Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

It's Only the End of the World Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 5, 2017

Selected to represent Canada in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 89th Academy Awards, Xavier Dolan's "It's Only the End of the World" a.k.a. "Juste la fin du monde" (2016) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Curzon Artificial Eye. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film and video interview with Xavier Dolan and actress Marion Cotillard. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The stranger

In 1998, Patrice Chereau directed the brilliant Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train which is exactly the type of film that the French like to describe as comédie dramatique. It is about a well-liked painter who has requested that he is buried in Limoges despite the fact that he has spent his entire life in Paris. The film begins with the news that he has died and then follows a motley group of characters -- some former lovers of the painter, good friends, socialites who have regarded him as a mentor, his very conservative brother, etc. -- that take the train to Limoges. The narrative is very fluid. There is a wide range of polarizing emotions on display that accompany various recollections and descriptions of the painter’s rich life that actually end up profiling his friends, and at the end transform the funeral into a very different type of event. It is truly a superb film.

Canadian helmer Xavier Dolan’s latest film, It’s Only the End of the World, does a lot of the same things that Chereau’s film did, but a bit differently. In it a young and successful writer (Gaspard Ulliel, Saint Laurent) returns to his family after more than twelve years of keeping it locked out of his life because he plans to announce that he is dying. The script never clarifies what has happened to him, but this does not really have any effect on the film’s message. The focus of attention is strictly on the awkward reunion and the manner in which it disables the deeply flawed defensive mechanisms of the family members. In other words, the entire film is one big and very carefully scripted litmus test.

There are a couple of notable differences between Chereau and Dolan’s films. In Chereau’s film the painter and his past ultimately bring everyone together and despite the many dramatic ups and downs at the end there is something of a proper closure. So even though the painter never really becomes an active character in the film, his image, as reconstructed by the recollections of the people that are attending his funeral, is preserved. In Dolan’s film the writer meets his mother (Nathalie Baye, La Balance), brother (Vincent Cassel, La Haine), his brother's wife (Marion Cotillard, La Môme), and his sister (Lea Seydoux, Blue Is the Warmest Colour), but quickly realizes that his announcement would be pointless because he will never be the person that they expected to meet again. When he left them years ago he was replaced by a mental image, and when he returned they reconnected with it, rather than with the person he had become. (It is worth mentioning that the four do not share the same image, which is why their reactions during the reunion vary significantly). So in Dolan’s film there isn’t a conventional closure because the writer that returns home is essentially a complete stranger whose life story remains veiled in secrecy.

Dolan’s film also offers a much more intimate experience. It is like a big sad dream that occasionally manages to stay coherent, but then again quickly dissolves under the pressure of the pain that the writer struggles to suppress. It is largely why words also seem so trivial in it. The pain, the anger, the bitterness and disappointment, they all come in massive waves and there are no words that can even begin to describe their destructive intensity.

Chereau’s film built a tremendous atmosphere with top tunes from the likes of Bjork (“All is Full of Love”), Portishead (“Western Eyes”), and Massive Attack & EBTG’s Tracey Thorn (“Better Things”), amongst others. Music also has a very important role in Dolan’s film and there are some absolutely phenomenal tunes from Exotica (“Une Miss s'immisce”), Camille (“Home Is Where It Hurts”), Moby (“Natural Blues”), and Lebanese-born composer Gabriel Yared (Betty Blue).

It's Only the End of the World 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, Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Curzon Artificial Eye.

I assume that there is only one digital master that is being offered for licensing because prior to viewing this release I tested the Canadian release and I can confirm that on both the film looks stunning. Indeed, detail, clarity and depth are outstanding. Viewers with larger screens will also be pleased with the excellent fluidity. The color palette favors mostly colder and neutral primaries, though at the end a strong warmer yellow font is used to create an important contrast. Image stability is terrific. Finally, there are no serious transfer-specific anomalies to report in our review. (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).

It's Only the End of the World Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and French LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I viewed the film with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and truly could not be any more impressed with it. While the film obviously does not have any segments with the type of dynamic activity that is frequently present in big blockbusters, there are plenty of areas where the music and the transitions between the present and the flashbacks create dynamic contrasts that are very effective. In other words, there are small but excellent nuances, and the lossless track handles them flawlessly. The dialog is clean, sharp, and always very easy to follow.

It's Only the End of the World Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for It's Only the End of the World. In French, with imposed English subtitles. (2 min).

• Interview with Xavier Dolan and Marion Cotillard - in this video interview, Xavier Dolan and Marion Cotillard discuss some of the key themes in It's Only the End of the World, the manner in which the narrative is structured, the type of emotions that are channeled through it, the play by Jean-Luc Lagarce that inspired the film, etc. The interview was conducted at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2016. In English, not subtitled. (12 min).

It's Only the End of the World Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I think that there is a very good reason why Xavier Dolan's latest film, It's Only the End of the World, has split critics and audiences right down the middle. It reconstructs an experience that is very difficult to relate to if one isn't familiar with the intense pain that it can produce. From a distance it can look trivial, at times even like an incoherent mess, but the pain and pressure that it carries can be absolutely devastating. While viewing the film, I knew exactly what was going through the writer's mind and I felt the pain that he was trying to suppress. Frankly, some of the quiet moments where the camera slowly moves closer to his face and then looks into his eyes left me breathless. This is, hands-down, the best film that I have seen this year. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.