Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Bitter Moon Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 20, 2024

Roman Polanski's "Bitter Moon" (1992) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Imprint Films. The supplemental features on the release include an exclusive new program with actress Emmanuelle Seigner; new audio commentary by filmmaker Anthony Nelson and critic Emma Westwood; and vintage trailer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

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 an aspect ratio of 1.92:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Bitter Moon arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Imprint Films.

This release is sourced from the same older master that Kino Lorber worked with to produce this for the U.S. market in 2019. The master is supplied by StudioCanal.

The overall quality of the visuals is acceptable, occasionally even decent. However, this master has a wide range of limitations that are easy to recognize. For example, during darker indoor footage, finer nuances are not very convincing. In some areas, they are even lost, which means that depth is not optimal. Close-ups tend to look quite good, even on a large screen, but trained eyes will notice that in some backgrounds select nuances are again struggling to appear as they should. Color reproduction is another area where meaningful improvements can be made. Currently, saturation levels are not as convincing as they need to be, plus there are some balance issues that affect highlights and shadow nuances. The best news is that there are no traces of problematic digital corrections. So, while the film has a dated appearance, many of its visuals still have some filmic qualities. Image stability is good. Some small blemishes and nicks can be spotted, so there is room for cosmetic improvements as well. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Bitter Moon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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

On Kino Lorber's release of Bitter Moon, the lossless track is defective. It is PAL-pitched, so it has all the issues that are associated with this old-fashioned distortion. The lossless track on this release does not have this issue. Clarity, sharpness, and depth are very good. The music, which has a crucial role in this film, sounds terrific, too. Is there any room for improvement? Well, if the audio is fully remastered, perhaps it can sound fuller and better rounded. There could be some room for rebalancing improvements. However, I will be surprised if there is a substantial gap in quality. Dynamic contrasts are already very, very good.

Bitter Moon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Sailing with a Siren - in this new program, Emmanuelle Seigner explains how a meeting with Jean-Luc Godard convinced her to walk away from her modeling career and become an actress, recalls her initial encounter with Roman Polanski and contribution to Frantic, and discusses her contribution to Bitter Moon. Also, there are some interesting comments about the film's reception. In English, not subtitled. (13 min).

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by filmmaker Anthony Nelson and critic Emma Westwood.

• Trailer - a vintage U.S. trailer for Bitter Moon. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

Bitter Moon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This release of Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon is the one to own. While it is sourced from the same older master that StudioCanal supplied to Kino Lorber for the U.S. release of the film, its lossless track does not have any issues. Also, it has a nice exclusive new program with one of the stars of Bitter Moon, Emmanuelle Seigner. The release is included in Directed by Roman Polanski, a four-disc, Region-Free box set. RECOMMENDED.