The Velvet Queen Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

The Velvet Queen Blu-ray Movie Review

'The Velvet Queen' may not be what you think it is...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown March 11, 2024

It would be a shame to mistake The Velvet Queen for a documentary about the snow leopard; an animal so infamously difficult to track and photograph that it may as well be a Tibetan creature of myth. The snow leopard is merely the destination, one that's far from guaranteed, although as films go, more inevitable than the documentary itself pretends. The journey is one of two men, alone in the wilderness, with little to keep them company other than one another, the sprawling land before them, its more extroverted inhabitants, the occasional native Tibetan family, and the cold, challenging elements of the highlands. The Velvet Queen is a documentary about The Search. What search? Any search really. The sort that demands patience, hard work, persistence and will. It's more about determination and the human spirit than anything more bestial; more intrigued by how far man will go than by how quickly a mountain cat can be found and photographed.

Journeying into the uppermost regions of the Tibetan highlands, multi-award-winning French nature photographer and documentary filmmaker Vincent Munier (Grandeurs nature) and off-screen co-director Marie Amiguet guide famed writer Sylvain Tesson (2011's "The Consolations of the Forest") on a search for the elusive snow leopard. Munier introduces Tesson to the subtleties of tracking a difficult-to-photography animal, remaining an unobtrusive part of inhospitable terrain, and developing the level of patience required to catch sight of such an extraordinarily rare beast. As they travel deeper and deeper into the wilderness, experiencing the frustration and discouragement of failure and missed changes, the two artists discuss mankind's place in the global ecosystem, our sins against nature, and the magnificence of all they discover along the way. The snow leopard becomes little more than a pursuit -- a glorious one but a pursuit all the same -- and what they achieve is perhaps far more meaningful than a mere photograph of even the rarest of creatures could convey. Being set to a score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis certainly doesn't hurt.

Both Munier and Tesson fancy themselves poets, as becomes clear the longer the two men search for the snow leopard. While much of the film is draped in silence and the sounds of the natural landscape, large portions are dedicated to the writers' musings on nature, which can grow rather pretentious and loaded with a bit too much -- to unearth a wonderful, long-lost term -- highfalutin jargon. It's not bad. Well, some of it is. ("Pre-history wept, and each tear was a yak" is particularly laughable. Maybe it sounds better in French than it reads in English.) But there's a haunted, reverent quality to the spurts of narration and gentle conversations between the two men that, considering the sheer overwhelming beauty of the Tibetan highlands, is almost called for. Simple words won't do, it seems, nor should we expect such things from artist-philosophers confronted with some of the most untamed vistas on the planet. Their hunt for the snow leopard isn't without surprises and delights either. Other animals aren't so notoriously elusive, and give Munier plenty of opportunity to photograph and document life in the mountains of a still-mysterious land-locked nation (that China insists is not an independent nation).

The eventual moment where the snow leopard is found would almost be anticlimactic if it weren't for the outpouring of emotion that comes with it. More than an animal by film's end, to Munier and Tesson at least, it's a symbol of far greater and grander things; both in themselves and beyond, as their personal man-vs-nature struggle reaches its end. It was in these moments that I realized how taken I had become with all the musings, meanderings and poetic flourishes (eye-rolling as they could be). How invested in the journey and search I was. There was something profound here I couldn't put my finger on; something that tied to the searches over the years in my own life, the successes and failures, the strivings and yearnings, the determination and irritation with just how far away things could seem. The Velvet Queen revealed itself. Munier, Amiguet and Tesson have documented a breathtaking search for meaning and, in the process, brought me to a place to reflect upon what in my life holds such lofty purpose, drive and meaning. Even now as I'm tempted to wax philosophic or poetic (the irony doesn't escape me), I'll leave you with this: there's something in the heart of nature that beckons to a deeper, more elusive individual buried deep within each of us. To listen, to hear, but most of all to act... now that's a journey worth taking.

Feel free to roll your eyes. I might join you.

The Velvet Queen Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A beautiful film deserves a beautiful transfer, and Oscilloscope answers the call. Backed by a striking 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation, The Snow Leopard looks every bit as good as it could... though not quite as good as it should. But Munier, Amiguet and Tesson aren't the entirety of the BBC natural history unit; merely three individuals with limited equipment shooting in far less than ideal circumstances. The encode is fully faithful to what they capture, it's just that sometimes their footage requires such far-distance zooming and shaky camera work that clarity takes a hit and artifacts begin to appear. Otherwise all is just as you would hope. Aside from candid shots of the men at camp in the evenings, Munier's documentary is full of magnificently photographed animals and landscapes, realized with natural, earthy hues, deep black levels and consistent contrast. Detail is as exacting as any sequence allows and, when given proper time to prepare a shot and with closer access to several subjects, results in some truly stunning vistas and wildlife. If only there had been a way to get closer to the snow leopard itself...

The Velvet Queen Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

More steady and reliable is Oscilloscope's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. Other than some intrusive wind noise (which, come on, would be near impossible to avoid altogether shooting in the Tibetan highlands), every sonic and spatial element that goes into The Velvet Queen is handled masterfully. The quietest scenes are full of convincing directional ambience, wind that sweeps effortlessly from channel to channel, and animal cries and calls that are as crisp and clean as you could hope for. Narration is nicely grounded in the mix too, even if it frequently interrupts the more natural and evocative sounds of the landscape, and conversational voices are about as intelligible as anyone could expect given the environment. LFE output is subdued but effective, granting the weightier elements of nature low, lumbering presence. Above all, though, it's the immersive qualities of the track that draws you in and makes for a true cinematic experience.

The Velvet Queen Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray release of The Velvet Queen doesn't include any significant extras.

The Velvet Queen Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Velvet Queen isn't the film you think it is. It's arguably better, with more meaning to offer than a simple nature documentary tends to achieve. More about the human spirit than the snow leopard, it's fascinating and rewarding, in spite of its more pretentious moments (of which there are a few too many). Oscilloscope's Blu-ray release, meanwhile, is excellent, with a solid video presentation and a terrific lossless audio track. Brace yourselves for a bit of uninvited philosophy and poetry, but give this one a go nonetheless.