The Passion of Darkly Noon

Discuss releases from Arrow and the films on them.

Moderator: yoloswegmaster

Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

The Passion of Darkly Noon

#1 Post by domino harvey » Sat Dec 21, 2019 8:40 pm

Image

IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TONIGHT

Described by critic Mark Kermode as an extraordinary filmmaker and one of the UK s most imaginative talents , visionary British director Philip Ridley followed his sensational debut The Reflecting Skin with another surreal incursion into the dark heart of the 'American dream' in The Passion of Darkly Noon.

Darkly Noon (Brendan Fraser) is the sole survivor of a military-style attack on an isolated religious community. Stumbling through a forest in a daze, he is rescued by the free-spirited and enigmatic Callie (Ashley Judd). Darkly finds himself feeling strange new desires for Callie as she nurses him back to health only to watch her jump into the arms of her returning mute lover Clay (Viggo Mortensen). Lost in the woods with only his fundamentalist upbringing to make sense of his unrequited passions, Darkly soon descends into an explosive and lethal rage.

Now available for the first time worldwide on Blu-ray , Ridley s talent for spellbinding, hallucinogenic dream imagery is on full display in a glittering new transfer of his most formally inventive and electrifying film. The mesmerising soundtrack includes two songs co-written by Ridley for the film, Look What You ve Done (To My Skin) performed by Gavin Friday and Who Will Love Me Now? performed by PJ Harvey.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
  • New 2K restoration by Arrow Films from the original camera negative, approved by Philip Ridley
  • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
  • Original 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD MA audio
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • New audio commentary by writer/director Philip Ridley
  • Isolated score track in lossless stereo, including never-before-heard extended and unused cues, and the two songs from the film
  • Sharp Cuts, a newly filmed interview with editor Leslie Healey
  • Forest Songs, a newly filmed interview with composer Nick Bicât
  • Dreaming Darkly, an archive featurette from 2015 featuring interviews with Ridley, Bicât and star Viggo Mortensen
  • Previously unreleased demos of the music score, written and performed by Bicât before filming started
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Image gallery
  • Reversible sleeve featuring new and original artwork
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring a new Philip Ridley career retrospective written by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: The Passion of Darkly Noon

#2 Post by zedz » Sat Dec 21, 2019 9:03 pm

Never saw this film, but the PJ Harvey song is a beauty.

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: The Passion of Darkly Noon

#3 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Dec 21, 2019 9:35 pm

Look what you've done (to my skin) is beautiful too, but Who Will Love Me Now? is iconic. They fit in well with the score itself, so finding out we are getting an isolated track too is very exciting.

While it has been a while since I saw the film (long enough ago that I think I was too young to have really fully caught onto the seeming Waco parallels being alluded to in the above write up in that first viewing) I do seem to remember at the time finding it notable that the strikingly absurdist image of the giant shoe on fire floating down the river does end up having a relatively satisfying explanation within the world of the film attached to it!

User avatar
JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: The Passion of Darkly Noon

#4 Post by JamesF » Thu Jan 23, 2020 3:06 am

In addition to the extras listed above, the final release also contains a new interview with cinematographer John de Borman, and a video essay by yours truly (gulp) talking about Ridley’s first two films and their unique place within his body of work.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: The Passion of Darkly Noon

#5 Post by swo17 » Thu Jan 23, 2020 3:26 am

Cool, congrats!

User avatar
John Cope
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:40 pm
Location: where the simulacrum is true

Re: The Passion of Darkly Noon

#6 Post by John Cope » Thu Jan 23, 2020 4:56 am

colinr0380 wrote:
Sat Dec 21, 2019 9:35 pm
While it has been a while since I saw the film (long enough ago that I think I was too young to have really fully caught onto the seeming Waco parallels being alluded to in the above write up in that first viewing) I do seem to remember at the time finding it notable that the strikingly absurdist image of the giant shoe on fire floating down the river does end up having a relatively satisfying explanation within the world of the film attached to it!
Actually, you know, I think the fact that we get an explanation at all only heightens the profound absurdity (I remember at the time that there were those who found all that too pat and convenient but I really do think that misses the point).

Can't wait for this release. It's a film I've long cherished. One quick question: so the Ridley commentary actually is "new"? I thought it might just be a port of the one on the French DVD (which would have been fine frankly, especially seeing as how rare that release is). The extras overall are more than I could have ever hoped for for such an obscure film (and I do wish there had been a separate track for the equally superb Bicât score on the Soda Blu of Reflecting Skin).

User avatar
JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: The Passion of Darkly Noon

#7 Post by JamesF » Thu Jan 23, 2020 6:54 am

It is indeed a brand new commentary - Ridley felt he could do much better than the old one from the French DVD, and I think he's succeeded.

And there is an isolated score on the Soda Blu-ray of The Reflecting Skin! (Though enough time has passed now that I can confess that it was accidentally encoded as mono rather than stereo, which needlessly to say won't happen this time round.) Both soundtracks are also available to purchase on CD and MP3 from Bicât's website.

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: The Passion of Darkly Noon

#8 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Jan 25, 2020 9:52 am

John Cope wrote:
Thu Jan 23, 2020 4:56 am
Can't wait for this release. It's a film I've long cherished.
It's certainly felt that it has stayed relevant since it was made with the male leads respectively embodying (and traumatised by) their experiences of either religious or military regimes, both looking to the woman to do the impossible and 'save' them. But she is cast out and viewed with suspicion as much as they are. Even the seemingly idyllic fairy tale homestead in the woods can only protect them from the encroachment of the outside world (even if only the world they bring with them inside their own heads) for so long.

User avatar
JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: The Passion of Darkly Noon

#9 Post by JamesF » Wed Mar 18, 2020 12:48 pm

Mondo Digital and DVD Beaver reviews are in.

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: The Passion of Darkly Noon

#10 Post by zedz » Thu Apr 09, 2020 2:04 am

A great presentation of an attractively strange film. I liked this a lot more than Ridley’s The Reflecting Skin, which had a halo of amateurism around it. The self-conscious surrealism is still a little gauche (and I don’t know if the post-facto alibis Ridley provides within the film were really a good idea), but the film has some nicely thorny relationships behind the fable-like structure, and the cast are all good where they could easily have become caricatures. The proof of the pudding is when a film that had courted self-conscious goofiness nevertheless manages to deliver such a tense climax.

User avatar
JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: The Passion of Darkly Noon

#11 Post by JamesF » Fri May 15, 2020 6:04 am

Hey, a nice review on the front page of this here website! Thanks Chris!

http://criterionforum.org/DVD-review/th ... video/2310

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Passion of Darkly Noon

#12 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue May 26, 2020 1:10 pm

I'll echo this being a great presentation. Although I have no idea how the color grading is supposed to look, the golden coating effectively transports us into this bubble-fantasy world. The film functions as a possible science-fiction/fairy-tale with the cabin in the woods emitting an alien vibe, and the narrative proposing a cryptic history and dark magic parallel Darkly's own fanaticism breeding internal conflict, paranoia, and projection. Even Zabriskie's proclamations are possibly emphasized for our ears through Darkly's subjective contexts. The 'witch' accusations could be a generalized fury that he takes as literal spoonfeeding for his preferred narrative. I also enjoyed the title's ambiguous meaning, touching on Darkly's sexual/emotional passion for Judd, as well as the self-gratifying Christian side of him that takes on a Christ role to ignite his own Passion. The shoe reveal is interesting as it lends to this dual reading- poking a whole in the complete psychosis and suggesting a half-delusional diagnosis based at much from self-initiated environmental-conflict as mental health. I didn't love this film, and have no need to see it again, but it's a curious piece of work and I'd be interested to hear others unpack its meaning from different angles.
SpoilerShow
I still have no concrete reading on whether the Judd cabin space is an otherworldly sphere or a corporeal spot in isolation, but Judd's proclamation of love and crying that she could have "saved" Darkly in the end is almost too strange to be real.

User avatar
thirtyframesasecond
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:48 pm

Re: The Passion of Darkly Noon

#13 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Wed May 27, 2020 4:39 pm

The Reflecting Skin is a terrific film.

Ridley is, of course, one of the best British playwrights of the last 30 years or so. The Pitchfork Disney, The Fastest Clock in the Universe, Ghost from a Perfect Place, Vincent River, Mercury Fur - shocking, difficult, challenging, powerful. And he writes for children too!!!

Post Reply