Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

Incendies Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 21, 2011

Selected to represent Canada in the Foreign Language Film Category of the 83rd Academy Awards, Denis Villeneuve's "Incendies" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Trinity Home Entertainment. The supplemental features on the release include original theatrical trailer; Q&A session with Denis Villeneuve; and a text-format interview with Denis Villeneuve. In French, Arabic, and English, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Sniperland

Most of Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies takes place in an unnamed country somewhere in the Middle East. However, there are many specific references suggesting that the country is war-torn Lebanon.

Incendies begins in Canada, where a notary gives twins Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, À vos marques, party!) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette, Polytechnique) two envelopes while reading their late mother’s (Lubna Azabal) will. The first letter asks them to find a brother they never knew existed. The second letter asks them to track down their father, whom they were led to believe died years ago.

Shocked by the requests, Jeanne and Simon begin arguing. Simon insists that nothing good will come out of digging into the past, but Jeanne decides to go back to her mother’s homeland. The only evidence she has that her mother once lived in the Middle East is a very old and undated picture of her.

Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad’s play, Incendies is an enormously powerful film that has a lot in common with two other recent films. The first is French-Lebanese director Philippe Aractingi’s Sous les bombes a.k.a. Under the Bombs, which tells the story of a brave woman looking for her missing son amidst Lebanon’s ruins. This film was shot during a temporary cease-fire in the 2006 Israeli-Lebanon conflict and was selected to represent Lebanon in the Foreign Language Film Category of the 81st Academy Awards. The second film is Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel, which tells a complex story involving four different families.

Like Under the Bombs, Incendies is an emotionally draining experience free of melodrama and cheap populist statements. The feelings and emotions the twins struggle with are impossible to misinterpret and their reactions are entirely logical. Once they descent into their mother’s world, a place they have never had a proper grasp of, Canada suddenly begins to look like Fantasyland.

The similarities with Babel are primarily in the narrative structure. Both films are divided into uneven episodes telling stories that eventually fit into one bigger story. However, in Incendies these stories also have different time frames -- while following Jeanne’s journey to the Middle East, the viewer is also taken back in time, where the mother is still alive. The constant overlapping of different material lasts until the very end.

Director Villeneuve shot Incendies on location in Jordan with a motley crew of professional and non-professional actors, but it is next to impossible to identify the experienced ones because the entire cast is uniformly good. The undisputed star of Incendies, however, is Azabal, who has previously appeared in such acclaimed films as Tony Gatlif’s Exiles, Hany Abu-Assad’s controversial Paradise Now, and Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies.

Cinematographer Andre Turpin’s (Maelström) skillful lensing enhances greatly the tense, frequently electric atmosphere. As usual, Monique Dartonne’s (Transylvania) editing is solid.

Incendies also greatly benefits from a strong soundtrack courtesy of Grégoire Hetzel. Several important sequences also feature tracks by British rockers Radiohead ("You and Whose Army", "Like Spinning Plates").

Incendies Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Denis Villeneuve's Incendies arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Trinity Home Entertainment.

I could not see any major discrepancies between the high-definition transfer Sony Pictures used for their U.S. Blu-ray release of Incendies and the one Trinity Home Entertainment have used for their release. Detail is outstanding from start to finish, clarity simply impeccable, and contrast levels consistent throughout the entire film. Some of the road sequences convey breathtaking depth and fluidity, while colors are remarkably rich and well saturated yet also natural looking (there is one sunset during the first half of the film that looks absolutely incredible). There isn't even a whiff of edge-enhancement. I did not see any traces of problematic noise corrections to report in this review either. Blown through a digital projector, the film also remains tight around the edges, consistently looking fresh and notably healthy. To sum it all up, Incendies looks stunning in high-definition, as it should. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Incendies Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (with portions of Arabic and English). For the record, Trinity Home Entertainment have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

The French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is mighty impressive. It has a tremendous dynamic amplitude, and more importantly, the surround channels are very intelligently used. During a few of the shootouts (for example, the bus sequence), it literally feels as if one is right in the middle of the action. Radiohead's songs are also mixed wonderfully well, giving the film a very stylish ambient feel. The dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and always easy to follow. The English translation is also excellent.

Incendies Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - the original UK theatrical trailer for Incendies. In French and Arabic, with imposed English subtitles. (3 min, 1080p).

• Q&A Session - director Denis Villeneuve answers a series of questions about the play that inspired Incendies, its production, characters, message, etc. In English, not subtitled. (12 min, 720p).

• Interview - a text-format interview with director Denis Villeneuve. In English. (1080p).

Incendies Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Canadian director Denis Villeneuve's Incendies is a mighty impressive follow-up to his acclaimed hard-hitter Polytechnique. Brutal yet enormously beautiful, it is undoubtedly one of the very best films to be released on Blu-ray this year. If you are yet to see it, I suggest that you avoid reading reviews or articles describing in detail what takes place in it. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.