King of the Gypsies - Cinematographe 4K UHD

King of the Gypsies begins in a way that made me feel like I was watching a Romani version of The Godfather. We have a gathering of families for the purpose of a wedding, and this introduces us to their world. We also have a handful of familiar faces from The Godfather, like Sterling Hayden as King Zharko Stepanowicz, and Michael V. Gazzo as Spiro Giorgio. Stepanowicz, the “king” of the gypsies, plans to purchase Spiro’s daughter, Rose, for his son, Groffo. The two families don’t like each other, and the planned arrangement doesn’t go accordingly, so the King absconds with the daughter and takes off.

As the story progresses, it feels less like a Romani version of The Godfather and more of its own story. Decades later, Rose (now played as an adult by Susan Sarandon) and Groffo (Judd Hirsch) have a family together. Rose is the breadwinner for the family. She has a couple of successful con games she’s good at. She works as a fortune teller and convinces clients that the best way to unburden themselves from guilt is to bury sums of money, under a full moon, at a relative’s gravesite, where she’ll swoop in and claim it for herself. She also has a performance piece as a rich, upper-class Manhattanite who’s shopping for jewels. She’ll accidentally knock a diamond to the ground, and have her son eat it, where she’ll retrieve it from the toilet later, after it passes.

Her son, Dave (played as an adult by Eric Roberts, in his film debut), wants no part of the family. He can’t stand the thievery or the traditions. Sure, he’s guilty of some scams himself, like a slip-and-fall at a grocery store, but he’s made good for himself. He has a job, a real job, as a singer… well, a singing waiter, but he doesn’t have to tell people about the waiter part. But, with it, he has a small apartment, pays the bills, and even has a girlfriend he’s getting serious with, and plans to move to California with.

When Dave learns that his grandfather, King Zharko, is dying, the King wants to give his kingdom to Dave. Dave refuses. He says that if he were to lead the gypsies, he’d only want to lead them into the 20^th century. But the King has made up his mind and gives the title to his grandson. This creates a split, a violent feud between Dave and his drunken, abusive father, Groffo. There are assassination attempts, knifings, and shootings as Dave tries to escape the city and start his life anew in California.

King of the Gypsies isn’t quite as good as its contemporaries, but that’s a hell of an expectation to come into with any film. No, it’s not as good as The Godfather, Serpico, or Dog Day Afternoon. Christ, what is? It is, however, a gripping drama that has a lot of love and adoration for its subjects. It doesn’t view the Romani people with disdain, as so many other films do. There’s a respect for their traditions, as Rose tells a story that the Lord Jesus Himself has blessed the gypsies with the ability to steal, because a gypsy stole a nail that was intended for His heart. Now they have a kind of agreement on that particular sin.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 

Cinématographe’s release of King of the Gypsies arrives in a two-disc release, housed in a booklet-style case, containing essays from Jason Bailey, Caden Mark Gardner, Adam Nayman, and Chris Shields. The booklet is contained in a rigid case, removable from a ribbon you can pull to extract the discs.

King of the Gypsies was shot on 35mm film by cinematographer (and frequent Ingmar Bergman collaborator) Sven Nykvist in a naturalistic style that evokes realism in both lighting and in color. For this release, the team at Cinématographe has restored and scanned the film from its original 35mm camera negatives and graded it in Dolby Vision HDR. It’s important to understand that not every film is going to be razor sharp, with deep, inky blacks, even with HDR implementation. King of the Gypsies is gritty, often soft in focus, and swimming with grain and lens noise in its nighttime sequences. This is an intentional filmmaking technic to heighten realism through its “imperfections” by embracing a documentary-like approach. The HDR grading allows the bright colors of the Romani costuming to pop, while also allowing gradience on the flesh tones of the actors’ faces. There are a number of striking sequences, including a dance number, in the frigid cold, with the dancers’ breath visible with each step of the routine.

On the audio front, King of the Gypsies comes equipped with an excellent 2.0 mono mix, encoded in DTS-HD MA. The film has a surprisingly busy sound design for one channel—balancing a number of noisy, action-packed effects with appropriate oomph, atmospheric city noise, and a Romani-inspired musical score. Through it all, the dialogue that propels the story never gets lost in all the chaos and noise, and is given priority.

King of the Gypsies boasts some great new features, mostly found on the second Blu-ray disc, although the 4K/HDR version does contain the audio commentary option.

4K Disc

• Audio Commentary - Film historian Adrian Martin

Blu-ray Disc

• Audio Commentary - Film historian Adrian Martin
• Keep Surprising Me (HD 18:25) - A new video interview with actor Eric Roberts
• Prison of Roots: Sven Nykvist Arrives in America (HD 9:23) - A new video essay by film historian Daniel Kremer
• The Writer Speaks: Frank Pierson (SD 1:56:40) - A two-hour-long archival interview with writer/director Frank Pierson, recorded by the Writers Guild Foundation in 2001
• Archival Interview (HD 26:56) - With editor Paul Hirsch
• Trailers from Hell (HD 3:53) - Michael Schlesinger on King of the Gypsies

King of the Gypsies isn’t perfect, and has some inconsistent plotting that sometimes has some doldrums. But when it works (which is frequently), it works. It’s an ambitious, large-scale picture spanning decades in the life of a Romani family, and the inner turmoil that plagues them over a position of power. Frank Pierson tells the story with a straightforward, no-nonsense approach that allows us to become non-judgmental observers as it unfurls. Cinématographe’s restoration on the film looks and sounds great, backed by some terrific new special features. King of the Gypsies on 4K UHD Blu-ray is Highly Recommended.

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