Citizen Welles - The Stranger, The Trial, Hearts of Age
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Description
For budget-minded cineastes, this two-disc set of Orson Welles films is a welcome addition to any DVD library, even if it falls short of its claims. While the accompanying documentary demonstrates that The Stranger, The Trial, and Welles's 1934 silent short Hearts of Age have been restored, source materials are not specified, inviting speculation that the films were digitally "cleaned" from video sources in the public domain. The films do sound better than ever with a subtle 5.1-channel remastering, and the visual quality is good but hardly pristine; Milestone Video's DVD of The Trial presents a crisper, sharper image. Those quibbles aside, the set's strengths do make for an acceptable and affordable means to appreciate Welles's visual ingenuity, stylized by cinematographer Russell Metty in Welles's conventional Nazi-manhunt thriller The Stranger, and by Edmond Richard in the brilliant, budget-constrained production of Kafka's The Trial. The films are excellent, and apart from critic Jeffrey Lyons's flaccid commentary tracks, this package treats them with all due respect. --Jeff Shannon
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