L' Inhumaine Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

L' Inhumaine Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 9, 2016

Marcel L'Herbier's "L'inhumaine" a.k.a. "The Inhuman Woman" (1924) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Flicker Alley. The supplemental features on the disc include a recently produced featurette and short documentary film. The film can be seen with two brand new music scores by Aidje Tafia and Alloy Orchestra. With original French intertitles and optional English subtitles. Region-Free.

"If you can destroy your life so easily, it wasn't worth much to begin."

It immediately becomes obvious that the beautiful soprano Claire Lescot (Georgette Leblanc) is a true star. She is always surrounded by men of all ages who enthusiastically praise her performances and dream of being loved by her.

During a lavish party, Claire unceremoniously rejects the young and handsome engineer Einar Norsen (Jaque Catelain) and he decides to end his life. Moments after he leaves the party, the heartbroken man drives his fancy automobile off a cliff. A few days later, the tragic news reaches Claire’s admirers and during a spectacular recital many of them openly boo and jeer her.

Suddenly Claire’s life becomes unbearable -- she is forced to remove herself from the public eye and becomes seriously depressed. But when she is asked to identify Einar’s disfigured body in a secluded laboratory something very unusual happens that restores balance in her life and has a profound impact on her.

This early silent film from the great French director Marcel L'Herbier easily matches the audacity and brilliance of Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and even Fritz Lang’s iconic Metropolis. It has a different identity, but the type of ideas it tackles and the manner in which its narrative evolves are hugely impressive.

The film is broken into three uneven acts that have very different vibes. In the final act -- which begins after Claire heads to the laboratory -- L’Herbier unleashes his imagination and delivers an incredible vision of the future. The accuracy of some of his predictions is quite simply astonishing.

The sets and decors that are seen throughout the film are enormously stylish, but perhaps this should not be too surprising considering the talent that contributed to the film. The great Claude Autant-Lara (Love is My Profession, Le rouge et le noir) and Alberto Cavalcanti (Went the Day Well?), for instance, worked closely with architect Robert Mallet-Stevens and painter Fernand Leger. The mass sequence where Claire is snubbed attracted the likes of Rene Clair (I Married a Witch) and Raymond Guerin (Nana). There are sculptures that were created by the famous Hungarian avant-garde artist Joseph Csaky, while the spectacular furniture was built by such renowned designers as Pierre Chareau and Michel Dufet.

Last year, the film was fully restored in 4K by Paris-based Lobster Films. The restoration also reintroduces the original tints as envisioned by L'Herbier. (According to information supplied by the producers of this release, the last tinted copy of the film was destroyed in a fire at La Cinematheque francaise, but the original colors for the tints were digitally restored after sample frames with negative elements were discovered at the French Film Archive).

The film is presented with two new scores. The first was composed by percussionist Aidje Tafial and has a strong contemporary identity but with an interesting period vibe. The second score is from Alloy Orchestra. It has a better defined classic structure, though it also favors various contemporary harmonies and rhythms.

L' Inhumaine Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Marcel L'Herbier's The Inhuman Woman arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Flicker Alley.

The release is sourced from a brand new 4K restoration of the film which was undertaken by Paris-based Lobster Films and overseen by Serge Bromberg, Eirc Lange, Chrystel Bonne, Lucie Fourmont, and Colin Ruffin. The 4K scanning was performed by the Eclair Group.

It is extremely easy to tell that the professionals that worked on the 4K restoration knew exactly what they were doing. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of the film now looks quite spectacular. There are segments where depth does fluctuate because time has clearly left its mark, but overall image balance and fluidity are as good as one would expect them to be. A lot of the darker footage, in particular, looks wonderfully balanced and crisp (see screencapture #2). According to information supplied by the producers of this release, the last tinted copy of the film was destroyed in a fire at La Cinematheque francaise, but the original colors for the tints, as envisioned by Marcel L'Herbier, were digitally restored after sample frames with negative elements were discovered at the French Film Archive. The reproduction of these colors is excellent. There are absolutely no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening adjustments. However, the encoding should have been carefully optimized because there are a few segments where some light compression artifacts/small macroblocks pop up (see screencapture #21). Because there are various density and fluidity fluctuations most viewers will likely miss them, but on very large screens they can be spotted. Damage and other purely age-related limitations have been addressed as best as possible and as a result the film looks exceptionally healthy. (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' Inhumaine Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks for on this release: LPCM 2.0 (Aidje Tafial's music score) and LPCM 2.0 (Alloy Orchestra's music score). Also, there are original intertitles in French and optional English subtitles.

Aidje Tafial's score: The score is very diverse. It incorporates some quite interesting harmonies with a rich percussion foundation. It has a contemporary identity but at the same time it also has a period feel. Depth, clarity, separation, and balance are simply fantastic.

Alloy Orchestra's score: It has a better defined classic structure, though it also favors contemporary harmonies and rhythms. It feels slightly more conservative, but it seems just as effective. Again, depth, clarity, separation, and balance are excellent.

L' Inhumaine Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes of L'inhumaine - this documentary feature takes a closer look at the life and cinematic legacy of Marcel L'Herbier and the production history of L'inhumaine. There are especially interesting comments about the director's visual experiments and editing choices, the production work at Levinsky Studio where the exteriors were built, and his relationship with Jaque Catelain (Einar Norsen). In French, with optional English subtitles. (16 min).

• About the Recording of Aidje Tafial Music - in this featurette, percussionist Aidje Tafial discusses the score he created for L'inhumaine and some of the challenges he and the musicians that assisted him faced during the recording process. In French, with optional English subtitles. (16 min).

• Booklet - 12-page illustrated booklet rare stills and technical credits about the film and its restoration.

L' Inhumaine Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Marcel L'Herbier's L'inhumaine is a grandiose project that matches the audacity and brilliance of the greatest silent masterpieces. There is no doubt that it was directed by a true visionary whose understanding of cinema and its potential was way ahead of its time. The film has been recently restored in 4K by French label Lobster Films and is now available in North America via Flicker Alley. The restoration is superb, but this is hardly surprising considering the fact that many of the same people that were behind the reconstruction of Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon were again involved. The technical presentation, however, could have been more convincing. Still, this is one this year's most exciting releases. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.