Bitter Moon Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		0.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		1.0

Bitter Moon Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 5, 2019

Roman Polanski's "Bitter Moon" (1992) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include an exclusive new video interview with actor Peter Coyote; new audio commentary by critic Troy Howarth; vintage trailer; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The girl from the bus

There isn’t another Roman Polanski film that digs as deep into the human psyche as Bitter Moon does. Repulsion comes close, but it does not target transgressive behavior as directly and with the same honesty as Bitter Moon does.

The film begins in the present, on a giant luxury cruiser, but spends more time in the past, where the crucial pieces of its story emerge from.

Not-so-happily married British travelers Nigel (Hugh Grant) and Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas) befriend middle-aged American wheelchair-bound novelist Oscar (Peter Coyote), who promptly introduces them to his much younger French wife, Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner). After they exchange some pleasantries, Oscar offers to tell them his supposedly very unusual life story, but Fiona politely turns down the offer, and they part ways. However, when later Nigel has a casual encounter with Mimi in the bar, her sex appeal convinces him to meet Oscar again and hear his story. Soon after, and much to Fiona’s annoyance, Nigel begins spending time with the American.

The story quickly captures Nigel’s attention, and then captivates his imagination. Eventually, Oscar’s frankness exposes secrets so dark and disturbing that Nigel begins questioning the story’s authenticity with a forceful determination that ends up revealing the huge cracks that have been threatening to collapse his marriage with Fiona. Realizing how damaging his obsession has become, Nigel finally decides to walk away from Oscar, but his past and the present suddenly begin overlapping, and he becomes an integral piece of the story.

The film is based on a very good novel by Pascal Bruckner, but it is essentially an original Polanski project. The main reason why is its ability to expand the playing field where the four characters interact in a way that essentially moves the focus of attention away from the evolution of their relationships, and in the process use small fragments of them to point the audience’s attention to bigger and more complex subjects. One of them is the supposed existence of a hidden desire to dominate and even humiliate which the two sexes succumb to under the right circumstances, which the film then observes from different angles and examines as a natural part of the attraction that brings them together. Whether love and tragedy are interconnected is another subject that is brought forward and explored in the second half, where all four characters become ‘bad’ because they find the right pretexts to inflict pain on their partners. And just to make things really interesting, the film then finds plenty of humor in the misery of its characters and at the end casually leaves the door open for a refreshingly unpretentious read of its story, which is that the complexity of the ‘bigger’ subjects is not only severely exaggerated but completely irrelevant because after ages of progress human beings remain deeply flawed creatures.

The film is most effective if seen as an intellectual prankster of sorts, which means that neither its drama nor its very dark sense of humor should be taken too seriously. In a way, this seems like the most logical way to view the human psyche as well -- by avoiding absolute terms that seek to lock it in categorizations that are ultimately incompatible with its flawed nature.

*Another very good Polanski film that entertains similar themes while employing a great sense of humor, and again with Seigner, is Venus in Fur.

Bitter Moon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.89:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an older master, which was apparently provided by StudioCanal. I did some direct comparisons with my old North American DVD release, and if I had to guess, I would say that New Line's master came from the same place. The resolution is pretty much the only noticeable discrepancy that I could spot.

There are no traces of recent problematic digital corrections, but this is one of those old masters where limitations show practically everywhere. Indeed, while some of the close-ups reveal acceptable depth and delineation, fine nuances either struggle all the time or are completely lost. The darker/indoor footage, in particular, can look very weak, with seriously problematic shadow definition and even overall dynamic range. Image stability is good, but fluidity can be better. The color grading has all of the classic shortcomings that DVD introduced decades ago. This means a prominent magenta font, plus all kinds of different nuances that have been impacted by it. The good news here is that there are no traces of sharpening or contrast boosting, and next to the DVD release, a lot of the visuals reveal some decent organic qualities. At the end of the day, however, the master is just too old and ultimately unattractive. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Bitter Moon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Most unfortunately, the audio track is incorrectly pitched, so this made it virtually impossible for me to view the film. I am very sensitive to PAL-elevated audio (in English) and here the difference is substantial. During the first conversation at the table, all of the actors basically have helium-spiked voices, but the music is also off by a lot. (Sam Brown and George Michael's famous hits are completely off-key). I checked my DVD release and the obvious was immediately confirmed -- different pitch, different running times.

Bitter Moon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - critic Troy Howarth shares a lot of interesting information about the conception, narrative construction and style of Bitter Moon. Also, there are good comments about the critical reception of the film as well as the changing attitudes toward it. It is a very good commentary, and I liked it a lot. It was recorded exclusively for Kino Lorber.

• An Indecent Proposal - in this new video interview, Peter Coyote recalls how he was contacted by Roman Polanski and eventually brought on board to play the character of Oscar in Bitter Moon. Also, there are very good comments about the film's eroticism and sense of humor, as well as its reception. The interview was conducted exclusively for Kino Lorber. In English, not subtitled. (26 min, 1080p).

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for Bitter Moon. In English, not subtitled. (2 min, 480/60i).

• Trailers - trailers for other releases from Kino Lorber's catalog.

Bitter Moon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This Blu-ray release comes with an incorrectly pitched audio track that I think makes Bitter Moon impossible to view and enjoy. The master that was used to source it is also very old, likely the same one that years ago New Line worked with to produce the North American DVD release of the film. On the other hand, there is a very good exclusive new video interview with Peter Coyote (which was done during the same time he recorded the new interview for Slayground) and a strong new audio commentary by Troy Howarth. AVOID.