Felix and Lola Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Felix and Lola Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 2, 2022

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Felix and Lola / Love Street: Two Films Directed by Patrice Leconte.

The synchronicity gods who seemingly have nothing better to do than to provide what less metaphysical types might term "coincidences" in a nonstop fashion are evidently on a Patrice Leconte tear for some reason. Leconte's own Monsieur Hire was very recently on my review queue courtesy of a Blu-ray release by Cohen, a disc which offered a rather spry Leconte in an interview included as a supplement recounting some kind of fun anecdotes about that particular film. Now he's not just in this latest Cohen release as director if not interview subject, but he's also back, if not quite like The Terminator, then at least in a somewhat more threatening context as (rather incredibly) an interview subject on a supplement for Severin's new(ish) The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee Collection 2. Now, this frankly may simply be the universe (or whomever is in "charge") trying to get me, and thereby any readers of my reviews, to pay attention to a director whom commentator Wade Major makes the case may be underappreciated on this side of the pond. That may be especially true for both of the films Cohen has aggregated for this release, since neither ever really saw the light of day for United States theatrical exhibition.

In one of the interesting commentaries Wade Majors offers for these films, he mentions how Leconte recounted an anecdote where a youngish fan alerted Leconte to the fact that many of Leconte's films deal with people who don't know each other as the story begins, something Leconte really hadn't noticed (I might joke in passing that Leconte evidently has an issue paying attention at times, as even he mentions in another anecdote I relay in my recent Monsieur Hire Blu-ray review ). While both of the films in this set could arguably be seen as being in that particular category, both Felix and Lola and Love Street also begin with at least allusions to a violent act which will then be seen again as the story closes, with both films therefore offering "bookending" segments that take a while to make sense.

Making sense of Felix and Lola in particular may admittedly be a fool's errand, since this is one of Leconte's least "formally" structured screenplays, and is in fact a vignette driven enterprise that achieves a lot of whatever ambience it attains due to its imagistic presentational flourishes, which often verge on the psychedelic, courtesy of a literal carnival like atmosphere. In fact Felix (Philippe Torreton) works as a bumper car operator in a carnival, which is where he first notices the seemingly preternaturally depressed Lola (Charlotte Gainsbourg).

This is a visually fascinating but probably narratively problematic film that is arguably a bit too quirky to ever completely capitalize on its star- crossed love aspect, but if you've seen any other Leconte films, it's fascinating for that very reason. The stylistic flourishes Leconte brings to the hallucinogenic array of imagery at least may help to distract that the story itself is kind of tawdry and weirdly emotionally inert.

Felix and Lola Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Felix and Lola is presented on Blu-ray by Cohen Media Group's Cohen Film Collection imprint (which has its own sub-imprint, Classics of French Cinema) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. As is typical of Cohen, there's no real technical information imparted on the back cover, and the Cohen produced re-release trailer included on this disc only has a generic "restored and remastered" description. One way or the other, I was really struck by what I'd almost call the splendor of the palette in this presentation, where everything from almost lurid primaries to some really interesting off kilter hues courtesy of both lighting and grading keep this appropriately carnival like. Because Leconte and cinematographer Jean-Marie Dreujou employ so many stylistic flourishes that frankly detail levels can ebb and flow, but in some relatively "normal" and camera stable moments, fine detail is excellent. I noticed no compression problems.

Felix and Lola Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Felix and Lola features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track in the original French. The film has some kind of cool music in it, including in the opening nightclub scene which the story returns to, pretzel like, later on, and the closing credits, which offer a weirdly middle eastern sounding pop tune, and those along with several source cues all sound nicely full bodied. Some of the actual carnival "music" is on the brash side, with strident highs, which are probably further emphasized by often cacophonous crowd noises. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Once again Cohen provides a foreign language release where the English subtitles are forced and not optional.

Felix and Lola Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both films are packaged on one disc with a kind of "bifurcated" main menu (see screenshot 7 of the Felix and Lola / Love Street: Two Films Directed by Patrice Leconte Blu-ray review).

• Audio Commentaries for Felix and Lola and Love Street by Wade Major, producer/host of the DigiGods podcast, film critic for CineGods and KPCC Film Week can be accessed under the Audio menu.


• Trailers

  Felix and Lola Re-release Trailer (HD; 1:46)

  
  

  Felix and Lola Original Trailer 1 (HD; 00:39)

  
  

  Felix and Lola Original Trailer 2 (HD; 00:42)

  
  

  Felix and Lola Original Trailer 3 (HD; 00:35)

  
  

  Love Street Re-release Trailer (HD; 1:36)

  
  

  Love Street Original Trailer (HD; 1:34)

Felix and Lola Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My personal advice is neither of the films included on this release are probably a good place to start with Patrice Leconte, and that's probably especially true of the opaque and emotionally distant Felix and Lola. But if you're already aware of at least a couple of his other, better known, pieces, this is really a kind of fascinating work just from a (de?)structural standpoint but especially the visual assault Leconte provides. Technical merits are solid, and with caveats noted, Felix and Lola comes Recommended.