8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A French actress and a Japanese architect engage in a brief, intense affair in postwar Hiroshima, their consuming mutual fascination impelling them to exorcise their own scarred memories of love and suffering.
Starring: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas, Pierre Barbaud, Bernard FressonForeign | 100% |
Drama | 92% |
Romance | 22% |
War | 6% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
French: LPCM 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region B (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Alain Resnais' "Hiroshima mon amour" (1959) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the disc include new filmed conversation with restoration specialist Davide Pozzi and cinematographer Renato Berta and video interview with actress Emmanuelle Riva. In French, with imposed English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
The lovers
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Alain Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.
The release uses as a foundation the recent excellent 4K restoration of the film, which was supervised by cinematographer Renato Berta (Rendez-vous, Merci pour le Chocolat) and completed by Argos Films, Technicolor and Groupama Gan Foundations, and Cineteca di Bologna in 2013. The restoration was initially released in France via Arte/Tamasa Distribution (see our listing here), and later on in the United States by Criterion (see listing here).
I viewed the film and did some direct comparisons with Criterion's release. The film looks brighter and occasionally flatter. There are some native fluctuations in terms of brightness and clarity, but it appears that this release was actually encoded with incorrect black levels. While this is a technical limitation that can be easily addressed by current payers, it is unfortunate that is exists on the disc. Generally speaking, detail is excellent. Obviously, during the documentary footage the rough spots and fluctuations remains, but the rest of the film looks very healthy. The discrepancies that have been produced by the elevation of the black levels are most noticeable during the darker/nighttime footage where depth isn't as impressive as it should be (compare screencapture #15 and screencapture #8 from our review of the U.S. release; also see screencaptures #12 and 13). There are a few daylight sequences where light is delicately captured by the camera where balance now also appears slightly off. The good news here is that the rest of the basics are intact. Grain is visible throughout the entire film and there are no compromising sharpening adjustments. Overall image stability is also excellent. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French LPCM 2.0. There are imposed English subtitles for the main feature. (They cannot be turned off from the main menu or via the remote control).
There are no technical issues to report in our review. The dialog and the narration are stable, clean, and easy to follow. Obviously, the overall dynamic intensity is quite modest, but such is the film's original sound design. There are no audio dropouts or distortions.
StudioCanal's release of Alain Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour is sourced from the excellent recent 4K restoration of the film. However, the technical presentation could have been better. Also, I think that the release should have had a much better selection of supplemental features. I still think that it is worth purchasing because it is superior to previous R2 DVD releases of the film, but more effort should have been put into it. RECOMMENDED (with some reservations).
(Still not reliable for this title)
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