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Stigmata
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
"Stigmata" is one of those films that has its share of flaws in terms of story and details, but I found it so visually fascinating that there wasn't a moment where I wasn't stunned by the images onscreen. This success is mainly due to the film's cinematographer, Jeffrey L. Kimball("Top Gun", "True Romance", etc). I'll talk more about his contribution to this picture later, but I can certainly say that he's definitely a talent to watch.
The story starts with Frankie Paige(Patricia Arquette) recieving a package from her mother. Included in the box is an old rosary that Frankie picks up, then forgets about as she goes out to face the day. Within hours, she has the first "stigmata"- 2 very deep puncture wounds in her wrists. Of course, her friends think that she's nuts and the doctors who treat her at the hospital think she's deeply disturbed as well. As they treat her, they find nothing wrong with her and are baffled at what has caused her injuries.
Coming home after having facing another "stigmata" appear when she's out at a club with friends, Frankie has another attack on the subway- only this time a priest views what happens and tells others what could be going on with the young woman. Another priest(Gabriel Byrne) is sent in to investigate what could be going on and while at first he can't or doesn't quite want to believe what he's seeing, but more and more, it looks as if the young woman, who is not religious, is becoming deeply possessed.
Although I'm sure that there are details in the way that this film portrays religion that are inaccurate, I still found that the performances were definitely good enough to keep me interested in what the film had to say, inaccurate or not. Arquette is especially good as the young woman becoming possessed- the character is not overplayed and while the role is serious and dramatic, it's not completely without warmth and a little humor. I liked the character and definitely found her performance engaging. Same for Byrne, who is definitely strong in the role of the priest sent to investigate. Outside characters are less fully realized, though.
The film, as I mentioned before, is visually dazzling. There is an incredible use of light and colors throughout. Colors are sometimes cold and muted, sometimes warm and vibrant. Streets look wonderfully grey and wet, and other camera tricks add to the amazing visual style that this film presents. Although the camerawork is nothing less than breathtaking, the editing does tend to get a little too much at times, cutting the film at the high rate of speed of an MTV video every so often. Sometimes this works for the film, but mainly, it breaks it up a little too much- I would like to have studied a lot of the images longer. Still, this is really a wild looking film that brings forth a really original, excellent visual style. The only other problem I had with the picture was the hard rock soundtrack, which is not something that this film needed. The visuals certainly do the job of creating the tone and mood well enough, I didn't need the rock soundtrack rumbling through- the picture would have worked better without it.
Although the story does occasionally get a tad bit slow here and there, the impressive visuals and strong performances definitely made "Stigmata" quite an enjoyable thriller.
The DVD
VIDEO: The few small problems that rise up on this transfer don't distract from an otherwise beautiful image that consistently does justice to the wonderful cinematography in the film. Images are pleasingly consistent throughout the entire presentation, always looking remarkably sharp and also offering very strong detail in every scene, even dimly lit ones. The picture has different looks to it - there are cold, steel-gray shots of the streets and other shots that have bold colors. When colors do come up (there's a lot of red in a movie like this where blood plays a rather big role, as does the bright red of Frankie's scarf), they look vibrant and nicely saturated. Black level is excellent throughout, and flesh tones are accurate.
What took away from the image slightly was a little bit of shimmering here and there, but it was only in a handful of scenes and otherwise, I was pleased with how clear and crisp the image was. Maybe it was just the theater I was in, but I felt the picture on this DVD had a "richer" feel to it than when I saw it in the theater last year.
SOUND: As good as the image quality is, the sound quality is just as enjoyable, especially when it becomes more agressive. First off, the movie has a solid hard rock and techno soundtrack that thumps and rumbles to the best of its ability when it's called upon. More than that though, the movie has quite a few scenes that put the surrounds to excellent and very creative use to create a really enveloping feel - once the movie really gets going, the use of sound becomes stunning and really succeeds in being not only haunting, but entertaining in many scenes. Dialogue is especially clear and easily understood.
MENUS:: I'm not always a fan of MGM when it comes to DVD(I definitely don't like their plans for some upcoming older titles), but either way, I'm consistently impressed by how excellent the menus they create are. Where "The Thomas Crown Affair" set up the movie nicely by taking us through animation of the museum that was a big part of the movie, "Stigmata" also has a very well-done animated clip that gets the viewer into the mood of the movie.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary track from director Rupert Wainright. Although I love to listen to commentary tracks, I think that the ability to do them is a skill - some people have it and some people don't. Wainright starts things off well and is consistently excellent throughout the track. In fact, I think it's one of the best commentaries I've heard this year, along with director David Koepp's discussion on "Stir Of Echoes".
Wainright talks almost constantly, and again, he offers comments in an energetic fashion. He seems to want to fit in as much as humanly possible about each scene at times, giving us every single detail about not only the production of most scenes, but the symbolism behind some of them and the ideas that went into the storytelling. There are scenes where he explains what is going on on-screen (which is something I usually don't care for - simply saying what's on-screen), but Wainright takes the information one step further by going more in-depth and tying in stories about the set to give the reader an appreciation of what it takes to build up the story in even one small scene. Rather than just stating what's on-screen, he analyzes it very smartly. Or in chapter 14, he talks about the use of music in the movie and the role of the music editor.
It's a very well organized discussion that gets right to the facts and is also entertaining to listen to. I learned a lot during this commentary and found out a lot of fascinating production information that I would never have known. A very, very good commentary.
Deleted Scenes: There are a few deleted scenes included on this disc - you can't select them separately, they just play out once you select "deleted scenes". While the content of the deleted scenes on their own is pretty cool and they were fun to watch, I'm not sure how well they would have worked within the movie itself. The "alternate ending"(which I'll talk more about in a moment), is also included in this section.
Alternate Ending: The "alternate ending" I mentioned in the previous section can be watched in the movie, as well. When viewers first select to play the film, they are given the choice of either watching the "theatrical cut" or the movie with the alternate ending added.
Also: Production notes, the theatrical trailer and music video from Natalie Imbruglia.
Final Thoughts: Highly recommended - I think it's a very good movie and MGM has done a fine job with the DVD.
"Stigmata" is one of those films that has its share of flaws in terms of story and details, but I found it so visually fascinating that there wasn't a moment where I wasn't stunned by the images onscreen. This success is mainly due to the film's cinematographer, Jeffrey L. Kimball("Top Gun", "True Romance", etc). I'll talk more about his contribution to this picture later, but I can certainly say that he's definitely a talent to watch.
The story starts with Frankie Paige(Patricia Arquette) recieving a package from her mother. Included in the box is an old rosary that Frankie picks up, then forgets about as she goes out to face the day. Within hours, she has the first "stigmata"- 2 very deep puncture wounds in her wrists. Of course, her friends think that she's nuts and the doctors who treat her at the hospital think she's deeply disturbed as well. As they treat her, they find nothing wrong with her and are baffled at what has caused her injuries.
Coming home after having facing another "stigmata" appear when she's out at a club with friends, Frankie has another attack on the subway- only this time a priest views what happens and tells others what could be going on with the young woman. Another priest(Gabriel Byrne) is sent in to investigate what could be going on and while at first he can't or doesn't quite want to believe what he's seeing, but more and more, it looks as if the young woman, who is not religious, is becoming deeply possessed.
Although I'm sure that there are details in the way that this film portrays religion that are inaccurate, I still found that the performances were definitely good enough to keep me interested in what the film had to say, inaccurate or not. Arquette is especially good as the young woman becoming possessed- the character is not overplayed and while the role is serious and dramatic, it's not completely without warmth and a little humor. I liked the character and definitely found her performance engaging. Same for Byrne, who is definitely strong in the role of the priest sent to investigate. Outside characters are less fully realized, though.
The film, as I mentioned before, is visually dazzling. There is an incredible use of light and colors throughout. Colors are sometimes cold and muted, sometimes warm and vibrant. Streets look wonderfully grey and wet, and other camera tricks add to the amazing visual style that this film presents. Although the camerawork is nothing less than breathtaking, the editing does tend to get a little too much at times, cutting the film at the high rate of speed of an MTV video every so often. Sometimes this works for the film, but mainly, it breaks it up a little too much- I would like to have studied a lot of the images longer. Still, this is really a wild looking film that brings forth a really original, excellent visual style. The only other problem I had with the picture was the hard rock soundtrack, which is not something that this film needed. The visuals certainly do the job of creating the tone and mood well enough, I didn't need the rock soundtrack rumbling through- the picture would have worked better without it.
Although the story does occasionally get a tad bit slow here and there, the impressive visuals and strong performances definitely made "Stigmata" quite an enjoyable thriller.
The DVD
VIDEO: The few small problems that rise up on this transfer don't distract from an otherwise beautiful image that consistently does justice to the wonderful cinematography in the film. Images are pleasingly consistent throughout the entire presentation, always looking remarkably sharp and also offering very strong detail in every scene, even dimly lit ones. The picture has different looks to it - there are cold, steel-gray shots of the streets and other shots that have bold colors. When colors do come up (there's a lot of red in a movie like this where blood plays a rather big role, as does the bright red of Frankie's scarf), they look vibrant and nicely saturated. Black level is excellent throughout, and flesh tones are accurate.
What took away from the image slightly was a little bit of shimmering here and there, but it was only in a handful of scenes and otherwise, I was pleased with how clear and crisp the image was. Maybe it was just the theater I was in, but I felt the picture on this DVD had a "richer" feel to it than when I saw it in the theater last year.
SOUND: As good as the image quality is, the sound quality is just as enjoyable, especially when it becomes more agressive. First off, the movie has a solid hard rock and techno soundtrack that thumps and rumbles to the best of its ability when it's called upon. More than that though, the movie has quite a few scenes that put the surrounds to excellent and very creative use to create a really enveloping feel - once the movie really gets going, the use of sound becomes stunning and really succeeds in being not only haunting, but entertaining in many scenes. Dialogue is especially clear and easily understood.
MENUS:: I'm not always a fan of MGM when it comes to DVD(I definitely don't like their plans for some upcoming older titles), but either way, I'm consistently impressed by how excellent the menus they create are. Where "The Thomas Crown Affair" set up the movie nicely by taking us through animation of the museum that was a big part of the movie, "Stigmata" also has a very well-done animated clip that gets the viewer into the mood of the movie.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary track from director Rupert Wainright. Although I love to listen to commentary tracks, I think that the ability to do them is a skill - some people have it and some people don't. Wainright starts things off well and is consistently excellent throughout the track. In fact, I think it's one of the best commentaries I've heard this year, along with director David Koepp's discussion on "Stir Of Echoes".
Wainright talks almost constantly, and again, he offers comments in an energetic fashion. He seems to want to fit in as much as humanly possible about each scene at times, giving us every single detail about not only the production of most scenes, but the symbolism behind some of them and the ideas that went into the storytelling. There are scenes where he explains what is going on on-screen (which is something I usually don't care for - simply saying what's on-screen), but Wainright takes the information one step further by going more in-depth and tying in stories about the set to give the reader an appreciation of what it takes to build up the story in even one small scene. Rather than just stating what's on-screen, he analyzes it very smartly. Or in chapter 14, he talks about the use of music in the movie and the role of the music editor.
It's a very well organized discussion that gets right to the facts and is also entertaining to listen to. I learned a lot during this commentary and found out a lot of fascinating production information that I would never have known. A very, very good commentary.
Deleted Scenes: There are a few deleted scenes included on this disc - you can't select them separately, they just play out once you select "deleted scenes". While the content of the deleted scenes on their own is pretty cool and they were fun to watch, I'm not sure how well they would have worked within the movie itself. The "alternate ending"(which I'll talk more about in a moment), is also included in this section.
Alternate Ending: The "alternate ending" I mentioned in the previous section can be watched in the movie, as well. When viewers first select to play the film, they are given the choice of either watching the "theatrical cut" or the movie with the alternate ending added.
Also: Production notes, the theatrical trailer and music video from Natalie Imbruglia.
Final Thoughts: Highly recommended - I think it's a very good movie and MGM has done a fine job with the DVD.
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