Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Black Moon Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 24, 2011

Winner of Cesar Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Sound, Louis Malle's "Black Moon" (1975) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original French theatrical trailer; short excerpt from the French television program Pour le cinema; and stills gallery. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Cathryn Harrison as Lily

The future. The world has gone crazy. Men and women have started annihilating each other while rats have learned to talk. An obese gray unicorn who has been missing for years has returned home.

Lily (Cathryn Harrison, Blue Fire Lady, Duet for One), a young girl, encounters a group of armed men who try to kill her. She drives away and ends up hiding in a large house somewhere in the countryside. The owner of the house, Old Lady (Thérèse Giehse, Mother, and the General, Lacombe, Lucien), whose best friends are a talking rat and an old, seriously damaged radio, doesn’t seem to mind. She is fluent in English, German, and Rattish.

The house is also shared by Brother (Joe Dallesandro, Je t'aime moi non plus, Trash) and Sister (Alexandra Stewart, Day for Night, Spray of the Days), both named Lily, who spend most of their time fighting. Occasionally, however, Brother kisses Sister. She does not seem to mind, but they rarely talk. When relaxing, the two like to watch a group of naked children chasing a big pig around the house.

Lily attempts to befriend Old Lady but becomes distracted by the gray unicorn. She goes after the unicorn but repeatedly ends up in Old Lady’s room. Eventually, the fat rat Old Lady talks to becomes seriously upset by Lily’s persistence.

Armed men are occasionally seen around the house. When one of them is gunned down, Brother takes care of the body. Soon after, a beautiful eagle appears and Brother tries to kill it with a silver sword.

Tired of running away, the gray unicorn confronts Lily and warns her that if she does not leave him alone he would disappear for another 154 years. Enormously frustrated, Lily heads back to Old Lady’s room where, after a wild argument, she breast-feeds her.

Based on an original story by Louis Malle and Joyce Bunuel (legendary director Luis Bunuel's daughter-in-law), Black Moon is a truly surreal film that is next to impossible to describe with simple words. It is broken into numerous bizarre episodes seemingly linked by the presence of a young girl who, like Alice, gets lost in a Wonderland populated by strange creatures.

The Wonderland, lensed by the great cinematographer Sven Nykvist (Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, The Passion of Anna), is beautiful, dreamy. But it is a dangerous place, torn by violence and war, which the girl fears. This fear, which is felt throughout the entire film, becomes responsible for her vivid and intense dreams.

It is impossible to tell, however, where the dreams begin and end because they keep overlapping, suggesting that they might be part of something bigger, which the girl clearly does not understand. Naturally, this could be the reason why she keeps getting ‘lost’ and trying to befriend the strange creatures she meets -- she needs someone to explain to her what is happening.

Whether director Malle intended for his film to be deconstructed in a way that gives some meaning to the girl's dreams -- quite obviously, there is enough symbolism in them to at least try to do so -- however, is difficult to tell. It is also difficult to decide whether the film is actually about the girl and her dreams, as part of what makes it so fascinating to behold is the fact that very little in it makes sense.

*In 1976, Black Moon won Cesar Awards for Best Cinematography (Sven Nykvist) and Best Sound (Luc Perini and Nara Kollery).

Black Moon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.62:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Louis Malle's Black Moon arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

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

"This new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from the original 35mm camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS system and Pixel Farm's PFClean system, while Digital Vision's DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.

Telecine supervisor: Richard Deusy/Scanlab, Paris.
Blu-ray mastering: Radius60, Los Angeles.

Detail is very good, particularly during close-ups. Contrast levels are also consistent. I did not see any serious issues with the color reproduction either, though I don't have a source to compare (I feel that some of the greens are slightly boosted during the second half of the film but looking fine during the first half). Traces of mild sharpening are occasionally visible (see screencapture #13) but do not affect the integrity of the presentation. Elsewhere, light electronic noise also has a tendency to creep in (see screencapture #15). In motion, however, these minor issues are next to impossible to spot. In fact, with the various improvements in terms of detail and contrast stabilization, Black Moon actually very strong when projected on a large screen. Finally, there are no large damage marks or traces of heavy erosion plaguing the high-definition transfer - Criterion have carefully removed various scratches, flecks, and debris. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Black Moon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English LPCM 1.0 and French Dolby Digital 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

Th following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray disc:

"The monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the 35mm sound negative. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation.

Black Moon is primarily a dialog-free feature (there is a limited amount of basic dialog and some unique sounds). Naturally, the sound enhancements we typically observe with strong loseless audio tracks are extremely limited. Still, I cannot imagine that there are any major compromises in terms of quality that could be attributed strictly to the English LPCM 1.0 track - all limitations appear to be inherited.

Black Moon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Pour le cinema - a short excerpt from the French television program Pour le cinema in which director Louis Malle discusses Black Moon, its characters and symbolism. In French, with optional English subtitles. (13 min, 1080i).

• Stills Gallery - a collection of stills from the shooting of Black Moon. (1080p).

• Trailer - the original French theatrical trailer for Black Moon. Sound only, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080p).

• Booklet - 16-page illustrated booklet featuring Ginette Vincendeau's essay "Louis in Wonderland" (the author is a professor of film studies at King's College London. Her books include Stars and Stardom in French Cinema, Jean-Pierre Melville: An American in Paris, La haine, and The French New Wave: Critical Landmarks (with Peter Graham. She is currently writing a book about Brigitte Bardot).

Black Moon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Louis Malle's Black Moon is a truly bizarre but beautiful film, definitely a product of its time. As it is the case with Bernardo Bertolucci's Partner and Dusan Makavejev's Sweet Movie it is best if one does not overanalyzie it too much, as the film is clearly meant to be experienced, not understood. Incredibly difficult to see in the past, Black Moon is now available on Blu-ray via the Criterion Collection. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.