The Phoenician Plot – We Saw Universal's 2K Blu-ray

Zsa-Zsa Korda is a wealthy and cunning industrialist who has survived several plane crashes and assassination attempts. Wanted for fraud, he is a man of a thousand intrigues and grand plans for the Phoenicia region. He designates his daughter Liesl, a twenty-one-year-old nun-to-be, as the sole heir to his empire. In his new film The Phoenician Plot, Wes Anderson tackles unscrupulous capitalism, an absurdist spy-comedy characterized by lavish sets and his unmistakable visual symmetry.

The work opens with a promising prologue, with a pulp sensibility and an energy that suggests a return to Anderson's more corrosive style. But soon the narrative gets bogged down in verbose dialogues, an excessively rigid theatrical construction, and a rhythm that dissipates scene after scene. Beyond the stellar cast, the spark is missing, the lightness that in the past allowed rigor and parody to coexist. Little hints at the visual humor that once was the director's unmistakable trademark. The Phoenician Plot is a verbose film and almost entirely devoid of the vitality one might have expected. Here is our complete artistic review.

No 4K Blu-ray for Italy

Shot entirely on film (Arricam LT, Arricam ST on 35mm 200 ASA negative), native 4K master, unexpected 1.47:1 (1920 x 1080/23.97p) image format from the original 1.50:1, AVC/MPEG-4 encoding on dual-layer BD-50. Solid transfer, richness in colors as well as in black and white passages and the relative grayscale. A visual spectacle despite the resolution and dynamic light compression. Deep blacks. The film was also released in UHD abroad.

The Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 track (640 kbps) is sufficient, though one might wish for a greater stage presence from the rear channels. Superior dynamics and involvement are achieved by switching to the original Dolby TrueHD 7.1 with ATMOS objects (16 bit), which allows for listening that favors dialogue, low frequencies, and the rare moments when music and effects add significant elements.

As extras, there's a behind-the-scenes featurette of about 15 minutes divided into 4 parts: the cast, the plane, Marseille Bob's, and Zsa-zsa's world. It doesn't go into too much detail; the making-of provides a modest amount of information and a look at the casting, the plane sets, a memorable effects sequence, as well as the club. No Italian subtitles.