7.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Two crooks with a fondness for old Hollywood B-movies convince a languages student to help them commit a robbery.
Starring: Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur, Danièle Girard, Sami Frey, Louisa ColpeynDrama | 100% |
Foreign | 93% |
Heist | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
French SDH, English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region B (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Jean-Luc Godard's "Bande a part" a.k.a. "Band of Outsiders" (1964) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors Gaumont. The supplemental features on the disc include an original French trailer for the film as well as a gallery of interviews with actress Anna Karina, director Claude Chabrol, writer and critic Antoine de Baecque, writer Denitza Bantcheva, and critic and director Alexandre Astruc. In French, with optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
Amateurs
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jean-Luc Godard's Band of Outsiders arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors Gaumont.
I have mixed feelings about the presentation. It could have been spectacular, but it is decent at best. Earlier this year I noticed that Gaumont started applying minor noise corrections on many of their Blu-ray releases. The majority of them were easy to tolerate. However, on Band of Outsiders the denoising, though extremely light, is quite easy to spot. Most close-ups (see screencapture #9) as well as selected panoramic shots (see screencapture #16) look soft and even flat. Occasionally, during quick camera zooms light smearing is also present. I suspect that most viewers probably will not be bothered by these side effects, but I am also convinced that there will be a good number of sensitive viewers that will be distracted by them. Black levels have also been slightly elevated, but the overall balance with the grays and whites is relatively good. Edge-enhancement is not a serious issue of concern, but it is obvious that light sharpening corrections have been applied as well (see screencapture #4). There are no serious compression or stability issues. Large damage marks, debris, splices or cuts are nowhere to be seen. All in all, while Gaumont's release of Band of Outsiders is very clearly a step up in terms of quality, as far as I am concerned it does not have the consistent organic look it should have had. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. However, its main menu is encoded in 1080/50i. Because only a few players in North America can playback 1080/50i content, and the PS3 is not one of them, this means that the overwhelming majority of players will not be able to access the main feature. Therefore, the disc is flagged in the database as Region-B "locked").
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For the record, Gaumont have provided optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature.
The narration and the dialog are clean, crisp, and stable. The soundtrack by legendary composer Michel Legrand also gets a decent boost, though you should not expect to a hear a wide range of nuanced dynamics. The famous dance scene in the bar, however, definitely sounds fuller and better rounded, while elsewhere in the film the gunshots are crisper. The English translation is very good.
I have mixed feelings about this French release of Jean-Luc Godard's Band of Outsiders. It could have been spectacular, but as far as I am concerned it is only decent. Clearly, it represents a step up in quality over previous home video releases of the film, but it is also quite obvious that some corrections have been applied to the high-definition transfer it uses that should have been avoided. As a result, the film does not have the consistent organic look that it should have. If you are interested in adding it to your collections, my advice to you is to find a way to rent it first and see if the corrections bother you. Also, if you reside in North America and wish to import the release, please make sure that your player can playback 1080/50i content. This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc, but its main menu is encoded in 1080/50i. Because only a few players in North America can playback 1080/50i content, and the PS3 is not one of them, this means that the overwhelming majority of players will not be able to access the main feature.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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