criterionforum.org

The Servant



The prolific, ever provocative Joseph Losey, blacklisted from Hollywood and living in England, delivered a coolly modernist shock to the system of that nation's cinema with this mesmerizing dissection of class, sexuality, and power. A dissolute scion of the upper crust (James Fox) finds the seemingly perfect manservant (a diabolical Dirk Bogarde, during his transition from matinee idol to art-house icon) to oversee his new London town house. But not all is as it seems, as traditional social hierarchies are gradually, disturbingly destabilized. Lustrously disorienting cinematography and a masterful script by playwright Harold Pinter merge in The Servant, a tour de force of mounting psychosexual menace.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New program on director Joseph Losey by film critic Imogen Sara Smith
• Rare interview from 1976 with Losey by critic Michel Ciment
• Interview from 1996 with screenwriter Harold Pinter
• Interviews with actors Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles, and Wendy Craig
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by author Colm Tóibín

I like Imogen Sara Smith as much as the next person, but she unfortunately doesn't grant this enough reason to get this when Canal have their reference quality UHD on the market

I think this is the first time since Criterion went UHD that they've released a film Blu-ray only that has a 4K HDR disc release elsewhere? That release is encoded by David M and has a choice of two aspect ratios.

Are the Imogen Sara Smith and Ciment extras the only ones not on the Canal edition?

EddieLarkin wrote: Wed Mar 15, 2023 4:52 pm I think this is the first time since Criterion went UHD that they've released a film Blu-ray only that has a 4K HDR disc release elsewhere? That release is encoded by David M and has a choice of two aspect ratios.

It came out shortly after the Criterion Blu, but Infernal Affairs Trilogy. However, those masters have been hit with too much DNR, so it is understandable that they opted for Blu-ray only.

I would assume that they feel the sales potential just isn't there with this film.

dwk wrote: Wed Mar 15, 2023 6:22 pm

EddieLarkin wrote: Wed Mar 15, 2023 4:52 pm I think this is the first time since Criterion went UHD that they've released a film Blu-ray only that has a 4K HDR disc release elsewhere? That release is encoded by David M and has a choice of two aspect ratios.

It came out shortly after the Criterion Blu, but Infernal Affairs Trilogy. However, those masters have been hit with too much DNR, so it is understandable that they opted for Blu-ray only.

I would assume that they feel the sales potential just isn't there with this film.

Especially given that many of us have already purchased the existing SC.

I have not, but it's the easy choice now

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote: Wed Mar 15, 2023 5:54 pm Are the Imogen Sara Smith and Ciment extras the only ones not on the Canal edition?

The SC does not have any interviews with Dirk Bogarde (though his biographer John Coldstream talks about him), so that's new. It's unclear from Criterion's listing whether or not the interviews with other cast members are the same as on the SC. I am hoping that the interview with James Fox is different than the one on the SC, conducted by Richard Ayoade. It is a very poorly done interview, frankly, even though it is fairly lengthy. Ayoade seems unprepared, rambles on and on, and struggles to ask any good questions. Fox tries his best to get on Ayoade's wavelength, but the whole conversation is boring and uninformative for fans of the film. The most interesting extra on the SC, for me at least, is the footage of Losey on a panel show from 1963. It gives video proof of David Caute's overall portrayal of Losey in the biography that he wrote. That portrayal was summarized succinctly by David Thomson in the Losey entry in his New Biographical Dictionary: "...Losey's creativity growing out of a cheerless vanity that kept few friends. He seemed determined to give others no chance of liking him." Ha! Yet I find deep reserves of cruel humor in much of Losey's work. Maybe that humor was not intended...

The SC presentation of the film is outstanding and the extras are plentiful if not all compelling. I will probably double dip on this because I love the film and am pleased to see it enter the CC. I knew if I stopped guessing it, it would get released. The additional extras, particularly the program by ISS, are enough to make me splurge. The cover is a real botch job (the chosen imagery is fine but the execution is terrible), but the SC cover isn't great either.

Apparently Fox is Ayoade's father-in-law!

swo17 wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 3:11 am Apparently Fox is Ayoade's father-in-law!

Wow I did not know that! Doubly inexcusable then.

EddieLarkin wrote: Wed Mar 15, 2023 4:52 pm I think this is the first time since Criterion went UHD that they've released a film Blu-ray only that has a 4K HDR disc release elsewhere? That release is encoded by David M and has a choice of two aspect ratios.

weren't "La Pisicine" or "Monsieur Klein" already available in UHD ?

La Piscine was released before Criterion went 4K and Mr. Klein has not been released on 4K.

swo17 wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 3:11 am Apparently Fox is Ayoade's father-in-law!

He interviewed Fox in that capacity for Indicator's The Chase - pretty well, if memory serves.