Proper DVD release?

Having seen 'The Young Poisoner's Handbook' three times on 35mm, once on VHS and once on laserdisc (both full-screen), I've long been awaiting a proper, widescreen release of the film on DVD. Given the insanely low price ($5.95) of the new Platinum Disc Corp release of the movie on DVD in North America, I was not optimistic.

I rented it through Netflix just to take a look at it before buying it and my worst fears were confirmed. It's shoddy all the way, from its crudely designed menu to its low-resolution transfer from what appears to be the Cabin Fever/Image laserdisc. Even the soundtrack lacks spark, is flat, lacks bass, and has a persistent hiss.

So, I found a copy of the Swedish R2 PAL disc and bought it. Its resolution and image quality (anamorphic) are considerably better. Colors are substantially richer, black levels more natural, and the soundtrack more powerful. However, it's letterboxed to 1.85:1 (while the original release was 1.66:1) and it only mattes the full-screen version available in R1. No information is added whatsoever. What bugs me, though, is that the full-screen release on R1 and on laserdisc always appeared cropped to me. Not simply because the opening titles are letterboxed, but there's no a whole lot of spare headroom throughout the film, and during one sequence in which a comic panel reading "Thallium!" is shown, the word "Thallium" is slightly cropped.

I sincerely hope that the R2 release by Atlantic Film AB preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio -- after all, it looks to be a transfer from 35mm -- but I have my doubts. Is there anyone who can confirm?

Additionally, what's also wrong about the Swedish release is that the image is vertically squished/condensed. That is, the height of the image appears to have independently been reduced by a certain percentage, resulting in things being slightly shorter and fatter than they should be. It's not ridiculously distracting, but it's noticeable. Furthermore, if viewed on a computer monitor and stretched to the right porportions, the 1.85:1 image becomes a 1.66:1 image. (I assume the distributing company condensed the image in order to fit it into the anamorphic AR.)

Finally, I first saw 'The Young Poisoner's Handbook' at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival in 1995, before the film had a U.S. distributor. I was so impressed by the film, I immediately returned, the following evening, to catch it again. Several months later, it was released in the U.S. by the distributor Cinepix Film Properties (CFP, which merged into Lions Gate Films) and I saw it once again. I noticed that the print I saw this time didn't have quite the luster or vividness of the imported prints I'd seen at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival. Instead, these prints were rather grainy and faded, giving the movie a dull quality that slightly altered its impact. The problem here probably rests with CFP.

Barring the vertical reshaping problem, the Atlantic Film R2 disc from Sweden improves upon this but not entirely, as the image is slightly faded throughout, with a persistent dull reddish glow on the left side of the screen.