The Passion of Darkly Noon is quite the interesting romance-drama with an unusual style with oversaturated colors and also features a good cast with Brendan Fraser, Ashley Judd and Viggo Mortensen.
The Passion of Darkly Noon
(1995)
Genre(s): Drama, Mystery
Arrow Video | NR – 101 min. – $39.95 | March 24, 2020
Date Published: 04/08/2020 | Author: The Movieman
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Arrow Video provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
PLOT SYNOPSIS |
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Darkly Noon (BRENDAN FRASER) is the sole survivor of a military-style attack on an isolated religious community. Stumbling through a forest in a daze, he is rescued by the free-spirited and enigmatic Callie (ASHLEY JUDD). Darkly finds himself feeling strange new desires for Callie as she nurses him back to health… only to watch her jump into the arms of her returning mute lover (VIGGO MORTENSEN). Lost in the woods with only his fundamental upbringing to make sense of his unrequited passions, Darkly soon descends into an explosive and lethal rage. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.5/5 |
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This release comes with a very nice, quasi-reflective matted slip cover and the interior cover has reversible artwork of the original poster. Inside is a booklet with an essay. Audio Commentary — Writer/Director Philip Ridley American Dreams: Inside the Mind of Philip Ridley (20:43) is a new visual essay from James Flower, focusing on Ridley’s first two films and their unique place within his body of work. Interviews:
Dreaming Darkly (16:14) is an archival featurette is from the 2015 release of “The Reflecting Skin” and is a discussion with Philip Ridley, Viggo Mortensen and Nick Bicat. Pre-Shoot Music Demos are three tracks that were often played on location to set a mood for the cast and crew. Last up is the Theatrical Trailer (2:48) and an Image Gallery. |
VIDEO – 4.75/5 |
| Arrow Video releases The Passion of Darkly Noon onto Blu-ray where it’s presented in its original 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and has been given a new 1080p high-definition transfer, supervised by writer/director Philip Ridley himself. The movie was restored from the 35mm camera negative with color grading, image processing also done with approval by Ridley. As such, this film does look great in high-def, the natural film grain and noise is ever present and colors are pretty good, though there is an overexposed element which I assume was intentional (can’t confirm having never seen other transfers). Even so, this was still a very impressive picture, no surprise coming from Arrow. |
AUDIO – 4.75/5 |
| The movie includes both a 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio tracks, the former the default option. The picture looked great and the audio here also does not disappoint, providing some excellent depth giving off a foreboding/uncomfortable vibe with the story and characters. For the most part, the audio is coming out of the center and front speakers with modest uses of the rears, while the LFE track does kick in with a nice even distribution. |
OVERALL – 4.0/5 |
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The Passion of Darkly Noon is quite the interesting romance-drama with an unusual style with over-saturated colors and also features a good cast with Brendan Fraser, Ashley Judd and Viggo Mortensen (who plays a mute and thus no lines, so all through expressions), and it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I kind of liked its quirkiness. This Arrow Video release has some good bonus material to go along with restored video and audio transfers. |