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eBook – The Empire Striketh Back

eBook –  The Empire Striketh Back Full title :  William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back By : Ian Doescher  Iillustrations :  Nicolas Delort Score : 9/10 Year : 2014 Publisher : Quirk Books  eISBN :  978-1-59474-716-8 Based on  978-1-59474-715-1 (hard cover) Pages : 176 *  Language : English From Goodreads : Hot on the heels of the New York Times best seller William Shakespeare’s Star Wars comes the next two installments of the original trilogy: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back  (and not reviewed as yet,  William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return.) Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter. Illustrated with beautiful black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, these two plays offer essential reading for all ages. Something Wookiee this way comes!  *** As he explains at the end, Ian Doescher
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Movie – The others (2001)



Movie – The others

Score : 9/10  
Year : 2001
Director: Alejandro Amenábar 
Cinematography: Javier Aguirrsarobe
Country: USA & Spain
Language: English (and a bit of French)
Duration: 1h44
Writers: Alejandro Amenábar 

1945. Grace Stewart lives in a house, with her two photosensitive children, Anne and Nicholas. She explains to her new housekeepers that due to this condition, the house must be darkened, and that doors must be shut before entering any room where the children remain. 

 As the movie progresses, the family starts hearing odd noises and become increasingly frightened that the house of haunted by ghosts... 

 Alejandro wrote, directed and composed the music for this creepy movie, full of spooky and scary and atmospheric moments perfectly fit for Halloween. 

 Character evolution and acting are superb, and believable, right to the very end with its surprising conclusion. 

 Having seen it for the third time this year, and in spite of knowing what comes next, didn't reduce my experience at all ; the others is very well made, is very artistic and full of both scares and some humour. 

 I loved the score, but I did wish that the mumbling and whispering had been executed with less music, because it's sometimes very tough to discern dialogues - in spite of a great 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound spread over our 7.1 HiFi. I needed the subtitles for certain moments, and I plan to re-watch it with them next time over. 

 I enjoy the others quite a bit, and suggest to anyone who haven't seen it yet to correct this oversight, because for me, it's one inch away from perfection and will make you discuss possibilities and explanations about its nature.

 Starring : Nicole Kidman,  Alakina Mann, James Bentley, Fionnula Flanagan, Eric Sykes, Elaine Cassidy, Christopher Eccelston, et al. 

 PS : as you noticed, I'm discussing here the 2001 movie of this name. I haven't seen the 2000 movie with the same title, but from its description, it has nothing to do with this one. 


The others... in the medias

 My first 2 viewings of this movie were done on Belgian DVD edition (I believe EAN 5414474350489) which I gave away after I bought my current edition : UK Bluray risc, EAN 5055201818775 with the movie in full 1080p HD in widescreen 1.85:1 image format, and which is a region B (presumed locked) and copy protected. (disc cover is the image for this blog entry)

 Sound : English 5.1 DTS-HD MA (Master Audio), with only English SDH (Hard of hearing subtitles).

 I haven't watched any of the bonuses yet, and which are : 

  • Making-of Special - a loot inside ''the others''
  • Visual FX Featurette
  • Zoderma Pigmenosum - What is it ? An inside look at the disease (pertains to the photosensitive children in the movie)

There is a limited steelbook Bluray edition EAN 0708302762397 with different artwork on the cover,  and which costs more than the regular aforementioned BD, but I cannot find if it offers any of the bonuses - and often, steelbook editions do not.   

 If you want details about the american dvd and blurays, I'll direct you to dvdbeaver's review and comparison and add blu-ray.com's links for EAN 03139813473 where bonus material are similar and add an intimate look at the director, a trailer, as well as English & Spanish subtitles (which the UK edition didn't propose). 

 Also, French BD  edition EAN 5050582713787 add French dubs and subtitles (and no English subtitles at all), reducing image format to 1.75:1 (instead of close 1.85:1), with slightly different bonus material:
  • Making-of,
  • Visual FX, 
  • Trailer
  • and one that the US & UK editions didn't propose:  a storyboard/ movie comparison
The French DVD editions released by studiocanal are different in several ways :

  1. The movie was shortened from 1h44 to 1h41.
  2. both EAN 3259119666622 from 2002 & 3259130231700 from 2007 offer 5.1 DTS-HD MA only in French dub, and offer French and English in Dolby Digital 5.1
  3. They both have audio commentary by the director 
  4. the difference is that 2007's EAN 3259130231700 has a second DVD with many bonuses as follows 
  • Making-Of (I don't know if it's the same as the above editions) 
  • Documentary Les enfants de l'ombre (meaning Children of the shadows, lasting 9 minutes)
  • Interview with a dermatologist about their photosensitivity (Zoderma Pigmenosum) -( again, i don't know if it's the same as the BD docu about the illness)
  • Docu about special effects (same comment as previous)
  • Sketches of the costumes & decors 
  • Storyboard extract
  • Trailer
  • Filmographies 
All editions seem region locked and have very similar artwork 



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