Two Films by Marguerite Duras Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Two Films by Marguerite Duras Blu-ray Movie Review

Molasses in February.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III February 14, 2023

Marguerite Duras dabbled in countless artistic endeavors during a writing and filmmaking career that lasted more than four decades, but is perhaps best known for writing the screenplay to Alan Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour and for her autobiographical novel The Lover, which was adapted into a 1992 film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Her own films are a different beast: static and slow-moving, they prioritize experimental imagery over plot and dialogue, which is a diplomatic way of saying they're often as fun as watching paint dry. Criterion presents two of her "middle-period" films, 1975's India Song and 1977's Baxter, Vera Baxter, in a two-disc set with several director-focused extras.

India Song is clearly the more eventful of the two, though still not for all tastes. This slow-burning drama concerns Anne-Marie (Delphine Seyrig, a frequent collaborator), the wife of a French ambassador whose frequent affairs mirror the crumbling world outside their palatial estate in India. Her behavior seems to be a direct result of the boredom of a stagnant life: in earlier years, she traveled extensively with her first husband and, until recently, ventured to various places throughout Asia. Though her current husband is tolerant of Anne-Marie's affairs, India Song is thankfully not some sort of melodramatic examination of marriage: it's actually more of a fractured ghost story in which the key characters retell past events --exclusively through voice-over -- in such a way as to thematically coincide with Dumas' abstract narrative. It's not a seamless effort but certainly interesting in its construction, yet those not immediately intrigued by its story and characters will be turned off by the slow pace and extremely sporadic dialogue.

Interestingly enough, a quasi-sequel was made in 1976 entitled Her Venetian Name in Deserted Calcutta; it's simply the original film's audio re-edited to fit different imagery along with a totally new ending. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Criterion has not included it as a supplement but an English subtitled version can easily be found online.

Baxter, Vera Baxter sounds like some sort of cheeky James Bond spoof -- and treads similar thematic territory to India Song -- but is actually less interesting than both. This time, our titular character (Claudine Gabay) recounts her sad, sorry life, particularly regarding her failing marriage to husband Jean, who is heard once during the film but never seen. On the received end of this story is a stranger (Delphine Seyrig, again) who overhead the conversation of Vera's current lover Michel (Gérard Depardieu, in a very early role) at a hotel bar, and portions of its thin narrative include potential lies and misdirection. Sadly, the film is bogged down by slow pans across her empty, ultra-modern house... and for some unknown stylistic reason, a singular and aimless piece of flute and guitar background music loops during the entire film. It's implied that the music is from a party held at a neighboring house and is the only thing keeping Vera from committing suicide, but ironically will make most viewers want to jump off a goddamn cliff.

Though sporadically interesting with beautiful shots of then-modern architecture and the surrounding landscapes, its much more pretentious style (and that music!) makes Baxter, Vera Baxter a tepid and frustrating affair. It feels like an even longer film than India Song, even at just 95 minutes, and is for die-hard fans of the director only.

Two Films by Marguerite Duras Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Criterion's Blu-ray presentations of India Song and Baxter, Vera Baxter are both advertised as being sourced from recent 2K scans and, by the looks of their resultant 1080p transfers, they were likely from the original camera negative. Despite both films' different native appearances, these two Blu-rays share almost identical highlights and drawbacks so this will unavoidably be a "two-for-one" rating with subtle variances between the two summarized below.

The good news about both films is that, based on even the static appearances of these screenshots, they're obviously clean and extremely polished while retaining a naturally film-like appearance. Grain contributes to the often stunning level of fine detail, with the majority of these mostly naturally-lit locations translating to a high-quality appearance with visible textures, a suitably "gauzy" appearance, and good contrast levels. Only Baxter, Vera Baxter earned a previous DVD edition (nudity warning!), at least according to our database and, while I don't own that disc for comparison's sake, it's unlikely that any DVD is anywhere close to Criterion's Blu-ray as far as base-level image quality goes. Since India Song is entirely new to Region 1/A home video*, on paper it looks to be a robust debut indeed.

Sadly, it's not all good news. The restoration of both films also includes color grading supervised by Bruno Nuytten (cinematographer on India Song) and it doesn't look to be extremely accurate to the vast majority of films produced during this era. As evidenced by the included screenshots, both films have been given a rather obvious green/teal push, so much so that true white levels are rarely achieved. These changes are more noticeable during Nuytten's film, which also gets a bit of yellow tint too, and the effect varies from scene to scene. I won't go so far as to say it completely ruins either film's atmosphere, even during the most blatant moments, but this attempt to modernize both films' color palette is a step backwards. Black levels have also been compromised slightly, which may be a byproduct of the color grading. There's also the usual amount of macro-blocking present (as seen on most recent Criterion discs), which isn't always distracting in-motion due to grain density but yet another check in the "questionable" column.

This is certainly a mixed-bag presentation but, despite my uneven paragraph lengths above, the positives of Criterion's restorations outweigh the negatives by a fairly decent margin. Even so, those more sensitive to trendy color changes may not be able to get past the new grading, so "proceed with caution" might be the best advice.

* - A Region B Blu-ray of India Song was released by the French film distribution outlet Tamasa Diffusion in 2020, and its restoration looks very similar in overall detail and color values as seen in this promotional trailer.

Two Films by Marguerite Duras Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Thankfully, Criterion's lossless PCM 1.0 mixes of both India Song and Baxter, Vera Baxter contain no similar tinkering, with each of these tracks displaying a fairly robust presence for one-channel affairs. Fidelity is overall quite good with no obvious signs of hissing, popping, or other age-related wear-and-tear, just clean and largely "bright" audio that sounds very true to the source. Background effects and music are balanced well enough with no real competition between the two, rounding out these trouble-free presentations just about perfectly.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offered during the main feature and all French-language extras.

Two Films by Marguerite Duras Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

A mixture of recent and vintage bonus features are included on both Blu-rays, all worth watching.

DISC ONE (India Song)

• Shooting "India Song": A Story in Four Voices (46:56) - Produced in 2020, this features assistant director Benoît Jacquot, cinematographer Bruno Nuytten, script supervisor Geneviéve Dufour, and producer Stéphane Tchal Gadjieff sharing their memories of working with director Marguerite Duras on India Song. It also includes archival interviews with Duras and actor Delphine Seyrig. In French, with optional English subtitles.

• Delphine Seyrig (6:36) - This short English-language excerpt from the 1977 documentary Portrait of Actress Delphine Seyrig was shot at the actor's Paris home by Katja Raganelli. In it, Seyrig discusses Marguerite Duras' films La Musica and India Song, as well as the director's filmmaking style.

DISC TWO (Baxter, Vera Baxter)

• Marguerite as She Was (62:53) - This near feature-length 2002 documentary was assembled by Duras' long-time friend, editor, and collaborator, Dominique Auvray, who's still active in the film industry. It's a somewhat dry but nonetheless engaging and accessible retrospective supported by a broad collection of archival materials and rarely-seen interviews that, among other topics, sheds light on Duras' childhood in Vietnam, life in Paris, and her body of work as a novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. In French, with optional English subtitles.

• Marguerite Duras (3:51) - During this very brief 1977 segment from an episode of the French television series Pour le cinéma, writer-director Marguerite Duras discusses her then-recent film Baxter, Vera Baxter, its key characters, and the different women who inspired it. In French, with optional English subtitles.

Two Films by Marguerite Duras Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Criterion's new two-disc collection of Marguerite Duras' mid-1970s dramas India Song and Baxter, Vera Baxter is a bit of a mixed bag on multiple fronts: one film is definitely more interesting than the other, and the studio's recent 2K restorations include rather obvious color grading that distracts from an otherwise solid pair of transfers. Audio is nearly flawless, though, and the bonus features boost its appeal for fans of Duras' career in general. That said, it's not for all tastes, so I'd only recommend this collection to established fans who aren't as sensitive to color changes.