Deep Crimson
BUY AT:
See more details, packaging, or compare
Synopsis
One of the peaks of subversive Mexican director Arturo Ripstein’s cinema of outsiders, this deliriously perverse portrait of obsessive love dares audiences to see the humanity in the most sordid of antiheroes. A lonely-hearts advertisement leads lusty nurse Coral (Regina Orozco) to Nicolás (Daniel Giménez Cacho), a con man with whom she forges an increasingly intense, twisted bond as they crisscross 1940s Mexico, robbing and murdering the women he seduces. Blending sweeping melodrama with macabre humor and eruptions of berserk violence, Ripstein transforms one of the most infamous true-crime stories of the twentieth century into a haunting vision of how love can give way to madness.
Picture 8/10
The Criterion Collection brings the director’s cut of Arturo Ripstein’s Deep Crimson to 4K UHD, presenting the film on a triple-layer disc in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with a 2160p/24hz encode. The new restoration was sourced from a 4K scan of the 35mm original negative. A standard Blu-ray is also included, featuring a 1080p presentation of the film along with all of the release’s supplements.
Learning about the film’s complicated history makes this restoration all the more impressive. When Deep Crimson was originally released, the French production company insisted on trimming it to under two hours and cutting some of the more “morally objectionable” material. Ripstein, unhappy with the decision, complied but managed to secure the negatives himself, first storing them at Stanford University before they eventually made their way, through a few hands, to the Mexican National Film Archive. Some elements were reportedly in rough shape and portions of the original audio were missing, but the restoration team has done an extraordinary job piecing everything together.
The results are outstanding. You’d never guess the film’s difficult past from what’s on screen here. The image is sharp and clean, with excellent fine detail and natural-looking grain that’s nicely rendered without any trace of digital interference. Damage and debris have been thoroughly cleaned up, and the reinstated footage blends seamlessly with the rest of the film.
The only real shortcoming lies in the choice to present the film in SDR. While the overall range is strong, with satisfying enough shadow depth and lovely, saturated colors (the reds and some blues look especially good), there’s a slight flatness to some of the dimly lit scenes, such as the bar sequence where the couple meets their first victim or brief shot in a classroom closer to the end, among others. A modest HDR grade might have given these moments more dimension, but it's possible it just wasn't seen as worth it.
All told, this is still a terrific restoration and I'm pleased Criterion saw fit to still give it a 4K release.
Deep Crimson - Screen Captures
Audio 7/10
The film features a 2-channel surround presentation delivered in DTS-HD MA. It’s a surprisingly dynamic track, with David Mansfield’s score filling the environment wonderfully. Dialogue stays anchored to the front channels but comes through with excellent clarity, fidelity, and range.
Perhaps most impressive is how seamlessly the reinstated footage has been integrated. Since the original audio was missing, those sections had to be redubbed by the same actors, and you’d hardly notice outside of the occasional syncing issue. As Ripstein mentions in his interview, the performers’ voices hadn’t changed much over the years, allowing the restored material to blend in almost flawlessly.
Extras 6/10
Criterion supplies a solid roster of extras, starting with new interviews featuring director Arturo Ripstein and screenwriter Paz Alicia Garciadiego, each running about 22 minutes. Both share wonderful stories about how they found their way into filmmaking—Ripstein recalling his childhood acquaintance with Luis Buñuel, and Garciadiego recounting how she’d accompany her grandmother’s maid to the movies only so the maid could sneak away with the theater’s projectionist. They eventually discuss how they met and their collaboration on Deep Crimson. Ripstein explains his fascination with the real-life case and his assumption that no one would remember Leonard Kastle’s The Honeymoon Killers (as it turns out, plenty did). Garciadiego elaborates on how they reworked the story, moving it from America to Mexico and tailoring it to the social and cultural norms of the period to keep it believable. Ripstein also talks about the film’s restoration and the circumstances that led to the original cuts. There are a few amusing contradictions (Ripstein praising Garciadiego’s meticulous scripts while she insists he demanded that level of detail) but it only adds to the charm of these two terrific interviews.
Director Ari Aster appears in a 12-minute appreciation, recalling how he first discovered Ripstein’s work at a young age. He admits the film disturbed him deeply, and following my own viewing, it’s easy to see how it influenced his own filmmaking, especially in the harrowing final act and the film's "gallows humor," which he breaks down in some detail. It’s a thoughtful, engaging reflection on Ripstein's work and his artistic influence.
Criterion also includes footage from a 2017 panel discussion featuring Ripstein and Garciadiego following a screening of the film. Hosted by Cristina Venegas, the conversation covers the origins of the project, the script’s development, the characters, and recurring themes such as jealousy. While much of what’s said overlaps with the newer interviews, there are a few fresh insights here and there. Rounding out the disc are a standard-definition trailer (seemingly produced for a home-video release) and a fold-out poster insert featuring Haden Guest’s essay on the film and Ripstein’s career taking up one side, along with the new cover artwork on the other.
It’s not a packed edition, but the material included is consistently engaging.
Closing
Even if there’s room for improvement, Criterion has put together a terrific edition of Deep Crimson, delivering a lovely new presentation and a decent—if modest—selection of features.
BUY AT:
