Alright, I said I’d review Vinegar Syndrome’s release on Blu-ray the long lost film Looking For Mr. Goodbar in the first “official” Paramount-sanctioned release of the film on disc, although there are a few “unofficial” DVD releases of varying “quality” of bad. The cover VS concocted for it will give people the wrong idea about what the film is about, as suggested by the cover of the first-run hardcover edition of the original novel that I have...
...but maybe it will "attract" the uninitiated who are attracted to suggestions of titillation.
We are told that the transfer is a 4k scan straight from the original camera negative. Whether there was actual restoration work done on the print is not clear, but at least they started with what qualifies as the “best available” source.
The alleged hold-up to an “official” release of this film on disc concerned music rights, less apparently from “cost” but “permission” from those who found “god” and were not sure they wanted to be attached through their songs to this film. But this film was made in 1977, closing on a half-decade, and most people who remember this film are either dead or don’t spend their time listening to old songs (well, I do).
But then again, the people who like this film do so (or did) in part because of the music of mostly well-known hits at the time. For myself, the opening montage certainly needed to be left untouched, but otherwise (for me) the only song that was absolutely essential to the narrative was Bill Withers’ “She’s Lonely.” The fact that the music was in fact left largely unaltered is just a “bonus.”
The film is based loosely on the novel by Judith Rossner, whose main character, Theresa Dunn, was based on the real-life case of Roseann Quinn, which I discussed in my overview of the film here 1 as well as my thoughts about the point of the film, so I won’t repeat it here. The transfer of the VS release has a bit rate from about 39000 kbps, which is pretty decent, so we should see fairly good detail, although to bring out “detail” through making the grain more obvious, a darker print was apparently used to good effect in well-lighted scenes, but in some cases negatively affected visibility in darker scenes.
I used for comparison purposes the 1080p web rip based on a transfer used for broadcast and streaming services. I used that transfer for my 2022 film overview, which I regarded at the time to be the “best” this film would ever look. In this early scene from the web rip…
…and the Blu-ray…
…we can see the difference in a shading toward red in the Blu-ray, which provides a noticeable improvement in clarity in flesh tone. Again, this was apparently done using a somewhat darker print, enhancing the grain to look more “lifelike” in well-lighted scenes. On the other hand, the web rip version looks slightly “soft” as if by DNR.
Notice that the chairs behind Theresa have a reddish-brown appearance, a more “natural” tone than the dull brown in the web rip. On a computer screen the difference isn’t so noticeable that it makes much difference while viewing the film in real time, but on larger screens, because the bit-rate is much higher on the Blu-ray, the differences can seem more “dramatic,” and that I thought that at least in light scenes like this the transfer was quite good.
However, that using a darker print to enhance the grain in daylight or well-lit scenes, is not always to positive effect in dark scenes is shown in this comparison, with the web rip version on top:
While still “soft” you can actually see “more” in the web rip screenshot, and in the Blu-ray the reddish “tint” of the flesh tones tends to be more murky. This is just a "detail," and may not matter that much during real-time viewing.
Of course this interpretation isn't always consistent; in this comparison, while you can see “more” in the lighter web rip transfer, the detail in the robe being worn by Theresa is one area where the Blu-ray print is an obvious improvement.
Improvement is more prominent in the medium shots, like this one, with brighter colors (see the red ornament near the ceiling lamp):
In this outdoor scene, again darker but with somewhat improved print detail:
And in this bar scene the darker, redder print shadows faces, but in turn enhances the “detail” on objects when enough light is present.
I suppose that it is possible that a more thorough restoration of the print could improve detail in the dark scenes, but at this point I’m not willing to wait five or ten years for Criterion to get a hold of this, which they should have been able to do if a boutique distributor like Vinegar Syndrome—which specializes in “cult” films, adult films from the “classic” period, and occasionally adding a few studio films to enhance the quality of their catalogue like this one—could somehow get their hands on it.
But overall this BD release is one where I can’t really say much more than this is now the “best available” option out there for this film if you don't have the option of playing the 4k UHD version.
This release includes an audio commentary by an admitted big fan of the film, Gillian Wallace Horvat. I don’t agree with all of her observations about the film, and she basically sees what she wants to see in the Theresa character and not from an “outsider’s” perspective, and guesses at what motivates the male characters. But it is nonetheless interesting to hear a commentary that is somewhat at odds at what you think you are looking at on the screen.
The most interesting "special feature" on the disc is an audio retelling of the obscenity trial in Provo, Utah against the showing of the film. Other than that, there is an audio of an interview with Rossner, and a 23-minute documentary about director Richard Brooks in regard to the film.
By the way, the "limited edition" comes with a 40-page "book," about which I will say that you are not really missing anything if you have to "settle" for the "standard" edition to be released by Amazon in a month. Criterion's "book" that accompanied its recent Blu-ray release of Pandora's Box on the other hand was worth any added expense.
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