Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

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domino harvey
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#201 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jun 30, 2020 2:10 pm

Finally, a UHD packaged in a zine

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soundchaser
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#202 Post by soundchaser » Tue Jun 30, 2020 2:40 pm

So no on-disc special features whatsoever? That seems...odd for something this expensive.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#203 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jun 30, 2020 2:53 pm

I was also under the impression that Ari Aster liked talking about his movies and participating in features, so yeah, seems odd

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mfunk9786
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#204 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:12 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:
Tue Jun 30, 2020 1:16 pm
The first Collector's Edition from A24, Ari Aster's 171-minute director's cut will look as crisp on your bookshelf as it does in 4K Ultra HD.

Blu-ray disc comes enclosed in a clothbound, Hårga-yellow slipcase, accompanied by an illustrated 62-page booklet featuring original artworks from the film by Ragnar Persson and a foreword by Martin Scorsese.

Orders will ship by July 20th.
It's not cheap, but it's really nice, and since I so rarely buy physical media anymore, I'm glad to purchase something like this here and there.

Image

Image
This arrived today and is one of the most beautiful, heavy, expensive-feeling editions of any film I've ever owned (to give you an idea - it's larger than a DVD steelbook is. Tall and textured and substantial). I realize how niche of a thing it is for the price and apparent lack of on-disc features, but A24 did not skimp on the materials. It is something else. Will watch it tonight and report back on any disc weirdness.

Impressions on the Blu-ray.com forum seem to indicate they didn't skimp on the bitrate/presentation either - has Dolby Vision and the film itself takes up nearly all of a 100 GB UHD disc.

EDIT: Just turned it on - no menu. You're prompted as to whether you want to watch the film with English subtitles or not, then the film begins. No pop-up menu, nothing.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#205 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:53 pm

Looks fabulous (colors so bright and vibrant), sounds fabulous (even on my lousy sound bar rig there was a ton of activity in different areas playing with the spacial activity within the film) and the director's cut is an improvement on the theatrical from a pacing and character development standpoint. Great experience!

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#206 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:54 pm

Finally saw the director's cut which didn't make a huge difference for me regarding added/changed scenes, but for a film that already breathed perfectly at a deliberate simmering anxiety, stretching the runtime can only help with that immersion. A revisit accentuated just how beautifully the structural conceits weave themselves into this brooding nightmare, while also serving the allegory of socialization's potential for imprisonment and liberation.
SpoilerShow
A lot of humor is derived from the uncomfortable absurdities at play against our surrogate outsiders, but seeing it a second time knowing exactly what happens and when, it was even more unsettling to watch such deceptions occur because of just how helpless these characters are to stop what's coming. I'm thinking of the scene where we watch one of the elders tell the British woman that her husband left without her. She screams that this makes no sense as the man fumbles to say that there were only two seats, and then "well we obey traffic laws here." The line is hilarious, especially framing our vantage point from a long shot showing just how removed from law, or safety, these people are, and so the response is illogical and the woman knows it. But the way the man says this confidently while also clearly making it up as he goes along cements just how little effort he needs to put in to execute the trap.

Our position of distanced voyeur here is crucial too, since we aren't aligned with any character in this moment and can assess the situation objectively as hopeless, sympathizing with her powerlessness against the backdrop of endless alien terrain. She's going to entrust her body and life into the hands of these strangers even while knowing deep down that she's doomed. The experience of being trapped -in a relationship, or with a population who share different perspectives- so far away from any familiar logic, knowing what's wrong, receiving no convincing response to counter your suspicions, and still fucked... this is existential impotence ironically occurring in a vast sunny landscape of apparent possibilities for discovery.

And yet, it is such a space of growth for Pugh, but on face-value her empowerment rides on the collective. This is one of the film's greatest strengths, in how it avoids the easy route of sending the more expected message of promoting independence against codependency, and instead expresses how vital belongingness and support is. Pugh needs this group to achieve self-discovery, and without taking a chance on a scary, novel environment, she'd likely have ended up in another toxic cycle. So little of what happens is her own doing, but her contributions are sourced in a willingness to take the offered hand and dance with those who lift her up.

Much of the humor and horror emanate from the point of view of an individualistic cultural member swarmed by collectivist practices, though Aster leaves room for the beautiful side to its celebration of humanity too, notably in the breathing/crying scene with Pugh at the end. It’s remarkable that even in a film where this group commits so many red-flagged offenses, their worth is affirmed in at least a few unambiguous respects.

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tenia
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#207 Post by tenia » Sat Sep 12, 2020 5:26 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:54 pm
Finally saw the director's cut which didn't make a huge difference for me regarding added/changed scenes
There is at least 1 scene that I felt was important in terms of pure structure and characters' definition (ie not just atmosphere and immersion) :
SpoilerShow
The night scene about midway through. In terms of structure, it breaks for a non-negligible amount of time the extremely bright daylight aspect of the movie's events.
It also felt important because it's a moment in which the cult isn't just depicted as doing weird horrific stuff, but doing something that legitimately feels morally wrong : sacrificing a young kid, and to a drowning death on top of that (meaning not a quick painless death). It also shows the kid being basically OK with this, as if it's a totally normal and casual thing to do, and it feels like a clear forerunning sign that this cult is just plain crazy.
Finally, it felt important because it's also the first time that someone from the external group actively engages with the cult to stop them from doing such a thing. Dani isn't just a passive outsider observer anymore, but becomes active about it. The epilogue of the scene however further emphasises Dani and Christian's toxic relationship, which might be a tad too much considering this has already been detailed enough. At this point, it only further hammers this down, and I felt it was turning Christian into a caricatural asshole possibly for the sole reason of making the viewers feeling his fate to be legitimized (ie some kind of screenwriting's trick, where the bad guys are really really bad so you want them to be punished).

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DarkImbecile
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#208 Post by DarkImbecile » Sat Sep 12, 2020 1:03 pm

I also watched my copy of the director's cut over the weekend (A24's Blu-ray for which features about as pristine an image as I've seen on a non-UHD disc, and as mfunk noted, the sound mix was pretty spectacular on my surround system), but I'd have to disagree with twbb a bit, in that the added/extended scenes elevated this from very good to truly exceptional for me. Basically all of my issues with it upon first viewing were rooted in the underdevelopment of some of the character's actions and motivations, and in the abrupt jump from "Wow, this is a weird culture" to "Oh, shit, we're all going to die". The additional scenes smooth that all out, making the entire experience more cohesive and powerful... to the extent that I now question whether I place this above my beloved Hereditary!

Tenia:
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I didn't read that scene as Dani actually disrupting the ceremony and preventing the death of the child, but as just being the first of the group to break and call for him not to be thrown in the river; the play-acted mannerisms of the other Hårga insisting that the boy had demonstrated his bravery seemed pre-planned and perfunctory to an extent that doesn't make sense if she genuinely stopped them from carrying out the ceremony as intended (and they certainly had no compunction about carrying on despite an outsider's protestations during the ättestupa).

Further supporting this is the costume the British girl is wearing — the same chain and pine-bough decorated sackcloth the boy had on during the earlier ceremony — when her body is wheelbarrowed into the temple during the finale. Her hair also looks wet and tangled, as if she'd been pulled from the river, all details that we had no context for in the theatrical cut, but which point to the idea that the river sacrifice was meant for an outsider all along.
I don't say this lightly, but I genuinely think that after only two features and a handful of shorts, Aster is one of the half-dozen most significant American writer-directors we have, and I'm even more excited than I already was to see where his career takes him from here.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#209 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Sep 12, 2020 1:57 pm

Good points tenia and DI, I already thought this was miles better than Aster’s first feature so the additional scenes didn’t ‘elevate‘ it so much but like I said, most of the gradual choices to make it breathe more have made the director’s cut a better film. Regarding the scene in question though
SpoilerShow
I agree with tenia that the relationship spat puts a bit too much on the table, since a lot of what works about this film for me is how restricted Dani feels to actually formulate these feelings into thoughts in her interactions with Christian- a powerlessness to fight the red flags head on with consciousness let alone confidence. The addition of the night scene in general serves a dual function outside of the ‘boy sacrifice’ - it gives us a break from the constant sun, initiating a chance to let us know how long and draining these days are; but at the same time I kinda prefer the whole vibe of days-blending-together without it. Avoiding the action at night (outside of Chidi’s death) really accentuates the nightmarish quicksand of the milieu by removing even the most basic tissue of groundedness in orientation to time. To tenia’s point about the sacrifice itself, I thought this ritual muted the power of the others, and prefer their rituals to be a bit more ominous and ambiguous, but of course I don’t read Aster’s view to be one of condescending judgment or pathologizing the cult as all bad (which the ‘boy sacrifice’ hints at too blatantly, even if DI is right that it’s a trick). This position would just be too ironic in scathing the western characters who do take toxic solipsistic perspectives against culture and within it (most obviously, toxic masculinity).

I liked the other changes, but the night scene undoes a few things that function better without it, and inches toward morally ‘other’ing the cult too early as opposed to leaving space for cultural superiority as a variable barring such a rigid perspective, which is what makes the 72yo cliff-jumping sacrifices work so well.

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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#210 Post by bluesforyou » Sat Oct 24, 2020 4:45 am

Was able to get access to an untouched copy of the UHD transfer (through other means) and it really is brilliant. I had only seen it in theatres upto this point so this was a revelation. The fine detail and the HDR really brings the world to life and though I was initially cold on the film I appreciated it much more this time.

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FigrinDan
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#211 Post by FigrinDan » Mon Nov 16, 2020 2:40 pm

Heads up! If you've been waiting, the A24 shop has restocked the Midsommar Director's Cut: Collector's Edition. It is available in both Standard Blu-ray and 4K UHD Blu-ray.
Who knows how long it will be available for this time!?!

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#212 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Nov 16, 2020 2:58 pm

FYI there's a U.K. release including the director's cut that's incredibly cheap for region free folks

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#213 Post by EddieLarkin » Mon Nov 16, 2020 7:14 pm

Alas, if you want the DC on UHD, this is the only way.

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swo17
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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#214 Post by swo17 » Mon Nov 16, 2020 7:48 pm

Anyway, the main draw here is the packaging

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Re: Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

#215 Post by DrunkenFatherFigure » Mon Dec 28, 2020 5:11 pm

Finally saw the extended cut yesterday, and I'll echo the praise that others have given it here. In the theatrical cut I appreciated some of the abruptness in the first half, especially Dani's decision to come to Sweden and
SpoilerShow
Christian suddenly appropriating Josh's thesis topic,
but I agree with DarkImbecile that fleshing those plot points out with the additional/extended scenes gives a more well-rounded experience. Regarding the spoilered scene above,
SpoilerShow
I thought the confrontation between Dani and Christian after the night scene made Dani's decision at the end of the film more understandable. Without the scene, her character seems completely dependent on Christian, making her ability to sacrifice him in the end seem somewhat implausible, whereas with the scene, it shows her as someone who fully understands what's happening in her relationship, but is more afraid of being abandoned than remaining in the dysfunctional relationship. Once she finds some degree of acceptance and belonging outside of Christian, she can finally leave the relationship that she knows isn't working.

As for the ritual, I thought it also served the purpose of showing how the idea of self-sacrifice has been normalized within the community. Following up on DarkImbecile's interpretation that the whole thing is playacted, and the boy (and the rest of the community, for that matter) knows that he won't really be sacrificed, I thought that filled things out from the perspective of the community, in the sense that it creates a space to safely act out a self-sacrifice before their eventual real one.

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