Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Farewell Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 18, 2011

Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, French director Christian Carion's "L'affaire Farewell" a.k.a. "Farewell" (2009) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of NeoClassics Films Ltd. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original U.S. theatrical trailer and a gallery of stills. In French, Russian, and English, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

"I can change the world"

One of the most important espionage cases of the 20th Century. – Ronald Reagan.

Christian Carion’s Farewell is an old-fashioned spy thriller set in Moscow during the early 1980s and is about two men leading double lives. One is Russian, the other French.

Sergei Gregoriev (Emir Kusturica, Underground, The Widow of Saint-Pierre) is a high-ranking apparatchik with access to top secret information, who has started working for DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure). Once a passionate communist, Sergei has realized that the Party and its leaders have betrayed the Russian people.

The second man is Pierre Froment (Guillaume Canet, Ne le dis à personne, Les petits mouchoirs), a French engineer working on a big government project, who lives in Russia with his German wife (Alexandra Maria Lara, Control, The Baader Meinhof Complex). Pierre often travels to Paris, which is why he is approached by Sergei after an accident compromises his contact.

Sergei gives Pierre a stack of documents that quickly reach the desk of French president Francois Mitterrand (Philippe Magnan, Une affaire d'état, La Princesse de Montpensier). The documents are so important that a few days later the head of DGSE (Niels Arestrup, A Prophet) meets President Ronald Reagan (Fred Ward, The Player) and CIA chief Feeney (Willem Dafoe, Antichrist) in the Oval Office. Not long after that, SDI, better known as "Star Wars", is announced.

Back in Moscow Sergei, who is given the code name "Farewell", contacts Pierre again and informs him that very soon he would have the X-list, which has the names of every single secret agent the U.S.S.R. has in the West. With the X-list in the hands of DGSE, the U.S.S.R. would literally cease to exist.

Based on the book by Vladimir Vetrov, an ex-KGB spy who in the early 1980s did indeed hand DGSE a file with the names of hundreds of agents living and working in the West who were passing industrial secrets to the U.S.S.R., Farewell is a film that reminds of Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others. It builds slowly, it is devoid of glamour, and it effectively recreates the maddening uncertainty that was an inseparable part of life behind the Iron Curtain.

It is a popular belief in the West that President Reagan ended the Cold War after the U.S.S.R. could not keep up with his ambitious "Star Wars". In other words, the U.S. bankrupted the U.S.S.R., which is why and how perestroika was initiated. After it, it was only a matter of time before the entire Eastern Bloc would start falling apart.

This film tells a very different story, one that again has the U.S. playing a key role in the process, but with very different ambitions in mind, none of which apparently had anything to do with bringing democracy to Eastern Europe and the now defunct U.S.S.R.

Note: In 2009, Farewell was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Farewell Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC nad granted a 1080p transfer, Christian Carion's Farewell arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of NeoClassics Films Ltd.

It appears that this Blu-ray release uses the same high-definition transfer French distributors Pathe used for their local Blu-ray release of Farewell - which is very good news. Indeed, fine object detail is excellent throughout the entire film, while clarity and color reproduction are outstanding. The outdoor footage, in particular, looks great - there is tremendous depth and fluidity; contrast is also well balanced. This being said, very early into the film I noticed some extremely light artifacting, but I doubt most viewers will spot it as it appears during a single, rather short sequence. Edge-enhancement, halo effects, or ringing patterns do not plague the high-definition transfer. There are absolutely no serious stability issues to report in this review either. All in all, Farewell looks very strong on Blu-ray. (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).

Farewell Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and French Dolby Digital 2.0 (with portions of English and Russian). For the record, NeoClassics Films Ltd. have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

The French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is solid. Farewell is complimented by a dreamy soundtrack that enhances the suspenseful atmosphere wonderfully well. In fact, portions of the film where the main protagonists are seen contemplating their lives very much reminds Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others. The dialog is always crisp, clean, stable, and very easy to follow. For the record, there are no problematic pops, cracks, hissings, or audio dropouts to report in this review.

Farewell Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - the original U.S. trailer for Farewell. In French and English, with imposed English subtitles where necessary. (3 min, 1080p).

• Photo Gallery - a collection of stills from the film and shooting of the film. With music. (2 min, 480/60i).

• Trailers - a collection of trailers for other NeoClassics Films Ltd. releases.

Farewell Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

They say that history is what powerful people want it to be. For more than half a century this was certainly the case in the U.S.S.R. and its satellites where ordinary people were taught to believe the unbelievable. Ironically, it might turn out that the rest of the world and especially the Western democracies were just as badly manipulated. History tells us that President Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, but Christian Carion's Farewell argues otherwise. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.