Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Elsa la Rose Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 31, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of The Complete Films of Agnès Varda.

In the wake (figurative or otherwise) of Agnès Varda’s death last year at the age of 90, quite a bit has rightfully been written about this iconic force in both French and global cinema. Varda’s output includes well over fifty credits as a director (including some television entries as detailed by the IMDb), and aside from listing some of her better known triumphs, many obituaries and/or eulogies about Varda mentioned any number of other biographical data points, including her rather unique position as a woman in France’s nouvelle vague movement, her own feminism which was featured none too subtly in some of her films, and her frequently provocative experimental style. But you know what one of the things that kind of fascinates me personally most about Varda? That she was married for 28 years to Jacques Demy, from 1962 until Demy’s death in 1990. That Varda, often a purveyor of verité infused “realism”, whether that be in outright documentaries or at least ostensibly more “fictional” outings, and Demy, a director whose candy colored, dreamlike and at least relatively "Hollywoodized" musicals with Michel Legrand brought a new luster and gloss to French cinema, managed to make a marital go of it for so long is certainly testament to the maxim that “opposites attract”, even if those oppositional forces in this instance played out at least in part in terms of what kinds of films the two were often best remembered for. If Varda's long marriage to Demy is more than enough reason to celebrate her personal life, her professional life is beautifully feted in this rather astounding new set from Criterion, which aggregates an amazing 39 films (albeit some running as short as a few minutes) to provide what is arguably one of the most insightful overviews of Varda's cinematic oeuvre. Perhaps unavoidably, but also undeniably movingly, these personal and professional sides of Varda merge in at least some of the films in this set, including The Young Girls Turn 25, The World of Jacques Demy, Jacquot de Nantes, and The Beaches of Agnès.

Chances are you've probably never heard of either Elsa Triolet or Louis Aragon, but the good news is, you get a rather sweet and heartfelt introduction to them in this 1966 documentary by Varda. Both Triolet and Aragon have had various works of theirs adapted for either film or television, but this is in essence a kind of love story reminiscence, offering an overview of Triolet's rather interesting life and ultimate marriage to Aragon. Michel Piccoli offers some narration, but there are interviews as well, and Varda seems to be offering a more "verité" deconstruction of a relationship than the similar deconstructions offered in the two feature films she made at around the same time, Le bonheur and Les créatures.

Elsa la Rose Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Elsa la rose is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Some prefatory text discloses this was shot on "16mm argentic black and white stock restored by Ciné Tamaris in 2015" at Laboratory Eclair. This was sourced from a 2K digital restoration from a 2K scan of the dupe neg, with grading supervised by Varda. This has a pretty chunky looking grain field at times, as befits its smaller format source, but there is also some noticeable damage, including some pretty bad scratches that show up. Some of the darkest material, including a scene in a bar or club, suffers from pretty bad crush, where things like black suits can just disappear into the backgrounds. The documentary features a lot of still photographs as well as live material shot both indoor and outdoor, and such clarity is variable.

Elsa la Rose Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Like many of the shorts included in this collection, Elsa la rose offers only a lossy Dolby Digital Mono track, once again sourced from the original 16mm magnetic track and restored by the superbly named E.L. Diapason. Piccoli's narration and the first person material sounds decent within that context, but the frankly weird, almost science fiction sounding, score, along with source cues from various composers, can occasionally sound overly bright and brash. I noticed no real problems with regard to any significant damage.

Elsa la Rose Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction from 2007 (1080i; 2:10) offers Varda's thoughts. In French with English subtitles.

Elsa la Rose Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The "love story" between Triolet and Aragon is sweet, but I'm not sure it's going to seem that relevant to anyone who isn't already familiar with either or both of these writers who are arguably better known in France than they are on this side of the pond. Video is a bit rough looking at times, and this is another short with only lossy audio.