96 Hours Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

96 Hours Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 21, 2014

Frédéric Schoendoerffer's crime thriller "96 Hours" a.k.a. "96 heures" (2014) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label ARP Sélection. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailers for the film and video interviews with the French director and actors Niles Arestrup and Gerard Lanvin. In French, with optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

I need a name

Veteran detective Gabriel Carre (Gérard Lanvin, Point Blank, Les Lyonnais) is kidnapped from his apartment by a group of armed men and warned to follow their instructions if he wishes to stay alive. The men and Carre then enter a prison somewhere on the outskirts of the city and arrange to have the dangerous crime boss Victor Kancel (Niels Arestrup, You Will Be My Son) transferred to another facility where he is expected to be questioned before an important trial. Assuming that Carre is in charge with the transfer, the authorities quickly release Kancel and an hour later everyone enters his posh villa.

At the villa, Carre is chained and questioned. Kancel wants from Carre the name of the rat who three years ago tipped the police about a job he was planning which led to his arrest. After he kills the rat, Kancel plans to leave France and settle down in Spain. He has exactly 96 hours to do so before his ‘transfer’ expires and the authorities realize that he has become a fugitive.

Carre attempts to buy time by naming compromised or dead informers, but Kancel effectively proves to him that he has neither the time nor the desire to play games.

Meanwhile, one of Carre’s associates (Sylvie Testud, Lourdes) visits his wife (Anne Consigny, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly) and realizes that something bad has happened to the detective after she lies to her and warns her to stay away from them. Then she discovers that Kancel has disappeared.

Frédéric Schoendoerffer‘s new film, 96 Hours, is unquestionably his best work to date. It is better controlled than his previous films, far more realistic (only Truands matches its raw intensity), and a lot more nuanced. One could easily argue that it has the best cast as well.

The plot is deceptively simple: A gangster on the run has a fixed amount of time to find and kill the man who betrayed him. He kidnaps the detective who arrested him and demands that he gives him the name of his informer. When the detective refuses, he begins torturing him. There is not a lot of room for surprises here, is there? Wrong. After some minor pieces of the plot are rearranged, the film becomes quite the puzzle and there are very effective twists literally until the final credits roll.

The film is very atmospheric as well. On the surface it looks calm and relaxed, but after the action moves to Kancel’s villa the presence of death can be easily felt each time the gangster steps in front of the camera. The fact that he is also incredibly smart and no one around him seems capable of reading his mind also adds a sense of uncertainty to the mix. (Arestrup’s aging gangster is even more intimidating than the Corsican boss he plays in Jacques Audiard's equally atmospheric crime drama A Prophet).

Schoendoerffer shot the 96 Hours with cinematographer Vincent Gallot, who was one of Michael Haneke’s camera operators on the Oscar winning drama Amour.

The scrip is based on a screenplay by Simon Michaël, who also co-wrote the script for Claude Zidi’s comedy La Totale!, which inspired James Cameron’s blockbuster True Lies.

96 Hours Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Frédéric Schoendoerffer's 96 Hours arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label ARP Sélection.

The film has a sharp and very clean modern appearance (it was shot with Sony's excellent CineAlta F65 camera). Well-lit close-ups boast tremendous depth and allow one to see even exceptionally small details, such as facial pores, while the wider but darker shots impress with excellent clarity. Contrast levels remain stable throughout the entire film. Colors are exceptionally well saturated, stable and very natural. Overall image stability is terrific. When the film is projected, there isn't even a whiff of flicker around the edges; there are no jumps or transition issues either. The encoding is very good. All in all, this is a very strong presentation of 96 Hours which makes it very easy to appreciate the vision of its creator at home. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

96 Hours Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Also included is a French Descriptive Audio track (DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0). For the record, ARP Sélection have provided optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

The film is complimented by a very atmospheric electronic score courtesy of German composer Max Richter (Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island) which is handled very well by the lossless 5.1 track -- there is an excellent range of nuanced dynamics that open up a number of key sequences and further enhance the already quite tense atmosphere. The few gunshots heard in the film are exceptionally crisp and punchy. The dialog is stable and very easy to follow. Finally, there are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report in this review.

96 Hours Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Entretine avec Frédéric Schoendoerffer - video interview with the director of 96 Hours, Frédéric Schoendoerffer. In French, not subtitled. (29 min).

• Entretine avec Gerard Lanvin - video interview with actor Gerard Lanvin (Gabriel Carre). In French, not subtitled. (14 min).

• Entretine avec Niles Arestrup - video interview with actor Niles Arestrup (Victor Kancel ). In French, not subtitled. (12 min).

• Bandes-annonces - two original trailers for 96 Hours. In French, not subtitled. (3 min).

96 Hours Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you have seen and enjoyed Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, I urge you not to miss Frédéric Schoendoerffer's 96 Hours. Niels Arestrup is even better in this film and I think that Schoendoerffer's work is far more effective when it is calmer and better controlled. I am not aware of any plans for an upcoming North American Blu-ray release of 96 Hours, but this English-friendly French release from ARP Sélection offers a very impressive technical presentation of the film. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.