THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING (2022)
Label: WBHE
Region Code:
Rating: R
Duration: 107 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, True HD 7.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video:1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1), Anamorphic SD Widesceen (2.39:1)
Director: George Miller
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Idris Alba
In George Miller’s fantasy-romantic adventure Three Thousand Years of Longing, based on the short story “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye" by A.S. Byatt, the seemingly single and quite content Dr. Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton, Orlando) is an academic, a narratologist, whom while on visiting Istanbul during a speaking engagment picks up a decorative glass bauble that catches her eye at a antique shop. Returning to her hotel room she runs it under water in an attempt to clean it a bit, but while rubbing it clean the top pops off and out springs a wish-granting Djinn (Idris Elba, Beast), who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom.
At first the academic doubts that what is happened could be real, that perhaps she's flipped her lid, but when she realizes it truly is happening her academic storytelling brain kicks-in, knowing all to well that the Djinn are notorious tricksters, and that wish-granting stories are chock full of cautionary tales of wishes that have gone terribly wrong. The Djinn pleads his case, all the while spinning his own story, of his three thousand year-old journey of being cursed, imprisoned in a bottle, and of the women's he has loved through the ages, and what that has cost him. His tales include stories of the women who cast their spell on him through the ages, of the Queen of Sheba (Aamito Lagum) and her lover King Solomon who imprisoned him, the concubine Gülten (Ece Yüksel), the overly-plump Sugar Lump (Anna Adams), and a the brilliant wife of a Turkish merchant, Zefir (Burcu Gölgedar) - how all of these women one way or the other ended up entrancing the Djinn and imprisoning him in the proverbial magic bottle. These flashbacks are gorgeous and quite vivid in their recreation of the fantastical imagining of the Ottomon Empire and other ancient cavillations.
Eventually Aelitha is so enamored with the Djinn's personal story she makes a wish most unexpected, with the Djinn returning to England with her, where modern world's technological advancements through the years make quite an impression on the Djinn, and threatens to disrupt his electromagnetic composition. It's spellbinding and quite lovely fantastical tale that made for quite an enjoyable eatch.
Audio/Video: Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) arrives on Blu-ray from WBHE in 1080p HD widescreen (2.39:1), down-sampled from the native 4K the HD presentation is quite stunning with copious fine detail and gorgeous color and saturation. Depth and clarity is never-less-than wonderful and the fine detail is terrific. Surprisingly, we also get a resounding Dolby Atmos audio track, which folds down to Dolby TrueHD, like the fantastic visuals its an outstanding presentation with a lot of body to it. Sadly no on-disc extras for this release on the Blu-ray or DVD, but when I redeemed the digital copy through Vudi I was surprised to find a handful of brief EPK-style featurettes - nothing too stunning, but there's interviews with the stars, director and crew.
While the slipcover advertised as a 2-disc Blu-ray + DVD + Digital release my copy in actuality was only Blu-ray + Digital; with no DVD disc. It arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork that is mirrored on the slipcase. Inside there's a digital code for the film, with the aforementioned digital exclusive extras.
Special Features (Digital Only, not on disc):
- A New Cinematic Odyssey (2 min)
- The Djinn and the Genius (3 min)
- Conjuring The Djinn (2 min)
- Empires and Epochs (2 min)
- George & Junkie XL (2 min)
While it might have tanked at the box-office I think this is a charming film that will grow a fan base on home video and streaming, The gorgeous and quite fantastical love-story might have been unloved during it's theatrical window but is too good not to be re-discovered my the cinema-faithful at some point.
