Search - Obsession on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations Movie Release: 1976 DVD Release: 06/26/2001 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Edition: Dual Layered Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 38 mins Studio: Columbia TriStar Members Wishing: 10 Genres: Thriller, Psychological Thriller

Love never dies in Brian De Palma's psychological thriller, though money certainly complicates matters. Rich New Orleans real estate developer Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson) lost his beloved wife Elizabeth (Genevieve Bujold) and their daughter during a botched kidnap rescue, after he chose to let the police try to free them instead of paying the ransom. Sixteen years later, Michael returns to the Tuscan church where he and Elizabeth first met, and he sees Sandra Portinari (Bujold again), the mirror image of his dead wife. Despite the reservations of his long-time friend and business partner (John Lithgow), Michael woos Sandra and brings her back to New Orleans to marry her. Seeing Sandra as his second chance to prove his love, Michael thinks he can finally put the past behind him, but the past is about to catch up with him in ways he never dreamed. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Cliff Robertson - Michael Courtland
Geneviève Bujold - Elizabeth Courtland
Geneviève Bujold - Sandra Portinari
John Lithgow - Robert La Salle
Sylvia "Kuumba" Williams - Maid
Wanda Blackman - Amy Courtland
Stanley Reyes - Inspector Brie

Brian De Palma's Obsession came out twice on laserdisc, once during the mid-'80s in a pan-and-scan full-screen version, and again in the early '90s in a special letterboxed edition, with the music track free-standing on one of the analog channels. This DVD doesn't have the free-standing music, which is sort of a shame, but it does offer a lot that even the second laserdisc edition never did. There is the image, a glittering digital video transfer that finally lives up to the depth and richness of this most romantic of films. The idyllic opening sequence -- at the anniversary celebration and its aftermath -- is worth the price of this DVD. Second, there is the sound -- the Bernard Herrmann music may no longer be present as a free-standing track, but the film's audio track has been mastered very cleanly and, within the context of the DVD format (which is still a little behind laser in audio reproduction), with a sharp, aggressive edge that brings the music to the fore. Indeed, uneven audio levels in the interview segments of Laurent Bouzerou's accompanying documentary "Obsession Revisited" are the only glaring deficiency on the disc. The sound levels do vary quite a bit, but not beyond the level of minor annoyance, and the content of the 35-minute featurette more than makes up for any technical deficiencies. The presence of De Palma and most of the other principal members of the creative team, plus Cliff Robertson and Geneviève Bujold, make this a must-see option for fans of the director or the movie, as well as movie history buffs; reminiscences of Bernard Herrmann's work, the changes required in order to get the movie made, and the initial reactions of the two stars to the script are fascinating -- one only wishes that John Lithgow, who was making only his second film appearance, had also participated in the interviews. The movie, of course, bears such a close relationship to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo that it's also refreshing to hear De Palma and company go into the process by which Obsession was distilled out of the earlier movie. (One very good decision, made relatively early on, was to abandon the newer movie's working title, "Deja Vu.") The disc opens to the main menu automatically, and the "Special Features" selection is limited to the documentary, a trailer for Obsession, and trailers for a handful of other movies that Columbia-TriStar evidently thinks are comparable, including Against All Odds (it isn't) and Someone to Watch over Me. The movie has been broken down into 28 chapters, all nicely placed and labeled in a comprehensible way. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide