White of the Eye

[manicsounds]

thedigitalfix review

[MichaelB]

Blu-ray.com - perfect scores for picture and sound.

[warren oates]

Well, Svet is right about the A/V quality. But his lower numbers for the film itself and his comparisons to David Lynch are a little head-scratching. I guess I understand. I mean, about 10-15 minutes into this, I felt that I had to share it with all of my film nerd friends. This was my instant new "best film you've never heard of." I was groping for comparisons and analogies too: "It's like if Sam Fuller wrote a serial killer script that Stanley Kubrick directed." No, no, no, scratch that: "Imagine an early Brian De Palma flick where, a few days in, the producer fired De Palma and hired Sokurov instead." Ah, that's not quite right either.

Because, really, what's so great and so unexpected about the film is how very much its own thing it is. Donald Cammell was clearly some kind of genius. When you're watching a film made by a truly great director, one of those who can, as Tarkovsky put it, create their own unique "time pressure," you can sense this in every decision. There's a kind of ineffable surprise about the way things unfold, from image to image, from moment to moment, from scene to scene. Even in mundane settings and with familiar genre material you just have no idea what's going to happen next on any level (from the larger story to the next shot). And for me, as a viewer, there's nothing more thrilling than discovering a new sensibility that's so fully formed and confident and just giving myself over to it.

I admire Performance more than I enjoy it. And I've seen Demon Seed once and that was more than enough. The short on this disc, The Argument is interesting, but feels more like a comedy about the making of a Kenneth Anger film. But White of the Eye is such a unique film and such a strangely glorious accomplishment that it's enough to make me reconsider my opinion of Cammell's whole output. I'm even kind of curious about Wild Side now.

I've gone through every extra in the set. And it was totally worth it especially the Kevin Macdonald documentary (which I just heard him talking about on Marc Maron's WTF podcast), the commentary and the brief but excellent interview with the DP/Steadicam operator. This is one of the best releases of 2014 already and I'll definitely be mentioning it in my year-end list around here, but also to so many of my friends who don't even know how badly they need to see this. Kudos to Michael and everyone else at Arrow for their contributions.

[Robin Davies]

I'm even kind of curious about Wild Side now.

It's worth seeing just for Christopher Walken's bizarre performance.

[MichaelB]

Kudos to Michael and everyone else at Arrow for their contributions.

My involvement with this release was pretty minimal generally and nonexistent creatively: David Mackenzie, Francesco Simeoni, Brad Stevens, Sam Umland and James White deserve far more credit.

[colinr0380]

I'm even kind of curious about Wild Side now.

It's worth seeing just for Christopher Walken's bizarre performance.

Walken is great in this film, kind of in his King of New York mode, but the film is really a neat three-hander between Walken, Steven Bauer and Anne Heche. I like to think of it as an erotic thriller crossed with Jackie Brown!

Wild Side is also worth watching for its fractured editing style - not on the scale of Performance but certainly more apparent than in the more straightforward Demon Seed, and around the level of the flashback intercutting of White of the Eye. Though I wonder how much of the fractured style on display in the 'restored cut' was caused by/caused the behind the scenes troubles.

[EddieLarkin]

This was my first viewing, and my first Cammell. As warren oates says, only a few scenes in I'm thinking this is a film I have to share with my friends*. I was completely blown away during the entire run time and remain baffled as to why not only does it remain a very obscure film, but that it is critically unappreciated as well. Maybe it's just an issue of expectations; any brief synopsis is going to sound like very well tread territory, and people going in looking for gory kills or a suspenseful police procedural won't really find either.

Still hoping on a fix for Performance, and Warner apparently have Demon Seed also, but by all means Arrow give us Wild Side.

*I'll probably be re-watching it at a friends house next week. Sadly he's not really equipped to enjoy this presentation to its fullest: a medium sized LCD screen with only TV speakers to listen to the excellent soundtrack, one of my favourite aspects of the movie (not just the music, but the sound design and everything else; how is one to feel unnerved by David Keith's "tuning fork" sound test without surround sound, a high volume and a lot of bass?). You try explaining to people that a superior presentation can lead one to appreciate a film so much more, but most just don't get it.

[chatterjees]

I just finished watching the film. Yes, it was my one and only Cammell experience, and I am speechless. I am not a big fan of David Keith, but I surely liked him a lot in this film. The direction, background score and cinematography are truly mind blowing. The cinematography, especially the long shots were constantly reminding me of the Leone westerns or Antonioni's Red Desert. This film should have been on Arrow Academy, not just regular Arrow Video.

[Adam X]

I was going to say "I didn't think it was possible to dislike David Keith", but then realised I was thinking of Keith David.

how is one to feel unnerved by David Keith's "tuning fork" sound test without surround sound, a high volume and a lot of bass?

I guess it's in the ear of the beholder. I'm not sure I've ever truly had surround sound make a difference to my experience of a film, except in the negative. I understand and appreciate what it can do, yet I almost always find that surround audio tends toward a gimmick as it's generally put to use.
I'm perfectly happy watching films at home with a single stereo pair of speakers, and don't find the need for more than this to be affected by a film, no matter how much of an emphasis there is on audio within the film itself.

[MichaelB]

The film's only in Dolby Stereo anyway, so it's hardly an all-stops-out sonic blowout.

[EddieLarkin]

I suppose I should have emphasised high volume and heavy bass over surround sound, which isn't as important, though I found all aspects of the sound design including the use of surrounds an experience unto itself. Certainly I'm not saying one cannot appreciate that aspect with a more basic set up, only that it being the only way I have experienced the film, I felt that it was fairly important.

The film's only in Dolby Stereo anyway, so it's hardly an all-stops-out sonic blowout.

I've been impressed many times with how good Dolby Stereo can be. True, bass is not as present as in tracks with a dedicated LFE channel, but everything else about the track can feel like a genuine discrete mix.

The cinematography, especially the long shots were constantly reminding me of the Leone westerns or Antonioni's Red Desert.

I was reminded of some of the desert environments seen in Koyaanisqatsi, especially whenever a helicopter was being used. Another film with a soundtrack that is an experience itself.

[warren oates]

David Lynch, Antonioni, Sergio Leone, Godfrey Reggio, Sokurov, De Palma, Kubrick -- that's my favorite thing about this film. How everyone who sees it keeps grasping for comparisons to a wide range of brilliant and visionary filmmakers. Everybody's sort of right and yet no one analogy really fits. White of the Eye remains hermetically confoundingly original.