, at the same time, starts a relationship with an aging stripper. Yet his taste for spectacle and passion for wrestling may well get over it and propel it back into the ring ...

PRESS KIT

Away from the riot of visual effects of his previous films, Darren Aronofsky has opted for a quasi-documentary style. "So I appealed to the Director of Photography Maryse Alberti who worked on many documentaries. I remember one scene that was not foreseen in the scenario. At the end of a match, I told Mickey to go in the locker room and the other wrestlers did not know that was going to land. It was all filmed with a handheld camera and Mickey were followed through the crowd. Other wrestlers were great: as they are used to the cameras, and that these are real pros of the show, they behaved in a totally natural. It happened the same to the scene of the supermarket. Most customers are real customers and, while aware of the presence of the camera, they behaved naturally. The supermarket was open and, while we turned, people continued to shop as if nothing had happened. "Ditto for the scenes of wrestling:" We preferred the natural setting and we worked with real fans and real wrestlers (...) Moreover, all wrestlers are facing Mickey professionals. We did not utilize any stunt. "

The path of Randy Robinson, hasbeen wrestler, recalls necessarily that of Mickey Rourke , actor considered corny after being a star in the 80s. Rourke says, " Aronofsky said, "You're a great actor who has screwed up his career and that no one wants to hire. You will do everything I tell you, you do not miss me respect and you will not get out at night. "I told myself it must have a lot of talent to dare speak to me in that tone. My character is a left-to-day, living in a mobile home. His wife left him, his daughter became a junkie. He is a dreamer who lives like shit. He lives with shame. I made a parallel with my own life 15 years ago when things did not work very well (...) Darren Aronofsky gives me a real second chance. This time, I can not miss it. I'll show them, these bastards, I'm not finished! And I tell you: I will win an Oscar! ""

To prepare for the role, Mickey Rourke has followed an intensive training, overseen by professional wrestlers, such Samoan Afa, Jon Trosky and Tommy Farra ,-the latter two also have a small role in the film. " Darren has installed a ring in his office where I trained two hours a day, "says the actor, adding," It had been three or four months I was doing weight training for another project when I learned that I ' The Wrestler was going to turn. But I had to take nearly 20 kg for the role and I tried to do that well, keeping it slow. I absorbed a lot of protein and iron, and I lifted weights heavier than I usually raises. I had a great Israeli coach, himself a professional wrestler. He held to a real discipline: he woke me up at 7 am every day, and I am planquais under the sheets! I worked very hard and I did weight training every day, including during the shooting at a rate of one hour per day. "The director revealed that Rourke has not only studied very carefully the script, but he has also rewrote most of his dialogues.

The film walked away winner of the 65th Venice Film Festival, with the prestigious Golden Lion award for best film. Note that the jury president Wim Wenders said that Mickey Rourke would have won the Best Actor award if the festival rules did not stipulate that a film could be rewarded twice. It was enough to wait: in 2009 Rourke won the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance.

The filming of The Wrestler was shot over 35 days, a record duration for very short for a feature film.

IMAGE

VIDEO CODEC: VC1
FORMAT: CinemaScope
BITRATE: n / a

MRWRERS15 3 MCNISH Filming of the most elegant, hand-held camera, which evokes, on many occasions, the work of Mexican director Inarritu. The grand finale, this encoding preserves the inner dimension of the film, offering a striking fluidity to all these plans chopped, nervous, sometimes in POV (point of view), the visual chaos and unrest can be designed a permanent external representation of contradictory inner forces that animate the character. An image of a beautiful density is proposed to us, but it poses its bases from the start: to portray the inner universe of the character of Randy "Ram", the filmmaker has made use of specific films, the values ISO high. In this sense, the exhibition displayed a clear lack of brightness, and the film's images offer a granularity often almost excessive, but an integral part-writing proposals Aronoflsky and its operator, Maryse Alberti, who usually officiates on documentaries. The result is an image dense, intense, deep in his video rendering, but so filmic. Often unpleasant for some, it is nonetheless a vision that respects the conceptual intentions, colorimetry with his cold, icy winter in Jersey, in shades of ocher and steels. The wrestling scenes illuminated color palette, offering primary tones often explosive, where the complexion is exemplarily made. Complexion, color, appearance of the flesh is indeed in perfect agreement with the suggested violence. The buttons that appear bloody here and there to show eruptive, realistic, still enclosed in this framework in cinemascope grandeur and integrity. A demanding vision, in short, but a rendering that will displease. The definition emphasizes the thick rough grain, and reveals many details on the screen. In refusing any smoothing effect, the image is beyond the scope and e is similar to a video image never or reworked. Contrasts with the officiating presence and dynamic enough, and the black level, which, however, accuse a consistency somewhat shaky. Film lovers rediscover his visual universe earth and deaf, dark and apocalyptic (the final sequence), via the transfer of greener and clearer. We would have preferred a bitrate a little further in its handling of video streams, but it is clear that this edition gives full justice to this film singularly singular, expressive naturalism, and the visual realism of the most explosive.

ITS

DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1: English, French
16 Bit, 48 Khz
OFFSET: -10 dB
BITRATE: n / a

wrestler-3 Warner France offers a superb setting for the movie by Darren Aronofsky. However, significant reserves of both technical and artistic away completely prevent adherence. In this regard, where a proposed American edition made from an acoustic source in 24 Bit, one of Warner France has only 16 bit (a very bad habit, which has always characterized the editor ... ). The formal approach of the filmmaker and mixers also does not reach the heights of lyricism and expressiveness. There is obviously no question. Instead of a soundtrack as the proposed "Rocky Balboa", The "Wrestler" suggests a world of sound tempered, sometimes diminished, consistent with the intimacy of the character. The opening title gives him the, rock music with a strong unpleasant in terms of spatial integration and mixing. The center lane will preserve the content of any vocal modulations of Mickey Rourke, his breath and his omnipresent tremors. This is a naturalistic sounds and synchronous on-screen, which benefit from any improvement nor any artificial staging. The clarity is nevertheless set: the voice sound streams, often difficult to access VO, jump and attack to the face ears, strikingly true, even in reproduction errors and worries of records during the shooting (s characters 'away from the soundman ..). The DTS-HD codec, despite its 16 Bit, preserves significant energy and a natural in the transcript that allow the movie and its soundtrack to rise almost naturally.

But all this will be strongly tempered by the content of all inexpressive, that the 16 bit depth signal even more demeaning. No form of brightness, tonal balance and closed relaxed, natural sound character ever, subdued ... The dynamics is the most troubled many sequences, but the-10dB of dialogue normalization and strongly affect greatly to the intelligibility comprehensive and gripping the sound world of the film by the audience. The sound masses occupy the center of the stage front, even if the exploitation of the scene back, sometimes not without opening or precision, with some effects carelessly placed on the rear channels. The scope is limited, and the acoustic landscape does not leave the private sphere of the character of Ram, never able to extend the volumetric space sounds. There remains a realistic typed his (almost in the vein of neo-realism), which places great part in the dialogues, but neglects the rest of the tools of structural acoustic universe. A report, however, some good thoughts on outsourcing the rear channels, but the grand finale, the film never develop his sound vein beyond reason. Harsh, bitter (like the voice of Rourke), the sound has characteristics down to earth, never overtly physical or artificial, and that the codec DTS-HD Master Audio eradicates the abyss of compression. That the DVD version to be sad and aphasic, inexpressive in Dolby Digital standard ... A note: the sublime song of Bruce Springsteen, released at the end credits, which concludes the film so exceptional in a "cut to black" anthology . You can find here . Clint Mansell's score, a regular at the world of Aronofsky, does not offer particular scope or integration accomplished. Finally, note that it is advisable to keep the receiver's remote control at your fingertips so you can adjust the volume, due to sharp falls in dynamic (or vice versa during the wrestling scenes ...) inflicted by the offset -10dB ...