Given the amount of acclaim it received and its successful run in arthouses last summer, one would think MGM would have put a fair amout of effort into their DVD release of Ghost World , Terry Zwigoff’s darkly funny and subtly moving adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ cult comic. Instead, the studio has given the film a treatment only a couple of small steps away from the bland, barebones one they give to the countless catalog titles they release every month. In addition to the usual theatrical trailer, a selection of four deleted or alternate scenes is included, but these are very brief throwaways that aren’t exactly the tastiest of morsels; a making-of featurette is also on the disc, but it was recycled from the film’s EPK. The one extra of interest is the unedited “Jaan Pehechaan Ho” musical number from the 1965 Indian film Gumnaam, which is featured in the opening credits; clocking in at over five minutes, this rock-‘n-roll song-and-dance extravaganza is as infectious as it is bizarrely fascinating (from this clip, one would never guess that the film is actually a murder mystery)–and if you want to see more, a contact e-mail address is given should one want more info on the film. It’s too bad contact info isn’t given for either Zwigoff or Clowes, for it’s their absence really makes this disc suffer; if a commentary with them–or, for that matter, with stars Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, and Steve Buscemi–was out of the question, new interviews with any of them would have been welcome. Alas, one must content oneself with simply a pristine digital transfer of the film and that priceless glimpse into the world of ’60s Indian musical cinema.
Specifications: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen; English 5.1 Surround; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; English closed captioning.
