I’ve long been an advocate for P. Ridley based merely on the one film of his that I’ve been able to obtain and have watched many times — “The Reflecting Skin”. His follow-up, “The Passion of Darkly Noon” is unavailable on Region I disc, but perhaps that may change.
I’m very excited to see his latest, “Heartless” in the theatres as soon as I can.
Hmm, well thank you Cinaste for your response guess we’re the only ones who’ve heard of him and like him.
Can only hope they do right by Mr. Ridley and give his works a proper release on dvd or blue ray.
Neither of his films are available in Region 1, but you can find them if you know where to look. The Reflecting Skin is available in R2 Japan. The Italian/French disc of The Passion of Darkly Noon is close to the original aspect ratio, has a commentary from Ridley, but is a terrible, terrible transfer.
Discovering The Passion of Darkly Noon on late night TV one day in the mid/late-90s was such a pleasant experience. It still airs with some regularity on a couple cable channels here, but I too would appreciate a Region 1 release with a decent OAR transfer. I’d shelve it next to Normal Life and relieve the time of my brief Ashley Judd fanaticism.
Another admirer of Philip Ridley, here. I had all but written him off. Looking at his IMDB profile it doesn’t seem as though he’s been up to much (teaching?). It’s good to have a new film to look forward to. (now, if it only gets a release date).
I’ve only seen The Reflecting Skin, which always impressed me terribly. So rarely do films ‘from out of nowhere’ feel so assured. It baffles me that the film is virtually unknown. Twist of fate, one that truly fell through the cracks, it appears. Groovy to hear he has a new one.
Ridley’s IMDB profile probably isn’t the best place to look and see what he’s been up to. He’s a playwright and (mainly children’s) novelist as well as a filmmaker, and he’s continued to be pretty prolific in those areas in the years since Darkly Noon. Good to see another film on the way, though.
A children’s novelist? Interesting.
It’s an odd combination, given the (very non-child friendly) nature of his films and several of his stage plays.
“The Reflecting Skin” blew my mind when I saw it years ago. Here in Germany I could only get a dubbed DVD of “The Passion of Darkly Noon”, so I passed on it. It’s great to hear he’s making films again. Has anyone read any of his writings, or knows hoe to see his paintings?
And he needs a profile on The Auteurs!!!!
Ridley is definitely in need of more and better press. I have “The Reflecting Skin” and he shows a style that actually reminds me somewhat of Terry Gilliam (and that is a compliment.)
The question is, how wide a distribution will “Heartless” get? (I think I can guess, but one can always hope….)
I really enjoyed Heartless. It’s a pretty wide sweeping film, powerful and haunting.
Plus it’s all shot in areas I’m super familiar with, so that may have tainted my opinion a bit.
Is this a thread about Blade Runner?
Blade Runner is horrible.
There is a Region 1 DVD released by “Seville”, a Canadian company, of Ridley’s “Passion of Darkly Noon”. The packaging doesn’t say when this disc became available but it’s OOP, apparently. I bought a new copy through Amazon earlier this month. It cost $40. I just checked again this morning. There’s just a single copy left and the price now is $48.
I watched it last night, my first time to see this much-longed-for sophomore effort from Philip Ridley. The transfer is decent enough for an SD-DVD. Fraser and Mortensen were slightly better than adequate. I was more impressed by Ashley Judd’s acting, not to mention her beauty. Except for her terrific performance in Friedkin’s “Bug”, Ms. Judd hasn’t really been tracked on my radar. Grace Zabriskie is an oddity. Is she a one-note actress? I wish Ridley had cast her as Seth Dove’s mother in “Reflecting Skin”.
Speaking of which, I also found a region-free, German-made Blu-Ray of “Reflecting Skin” on Amazon and bought it as well for $30. Not a stellar transfer, but I’m happy with it. I frankly love this film.
Nick Bicat ‘s scores for both these two films add a great deal of supporting power to the proceedings. P.J. Harvey sings over the end credits to “Darkly Noon”. For Ridley’s latest, “Heartless”, which I haven’t watched yet, Bicat is credited along with Ridley for the songs, but the score was written by David Julyan.
All of this satisfies me fairly well. He’s made three films and all of them now are in my collection. Six weeks ago, none of them were.
Adam P.
I’m not too certain how to start this thread…
Best I can say is that Mr. Ridley is so interesting, such a shame his two earliest works are practically non existent, they seem to have fallen on deaf ears and blind eyes. His works are really captivating and the best sort of unusual, magic realism is a good description. If you grew up in a small insular environment you’d find a neat or unnerving connection to his tales. Can’t wait to see his latest, “Heartless”.