PAPER
MOON ($15) is a warm, nostalgic delight from director Peter
Bogdanovich. Set in the 1930’s, PAPER MOON is something of a
valentine to the innocence and simplicity of that bygone era. Adapted from
the novel, Addie Pray by Joe David Brown, PAPER MOON
is the story a conniving bible salesman named Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal),
who may or may not be the father of the recently orphaned nine-year-old
Addie Loggins (Tatum O'Neal, who garnered an Academy Award for her wholly
natural and utterly winning performance). Addie is a precocious child that
sees right through the flimflam man, and isn’t about to let him get away
with several hundred dollars he scammed at her expense. Thus begins this
charming road movie that grows into the story of a father and daughter
that find themselves and each other. The cast of PAPER
MOON features a very winning turn from Madeline Kahn and fine
support from John Hillerman and P.J. Johnson.
Paramount
Home Entertainment has made PAPER MOON available on DVD in a 1.78:1
wide screen presentation that features the anamorphic enhancement for 16:9
displays. This is a truly wonderful transfer that shows off the beauty of
László Kovács richly contrasted black and white cinematography.
Director Bogdanovich was close to the legendary Orson Wells, and for this
project Bogdanovich, utilized the "deep focus" approach that
Wells had taken in some of his finest cinematic works. Every bit of the
image is sharp and well defined- thus underscoring Kovács’ wonderful
realization of Bogdanovich’s visual intentions. Blacks are deep, whites
appear crisp and the grayscale is truly excellent. As I stated above,
contrast can appear stark, but it is quite a beautiful site to behold. The
film element used for the transfer is very clean, with very few blemishes
making their presence known. There is a mild grain structure in places,
but it adds to the film like quality of the transfer. Digital compression
artifacts are generally well concealed.
PAPER
MOON comes with a reasonably good sounding Dolby Digital monaural
soundtrack. Fidelity has its limitations due to the fact that there are a
number of vintage recordings integrated into the soundtrack, as well as
the fact that the actual track for the movie is thirty years old.
Considering the period setting, the track works exceedingly well with the
material and any kind of multi-channel upgrade to the soundtrack would
have been distracting and probably worked against the movie. Dialogue is
always completely intelligible, although the timbre of some of the voices
isn’t always wholly natural. A French monaural track is also encoded
onto the DVD, as are English subtitles.
The
basic interactive menus allow one access to the standard scene selection
and set up features, as well as some nice supplemental content. Director
Peter Bogdanovich is on hand to provide a running audio commentary, which
both entertaining and highly informative. Three featurettes have also been
included, which take one through various stages of the film’s
development, production and eventual success, as well as looking at the
individuals involved with the production. The Next Picture Show
runs fourteen minutes, Asking For the Moon clocks in at
sixteen minutes, while Getting the Moon has a running time
of four minutes.
PAPER
MOON is a warm and winning cinematic delight that comes to DVD in a
wonderful looking presentation from the fine folks at Paramount. In
addition to the feature, the DVD also offers a nice batch of supplements
that will please fans of the movie, as well as those of its director and
stars. Recommended.
PAPER
MOON ($15) is a warm, nostalgic delight from director Peter
Bogdanovich. Set in the 1930’s, PAPER MOON is something of a
valentine to the innocence and simplicity of that bygone era. Adapted from
the novel, Addie Pray by Joe David Brown, PAPER MOON
is the story a conniving bible salesman named Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal),
who may or may not be the father of the recently orphaned nine-year-old
Addie Loggins (Tatum O'Neal, who garnered an Academy Award for her wholly
natural and utterly winning performance). Addie is a precocious child that
sees right through the flimflam man, and isn’t about to let him get away
with several hundred dollars he scammed at her expense. Thus begins this
charming road movie that grows into the story of a father and daughter
that find themselves and each other. The cast of 
Paramount
Home Entertainment has made PAPER MOON available on DVD in a 1.78:1
wide screen presentation that features the anamorphic enhancement for 16:9
displays. This is a truly wonderful transfer that shows off the beauty of
László Kovács richly contrasted black and white cinematography.
Director Bogdanovich was close to the legendary Orson Wells, and for this
project Bogdanovich, utilized the "deep focus" approach that
Wells had taken in some of his finest cinematic works. Every bit of the
image is sharp and well defined- thus underscoring Kovács’ wonderful
realization of Bogdanovich’s visual intentions. Blacks are deep, whites
appear crisp and the grayscale is truly excellent. As I stated above,
contrast can appear stark, but it is quite a beautiful site to behold. The
film element used for the transfer is very clean, with very few blemishes
making their presence known. There is a mild grain structure in places,
but it adds to the film like quality of the transfer. Digital compression
artifacts are generally well concealed.
PAPER
MOON comes with a reasonably good sounding Dolby Digital monaural
soundtrack. Fidelity has its limitations due to the fact that there are a
number of vintage recordings integrated into the soundtrack, as well as
the fact that the actual track for the movie is thirty years old.
Considering the period setting, the track works exceedingly well with the
material and any kind of multi-channel upgrade to the soundtrack would
have been distracting and probably worked against the movie. Dialogue is
always completely intelligible, although the timbre of some of the voices
isn’t always wholly natural. A French monaural track is also encoded
onto the DVD, as are English subtitles.
The
basic interactive menus allow one access to the standard scene selection
and set up features, as well as some nice supplemental content. Director
Peter Bogdanovich is on hand to provide a running audio commentary, which
both entertaining and highly informative. Three featurettes have also been
included, which take one through various stages of the film’s
development, production and eventual success, as well as looking at the
individuals involved with the production. The Next Picture Show
runs fourteen minutes, Asking For the Moon clocks in at
sixteen minutes, while Getting the Moon has a running time
of four minutes.
PAPER
MOON is a warm and winning cinematic delight that comes to DVD in a
wonderful looking presentation from the fine folks at Paramount. In
addition to the feature, the DVD also offers a nice batch of supplements
that will please fans of the movie, as well as those of its director and
stars. Recommended.
