The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years
The Royal Tenenbaums
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Synopsis
Wes Anderson’s first ten features represent twenty-five years of irrepressible creativity, an ongoing ode to outsiders and quixotic dreamers, and a world unto themselves, graced with a mischievous wit and a current of existential melancholy that flows through every captivating frame. This momentous twenty-disc collector’s set includes new 4K masters of the films, over twenty-five hours of special features, and ten illustrated books, presented in a deluxe clothbound edition.
Picture 9/10
Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums receives another release from The Criterion Collection, this time through a new 4K UHD edition available exclusively (as of now) through their director-centric box set The Wes Anderson Archive. Sourced from a new 4K restoration scanned from the 35mm original camera negative, the 2160p/24hz ultra high-definition presentation is presented with Dolby Vision in the film’s aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on a triple-layer disc. A 1080p presentation is found on the included dual-layer Blu-ray disc alongside all video features.
Where Criterion’s previous Blu-ray (sourced from a 2K restoration) marked a substantial improvement over their original DVD edition, this 4K presentation delivers another significant leap forward over that high-definition release. I admittedly didn’t expect the jump to be all that dramatic, but the improvements are striking, particularly when it comes to detail levels. Anderson’s films are obsessively designed down to the smallest visual, and all of those fine details come through with striking clarity here, from the brickwork on the Tenenbaum house to the pinstripes on Royal’s suit. Film grain remains fine and natural in appearance, rendered more cleanly than the Blu-ray could manage, lending the image an even more convincing filmic texture (though I still think the older presentation holds up reasonably well in that respect).
Colors continue to lean warm, though I’m fairly certain this reflects how it appeared in theaters and how it has generally looked on home video since Criterion's DVD. Dolby Vision still gives those colors a wonderful boost, particularly the reds and pinks that dominate fairly heavily through the film. Even Danny Glover's blue blazer has a bolder look. Black levels are also stronger, offering cleaner gradations in the shadows, which appear richer and more nuanced within the household interiors thanks to the expanded dynamic range.
Print damage is absent, which has never really been an issue with this title, while the encode generally holds up very well. The brighter highlights can come off a touch flat from time to time, with details clipped a bit, particularly in the sky, but these instances are ultimately minor. Overall, this ends up being a gorgeous-looking upgrade and a far more substantial improvement than I had expected.
[Note: My original disc would not play back properly, freezing at around the 28-minute mark. Criterion provided a replacement disc, which played without issue.]
The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years - Screen Captures
Audio 8/10
The 5.1 surround soundtrack (again presented in DTS-HD MA) still sounds quite good overall. As with every previous home video release, the mix remains front heavy, dialogue and most effects focused primarily to the front three channels while music cues and some background effects are pushed through to the rears. The film’s (still terrific) music soundtrack delivers excellent range throughout, while dialogue remains crisp and clear. All in all, it continues to be a perfectly effective surround presentation for the film.
Extras 7/10
Though the menu has been altered to fit the design and aesthetics of the set, the included standard Blu-ray replicates the 2012 Blu-ray disc and is otherwise a port, featuring the same encode for the high-def presentation. Since it’s a direct port, all features have been carried over from that edition, starting with the audio commentary featuring Anderson, found on both the 4K and Blu-ray discs.
It is a decent and informative commentary from the director, though I wish that we maybe got a little less Wes and maybe had some cast members thrown in there, or at least writing partner Owen Wilson, who did participate on the Rushmore commentary. Still Anderson offers quite a bit of information on the background of the film (The Magnificent Ambersons being a key influence not all that surprisingly), how it came to be, points out friends/family, and offers some anecdotes from the set. I found it interesting enough and do recommend fans of the film or Anderson to give it a listen but I find I prefer his commentaries much more when others are sharing the work.
The remaining supplements are all found on the standard Blu-ray. The big one is still the roughly 27-minute documentary on the making of the film, called With the Filmmaker by Albert Maysles. It offers a little insight into the making of the film, including Anderson's handling of the actors (and the use of the falcon in the movie), work on the design and his other duties as the camera follows him around. It’s not your typical making-of, sort of hanging back and never getting up close. It’s decent but I think I prefer the similar documentary found on the release for The Life Aquatic.
The interviews with the actors in a separate section offers more compelling stuff. It gives interviews with Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray and Danny Glover. All together they run about 27 minutes. Each actor gives a brief synopsis on their characters and why they did the movie. It's not your typical "everyone is so great!" material you might be used to. This is actual insight, not always positive. I'm still surprised to hear Hackman almost turned down the role, only because it was pretty much tailored for him (which he hates). Stiller’s interview is also surprisingly insightful. Despite the interviews more than likely being created for EPK material, they’re still quite good.
2 deleted scenes are also included. The first one is very funny, but was cut to make Eli Cash a loner, as the scene shows his family (Rushmore's Olivia Williams appears in the scene) and the second is an extra scene between Anjelica Huston and Danny Glover. In total they run about 2 minutes.
The Peter Bradley Show is a joke supplement, based on a character who briefly appears in the film. This 26-minute send up of The Charlie Rose Show (which was an extra on the Rushmore DVD) is a rather funny bit, having Peter Bradley interview the lesser known actors from the film, including Stephan Dignan, Sanjay Matthew, Kumar Pallana, Dipak Pallana, and Brian Tenenbaum. I still find it funny, as the character of Bradley (played by actor Larry Pine) is, to put it bluntly, an idiot. It's an amusing and clever little addition to the set.
The section labeled Scrapbook presents a number of galleries. We get a large collection of stills taken on the set followed by a section about painter Miguel Calderón, who painted the paintings that appear in Eli’s apartment. There is an audio segment found here from a radio show called Studio 360, which is a 4-minute piece that goes over his work and even presents interviews with the artist. There is also a stills gallery presenting the work from the series that appears in the film, a few storyboards and excerpts from the script, as well as photos of Richie Tenenbaum’s various paintings of Margot and the murals that are spread across his room. It then concludes with a still gallery of all of the book and magazine covers that appear in the film.
Unlike the still gallery on Criterion’s Blu-ray for Rushmore, and many of the galleries in Criterion’s Blu-ray upgrades, it appears all of the photos have made it here from the DVD. The only thing that didn’t make it is close-ups of Calderón’s paintings, though the high-def presentation still makes up for that since they’re far sharper than what the DVD could handle.
The disc then comes with the same two theatrical trailers, presented one after the other as before.
The only drawback so far to the set is that it is missing some of the physical inserts that came with the individual releases before. As with the other films in the set, the discs are housed in a hardbound book-like digipak, with the booklet affixed opposite the disc. The booklet here features the same essay by Kend Jones originally written for the DVD release, but is missing the second insert featuring designs around the Tenenbaum house, though some images are found in the booklet here.
Still a decent set of material,
but 25 years later, it would be beneficial to probably give the film a bit of a
revisit and update in the supplement department.
Closing
Though I still wish Criterion would consider revisiting the supplements for these titles, the new 4K presentation looks outstanding, delivering a significant upgrade over their previous Blu-ray presentation.
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