The Film:
Love And Human Remains is a film I have seen few threads about on DVD forums, yet it also a film that is well praised by many people in these threads. Even with this in mind, it is one of those films I had never thought about purchasing, so I was happy to receive a review copy so I could finally check it out. Making his English language directorial debut (he is mainly known for French language films), Denys Arcand (perhaps best known for Jesus Of Montreal and more recently The Barbarian Invasions) bought together a relatively unknown cast at the time including the likes of Thomas Gibson (Eyes Wide Shut, The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas), Ruth Marshall (Dolores Clairborne), Cameron Bancroft (Beverly Hills 90210) and Mia Kirschner (Not Another Teen Movie) for a film that would explore the meaning of love through the minds of various twentysomethings in the early nineties, as well as chucking a serial killer into the story just for something extra.
Set in Canada, the film primarily focuses on David (Gibson) and Candy (Marshall) who share an apartment. They are former lovers, but David left for a while to act in a TV show called The Beavertons and now out of work, the film starts six months into when he is back in the apartment (as we find out from early dialogue). Although they are former lovers, they lead very different lives as David is now gay. David's best friends in the film are also a very mixed bunch including some sort of psychic S&M dominatrix, a busboy and a civil servant who hates his job and the girls he sleeps around with. Candy is a journalist who reviews books and although we don't really find out much about her friends we do find out about her sex her life, more so the confusing nature of it. She goes on dates with a couple of people in the film, one a barman from a bar she frequents a lot, the other, a stalker type lesbian school teacher (don't get too excited) called Jerri (Joanne Vannicola - Iron Eagle 4) who she meets in the gym whilst working out. Whilst we follow their lives in a way that we couldn't get less about the characters we see new footage on the television in the background which always happens to be following the story of a serial killer. Obviously this ties into the story, but I don't want to spoil the ending for anybody. All I can say, is the film was pretty average. The direction had it's moments but the acting was below par and I was expecting more from the director of Jesus Of Montreal, a film I had previously enjoyed very much. Rent it first.
The DVD:
Video:
Arrow Films have unfortunately not done a great job with the picture. Presented in a ratio of 4:3, the picture is open matte, which sure enough is much better than pan and scan, but it still isn't as good as a nice anamorphic transfer in the OAR of 1.85:1 could have been. The picture has also been given a poor conversion of NTSC to PAL resulting in minor ghosting issues as well as given the film a soft image. All in all, the picture is below average which is a real shame since Arrow decided to give Jesus Of Montreal I nice anamorphic transfer as well as release the pair at the same time. Also, no English subtitles, or any subtitles for that matter, were provided, neglecting the many deaf or hard of hearing DVD fans out there.
Audio:
Only one audio track to report of and it is the original Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track in English. The track is average and is consistent with sound levels and as it is a dialogue driven film, is more than adequate. Still, witht he amount of space that must be left on this disc, a nice 5.1 track (DD or DTS) wouldn't have gone amiss.
Extras:
None.
