{"id":20209,"date":"2020-03-19T14:29:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T21:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=20209"},"modified":"2020-03-19T14:29:40","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T21:29:40","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-the-passion-of-darkly-moon-1995","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=20209","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: THE PASSION OF DARKLY MOON (1995)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The following disc is available March 24th<\/sup> from\nArrow Video (www.arrowvideo.com \u2013 www.facebook.com\/ArrowVideo\/) as a\nSpecial Edition Blu-ray.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You know your thriller probably isn\u2019t cut from the same cloth as others when it is set at an isolated farmhouse in the middle of a North Carolinian forest, features a disparate assortment of oddball characters (including a religious zealot, a mute, and a beautiful woman deemed by some to be an evil temptress), a pair of bullet-ridden spectral entities, an elephant, and an enormous shoe floating down a river. When it comes to presenting a truly unique vision, The Passion of Darkly Moon<\/em> is as original and surreal as they come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This movie from writer\/director Philip Ridley (The\nReflecting Skin<\/em>) was met with confusion during its original and very limited\ntheatrical release. Just about every element was criticized as being\nover-the-top or bizarre. However, enthusiasts of the feature have emerged over the\nyears, stating that the title is a misunderstood, surreal masterpiece. Personally,\nI don\u2019t ever remember it playing at theaters in the mid-90s, and figure those\nwho did must have caught up with it on DVD (now long out-of-print). Arrow Video\nare finally making the movie readily available to all, presenting the film on\nBlu-ray with a new 2K restoration filled with bonus features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The film opens with a lost and wounded Darkly Noon (Brendan\nFrasier) stumbling through a forest. After passing out on a road, he is collected\nby delivery man Jude (Loren Dean), who makes trips to a nearby farmhouse and\ncollects coffins there that are manufactured by Clay (Viggo Mortensen). Jude\ntakes Darkly to the farm. Clay isn\u2019t there, but his significant other Callie (Ashley\nJudd) agrees to care for him. When Darkly awaits, he explains that he has come\nfrom a religious compound and had to escape during a government raid that\nkilled his parents. The sweet, good-natured Callie sees that the young man is\nlost, alone, completely out-of-his-element and in need of support. However,\nDarkly\u2019s extremist religious upbringing leads him to develop feelings for\nCallie that quickly escalate into violent actions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Admittedly, this is an extremely strange film and I came\ninto it knowing little or nothing about the story. Visually, it\u2019s quite beautiful\nto look at, with exaggerated environments ranging from the dense forest to folksy\ninterior farmhouse sets. Yellow light shines through windows and everything has\na blown-out, almost dreamlike and hallucinogenic quality. The approach does take\nsome getting used to. There isn\u2019t a lot of background information given about\nthe leads or what is happening in the world around them. All of the performers\nare excellent, but the lack of detailed information early on lends a certain\nstrangeness to the proceedings. Especially given some of the bizarre sights on\ndisplay (including the aforementioned shoe).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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However, while it took a good 20 minutes for this viewer to\nbecome accustomed and immersed in the unique world, once the story develops and\nits themes and motivations came into sharper focus, the film begins to work. As\nDarkly becomes more frustrated by his feelings towards Callie and his mind\nbegins to fracture, he meets a woman living in a camper named Roxy (Grace\nZabriskie). Deeply religious, she has a past with Clay and Callie, calling her\nneighbor a witch and blaming her for the dissolution of her marriage that made\nher husband \u201close control\u201d. Despite the truth being something quite different (it\nis revealed that Roxy\u2019s husband actually assaulted an innocent Callie), her\naccusations fall in line with Darkly\u2019s deeply held religious beliefs, ultimately\nleading him on a frightening rampage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the day this ends up being a movie about religious\nextremism and how it can twist a mind. The unusual characters all stand out in\ndifferent ways. Frasier in particular is very good at adding a layer of empathy\nto the deeply disturbed Darkly. He transforms from a stammering and fearful new\narrival into a jealous and vengeful figure, eventually convincing himself that his\nterrible acts are merely to serve his Lord and Savior. Mortensen also has plenty\nto do, communicating only through expressions and movement. And Zabriskie is\nalways fun to watch, playing the Bible-thumping Roxy with entertaining verve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This a really effective and completely original arthouse\nhorror title that ended up impressing me. Some of the images on display are quite\nincredible and the editing techniques result in a few punchy and effectively jarring\nmoments, alongside several artful and intriguing montages. The movie is all the\nmore remarkable considering how little money it was made for. Of course, those\nwho pick up the Arrow Blu-ray will not only be impressed by the cleaned up,\nwidescreen picture, but will also get to learn more about the film and how it\ncame together through a series of great bonus features. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first extra is a new audio commentary with writer\/director Philip Ridley. He explains what inspired the film, as well as his personal process for creating stories for the screen and stage. Ridley also details how much the original script had to be scaled back when the production\u2019s funding was significantly cut. In the end, he only had a few weeks to shoot his project, and was forced to chop out an opening set at Darkly\u2019s religious compound. The filmmaker also notes that while there were many visually striking moments, the crew didn\u2019t have the money for much of the equipment being used. He was able to borrow a Steadicam for a few hours, and had only a couple of takes to shoot a lengthy dialogue scene using the goods. The same was true for an impressive split-diopter shot; a lens was borrowed for a few hours in order to acquire the striking image. And he admits that the climax, featuring a burning set with real flames, was incredibly dangerous to film around and probably couldn’t be done today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can also watch the film with an audio track that contains the score. A few never-before-heard cues are also inserted in scenes without music. \u00a0And there\u2019s a 2015 featurette containing interviews about the film with Philip Ridley, Viggo Mortensen and composer Nick Bic\u00e2t. Viewers will learn that Mortensen really enjoyed collaborating with Ridley and wishes that they had could have more opportunities to work together. He also goes into his method acting approach; he decided to not speak to anyone and remained mute for the entirety of the shoot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, there is a new interview with cinematographer\nJohn de Borman. This was one of his first pictures (he has since gone on to\nlens The Full Monty<\/em>, Shall We Dance<\/em>, An Education<\/em> and many\nothers), and he describes his creative relationship with Ridley. Borman also\ngoes into detail about how, on one occasion, he was finally able to trick\nMortensen into speaking (he told the cast member lies about his favorite soccer\nteam, Arsenal). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are more interviews. Editor Leslie Healey offers\nsome insights on his experiences, as does composer Nick Bic\u00e2t. The musician\nreveals that he composed music prior to the production and that the\nwriter\/director would use his pre-recorded tracks on-set to inspire actors and\nhelp them find appropriate locations for the shoot. He also explains how they\nmanaged to talk artist PJ Harvey into performing a song for the film, titled Who\nWill Love Me Now?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Passion of Darkly Moon<\/em> is a truly unique film that\nwas a bit ahead of its time and impressed me more and more as it progressed. The\nexcellent Blu-ray, which presents the film with a pristine image and\ninformative bonuses, is quite a revelation. Writer\/director Philip Ridley now spends\nmost of his time working on stage productions, but hopefully this release will\ninspire more to check out his work, and encourage the artist to return to\ncinema once again. The film world can always use more unique voices sharing\ntheir thoughts and ideas in an original and creative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following disc is available March 24th from Arrow Video (www.arrowvideo.com \u2013 www.facebook.com\/ArrowVideo\/) as a Special Edition Blu-ray. You know your thriller probably isn\u2019t cut from the same cloth as others when it is set at an isolated farmhouse in the middle of a North Carolinian forest, features a disparate assortment of oddball characters (including a religious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[129,1851,1885,3468,9319,12618,15759,16844,19420,21839,21840,21841,21842,22825,23782],"class_list":["post-20209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-129","tag-arthouse","tag-ashley-judd","tag-brendan-frasier","tag-horror","tag-loren-dean","tag-passion","tag-religious","tag-suspense","tag-the-passion-of-darkly-noon","tag-the-passion-of-darkly-noon-blu-ray","tag-the-passion-of-darkly-noon-blu-ray-review","tag-the-passion-of-darkly-noon-review","tag-thriller","tag-viggo-mortensen"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}