Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Bay of Angels Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 12, 2014

Jacques Demy's "La baie des anges" a.k.a. "Bay of Angels" (1963) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include a new trailer for the recent restoration of the film; restoration demonstration; new and exclusive video interview with journalist Marie Colman; and archival video interview with actress Jeanne Moreau. In French, with optional English subtitles. Region-A "locked".

"I've always been passionate. I can't help it."

Note: Bay of Angels is part of Criterion's upcoming The Essential Jacques Demy Blu-ray box set.

Jean (Claude Mann, Army of Shadows, L'Innocente) is a young and handsome bank clerk who makes enough to make ends meet. His life is boring but has a steady rhythm that makes him feel secure.

Jean’s life changes dramatically when he agrees to accompany the compulsive gambler Caron (Paul Guers, Rendezvous) to a famous casino -- in less than an hour he wins 500,000 francs. Caron urges Jean to continue gambling so that he can win even more but he collects his chips and walks away, convinced that his luck is running out. On the way back, Caron tells Jean that their next trip should be to the Riviera.

A few days later, Jean arrives in Nice. He rents a room in a cheap hotel and immediately heads to the city’s biggest casino. At the roulette table he meets Jackie (Jeanne Moreau, Jules and Jim, La Notte), an older platinum blonde who has had a bad losing streak. The two are immediately attracted to each other -- he likes her elegance and style; she likes his naivety and candor. They win big and then leave the casino together.

With Jackie next to him, however, Jean quickly loses his cool. Convinced that she has fallen in love with him, he does his best to please her and even covers her losses at the casino.

Eventually, Jackie persuades Jean that they need to try their luck in Monte Carlo, the Mecca of casinos and luxury. They quickly buy a car, pack up their bags, and head north.

Jacques Demy’s sophomore effort Bay of Angels is a film with two different identities. The first is that of an unusually elegant film noir that dislikes long shadows and expressionist lighting. Instead of dark alleys littered with garbage and shady bars full of suspicious characters, the film visits impeccably clean casinos and shiny hotels where the rich and powerful mingle. The atmosphere is indeed quite unusual, but film noir’s cynicism and especially the sense of fatalism that permeates it are incredibly easy to detect.

Bay of Angels also has the purity and energy the classic Nouvelle Vague films are known for. More importantly, Bay of Angels is just as unapologetic as these films are. Remember Jean-Paul Belmondo’s amateur gangster in Breathless? Mann’s Jean is that kind of doomed amateur gambler in Bay of Angels. He is frustrated and desperate but also madly in love, a man willing to make mistake after mistake to please the woman he loves. It quickly becomes easy to see that it will all end badly, but the film does not question his decisions. It just does not feel right, not on the beautiful Riviera, not amidst the opulence of Monte Carlo.

There is terrific chemistry between Moreau and Mann. The former exudes confidence and looks strikingly elegant in the casinos; the latter looks stylish and determined to follow his new lover, even though most of the time all she needs is his money. When they are together, it really does look like they are a couple rather than strangers who simply feel the need to gamble together.

Demy and the great cinematographer Jean Rabier shot Bay of Angels on location in the south of France and Monte Carlo. It still looks stunning.

The stylish jazzy soundtrack was composed by Demy’s good friend and frequent collaborator Michel Legrand (The Swimming Pool, The Thomas Crown Affair).

Bay of Angels Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jacques Demy's Bay of Angels arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"Approved by Mathieu Demy, this new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative at Digimage-Classics in Paris, where the film was then restored in 2K resolution. This 2012 restoration was undertaken by Cine-Tamaris and the Cinematheque francaise, with the support of the Franco-American Cultural Fund, the Monaco National Film Archives, and SODEGA Monaco, and with the participation of Kodak. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the optical sound negative and composer Michel Legrand's original magnetic recordings."

The new restoration of Jacques Demy's Bay of Angels is beautiful. Indeed, there are dramatic improvements in every single area we address in our reviews, from depth and clarity to image stability and color saturation. Indoor and outdoor close-ups boast outstanding clarity and sharpness (see screencaptures #4 and 5), while the panoramic shots immediately impress with terrific depth and fluidity. The nighttime footage, in particular, is vastly superior -- on the OOP R1 DVD release the same footage lacks depth and looks blocky; on the Blu-ray release even tiny details are very easy to see despite the fact that light is restricted. Furthermore, there are no traces of problematic degraining corrections. Edge-enhancement is also not an issue of concern. Rather predictably, grain is evenly distributed and beautifully resolved. Numerous stabilization improvements have been performed. On the OOP R1 DVD release there are different transition issues which have been completely eliminated here; there is no edge flicker. Finally, there are no large debris, scratches, cuts, damage marks, or stains. All in all, this is a wonderful presentation of Bay of Angels, which I am convinced will remain the film's definitive presentation on the home video market. (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).

Bay of Angels Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

The audio is crisp and stable. Depth is very good, though it must be said that the film has a distinctive organic sound design and therefore occasionally random sounds and noises can become quite prominent (see the casino footage). Michel Legrand's score is well rounded and shines in all the right places. Lastly, there are no pops, crackle, hiss, audio dropouts, or distortions to report in this review.

Bay of Angels Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for the recent restoration of Bay of Angels. In French, with optional English subtitles. (2 min, 1080p).

• Cinepanorama - presented here is a video interview with Jeanne Moreau which was used in an episode of the French television program Cinepanorama in 1962. The French actress discusses her fears and insecurities, the character she plays in Bay of Angels, and some of her reactions to (film) criticism. In French, with optional English subtitles. (14 min, 1080p).

• Marie Colmant - in this new video interview, journalist Marie Colmant, coauthor of the book Jacques Demy, discusses the French director's affection for outcasts (and specifically female outcasts). The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in 2013. In English, not subtitled. (11 min, 1080p).

• Restoration Demonstration - this featurette focuses on the recent restoration (2012) of Bay of Angels. Included with it are visual comparisons and excellent comments by Rosalie Varda-Demy, Agnes Varda, Herve Pichard (restoration projects/Cinematheque francaise), Mathieu Demy, Jerome Bigueur (digital restoration), and Leon Rousseau (sound restoration). In French, with optional English subtitles. (6 min, 1080p).

Bay of Angels Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

From all of the films in Criterion's upcoming The Essential Jacques Demy box set Bay of Angels is the one I was most excited about seeing on Blu-ray. It is the darkest but also the most elegant of the French director's films, and there was never a good home video release of it. I am happy to report now that it looks absolutely magnificent on Blu-ray, unquestionably the best it ever has. (If you see Bay of Angels and like its style, I encourage you to track down a copy of Barbet Schroeder's Cheaters, another magnificent film about gamblers who fall madly in love on the Portuguese island of Madeira). VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.