6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A lonely forty-year-old woman finds herself shattering taboos by falling in love with the fourteen-year-old Julien, but is it romance, or a desperate attempt to turn back time in the face of middle age?
Starring: Jane Birkin, Mathieu Demy, Charlotte GainsbourgForeign | 100% |
Drama | 61% |
Romance | 18% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
French: LPCM Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: This version of this film is available as part of
The Complete Films of Agnès Varda. See below for a link to a previous Blu-ray release by Cinelicious Pics.
In the wake (figurative or otherwise) of Agnès Varda’s death last year at the age of 90, quite a bit has rightfully been written about this iconic force
in
both
French and global cinema. Varda’s output includes well over fifty credits as a director (including some television entries as detailed by the
IMDb), and aside from listing some of her better known triumphs,
many obituaries and/or eulogies about Varda mentioned any number of other biographical data points, including her rather unique position as a
woman in France’s nouvelle vague movement, her own feminism which was featured none too subtly in some of her films, and her
frequently provocative experimental style. But you know what one of the things that kind of fascinates me personally most about Varda? That she
was married for 28 years to Jacques Demy, from 1962 until Demy’s death in 1990. That Varda, often a purveyor of verité infused
“realism”,
whether that be in outright documentaries or at least ostensibly more “fictional” outings, and Demy, a director whose candy colored, dreamlike and
at least relatively "Hollywoodized" musicals with
Michel Legrand brought a new luster and gloss to French cinema, managed to make a marital go of it for so long is certainly testament to the
maxim
that “opposites attract”, even if those oppositional forces in this instance played out at least in part in terms of what kinds of films the two were
often
best remembered for. If Varda's long marriage to Demy is more than enough reason to celebrate her personal life, her professional life is
beautifully
feted in this rather astounding new set from Criterion, which aggregates an amazing 39 films (albeit some running as short as a few minutes) to
provide what is arguably one of the most insightful
overviews of Varda's cinematic oeuvre. Perhaps unavoidably, but also undeniably movingly, these personal and professional sides of
Varda
merge in at least some of the films in this set, including
The
Young
Girls Turn 25, The World of Jacques
Demy, Jacquot de Nantes, and The Beaches of Agnès.
Kung-Fu Master! is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. Some prefatory text discloses that this was shot on 35mm argentic color stock in a 1.66 panoramic format which was restored by Ciné Tamaris in 2014 at Laboratory Eclair, with a 2K digital restoration from a 2K scan of the original negative. Color grading was supervised by Agnès Varda. As with her next film with Birkin, Jane B. par Agnès V., and several others included in this collection, there's sound before image here. Also as with Jane B. par Agnès V. this is pretty heavily grainy presentation most of the time, though everything resolves naturally. As happens in Jane B. par Agnès V. as well, some of the darker material in Birkin's flat sees a definite uptick in an already heavy grain field. There is still excellent fine detail on display, and some of the outdoor material pops extremely well. This still has the slightly cool look I've mentioned in several of the other reviews of films in this set, but reds in this outing tend to pop quite well, as in a sweater seen repeatedly late in the film. The pixels on the videogame that Julien repeatedly plays look appropriately "electronic", but resolve without any issues.
Kung-Fu Master! features an LPCM Mono mix in the original French that some prefatory text states was restored from the original 35mm magnetic mix. There's quite a bit of music that wafts in and out of this film, including some rock tunes the kids listen to and, later, some of the "traditional" astringent, atonal string music that crops up pretty regularly in some of Varda's films. The outdoor material also features some authentic sounding ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free presentation. Optional English subtitles are available.
Kung-Fu Master! is kind of unavoidably shocking, but it's also surprisingly heartfelt. This must have been an "interesting" experience for Mathieu Demy in particular, and I for one would have loved a supplement with him talking about the production. Technical merits are generally solid, and the 1988 interview with Varda and Birkin very enjoyable. With caveats about content duly noted, Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
1981
The Pleasure of Love in Iran
1976
Diary of a Pregnant Woman
1958
The Creatures
1966
Jane B. for Agnes V.
1988
2003
1969
1965
Les fiancés du pont Mac Donald ou (Méfiez-vous des lunettes noires) / The Fiancés of the Bridge Mac Donald
1961
2015
You've Got Beautiful Stairs, You Know
1986
1984
L'univers de Jacques Demy
1995
Les glaneurs et la glaneuse... deux ans après
2002
Agnès Varda: From Here to There
2011
Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma
1995
1976
1955
1991
L'une chante, l'autre pas
1977