Black Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Black Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov January 30, 2011

Screened at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, Pierre Laffargue's "Black" (2009) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment-UK. The only extra on the disc is a very short theatrical trailer. In French and Senegalese dialects, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Welcome to Senegal, cousin!

A Paris-based gangster, Black (French hip-hop star MC Jean Gab’1, Seuls Two), and his buddies raid a security van, but the police arrive at the scene and a fierce shootout ensues. Black is the only one who manages to escape.

While waiting for the dust to settle, Black receives an intriguing phone call from his cousin (Ibrahima Mbaye) in Dakar, Senegal, who informs him that someone has just deposited a suitcase full of uncut diamonds in the poorly guarded bank where he works. Enough said. A few days later, Black and a group of Parisian thugs head to Dakar to steal the diamonds.

By the time they land, however, the news about the diamonds is all over the city. Also planning to get rich are a crazy arms dealer (François Levantal, Les rivières pourpres) and his African voodoo mistress (Mata Gabin, Par amour), a Russian mercenary leader (Anton Yakovlev, De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté), and a sexy Interpol agent (Carole Karemera, Si le vent soulève les sables).

The hunt for the diamonds begins - and everything that could possibly go wrong goes terribly wrong. Very soon, Black is forced to run for his life in a place he does not know and amidst people he cannot trust.

Produced by Marco Chergui (Un prophète), Pierre Laffargue’s Black is a strange hybrid of a film. It starts out as an exotic action picture, but then evolves into something that borrows heavily from 70s blaxploitation and psychedelic cinema. There are some truly bizarre characters in it - one of the villains, for instance, literally turns into a snake - and a cool soundtrack that should appeal to hardcore Lucio Fulci fans.

The action is flashy but never overwhelming. The big shootouts are well choreographed and timed right. Of course, none are believable, but this shouldn’t surprise anyone; the entire film is really way out there, so why should the shootouts be realistic.

Hip-hop star MC Jean Gab’1 has appeared in a couple of films already, most notably Pierre Morel’s District B13 and Patrick Alessandrin’s District 13: Ultimatum, but Black should be the film that puts him on the radar of big time French directors and producers. His improvisations are great. The supporting cast is also surprisingly good, and especially Karemera, whose figure is likely to inspire selected male viewers to revisit Pam Grier’s early films.

The last time I saw a film this unpredictable and bizarre was in 2004. It was Didier Poiraud and Thierry Poiraud’s Le retour de James Bataille a.k.a The Return of James Battle, which is about...well, to be honest, to this day I am still unsure what the film is about. It blends comedy with sci-fi and gore, and watching it feels like someone is trying to suck up your brain with a straw. If ever in a mood to see something truly wacky, give it a chance. But test yourself first with Black.

Note: Last year, Black was screened at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival and the Fantasia International Film Festival.

Black Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Pierre Laffargue's Black arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment-UK.

This is a good but slightly inconsistent high-definition transfer. Generally speaking, fine object detail and clarity are pleasing. Most of the footage from Dakar is filmed with a hand-held camera and occasionally clarity fluctuates a bit, but there is plenty of depth. The most problematic scenes are from the final chase, but, again, practically all of the image fluctuations are related to the manner in which the Black is filmed. Color reproduction is also fairly good. This being said, I must mention that I noticed various traces of mild to moderate edge-enhancement. Considering the constant camera moves, they are certainly not distracting, but from time to time are quite easy to spot. Some artifacts, mostly during the second half of the film, also pop up here and there. Lastly, there are no serious stability issues. I also did not see any large cuts, damage marks, stains, or debris to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Black Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: French LPCM 2.0. For the record, Anchor Bay Entertainment-UK have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The French LPCM 2.0 audio track is good, though I wonder why a more elaborate loseless track was not included; Black has an outstanding soundtrack, which I believe would have benefited even more from a strong 5.1 mix. Still, the French LPCM 2.0 track has a rather decent range of dynamics, and most of the action scenes certainly come alive. The dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and easy to follow. I also did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks, hissings, or audio dropouts to report in this review.

Black Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a very short trailer for Black. Not subtitled. (1 min, 1080/50i).

Black Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The French are trying to come up with something new again! Pierre Laffargue's Black is a modern blaxploitation/neo-psychedelic film with a strong dose of action. It is probably the weirdest film you will see this year. Srdjan Spasojevic's A Serbian Film could be a good competitor, but Black is actually a lot of fun. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment-UK, looks and sounds good. It is, however, Region-B "locked". RECOMMENDED.