Free Solo (Capelight) (UHD/BD/DVD Mediabook) [Mediabook]

[pygospa]

Release : 19.07.2019

Link :  Capelight-Shop

Price : €14,44 (current price - initial release price was around 25~30€)

 

In 2017 directors and photographers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Varsarhelyi followed Alex Honnold and filmed him during his absolutely crazy attempt to climb a 3,000 foot vertical cliff - alone and without ropes. Their documentary "Free Solo" that captures not only the attempt in stunning imagery, but also shows how family and friends cope with someone that crazy, was released in 2018 under National Geographics and turned a lot of heads winning the best documentary feature nomination at the 91st Academy Awards, besides many other accolades.

Capelight was one of the first to adapt UHD for Mediabooks back in 2016, when they released 187, but up to now didn't make this into a standard for their releases (partly, most defenately, because a lot of people didn't like paying more due to an included UHD). This release is one of the few exceptions, and probably one of these few where it really makes sense to watch it in 4K. The movie comes, as usually, with a 24-page booklet, giving some background on free solo climbing as well as on Alex, Jimmy and Elizabeth. Other than that, there are Interviews and a featurette as bonus. The movie itself has English and German audio as well as German subtitles. It has a rough finish with a structure that makes it look and feel like a painting canvas.

As usually, enjoy the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urRVZ4SW7WU

[pygospa]

Another pick-up, just due to it's affordable price: As it has a UHD in it (which I like having as it is somewhat future proofing the collection, but I don't like paying too much extra [~5€ is okey, I guess] for), it started off with a rather high price. Not that it's not worth it, after hearing so many good things about this documentation it probably is worth it's price, but I just wanted to wait a bit. Now I got it for 14€, which is a great price considering that Amazon has it for 20€ and given that Mediamarkt carries the DVD for 12€, the Blu-ray Amaray for 14€, and the 4K-Version for nearly 30€ in local stores. Really looking forward to this one as it has some great imagery; I am a bit afraid that my rather old LED TV wouldn't do it justice though - maybe it's time to save some money for an better OLED TV.

Also I really like the rough finish and the really clean look with these extremely white pages. And you've got to love that continuing disc artwork that Capelight uses these days, absolutely gorgeous and perfectly fitting even if there are two discs that are overlapping.