The Film
A construction supervisor and a beautician find love with each other in spite of their (respectively) boring and toxic marriages in The Square. What they'll do to get away from their respective situations is not easy, and certainly not recommended. Plot twists dig a deeper and deeper hole until the climax in this tragic film noir, Australian style.
For a closer look at the construction of the film read David Kempler's review of The Square.
The Picture
The cinematography translates quite well in this 2.35:1 presentation. Unsavory characters live in this gritty world of The Square, where muted tones are used to convey an indie look mixed with modern film noir. There are also notable technical shots that help set the mood, including one scene in Carla's (Claire van der Boom) beauty shop, where a mirror is used to suggest her dual lives, as she seemingly talks to the camera but can seen in reflection conversing with one of the film's more unsavory characters. This scene and others look especially clear on Blu-ray, yet there is still the intended haze, which increases as things go from bad to worse.
The Sound
For a dialog-heavy film, it's surprising how much action and effects went into the movie, and sound is one element where this is carried out. Car chases, gun fights, burning houses and intense rain push the 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack to its full potential. In several scenes where there's a soaking downpour you feel engulfed in the storm. As characters walk through rooms within a house while having a conversation, you get the feeling of their movement in the dialog.
The Extras
Sony and the Aussies pull out their bag of tricks to provide some interesting special features on The Square on Blu-ray. Let's get the "making of" feature "Inside The Square" and deleted scenes out of the way. They're fairly standard. Likewise, "Inside The Square" has interviews with just about everybody who worked on the film discussing their experiences.
The interesting extras are the "Pre-Visualization" and visual effects scene deconstructions. In the pre-visualization feature, the director, crew and principals walk through the action sequences. When I say walk through, I mean they calmly drive and practice gestures for the film's high-speed car chase in order to be sure they'll get the camera angles they're looking for. For another scene they go through the motions of a shoot-out, and another they walk through a scene where one of the couples in the film gets to their house as it's burning. The car chase and burning house in particular are scenes they wanted to do in one or as few takes as possible as the film makers had only one derelict house to burn and a limited number of cars to wreck - not to mention the danger to the actors. Did I mention the director, Nash Edgerton, is a former stunt man and has experience with the dangerous bits in movies?
Scene deconstructions take things one step further than the visualizations. The director, cinematographer and special effects people discuss how they filmed and put together particular scenes. They go into detail and show you how special effects were applied to the scene. In the case of the burning house, they showed how much was real versus computer-generated flames. They included footage of the crew observing and filming fires they set in a safe studio and studies of burning embers falling. Then they show the scene from the movie and you see how it's all pulled together.
Final Thoughts
The Square moves slowly at times, though the story is interesting once it unfolds. The muted, almost faded look of the film gives it an interesting element and reminds you of the film's Australia settings, where one might imagine sun-washed scenes. Thanks to a handful of compelling special features, the Blu-ray version of The Square is definitely the version to watch and perhaps one to own for fans of the genre or fans of film-making in general.
Product Details
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