I never saw One From the Heart until I got a Coppola five film Blu-ray from Lionsgate. Once I saw it I became obsessed. Apocalypse Now was a risk and went wild in the jungle. This gambled Coppola’s fortune on a soundstage musical that wasn’t as commercial as a war movie. That was more than Hearts of Darkness and his true Col. Kurtz moment.
I finally got to see it in theaters when the One From the Heart Reprise came out. The reprise cut does improve pacing and now warrants the 4K treatment.
4K oddly makes the artificial sets look more real than location shoots. Especially Las Vegas and the Fremont street they constructed, but even the interiors and neighborhood streets look so lived in.
My fascination used to be how artificial everything looked but it’s a different aesthetic now. Dance numbers on backdrops still have the remnants of the artificial look.
The controlled studio lighting also creates lots of opportunities for 4K shadow. The opening credits on casino signs against pure dark night, sitting at home in the dark, the sidewalk at night and the neon graveyard all boast deep pitch black. In many of those scenes, the lighting changes from shadow to color on the fly. When Raul Julia and Teri Garr dance in the studio, they’re in and out of those shadows. Even when it explodes onto the Las Vegas street, the fake sky is a black void.
As the behind the scenes of One From the Heart js the most interesting story, the new bonus features include footage from American Zoertrope in 1980 and ’81. In VHS quality, you can watch them build the airport set, film miniature plates for driving, find scenes in rehearsal and more. Gene Kelly and Kenny Ortega’s enthusiasm is endearing.
Baz Luhrmann gives a professional appreciation for how Coppola constructed his musical. A 3 minute restoration comparison highlights technical achievements of the Reprise. The Blu-ray includes the theatrical cut and those extras about the collapse of Zoetrope that made me obsessed with One From the Heart in first place.