8.4 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
A captured French Resistance fighter during WWII engineers a daunting escape from a Nazi prison in France.
Starring: François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock, Roland Monod, Jacques ErtaudForeign | 100% |
Drama | 98% |
War | 9% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
French: LPCM Mono
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Winner of Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Robert Bresson's "Un condamné à mort s'est échappé" a.k.a. "A Man Escaped" (1956) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; episode of the French television series Cineastes de notre temps, produced by Andre S. Labarthe; "The Road to Bresson", a documentary film directed by Dutch filmmakers Jurrien Rood and Leo de Boer; "The Essence of Forms", a documentary film by Pierre-Henri Gilbert; and a visual essay read by actor Dan Stewart. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Tony Pipolo. In French, with optional English subtitles. Region-A "locked".
The man
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped
arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:
"This new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the original 35mm camera negative at Eclair
Laboratories in Epinay-sur-Seine, France. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually
removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Image Systems' Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
Transfer supervisor: Ronald Boullet/Eclair Laboratories, Epinay-sur-Seine, France.
Colorist: Bruno Patin/Eclair Laboratories, Epinay-sur-Seine, France."
There are some obvious similarities between this release and Gaumont's release of A Man Escaped (which we have reviewed here), but the presentations
are indeed very different. Generally speaking, on the Criterion release depth and clarity are far more convincing during the first half of the film,
where I noticed some issues on the French release. The chroma noise, in particular, has been eliminated, and compression appears to be
much better. More importantly, however, the black levels have been stabilized while brightness levels have been slightly toned down. With the
improved compression, grain is now far more prominent and evenly distributed. (I have attempted to match two screencaptures that should
give you a good idea what type of improvements have been made - compare screencapture #3 with screencapture #7 from our review of the
Gaumont release). Furthermore, there are no traces of excessive sharpening corrections. I also did not see edge-flicker or serious transition
issues to report in this review. There are no large damage marks, cuts, warps, or debris. This being said, there are a few sequences where
light artifacts are occasionally easy to spot. Typically, they would become easy to see where there is plenty of light. (One such example
appears right around the 41-minute mark). Overall, however, Criterion's presentation of A Man Escaped is indeed far more convincing.
(Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to
access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray disc: French LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English subtitles for
the main feature.
A Man Escaped does not have a prominent music score. Unsurprisingly, the lossless track has a limited dynamic amplitude. However, the
dialog/narration is exceptionally crisp, stable, and very easy to follow. Also, there are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts or distortions to report in
this review. The English translation is excellent.
Based on a true story, Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped is one of French Cinema's greatest masterpieces. Dry, methodical, and at times unbearably tense, it is also rightfully considered one of the greatest jailbreak films of all time. Though not flawless, Criterion's Blu-ray release of A Man Escaped is clearly superior to the one French label Gaumont produced two years ago. Also included on Criterion's release as bonus features are three outstanding documentary films focusing on Bresson's unique style and legacy. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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