L' Eau a la Bouche Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

L' Eau a la Bouche Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 29, 2019

Jacques Doniol-Valcroze's "A Game for Six Lovers" (1960) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinetrove International. The only bonus feature on the disc is a featurette. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

No longer a game?

Do you recall what takes place in the second half of Michelangelo Antonioni’s film La Notte? Jeanne Moreau and Marcello Mastroianni’s characters attend a big party in an elegant villa somewhere in the wealthiest suburb of Milan and throughout the night let themselves loose while in the company of strangers they find attractive for different reasons. At the same time the masks of decency begin falling all over the place and by the early morning hours most of the guests choose a new partner to go home with.

Jacques Doniol-Valcroze’s film A Game for Six Lovers is about a smaller but very similar party. However, this party is not in Milan, or elsewhere in Italy. It is in a big villa somewhere in the French countryside, and it is a spontaneous one. Also, the group of people that drop their masks have different excuses and ultimately different regrets, which is what makes the film interesting.

They gather in the villa after its owner, a very wealthy elderly lady, unexpectedly passes away. Her granddaughter Milena (Francoise Brion) is instructed by the family lawyer, Miguel (Gerard Barray), to invite her two cousins, Fifine (Alexandra Stewart) and Jean-Paul (Paul Guers), so that he can open up and read before them a supposedly detailed will. But because they were separated as kids Milena does not remember them at all, so when Fifine appears with her lover Robert (Jacques Riberolles) she assumes that he is Jean-Paul. When Robert refuses to reveal his true identity because he finds Milena attractive and wishes to flirt with her, Fifine decides to explore her options as well. (The freedom to ‘explore’ other partners is all part of an arrangement that the two lovers have crafted to keep their relationship strong).

The will is read and options about the future of the villa and other family assets are discussed. Immediately after that Robert begins pursuing Milena, not realizing that she is still recovering from a traumatic romantic relationship with Miguel. Elsewhere in the villa Fifine makes herself available to Miguel and then the two begin flirting with each other. At the same time, the butler, Cesar (a wonderful Michel Galabru), also declares his intentions to make love to the much younger and flirtatious maid Prudence (Bernadette Lafont), who has accidentally discovered that Robert is an imposter and plans to have an exciting night with him.

A Game for Six Lovers is an old-fashioned charmer whose strength comes from its simple but elegant style and, perhaps rather surprisingly, its very refreshing attitude toward romance and sex. Indeed, each of the six ‘players’ very easily could have been forced to do some silly posturing or utter pretentious lines, and yet despite their different social status they all emerge as normal human beings. (The maid is the only one that comes close to overdoing her playfulness). This is the reason why the part where they begin succumbing to temptation is so entertaining -- after their masks are removed, they all enjoy the foreplay and the fireworks that follow like the rest of the mortals do.

It is perhaps fair to speculate that there is a stylistic connection between Doniol-Valcroze’s film and Claude Chabrol’s first two films, Le Beau Serge and Les Cousins, as they share a similar tone and atmosphere. All three films emphasize the authenticity of their characters as well. However, A Game for Six Lovers does not bother to dig deeper into the relationships of its characters to produce any thought-provoking observations about morality, friendship, or love like Chabrol’s films do. It just takes pleasure in observing their intimate games and confessions, and when they are over allows them to become well-mannered and respectable adults again.

Serge Gainsbourg was hired to create the original soundtrack and title song for the film. The job was his first big cinematic project.

L' Eau a la Bouche Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze's A Game for Six Lovers arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinetrove International.

The release is sourced from a recent restoration of the film that was completed by Digimage Classics and L.E. Diapason (for the audio) in France. The restoration is a thing of beauty, in certain ways even more impressive than the one that StudioCanal recently introduced for Last Year in Marienbad. Both of these films come from the early 1960s, and both are set in gorgeous chateaus that offer some absolutely breathtaking visuals.

Unfortunately, I have to report that the technical presentation here isn't as good as it should have been. Indeed, there are a couple of indoor/darker sequences that reveal light blockiness, which easily could have been avoided with some basic encoding optimizations. While it is not too distracting, I found it annoying because the quality of the restoration is flat-out superb. Everything, from the grading to the density levels is simply flawless, so this could have been one of the year's most unexpected stunners. For what it's worth, I was more or less able to eliminate the issue by upscaling to 4K, which 'tightens' the image quite nicely and produces a much better end result. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

L' Eau a la Bouche Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French Dolby Digital 2.0. Optional English sybtitles are provided for the main feature.

Even though the track is lossy the quality of the audio is excellent. This does not surprise, though, because the crew at L.E. Diapason are pros that usually deliver top-quality audio tracks. (These guys are responsible for a massive number of audio restorations on all kinds of French projects). It is just unfortunate that the audio was not offered as a lossless track.

L' Eau a la Bouche Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Featurette - a short featurette with notes about the French New Wave and Jacques Doniol-Valcroze's film. With music and English text. (6 min, 1080p).

• Leflet - includes original stills from A Game for Six Lovers.

L' Eau a la Bouche Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jacques Doniol-Valcroze's directorial debut A Game for Six Lovers should be placed somewhere between Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte and Claude Chabrol's Le Beau Serge and Les Cousins. Is it a New Wave film? It has the casual attitude of an early New Wave film, but it is also so elegant that I am not at all convinced that its creator was trying to impress the Cahiers du Cinema gang and earn its endorsement. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and could not be happier that Cinetrove International chose to bring it to Blu-ray. However, I also have to express my dissatisfaction with the technical presentation. The release is sourced from a gorgeous recent restoration, a genuine stunner, but it should have been encoded better. My recommendation would be to still consider picking up the release because the film is a minor gem. RECOMMENDED (with reservations).