My Life as a Dog (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

Easily the definitive transfer of this title to date, albeit not perfect. I could write an essay on why I, and people like Kurt Vonnegut find this to be perhaps the best movie ever. It is certainly the most human-scale movie I've ever seen, and manages to be a masterpiece without overly contorted or improbable plot lines. An absolute gem! For the rest of this review, I'll focus on the technical aspects of this latest Criterion Collection Blu-Ray transfer.The transfer was done from a 35mm interpositive and preserved in the original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 On a standard 16:9 television, it will display the complete frame in pillarboxed format. Nothing seems to have been cropped out, in some scenes evidence of a slightly dirty camera gate can be seen, assuring the viewer that they are getting the entire frame contents. Colors are rich and excellent throughout most scenes, and very well timed. Bright scenes seem to have fared best in this transfer, and either due to the choices made by the operator, or the limitations of the equipment, dark scenes are at times plagued with poor contrast and what appears to be several stops of digital gain added in post-production. If I had to guess, I would submit that these scenes should have been scanned with higher analog gain to achieve the needed brightness, as it is the apparent digital gain makes these dark scenes rather noisy and artifact-ridden.Several otherwise well transferred scenes suffer from pulsing and flicker, again if I were to guess I'd suspect that it was degradation of the film that caused this. It looks a lot like one side of the reel had an emulsion issue, but hard to say. I also suspect that in the post-processing they probably did the best they could in reducing it to whatever extent possible. Noise reduction is excellent, and reveals that this film, or at least this interpositive is quite a grainy affair, with few scene exceptions. I have no idea what the original film stock was (some sort of Fuji?), or if it was particularly fast film, but the amount of grain is truly surprising and really adds to the feel of this movie. I'm particularly glad that they did not allow this to be smoothed out or overly compressed, you really do get the feeling every last bit of detail in the film made it through the transfer.Dirt, scratches, and other things seem to have been painstakingly removed and overall, this is a very excellent transfer. I think that with perhaps the exception of what I suspect to be poor digital capture of the dark scenes, and subsequent digital gain pushing it would be hard to do anything better than this effort, unless there is some other interpositive out there in better condition. I somewhat doubt that notion, as the director Lasse Hallström approved this re-release himself. And of course, there is the possibility that I am completely wrong about the cause of the poor dark scene contrast and gain. Either way, despite a few rough spots, you're not going to find a better transfer of this around. I wish I had my old DVD copy of the first release to compare how those dark scenes were handled.Packaging of the disc is small, but fairly nice. A fairly hefty booklet is full of interesting tidbits and photos.

Few movies come this close to perfection. This is an intelligent and moving story of a boy who must come to terms with abandonment, loss and the casual betrayal of adults. Extremely well acted on all sides, with a bold script that dares to ask the important questions. Ingemar must try to find some balance in his life, as he is tossed from one "home" to another, like a stray dog... or, like the Soviet space-dog Laika, who was sent into space only to starve to death in orbit. "They never intended to bring her back." The final scenes of "My Life as a Dog" do win out, when the odd town's crazy old man takes a swim in the frozen river. The whole cast of peculiar town-folk come out to "rescue" him, and offer him a place by the fire, a blanket, a little whiskey... Here, Ingemar finds balance in the love of other people, so one is left, not with a sense of despair, but with a sense of hope in the midst of sorrow and loss.Note: I recommend the subtitled version over the dubbed version, as the language and inflections should be experienced in full.

I caught My Life as a Dog on PBS many years ago. To those who have not seen this film, it's a bittersweet tear jerker told from a boy's point of view (somewhat similar to Christmas Story), filled with many super funny scenes, dramas, and surprises.Directory Lasse Hallström has gone to make a number of popular films in Hollywood (Cider House Rules, Chocolat, Shipping News, What's Eating Gilbert Grape), but I think this Swedish precursor is his superior work. His signature beautiful images (by cinematographer Jörgen Persson), filled with quirky yet fully defined supporting characters, and filled with heartwarming scenes.Criterion's DVD is superior to all previous video presentations, remastered in high definition and presented in widescreen anamorphic video and original mono Swedish sound with faithful English subtitle. The images look a bit grainy, but I think very faithful to director's intention (who has supervised and approved the transfer) and completely satisfying.The DVD is short of special features (just interview with Hallström, his early short TV feature "Shall With Go to My or Your Place or Each Go Home Alne", and trailer). Highly recommended.

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I have rated it 3 stars because, compared to my VCR copy that I've owned since the early 1990s, the video quality of this Criterion Collection DVD release is inferior. In fact, Criterion's claim that this is a Blue Ray disk is nonsense. It's at best a sub-quality DVD. Also, my earlier VCR copy is dubbed in English. The Criterion release is in Swedish with English subtitles.

Mitt Liv som Hund is a 1985 Swedish drama directed by Lasse Hallström and is based on a novel by Reidar Jönsson. The story revolves around Ingemar (Anton Glanzelius) who is sent to live with relatives and is separated from his brother and his terminally sick mother. It is a heartwarming story even though Ingemar is going through a very rough time in his life. I will not spoil it for you but if you like a good drama without guns and special effects about the joys of youth and the ways a child deals with pain and sorrow and how they try to deal and justify it in their mind. If this sounds like your type of film, then I highly suggest this film.

I saw it as a kid. It holds up well. Content a bit more mature than I remembered.

Difficult real life stuff mixed in with some pure joy. One of my all time favorites I watch every couple of years.

I purchased a used one that was of excellent quality; Swedish with English subtitles. Unique story with great acting by the young star. Very poignant, with humor. The film was top rated by critics and audiences. Worth owning.

I wish there were more films that took there time like this. So glad I own it!

Später ist der Regisseur ja recht bekannt geworden, aber der Charme dieses Erstlingswerkes übertrifft auch viele spätere Filme noch. Lasse Hallström in Bestform!

für Menschen, die Kinder mögen UND Hunde..., und Berührendes, auch Tränen nicht scheuen. Sollt noch sieben Wörter schreiben...-do enjoy it!

This is a great movie, and a good example of coming of age through the lens of a foreign film. You get so lost in the film that you don’t care that it has subtitles. It is so beautifully restored on Blu-ray. It was worth every penny.

I can't quite figure out why I haven't reviewed this before, as it is probably one of my top three favourite movies. I don't think childhood has been better portrayed than in Lasse Hallestom's effortlessly charming Swedish film. In other hands, like Dreamworks or Disney, this picture might have ended up as sentimental and mawkish. Instead we have enough realism to encourage us to believe in what we are seeing, and enough humour to soften the edges. All I can say is that I can watch this time and time again, shedding only gentle tears. They should show it every Christmas. In fact, as far as I am aware, the networks don't show it at all. Shame on them.