Big Picture Big Sound

The Film

As a young man, Guy Laliberté, founder and majority owner of Cirque du Soleil (literally "Circus of the Sun"), dropped out of college and toured Europe as a folk musician and street performer before returning home to Canada in 1979 and forming the now world renowned performing troupe, first named Les Échassiers ("Waders"). Laliberté's time spent in Europe is apparent in Cirque's productions -- Old World European performance art forms blend together with perfect symmetry in multicultural modern entertainment extravaganzas that have removed the circus from the realm of children's amusement and made it something more appealing to adults. You won't find any animals in a Cirque du Soleil production, but you will get elegant costumes and lavish stage sets in themed shows with a constantly playing musical score. 

In the Cirque du Soleil production Corteo, the Italian word for "cortège", a clown (Italian stage performer Mauro Mozzani) imagines his funeral as a celebratory parade of circus acts. Over the course of the multilingual musical production, beds turn into trampolines "children" jump on, there are acrobats swinging from luxuriant chandeliers, highwire work, winged angels descending to bring our clown sweet reveries of his funeral -- creator/director Daniele Finzi Pasca's vision is thoroughly engaging. The musical score mixes Classical, Jazz and Broadway styles in memorable melodies with energetic musicianship.

The film's director, Jocelyn Barnabé does a marvelous job staying out of the way and capturing the production with appropriate camera angles and sympathetic editing that stays true to the live performance experience yet still translates well into the filmic realm. This is the closet thing to seeing a live Cirque du Soleil event without actually being there.

The Picture

Given the techniques and style of this production, Corteo is a bit of a difficult transfer to judge. The dimly lit production does not allow for the finest level of detail to shine through in the 1080i AVC-MPEG-4 video encoding. The clarity and sharpness of the image are masked by the low-level noise in the dark areas, which is much of the picture. In fact, this is so much of a concern, that it actually prompted Sony to put a disclaimer on the package about the production's low-light photography and other factors contributing to the overall grain structure of the final image. It is the first time I have ever seen such a thing on a Blu-ray release. Colors also appear to be muted, though it is mainly due to the lighting. Flesh tones cannot really be judged since all performers are heavily made up in clown makeup or some other form of makeup that is something other than natural.

Apart from the unavoidable noise inherent to the low-light filming, the transfer displays no compression artifacts or edge enhancement and contrast is quite exceptional in the many spotlight drenched performances. The shadow detail, even with the noise, is quite good and color saturation is stable and accurately presented even if they don't leap from the screen. The tempered color palette, however, is very much in keeping with the mood of Corteo.

The Sound

Corteo comes with an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack as its sole option. In truth, the production's multilingual performance means that the label of "English" is something less than accurate, but semantic technicalities aside, the disc's lossless sound mix is well done and very enjoyable. Mixed from an audience perspective with the main sound components spread across the three front channels reserving the surround channels for ambience, the sound is lush, dynamic, and cavernous.  The flood of reverberation sent into the rear channels and the widely spaced instrumentation across the front channels creates a believable facsimile of the performance space. Vocals are clear and lifelike, what little dialogue there is always intelligible and there is just enough crowd noise balanced into the mix to preserve a live feeling. The subwoofer gets a decent workout as well, as low frequencies, although not rumbling, are hefty and relaxed.

The Extras

Corteo's all standard definition supplemental material does offer a good, behind-the-scenes look at the work that goes into the famous circus troop's shows and the production of Corteo in particular, even if most of it will not be compulsory viewing. The behind-the-scenes featurettes Through the Curtain and Filming Corteo offer the most information and the best look at the inner workings of Cirque Du Soleil, so f you must watch any of the extras, make sure you watch those.

The extras available on this release are:

• Through the Curtain (1.78:1/standard definition) -- Corteo's creator and director Daniele Finzi Pasca discusses the production through interview segments interwoven with behind-the-scenes look at casting and rehearsal for the show.
• A Day in the Life of Corteo Artists (4:3/windowboxed/standard definition) -- Cirwue Du Soleil performers shown going about the daily routines in their private and professional lives.
• Filming Corteo (4:3/windowboxed/standard definition) -- The film's director, Jocelyn Barnabé, discusses capturing the production on film.
• Teatro Intimo (1.78:1/standard definition) -- An additional performance from the production not in the film.
• Photo Gallery (4:3/standard definition) -- A montage of candid photos of the performers with musical accompaniment.
• BD-Live Features -- Additional online content available for those with BD-Live enabled Blu-ray players.

Final Thoughts

Cirque du Soleil creates fascinating worlds that are out of time and place and often surreal. Corteo's reveries of a clown's funeral procession are impressionistic, wonderfully performed, and full of delightful entertainment. The Blu-ray release of this sympathetically filmed production brings you into the performance space with the world-famous troupe like never before possible in your own home. This production and BD are not to missed.

Where to Buy

• Cirque du Soleil: Corteo on Blu-ray Disc (Amazon.com)

Product Details

• Actors: Cirque Du Soleil
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Audio/Language: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Not Rated
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: September 23, 2008
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• List Price: $28.95
• Extras:
  • Through the Curtain: An In Depth Look at Corteo
  • A Day in the Life of Corteo Artists
  • Filming Corteo
  • Teatro Intimo
  • Photo Gallery
  • BD-Live Enabled