Tweet
Released by: Ascot Elite Home Entertainment
Released on: 11/19/2009
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Christopher Lee, Omar Sharif, Francesco Romano
Year: 1990
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
The Rainbow Thief follows a man named 'Uncle' Rudolf Von Tannen (Christiopher Lee), bizarre but very wealthy man whose only love in life is his pack of rambunctious Dalmatian dogs. When we meet him, he's invited over a group of socialite guests, relatives all, to a dinner party held in his mansion where he intentionally messes with them by feeding the dogs caviar while the human guests are fed bones. He knows they're simply waiting for him to die so that they can get their hands on as much of his fortune as they can and he takes great delight in seeing them all leave his home empty handed and angry. When they're gone for the night, he calls over The Rainbow Girls, a group of big-breasted prostitutes adorned in colorful lingerie. He hopes into bed with them, but when they leave him that night, he's in a coma. Like vultures, the next day his relatives meet to divvy up his earthly goods, but as he's not dead yet, they can do no more than lay stakes, though most involved suspect that his favorite nephew, Meleagre (Peter O'Toole) will walk away with everything.
Fast forward five years into the future and Meleagre lives with a thief named Dima (Omar Sharif) in the sewers below the city where they still wait for Rudolf to pass on. They don't have any money and so Dima supports them both by stealing at the various carnivals that pass through town. He's not popular with a local bartender or many of the other underworld figures in the area, but he's okay with that. A man of low morals, he willfully takes advantage of an obese woman named Ambrosia (Joanna Dickens) who is quite willing to take care of him financially in exchange for certain favors. When Dima finally learns that Rudolf has passed, he heads out to dinner with Ambrosias to celebrate but then reads that the late eccentric has left all of his money and property to his beloved Rainbow Girls on the condition that they take care of his equally beloved Dalmations. Dima feels that Meleagre has mislead and betrayed him with promises of a massive inheritance and he leaves his once and former best friend to die alone in the sewers.
Jodorowksy's fifth feature length movie, and his first to be made with England backing was actually shot on location in Poland. The picture makes excellent use of the ornate architecture and old school charm of the locales about the area and showcases some top notch cinematography. On a visual level, the film is quite astounding. Always beautiful to look at, it's quite colorful and almost painterly at times, eschewing the grit of El Topo in favor of the refined look of The Holy Mountain, albeit sans the succession of religious iconography that made that picture as interesting as it was. Jodorowksy's obsession with the occult and with alchemy is on the backburner this time around, and while you can't necessarily call this a mainstream picture by any means, it's certainly a more accessible film than anything he'd made before, though he's since gone on to speak very poorly of the picture stating many disagreements with the producers as the reason it seems to impersonal when compared to his earlier efforts. In fact the film never played theatrically anywhere outside of France when it was initially released and has yet to be given anything more than a VHS release in North America.
While this doesn't always feel like you might expect a Jodorowsky movie to feel, it's not a horrible movie by any stretch. The cast, toplined by Lee who is having an absolute blast from the looks of things, are all in fine form. Sharif and O'Toole, reunited for the first time since Lawrence Of Arabia, are also both quite excellent. The film has some interesting metaphorical aspects with some inspired comparisons made between a certain character and Jesus Christ, and there's no shortage of oddities on display. From physical freaks to segments involving that Tarot to the aforementioned canine banquet scene there are definitely moments here that feel like Jodorowsky had control even if there are just as many, if not more, where he probably did not. There's a charming Dickensian aspect to the story that works nicely alongside the lush visuals and the classy performances that makes this one enjoyable enough in its own right even if it'll never be regarded as a masterpiece.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Rainbow Thief looks pretty impressive in this 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. While a fine coat of grain is present throughout there isn't much in the way of print damage at all while color reproduction looks quite strong. Black levels are nice and deep while shadow detail remains pretty decent. There are some really minor compression artifacts in a couple of spots but no obvious edge enhancement to note and generally this is a pretty well authored disc of what looks to have been some very clean source material.
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks are provided in English and in dubbed German with optional subtitles available in German only. The quality of the English track is good. The levels are well balanced save for a few spots where some of the sound effects are a bit high in the mix. There aren't any issues with hiss or distortion to complain about and the score sounds quite strong here.
Sadly, the only extra outside of the menus and chapter selection is the film's original theatrical trailer. A commentary or featurette would have been welcome, especially when you take into account how interesting Jodorowsky's other commentary tracks have been, but unfortunately that didn't happen here.
The Final Word:
Despite the fact that there aren't many extras of note, it's nice to have The Rainbow Thief on DVD and in very good quality at that. A commentary would have really helped to flesh this package out but as it stands, even if this film is considered, by many, to be lesser Jodorowsky it's still an interesting picture and right now this is the only way to see it on DVD.