Two Girls on the Street Blu-ray offers solid video and decent audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
Upwardly mobile working women—one a musician in an all-girl band, the other a bricklayer—join forces as they both try to make it in Budapest, supporting each other through changing economic fortunes, the advances of lecherous men, and the highs and heartbreaks of love.
For more about Two Girls on the Street and the Two Girls on the Street Blu-ray release, see Two Girls on the Street Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on February 17, 2023 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
Criterion is often described as the very paradigm of a "niche" collector label, and in that regard, there may be nothing Criterion has offered over the
years that is more "niche" than their series of World Cinema Project offerings, all bearing the rather notable imprimatur of one
Martin Scorsese. This fourth volume follows in the footsteps of the previous three collections and offers another often bracing aggregation of little
or at least
lesser known films, some from rather unusual places and also at times addressing subjects that are not regular fodder for big budget Hollywood
extravaganzas.
Reviews of the previous three volumes in this series, all of which offer some really interesting and worthwhile films, are accessible by clicking on the
following links:
I mentioned the perceived prominence of 1939 in filmmaking annals in my review of another film found in this collection, Prisioneros de la Tierra, and that venerable year is back with regard to this feature, which has the added "Hollywood
connection" of having been directed by André De Toth, a name that maybe even relatively casual film fans will recognize from a series of both
westerns and noir projects, but who will forever be remembered as having helmed the first "big" 3D feature, House of Wax. Two Girls on the Street might have been described as a
so-called "women's picture" had it stemmed from De Toth's Hollywood era career, something that perhaps even its title seems to hint at. That said,
this 1939 film is amazingly provocative in a couple of ways that may make it seem oddly prescient in terms of what might be broadly called a
"woman's right to choose", not necessarily just about pregancy and birth, but more generally about actual careers and "lifestyle choices".
The two focal women here are already perhaps at least perceived as being on slightly different levels of the socioeconomic scale, though that hasn't
keep violinist Kártély Gyöngyi (Maria Tasnadi Fekete) and bricklayer (!) Torma Vica (Bella Bordy), from bonding together after each having
experienced some boorish (and perhaps worse than that) behavior by males. There's an underlying atmosphere here that the back cover of this
release calls "the power of working class female solidarity", but that perhaps overly sanguine description may elide several rather emotionally
roiling
decisions the women face. Perhaps ironically, the film ultimately kind of "goes Hollywood" with a more conventional ménage à trois angle
that might seem to undercut any feelings of "working class female solidarity".
Two Women on the Street is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This
is one of only two films in this collection which don't offer detailed introductory text about the restoration, and instead features only this generic
comment:
The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project was established by Martin Scorsese in 2007 to help foster cooperation among filmmakers worldwide and
to
identify, preserve, and restore endangered films representing diverse cultural heritage.
Luckily, Criterion's insert booklet has a bit more information on the transfer:
Two Girls on the Street is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. This digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an Arriscan
film scanner from the 35 mm original camera negative. The original monaural soundtrack was restored from the 35 mm original soundtrack
negative, preserved at the Hungarian National Archive in Budapest. The film was restored in 2010 by the Cineteca di Bologna / L'Immagine
Ritrovata, in assocation with The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project and the Hungarian National Archive. The restoration was funded by
Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways and the Qatar Museum Authority.
This is a generally nicely detailed looking presentation, though it perhaps pales if admittedly slightly from some of the more lustrous restorations
included in this set. One of the definite pluses of the transfer is nicely consistent contrast, which weathers a number of different lighting and location
changes without any significant faltering. That in turn offers nice delineation of gray scale and some suitably inky blacks. Detail levels are somewhat
variable, and there is some very slight blurriness at the edges of the frame at times. Close-ups can offer very appealing levels of fine detail. Grain
resolves naturally throughout. There are some minor signs of age related wear and tear that the restoration gauntlet has not been able to
completely remove. My score is 3.75.
Two Girls on the Street features an LPCM Mono track in the original Hungarian. There is undeniable distortion discernable in some of the
music cues, as in the opening orchestral score underlying the credits, where a lot of the midrange sounds pretty muddy and the high end strident. A
number of brass and wind cues in particular have a kind of "crackly" quality to them. That qualm aside, lower amplitude underscore typically sounds at
least decent, and the dialogue is presented without any major problems. Optional English subtitles are available.
Criterion has packaged Two Girls on the Street and Kalpana together on one disc. After selecting an individual film, supplements
exclusive to that film are then accessible, as follows:
Martin Scorsese Introduction (HD; 2:31)
Life Lessons from Andre de Toth (HD; 11:09) offers some fun excerpts from a 1994 interview de Toth did at the National Film Theatre in
London.
Two Girls on the Street seems to be heading in one kind of (for its era, anyway) anachronistically provocative direction before heading off into
more conventional territory. This has some interesting aspects, but probably less of a sociopolitical edge than some of the other films in this set.
Technical merits are generally solid, if improvable, and the supplement with De Toth is great. Recommended.
Blu-ray Bundles/Box Sets with Two Girls on the Street (1 bundle)
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