7.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The upper-class owner of a gallery, Catherine Lelievre, hires the efficient and quiet maid Sophie to work in the family manor in the French countryside...
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Bonnaire, Jacqueline Bisset, Virginie Ledoyen, Dominique FrotForeign | 100% |
Drama | 55% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.67:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
French: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Winner of Volpi Cup and Pasinetti Award for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival, Claude Chabrol's "La Ceremonie" (1995) arrives son Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Artificial Eye. The only supplemental feature included on this release is an original French theatrical trailer. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
The friends
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Claude Chabrol's La Ceremonie arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Artificial Eye.
I have a R1 DVD release of this excellent film which was produced quite some time ago by the now defunct Home Vision Entertainment (HVE). The DVD release uses a transfer which I believe was sourced from MK2 in France. This new Blu-ray release also appears to have a high-definition transfer sourced from the French distributors.
Generally speaking, detail is very good, with selected close-ups conveying very pleasing depth (see screencapture #10). The outdoor sequences also boast excellent clarity (see screencapture #10). More importantly, however, there are no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening corrections. On the DVD release there is plenty of edge-enhancement that nowadays makes the film virtually unwatchable. Color reproduction is a lot more convincing as well. On the DVD release the preferred by Chabrol soft and warm colors look incredibly anemic and quite often can also be seen collapsing (the sequence where Sophie is seen eating alone in the kitchen has the whites affected by a heavy dose of edge-enhancement, which makes them collapse). Light grain has been retained throughout the entire film. Lastly, there are no serious compression issues. The high-definition transfer is also free of large cuts, debris, and damage marks. All in all, this is a competent and much needed upgrade that should make fans of the late French director and his work very happy. (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).
There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: French LPCM 2.0. For the record, Artificial Eye have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.
The lossless track has a fairly limited dynamic amplitude, but the dialog is always crisp, clean, and stable. There are a couple of scenes where the classical music has a prominent role (the family viewing in the final third of the film), but otherwise dynamic movement is limited. For the record, there are no distortions or audio dropouts. The English translation is excellent.
La Ceremonie is a masterpiece of suspense, arguably one of Claude Chabrol's best films. Together with La femme infidèle and L'enfer, it is also one of my favorite films the late French filmmaker directed. Artificial Eye's Blu-ray release of La Ceremonie represents a dramatic and much needed upgrade in quality over the the now out of print R1 DVD release by Home Vision Entertainment. Considering their excellent record with both catalog and new releases, I truly hope that going forward the British distributors will also bring to Blu-ray the films from their Essential Claude Chabrol box sets. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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